Paul's blog

An odd thing happened to me the other day and I’m both puzzled by, and pissed at Microsoft.

Here’s what happened:

I built a PC for my daughter. Then I went to Best Buy and bought a FULL version (no upgrade: I’m an honest man) of Windows XP Home Edition (version 2002, so 5 years old!) for $200.

I installed it, but I didn’t activate it, since I first wanted to be sure I could get everything to work right (Windows didn’t recognize the integrated sound card).

Then I downloaded and tried to install Windows Live Messenger.

This failed, because it didn’t get past the ‘Genuine Microsoft’ test: it said something about the fact that this copy hadn’t been activated yet, which apparently is a requirement for this ‘Genuine Microsoft’ test.

And here it comes:

It said: If this is indeed a non-Genuine Microsoft copy (i.e. “if you are a thief”), then we would happily turn it into a Genuine Microsoft copy for you and send you a valid product key, no questions asked, for … 99 bucks!

So, here I am, with a $200 version of Windows XP, and Microsoft now tells me if I had STOLEN it, rather than paying $200 for it, I could have had it at half price.

Can you imagine a big sign at Walmart saying something like:

“If we catch you shoplifting, we will politely offer you to purchase the stolen goods at half the price honest and decent people pay for it: no questions asked”

That would certainly make for shorter lines at the cash registers!

The shuttle launch has been scrubbed again. Technicians have been unable to fix the faulty engine cutoff sensors since last Thursday. The same sensors that have plagued earlier launches too. Which suggests they were never fixed in the first place. Which is scary, because a bad sensor can result in cutting the engines before the shuttle is in orbit.

You don’t want that to happen.

From this CNN article, the following quote had me frown..

The sensors are much like the low-fuel indicators in an automobile. As the shuttle rockets toward space, the sensors monitor the amount of liquid hydrogen in the external tank and automatically shut off the main engines when the tank is empty.

I have a tip for NASA: remove those sensors!

That would fix the problem with them reporting an empty tank, while in fact it still contains fuel.

But, you may ask, how would they then tell when the tank is really empty?

Easy: the engines will shut off!

Just a few loose remarks about Mitt Romney’s “faith”-speech:

Mr. Romney said:

..I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith.

Considering that he also mentioned that he did not “confuse” religion and politics, I wonder if he would agree with a slight broadening of the last sentence of the quote given above: “A person should not be elected because of his faith or lack thereof nor should he be rejected because of his faith or lack thereof.”

I fear his campaign would have been over had he said it that way …

As for his remark:

Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom

uhm… been to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan or Iran lately, Mitt? And if you plan a trip to these countries, better keep that quote to yourself! Religion is NEVER about freedom.

He furthermore mentioned that:

… some have taken the idea of separation of church and state beyond its original meaning by trying to remove any acknowledgment of God from the public arena

Not quite. The vast majority of ‘secularists’ simply don’t want their tax dollars being spent on such “acknowledgements of God”. That’s all. Sure, there may be a handful of folks who’d like to see it “removed from the public arena” altogether, but they are greatly outnumbered by the ones who prefer to force their beliefs down everyone’s throat (10 commandments in courthouses, religious dogma in science classes, you name it). In that respect: the number of people who take the constitution beyond its original meaning is negligible compared to the ones knowingly violating it on a daily basis.

On the same topic he reminded us that:

It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America — the religion of secularism. They are wrong.

This, of course, is nonsense. NOBODY who favors a strict separation of church and state favors the establishment of a new religion. They either are “in it” to protect the freedom of the faith they already have (quite a few!), or they’re not interested in a religion to begin with. To call ‘secularism’ a religion is not understanding the issue.

But all in all, compared to a Mike Huckabee, who calls himself “a Christian Leader” and actively plays the “faith card” .. Romney’s slight downplaying of his faith and its influence on his politics is .. ever so slightly .. refreshing.

I just read something in the news that had me scratching my head. (Happens a lot!).

Before I share the link to the article with you, please .. humor me!

Please perform this little experiment: Have someone handcuff you, hands behind your back.

What? No handcuffs? Booooring!! Anyway, if you lent someone your handcuffs, or lost them, then just do this: put your hands behind your back.

Then, hook your two pinkies, so as to emulate the idea of having your hands handcuffed behind your back.

Don’t let go! Keep those pinkies hooked!

Done that?

Good!

Now … strangle yourself!

Then let me know what you think of this article!

I just read this article about the suicide of a man who tried to blackmail Tom Cruise for a little over a million bucks.


Said his lawyer:

I was greatly saddened by his loss and I found him to be a very kind man.

Look at some other things the man was ‘dealing’ in:

• Paris Hilton’s diaries
• photos of Paris Hilton in various stages of undress and other personal items that had been stolen from a storage locker
• a sex video of Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on “Saved by the Bell”
• a video of skater Tonya Harding’s wedding night
• topless shots of rescued U.S. Army POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch

So I guess bottom dwelling scum suckers can actually be ‘very kind’ people.

Who would’ve known…

If you can’t read this, click here

Gingrich: $30 million will get me into presidential race (link).

Yeah, me too!

In fact, I’ll do it for half of that!

Which I think is a bargain, if you look at Gingrich’ ideas:

I think, as a general rule, that levees should not break, that bridges should not fall, that students should actually learn.

(Note the ‘general’ … I guess he thinks that there are cases where levees should break, bridges should fall, and students should be kept dumb. Is he a politician or what? NEVER say something absolute, that they can pin you down on later!)

So… 15 million!

15 million and I will run. (Not that fast, though, and ignore the irrelevant fact that I’m not an American citizen .. don’t be so xenophobic, willya)

Have you ever ‘done’ ‘Penquin Milk’ also known as ‘White Out’, which, like the typo removal stuff is white and takes you ‘out’ fast?

I’m talking about C₁₂H₁₈O.

It’s better known as Propofol, and it’s amazing stuff.

“… This was the most unpleasant part of the day”, said she after she inserted the needle in my vein.

I was skeptical.

I still had a rather vague, yet distinct memory of the last time I got brutally invaded .. and it was far more ‘unpleasant’ than a simple needle being stuck in my arm.

And the prospect of someone potentially (and, as it turned out, in reality!) snipping and burning stuff from deep inside my body only fuelled my skepticism.

Soon I was wheeled into an operating room of sorts, nurses covered me with a warm blanket, the anesthesiologist came running in and asked me to ‘jump’ on my side and did his thing out of my sight.

“The doctor will be here soon” a nurse told me. Here we go, I thought, another long wait (last time I underwent this procedure I had been laying like this for 45 minutes, waiting for a doctor who got stuck in traffic). But no, not this time, almost immediately after that a nurse tapped me on the arm. “Doctor is here”, I expected her to say.

But no, instead, she said “You’re all done and fine. You’re in the recovery room now. Do you want some water?”

It was pretty amazing! I have had no sense of falling asleep. Maybe getting close to dozing off, and for a split second it was a bit disorientating to realize a full hour had gone by without my having had the sense of falling asleep.

A full hour. Gone. And unaccounted for.

But I swear, I don’t want it back. They can keep it. Along with the three polyps they snipped and burned off.

“.. do you have a living will?” asked the friendly lady at the other end of the phone line.

And especially because I do have a rather strong will to live, I found the question a bit disturbing, considering it was asked by an employee of the Sheridan Surgery Center, Melbourne, FL, where I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:15am. Were they planning for a screw up?

Anyway, tonight at 7 pm I weighed myself.

I just did that again, about 2 1/2 hours later.

I’m happy to share with you that I lost 4.8 pounds during that period!

The reason I used a picture of Jim Cramer (Mad Money) with my previous ‘Stock tip’ post was that I totally agree with Jim’s vision on ‘stock tips’: Tips are for waiters.

Back to Mark Skousen’s recommendation at the Freedom Fest.

When I heard him give this old style barber shop ‘tip’ (he didn’t even care to call it an ‘investment idea’), I was puzzled. That’s not a thing you expect from a serious professional Ph.D. Economist Investor Big Wig who rubs shoulders with Presidents of the United States. And a man who organizes conventions where there are actually numerous speakers, themselves highly successful investors, who will spend their entire alotted time to warn you to stay away from people who give out (more ususally ‘sell’) ‘stock tips’. (More on some of these speakers in a later post)

It got worse. People asked Mark questions about the business. Smart questions. And while happily babbling on and on for minutes after each question, it became painfully obvious that he had no clue whatsoever about the company. Or if he did, he wasn’t sharing it with us. He rattled off some ratios like the company’s P/E, which is of course, without proper context, completely meaningless. And this was an investment guru with numerous highly praised investment books on his name?

Of course, one has to understand that this man is not in the business of managing money. His business, plain and simple, is selling subscriptions. Subscriptions to his extremely expensive investment news letters. And we all know how these work: you ‘predict’ a boat load of winners. The ones that turn out a loser you forget, the ones who do VERY well, you use to prove how good you are and sell more subscriptions. You only have to go to the man’s website to see what I mean. To not-too-naive people these are huge warning signs: completely ignore these folks. Although I’m not suggesting that Mark Skousen belongs to them, you will also find a lot of operators of the infamous ‘pump and dump’ schemes in this arena. (Although, I admit, I was wondering how a man, who, according to his website -which I will not link to – has made such astonishing predictions, can still tout a company like Luminent, while total lay-men like myself are already quite familiar with the huge problems in the sub-prime lender business and the (then) looming credit crunch)

So, while I left that presentation with the distinct resolution not to touch that stock with a ten feet pole, I DID decide to follow it… so as to gleefully rub my hands when its price would go where I expected it to go.

This stock, which was ‘sold’ to us as being a steal at ten dollar, however, did NOT go where I expected it to go. Within a couple of weeks it would go WAY beyond that! It bottomed out at 36 cents! Yes, thirty six cents. This is where I realized (or hoped, rather) that the market was overreacting: sure this company had some serious issues suddenly (margin calls), but it was not an Enron, so from 10 bucks to 36 cents was, IMHO, just plain ridiculous. So I put some money in it, and sold it a few days later when it was back at $1.39. Sure, I still think it can recover much more, but then, it can also go bankrupt. And I don’t invest in situations this dubious and uncertain. Yes, I may speculate in special situations like these, a quick in and out with a limited amount of money, but that’s it. Sure, I could have put everything I had in this: I would have been a millionaire by now. But I also could have been broke. I fully understood, going in, that I was trying what was tantamount to, what is called, grabbing a falling dagger. So, in the end, I think I did well.

Which probably can’t be said of all those newsletter buyers and stock tip followers who started loading up when LUM went from 10 bucks to 9.