Patrick’s Rants

Professor Smartass Check it out.

Dear Wall Street, we’re sorry.

I’m in the process of migrating the tax office server from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 which of course caused me to start thinking about everything else that I eventually want to add or migrate. There’s the firewall – which will probably get a newer machine that most recently was a thin client. The firewall machine will probably be re-purposed as storage. The Windows 2003 server box will be decommissioned as a brick (meaning it will site quietly unplugged in the back room for at least a year to make sure we don’t lose anything in the transfer). Our K12LTSP server will continue to chug along as a K12LTSP server. Although it is the absolute base of our setup – and our oldest “new purchase” computer we lean much, much heavier on the Windows servers and the Windows 2003 server was actually creaking under the load we had on it at any given point in time. At some point in time I also want to add an Asterisk server, but I’ve wanted that for some time now.

Given all of these upcoming changes I was reading up on FreeNAS, something that I have read about before, but not had the chance to deploy. I don’t rush into deployments and try to hash things out and around with people that I know. One of the drivers had just finished up for the day and I casually asked him if he knew anything about computers (you never know what you’re gonna get). He told me that he could check his email and browse the internet – which is what a huge number of people can do – but that was about it. Another driver who had been standing outside my view jumped in asking what I needed; he might be able to help. He had set up his network at home and knew a little bit. I replied that I was thinking about deploying FreeNAS, based on BSD and was just nosing around for experiences. I could visibly see his eyes glaze over as what I just said was more than he had even heard of. At that point we both knew the conversation was over. Not that he’s not a nice guy who really thought he might be able to help with something that a mere radio dispatcher might not be familiar with, but he just stepped into the deep end of the pool. And he forgot his floaties.

Did you hear that? It’s the whoosh of the conversation passing overhead.

Jake has a couple of articles regarding the multitasking myth. The YouTube video is pretty funny and the blog posting is very accurate. But I probably won’t be able to convince my wife that it’s true.

A friend of mine works in the charitable industry; a private company that accepts government grants and private donations to help people. They have budgets and projections and targets just like any other business. And just like Peter Gibbons, he has around eight different bosses that point out all of his “mistakes”.

In the current economic climate he has had to cut back on employee hours, eliminate overtime, etc. Just like any business. Due to the fact that he has to meet certain targets for “production” he gets monthly updates on the budget for his site. He recently exceeded his sales goal – even in this downturn which has people holding onto their stuff and not donating household goods – and was given a modest bonus for the sales figure. He was then sent an email chastising him for exceeding his payroll for the month – by the amount of the bonus. As Peter Gibbons would say,

“when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation, is not to be hassled…”

Unlike Peter Gibbons, though, my friend works his tail off. And for that they should ignore the bonus when looking at exceeding payroll.

(Note: This post was going to be twice as long, but due to the wonder of the internet/computers – specifically a Squid upgrade on the NetBSD firewall – half of my thoughts were not saved, as I have time and remember, I will follow up on this post)

Nobody has asked me, but here are a couple of thoughts on fixing the housing mess.

First, lock the adjustable rates at 5%. Not for second homes or speculative properties – honest to goodness first homes. We can’t put in a provision that says you have to be behind and in danger of foreclosure, we know these loans are bad; we know that most people were suckered into the low rate that jacked up after a year or two. Lock the rate.

Second, if the government can spend all kinds of money on banks without strings it certainly can work with the home owners. Loans that are in danger where people were encouraged to buy above their means can be modified in the following way: subsidize those homeowners that are in trouble. $1000.00 a month for say a maximum of four years – that’s $4800.00 per household that is in trouble. Tack the $4800 onto the back end of the loan as a form of tax lien, collect no interest on it but get the payoff when the home is eventually sold. This way households that are worried about their next paycheck can get some relief even if their job is unsteady. And the same homeowners would need to attend some kind of credit counseling and budget management program so they don’t slide back into trouble once the helping hand is no longer extended.

$1000.00 month limit would mean that overpriced homes aren’t included and that households would still need to come up with some cash on a monthly basis. Obviously, the banks aren’t increasing lending so they should not be getting additional money unless those funds are directly assisting home owners.

I read something a couple of days ago that suggested that the mark-to-market rule be suspended for banks. Mark-to-market means that accounting adjustments must be constantly made based upon what a bank thinks they can sell their loans for. For instance, a $100,000.00 mortgage might only be worth $90,000.00 (to the bank) since that’s what they could get for selling it to the next bank. But a foreclosed home is only about half the original mortgage value. A $100,000.00 mortgage is only worth $50,000.00 and – if you follow the line of thinking of “strict” mark-to-market rules – every other home in that area becomes worth half of the original mortgage. That’s a huge paper loss.

I’m certainly glad this judge was awake when he ordered this lawsuit dismissed.

Where my wife works management has decided that they want a single type face for all of their documents, Arial 12 pt. bold. She told me that she recently began bucking the “corporate line” and started mixing in Helvetica. I expect her to be called out it any moment now.

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the rugged mountains of Alaska for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the campground in the Pope Mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods.

A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a “Save the Whales” hat, and a “To Hell with Bush” T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically and thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10-foot grizzly. As the Pope watched in horror, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a 44 magnum into the bear’s chest. The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear’s grasp, then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.

As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. “I give you my blessing for your brave actions!” he told them. “I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democrat Environmental activists but now I’ve seen with my own eyes that this is not true.”

As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers asked his buddies “Who was that guy?”

“It was the Pope,” another replied. “He’s in direct contact with Heaven and has access to all wisdom.”

“Well,” the logger said, “he may have access to all wisdom but he doesn’t know squat about bear hunting! By the way, is the bait holding up, or do we need to go back to California and get another one?”

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