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Another article on credit default swaps I tend to agree with the author's solution to the problem:

I've been saying this for a long time but people just don't believe it. One way to see how low prices will probably go before stabilizing is to correct housing prices from maybe 30 years ago for inflation. That's historically where they should be. In most markets, especially big city markets...

Unless you're one of the early adopters who absolutely always must have the latest and greatest (and is willing to lose tons of money beta testing new technology), the best thing to do is play the waiting game. The situation today with SSDs is what existed with power LEDs 3 years ago. Luxeon...

The problem is any business which depends largely upon loans is based on a poor business model. In your example the answer is simple-buy new cars to sell only when you have accumulated enough sales profits to do so. And don't start the business at all if you can't afford to buy the initial...

It is flash memory-see this article.

I haven't been following that case but weren't the charges stuff like breaking and entering? How could you get life for that?

Another thing which needs to be addressed is why so much of the economy is so dependent upon credit. I know people who bought houses 20 or more years ago. They should own those houses free and clear by now. Instead many took out every dime in equity to finance a lifestyle well beyond what...

The Long Road to Slack Lending Standards

Anyone remember this thread on SR? :mrgrn:

Thanks to members of both sides of the aisle acting like infants, the bailout bill failed to pass. San Fran Nan of course had to give her partisan "blame" speech, and in turn the House Republicans acted like a bunch of insulted children and helped vote the bill down (along with 40% of...

I guess I'm the apathetic middle then. Honestly, I think whoever gets elected will be a disaster for the US. McCain will try to gut things like public transportation exactly at a time when we need them to get us off oil. He might involve us in yet another war the US can't afford, this time...

That is f*cking disgusting! :errr: It's beyond me how people let themselves get to the point where they sh*t in their bed.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can live like this. CAUTION: Link definitely not safe while eating!

It might be even worse-we might simply end up with "The Company" running literally everything as in the Alien movies. Let's see-all banks merge into one. Ditto for every other major industry. M$ buys up all these megacorporations and runs the world. Bill Gates dons a Darth Vader suit. :errr:

And now back to your regularly scheduled topic: US may sell out Taiwan to finance the bailout

Actually, I did reply to your last email on the 21st. And I replied to a few emails from others. Did you receive it? I'm asking because so far NOBODY I wrote to replied. Even though the emails are in the sent folder, I'm wondering now if something is wrong and nobody received them.

It's just something I read on another site and I figured I would throw it in to see what people here think about it. I don't necessarly believe all of it. The Republicans aren't blameless in this, I know that. They're the ones who pushed for more and more deregulation of business. As Fushigi...

Gilbo and CityK: Here's the thing-I don't see what's happening merely as something which can be fixed eventually and then we all go on our merry ways. I think part of the recent "shorting is evil" mindset is an implicit acknowledgement that we may well be seeing the discrediting of capitalism...

The problem is that speculators bought homes solely with the intention of reselling them at a profit, and in the meantime rented them out to have the renters cover some of the bills. Prohibiting rentals suddenly means it becomes a lot more expensive to buy and hold a home, and hence fewer...

I agree 100% also. If I were in a position of power, the principles involved in this mess would be lined up against a wall and shot ASAP. And I'm totally in agreement with the part about deducting mortgage interest. The tax system should be neutral regarding housing. Either get rid of the...

It looks better than the one I saw at a car show 2 years ago which IMO was too boxy: Any chance of an option which offers a larger battery and no gas engine? I tend to think many of the people who would be interested in a car like this would want the ability to run in electric mode on all trips.

In practical terms depression means deflation, not inflation. My mom's house might end up being worth less than the $52K she paid for it in 1978. I have no idea what it'll mean as far as bank deposits. Maybe the bank will give me ten cents on the dollar when I go to take it out, but with...

There's really no place to park your money now so that you'll win. Stock market? We all see where that is going. Savings/money market? You lose with inflation. Real estate? Still heading down. Gold? If you're lucky you'll keep up with inflation but don't expect to actually make anything...

Same here. I'm not currently in the market for a house, but I know they still have a way to go down in most parts of the country. My mom's house was purchased for $52K in 1978. Historically housing prices keep up with inflation in the long term but not necessarily in the short term. Anyway...

I commuted 2 hours/70 miles each way to college and 1.5 hours/20 miles each way to high school. Both experiences made me realize that I wouldn't want to do that with a job. I had and needed the summers off just to recuperate from the sheer exhaustion of my schedule. Doing that 52 weeks a year...

Bottom freezer models make a lot of sense. If/when our 1978 vintage fridge goes, we'll be seriously taking a lot at something like that. The only main disavdvantage of gas stoves is the need to run a gas line wherever the stove will be. This generally isn't something a DIYer should attempt...

The major stumbling block to living off-grid right now is that the typical means used for generating power (solar and wind) do so intermittantly whereas most people need power continuously. What's needed is some sort of relatively cheap system to store perhaps two or three days worth of power...

If you're going for higher end then you probably already know that stainless steel looks nice, is durable, etc. This is especially true for the tubs of washers/dryers. I've seen refrigerators with LED lights and all the digital goodies. Anyway, if possible try to buy everything as a group...

With SSDs, controllers are the drive in a much bigger way than with magnetic disks. Most flash memory chips of a given type (MLC or SLC) performs pretty similarly, say with a factor of 2 or 3 from best to worst. The controller and the algorithms used make all the difference between drives...

The city these days is a far cry from the cesspool typically seen in those Death Wish movies from the 70s or 80s. Granted, a lot of it used to look that way, a bit of it still does, but by and large everything's pretty clean. The people on the subways aren't gross for the most part. Crime...

I don't care what they do, but like I said don't expect to see me much either if I have to provide my own transportation. Remember that I DON'T need a car where I live. I certainly won't go through the bother of getting one for the convenience of family members wishing to see me. It's actually...

I know the batteries in the RAV4 EV are lasting 200,000 miles or more. And the new lithium cells from A123 Systems are unkillable if you ask the RC people (I have a pair and they're so great I'm planning to use them in a bike light). The key to long battery life is to keep from discharging...

The power companies already have systems which can turn heavy loads like EV chargers on only at night, after the peak load has passed. And a 40 mile each way commute was easily possible with the lead-acid batteries of the first EV1 in the early 1990s. With the NiMH pack the range increased to...

You know what my answer to that is? It's basically the same answer I've given to relatives who move hundreds of miles away and then might invite me or other family members to some event. If you want to move into some middle of nowhere place I never even heard of where no reasonable public...

Well, I'm not a big fan of diesel trains, either. With the current cost of diesel the Class 1 freights would actually save money by stringing up wire and going with straight electric operation. Besides saving in energy costs, electric engines easily last twice as long as their diesel...

Hybrids are the latest media darlings but IMO they're mostly hype. I'm no fan of either the Prius or the Tahoe. So you gain a few MPG, mostly in city driving. Good I suppose but the extra cost and complexity probably outweighs the fuel savings. And for all GM did to make the powerplant of...

Yep, basically once SSDs reach price parity with magnetic disks, there will not be any premium performance market. For now some users are willing to pay a premium for either an SSD or a 15K magnetic disk only because these are much faster than commodity drives. But when commodity drives are...

The amount of force increases with the square of the wind speed. And I'd guess the system currently stops at category 5 because there are few hurricanes powerful enough to merit another category (although that may change as we're leaving a century of relatively low hurricane activity-hence the...

I heard on a special on hyperhurricanes that they're planning to go up to 8, probably using 20 or 25 mph increments: Category 6: 176 mph to 200 mph Category 7: 201 mph to 225 mph Category 8: > 226 mph Under the revised system Katrina was very briefly category 7. So far there has been no...

It looks likely to hit west of NO this time, but it still won't be a picnic. Radar shows the storm to be nearly the size of the entire Gulf. And yes, it may become a Cat 5 or even Cat 6 (sustained winds > 175 mph) before it makes landfall.

Done. Done. Done. I agree with the point you so delicately drove home here, and most websites work fine in other browsers. I'm having a huge problem with my Yahoo email however. It's as slow as sh*t in Opera. As I just mentioned in Dave's XP Antivirus 2008 thread, I really hope they get...

I've had this, XP Antivirus 2009, and I think MS Antivirus 2008 pop-ups more in the last week than ever before. It seems the SOBs are really persistent. And nothing seems to be able to prevent these pop-ups from happening despite using Spywareblaster, Spybot S&D, and AdAware. The only safe...

Some decent 12V power bricks can exceed 80% efficiency. The best bet is to get one with fairly high current capability (i.e. over 10 amps). Since it has to be fairly efficient at high currents to keep from melting, that means it uses heftier active elements (MOSFETs, diodes). This will mean it's...

I recently was bothered by something called MSAntivirus 2009 which redirected me to a site attempting to get me to download malware. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that I should have been selectively blocking cookies but never got around to it. Today I started adding sites to my blocked cookie...

Vacation time and working hours are two good points to negotiate. If it were up to me I'd rather work 3 longer days than 5 regular ones. Four day weekends all the time would be a nice perk. Having the company pay for your housing, especially if you need to relocate to an expensive area, is...

Living in an area with many Asians, I can tell you for a fact that you'll occasionally have someone college age who might pass for 11 or 12. This isn't as common as it used to be with the better nutrition nowadays, but nevertheless some of these girls are both tiny and have childlike features...

Just for kicks I connected my mom's HDTV to the roof antenna a few months ago. Yes, I did pull in quite a few stations, even some from areas where I could never pick up an analog signal. It seems to me that DTV might well carry further than NTSC in the absence of things like mountains (obviously...

Interesting article on resolutions. Based on my own viewing habits (I watch my mom's 40" 1080p HDTV from about 4 feet) I would benefit from 1440p. However, much closer to the screen and the sides fall out of my view. Therefore, resolutions higher than 1440p probably wouldn't be of much use as...

It's a shame the movie makers and TV makers can't get on the same page once and for all regarding aspect ratio. While 1.85:1 might be passable on a 1.77:1 screen in that you don't have huge black bars, 2.4:1 isn't. My guess it this is all part of a ploy to get people to upgrade again when they...

I personally can't wait until it's all HD digital. I'm tired of a gazillion different formats being used, especially with commercials, whenever I watch a program in HD. First you'll have the program in regular HD filling the entire screen (or maybe not if the producers don't know what they're...