Archive: February 18, 2011

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invasion II

Friday,  02/18/11  05:03 PM

A communications interruption can only mean one thing: invasion! And so it is that we are braced for a post-Valentine's Valentine's party tonight, featuring Megan and a cast of 50 of her closest friends.  You would think that we would have learned our lessons from hosting so many kids parties, and you would be wrong. In other news, had a wonderful dinner last night with a colleague, at which many new plans were hatched, and several interesting follow up discussions today.  Weird how serendipitous these conversations were, each traveling to the same subject from widely varied starting points.  I am energized.  And ... I am blogging!  A filter pass, if you please... Did you see this?  President Obama had dinner with Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, and Mark Zuckerberg.  Would have been great to be invited, or even just to be a fly on the wall.  Wonder if they asked him about his administration's new budget? The Oatmeal has a great take, too.  VDH: Decline is in the mind.  I am preparing for the upcoming movie made from Atlas Shrugged by rereading the book, and it is brought strongly to mind.  Who is John Galt, indeed!  Cycling's senior scribe John Wilcockson: Armstrong's 25-year journey is over.  A great survey of a great career.  Of course we haven't heard the last of Lance, I fully expect him to run for office - and win!  BTW how great is that picture of Lance climbing a muir at the 2010 Tour of Flanders; I was there, and was privileged to seem him ride and ride well.  Inside the DNA of the Facebook Mafia.  If you liked The Social Network, check this out.  The intersection and parallels to the PayPal Mafia are fascinating.  BTW, in this context "mafia" means "diaspora of alumni" :)  Arcade Fire beats Lady Gaga for top album.  Yay.  Hardly an embarrassment for Eminem, however.  You have to love it when a new band with a "mainstream" sound can displace the established stars to win a Grammy.  Gaga and Eminem and all have had their days in the sun.  Truly, with the iPad, Xoom, and TouchPad, the tablet age is upon us.  As I've noted before, tablets are truly "the computers for the rest of us".  There will be a day when we remember notebook computers and their desktop operating systems with nostalgia.  With the proliferation of smartphone platforms - and the importance of mobile devices - comes a new nightmare for developers.  Seems like developing for the web with pure AJAX is the way out.  Excellent: 3D printer that prints itself gets closer to reality.  How great would that be?  Do you suppose it will hunt for plastic?  Will there be mutations and selective evolution?  This is pretty cool: Lost Luxury, the Boeing 314 Flying Boat.  These amazing craft ruled the luxury travel scene for a small window of time, just before WWII, replicating the luxury liner experience in the air.  How great would it have been to travel like that?  (no WiFi however :)  Memorably the scene of one of my favorite novels, Ken Follett's Night Over Water.  ZooBorn of the day: a newborn polar bear cub.  XKCD's productivity tip: reboot your computer every time you get bored.  Wow, wonder if that works?  I'm nearly done with this blog post, should I reboot?

 

redneck bank loan

Friday,  02/18/11  05:11 PM

(from my friend Jared:) A Redneck from Alabama walked into a bank in New York City and asked for the loan officer. He told the loan officer that he was going to Paris for an international redneck festival for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000 and that he was not a depositor of the bank. The bank officer told him that the bank would need some form of security for the loan, so the Redneck handed over the keys to a new Ferrari. The car was parked on the street in front of the bank. The Redneck produced the title and everything checked out. The loan officer agreed to hold the car as collateral for the loan and apologized for having to charge 12% interest. Later, the bank's president and its officers all enjoyed a good laugh at the Redneck from the South for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral for a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drove the Ferrari into the bank's private underground garage and parked it. Two weeks later, the Redneck returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest of $23.07. The loan officer said, "Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out on Dunn & Bradstreet and found that you are a distinguished Alumni from the University of Alabama, a highly sophisticated investor and Multi-Millionaire with real estate and financial interests all over the world. Your investments include a large number of wind turbines around Sweetwater, Texas. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?" The good ol' Alabama boy replied, "Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $23.07 andexpect it to be there when I return?"

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