Jake’s blog

Financial Crisis and the Glass-Steagall Act

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:36:28 -0700

I've been wondering over the last couple years during this financial mess, why did we allow those financial institutions to become "too large to fail" in the first place? Aren't there some kind of regulations to prevent that?

Today, I learned a little more about our country's economic history and about the Glass-Steagall Act. Some smart people are recommending setting things back up the way they were when the economy was running smoothly. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. So I decided to write a letter to my Senators and Representative in Congress.

Here's the text of that letter:

Can you please introduce a bill to put the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933) back in place and/or other regulations such as those that served our country so well after the Great Depression? If the deregulation of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s (Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) hadn’t repealed provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, I’m sure we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.

Before the Depression, there was a credit crisis in this country every 10 to 15 years. Then after the Depression when the regulations were put in place, the economy was running smoothly. We didn’t have a problem again until after Congress started removing those regulations.

Another suggestion:
I’m sure we will repeat this financial disaster if we continue to allow institutions to become “too big to fail”. Can we not use the existing anti-trust laws to break up these organizations so that this doesn’t happen again?

If these suggestions are not feasible, please explain why.

Thank you.

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What is Google Wave?

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:12:37 -0700

I've been hearing a bunch about Google Wave, but didn't really know what it was. I just wanted a simple idea of what it

Google Wave

was all about, but couldn't easily find it. After learning more than I originally expected, here is the simple explanation I was originally looking for (read more bullets for more specifics/details). Also, this is just a start:

Google Wave is a web-based application (like google maps, gmail, etc.).
It's basically next-generation email (what would email look like if it were invented today).
You would use Wave instead of your other email client (such as GMail or Outlook) to communicate with people.
The name came from the show, "Firefly", in which communications are referred to as waves.
A "wave" is like an email thread -- as people reply, the additional content gets added to the wave.
You specify which people are on the wave -- sortof how you would specify the recipients of an email.
If you shut down Google Wave and then later re-open it, you'll see if people have updated any of your waves -- just like you see when something new arrives in your inbox in regular email.
If you're currently looking at a wave and someone on the wave updates it, you see the updates in real-time (character by character). In this way, it's like IM, but better -- you don't have to wait through the "so and so is typing..." before you get to read it, so it's much faster communication.
Multiple people can edit the same wave at the same time and see eachother's changes in real-time.
You can drag and drop images onto a wave -- this requires Google gears, I think.
You can add content anywhere in the wave -- like replying to a bunch of questions in an email "in-line".
When someone new is added to the wave, they see the whole thing and can "replay" the evolution of the wave from its beginning to see how it changed over time.
You can do a kind of sub-wave if you want to keep something private from the whole group that might be on the entire wave.
Embedding/Blogging: You can embed a wave widget somehow in your blog (or in any site/application, etc.). Then if you add the proper "bloggy" robot user or whatever to the conversation the wave automatically is published to the blog. Comments made to the wave on the blog get updated real-time back in the regular wave client.
It's open sourced
There's an API that developers can use to do more stuff with Wave and extend it.

For more, there's an hour and twenty minute video here: http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html#video

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Proud to be an American?

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:32:28 -0800

Obama's inauguration

Earlier today, upon the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I said that I was proud to be an American again. Something has always troubled me about that phrase, though; “proud to be an American”. Does it mean “I’m proud that I’m an American”?

I’m definitely happy that I’m an American. I’ve always been happy, always glad to be an American. I’ve always felt very fortunate that I was born in this country and for all the benefits that have come with it. I’ve traveled to several other countries and couldn’t imagine not calling the USA home.

But pride is different. I’m proud of positive things that I’ve personally done that have taken effort. For instance, I’m proud of my college degrees, I’m proud of the business I’ve grown, I’m proud of my landscaping projects, and I’m proud of my marriage.

I can also be proud of other people for the things that they have done. For example, I’m proud of my wife for her successes in her education and career. I’m proud of my friends and family for their accomplishments. If I had children I’m sure I would be proud of them for their achievements.

Immigrants to the US, who have had to struggle to attain their citizenship have a right to be proud of their US citizenship. But I never did anything special for mine. I was just born here. For me, being proud of my American-ness is like being proud that I’m human, or have brown hair, or that I’m relatively tall, or anything else I had no control over.

So instead of saying that I’m proud to be an American, let me say that I’m again “proud of America”.

I couldn’t have said that honestly for a long time. I was not proud of America during most of the George W. Bush administration. I was not proud that our government removed freedoms from its people. I was not proud of the corruption in our federal government. I was not proud that Bush usurped powers to the point of undermining the government’s system of checks and balances. I was not proud that Bush escaped legal action for the crimes he committed. I was not proud that under the Bush administration, scientists trying to help humanity and future generations – to explain global climate change and urge action, for example – were ignored and/or ridiculed. I’m not proud that industries reliant on math and science in America are losing ground to those in other countries. I was not proud that our government changed its policy of peace to a policy of war. I was not proud that the Bush administration killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people abroad. I’m not proud of the immeasurable damage our government has done to its people, people around the world and to its reputation.

But today, I’m very proud of America. I’m proud of my country, my fellow Americans, for having elected such an intelligent and ethical leader. I’m proud of Barack Obama for what he has achieved on this historic day. I expect to be proud of President Obama for his accomplishments in the coming years. I’m proud of America for having begun to repair the damage done by the Bush administration.

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Stone Temple Pilots Set List

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:01:13 -0700

At Lazerfest 2.0 at the Memorial Balloon Field in Indianola, IA on July 5, 2008, Stone Temple Pilots headlined with the following set:

Big Empty (Purple, Crow soundtrack)

Wicked Garden (Core)

Big Bang Baby (Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop)

Vasoline (Purple)

Lady Picture Show (Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop)

Lounge Fly (Purple)

Crackerman (Core)

Sour Girl (No. 4)

Creep (Core)

Plush (Core)

After some rhythmic applause from fans (chanting “S T P”) they broke into We Will Rock You

Interstate Love Song (Purple)

Down (No. 4)

“rock and roll” jam

Sin (Core)

Sex Type Thing (Core)

Trippin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart (Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop)

encore:

long intro into…

Dead & Bloated (Core)

Here's how there came to be two Lazerfests this year.

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Wine in Iowa

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:59:10 -0700

Two different wine-related events last Saturday competed for my attention: a book signing by wine expert, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Swine Fest, a celebration of local wine and pork-related food.

Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee on twitter) was at East Village Books in Des Moines to meetup with fans, including the local (dmtweetup) twitter people and to promote his new book “101 Wines”. Gary is the star of Wine Library TV, a great podcast about wine for the average Joe.

In the end I ended up going to Swine Fest with my wife, Ellen, and bypassing the chance to meet Gary. My friend and co-podcaster, Tim Fisher, went and got me a signed copy of Gary’s book (thanks, Tim).

Swine Fest was held in Ankeny, IA (a suburb of Des Moines). It featured about 10 to 20 Iowa wineries and around a dozen local restaurants. Each had its own tented booth near the lake on the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) campus.

SwineFest

There were some minor scattered rain showers, but not enough to really put a damper on the event. Plus there was a great rainbow.

DoubleRainbow

JakeEllenRainbow

Admission was $35 and included a glass for samples, all the samples you would like of the wines and food, and a ticket to redeem for a free bottle of any wine from any winery there (as long as supplies lasted).

Our favorite appetizers were the tenderloin from Phat Chefs from West Des Moines, the bacon-y polenta from a new downtown Des Moines restaurant called Sbrocco, and some odd rice crisp thing with pulled pork from the Tournament Club of Iowa.

The consensus on the food is that it was… Too Much Pork! We would have preferred a little more variety.

As for the wines, usually my wife and I aren’t very impressed with Iowa wines. They tend to be a little simple and too sweet, but we were each able to fine some good ones. We met up with a friend who was helping out at the booth for “Make Mine Wine”, a local wine publication. Stacy, who was manning the booth and who writes for the magazine directed us toward some award winners.

Two wineries near Indianola, IA that I personally toured with some of my sisters earlier this spring were there: Summerset and La Vida Loca. Summerset is very well known around Iowa and has a good following. They have live music on Sundays and host events like wedding receptions. La Vida Loca is a little more “out there”. They’re definitely not wine snobs and they make wines from about anything they can get their hands on – grapes, cherries, loganberries, rhubarb, and even garlic and jalapeños (and I've sampled all of those).

I generally prefer smooth, dry reds (merlots, shiraz, some cabs, etc.) and Ellen likes dry whites like chardonnays, but she also likes some sparkling whites like moscatos if they’re not too sweet.

For our free bottles, Ellen chose Simply Blush from Grape Escape in Pleasantville and I selected the Frontenac from Madison County Winery in St. Charles, IA. I was impressed that both wines contain 100% Iowa grown grapes -- Stueben for the blush and Frontenac (oddly enough) for the Frontenac. The blush was a little sweeter than the wines my wife usually enjoys, so I was a little surprised, but she said it was about the best blush she’d ever had.

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Flooding in Iowa

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:36:46 -0700

We've had a TON of rain this Spring. I was gone over the weekend (at NCMR) and when I returned, my rain gauge that I emptied before my trip, was completely full. That's at least 6 inches of rain over the weekend. Most of that was probably from Thursday night. A bunch of my friends had water in their basements. We were lucky. Our sump pump ran and kept the basement dry. That's the first time it EVER ran since we moved in 3 years ago -- even though we've had big rain storms before.

Des Moines city officials have decided to close the downtown bridges today in the expectations that the water will go over the bridges in the next day or so! (more here) The worst flooding hasn't quite reached Saylorville lake yet, but when it does, it's expected to overflow and then flow into Des Moines.

I walked out to the downtown Des Moines bridges at about 1:00 this afternoon and took a few photos. The amphitheater was completely flooded and the arches of the bridges were already almost filled to the top. They closed the Walnut bridge at 2:00 and the other three (Court, Grand, and Locust) will be closing at 6:00 this afternoon. They will be closed to cars and pedestrian traffic.

Live river level alerts here.

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NCMR

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:24:02 -0700

Just attended the National Conference on Media Reform (NCMR) this past weekend in Minneapolis hosted by FreePress.net. The speakers were very inspiring. It's an exciting time for independent journalists and filmmakers.

The big power and money-hungry media and entertainment conglomerates are trying to control all the airwaves and not face any legal or political consequences. But there are independent voices trying to educate the masses about what's really going on. New technologies such as cheaper recording equipment and software and the current state of the internet allow local, independent journalists and documentary filmmakers to tell their stories to a worldwide audience.

Learn more about the conference here. They've posted video from speakers such as Dan Rather and Bill Moyers. I'd also recommend watching the speaches of Lawrence Lessig (a personal hero of mine), Keith Ellison, and Josh Silver of freepress.

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Funny Spam

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:42:26 -0700

First off, spam (of the mail or email variety) is bad. As an IT consultant with several email addresses and information about me scattered around the internet, I get plenty of it.

Due to the way I have my email systems configured, most of it gets identified immediately and sent into a spam folder. On occasion I'll review them -- 1) to make sure they're really spam, and 2) for amusement. Some friends of mine and I will share the subject lines of some of the more outrageous spam we receive with each other.

I NEVER forward the spam messages. Why not? I don't want to contribute to the spam epidemic by clogging the internet with another unnecessary copy of the offending email. I don't want someone to unsuspectingly get phished by the content in a spam message. I don't want someone I know to accidentally get infected with an attached virus. I don't want to be identified by some automated system as a spammer myself. etc. etc.

As of late, it seems the spam I (or anyone I know) receives is focused into just a few categories:
"check out this porn", "enhance your male-ness with this", "get your pharmaceuticals from us over here", "buy this luxury watch", "get some cheap software", and "incomprehensible nonsense". And it's pretty much in that order (as far as the number of spam emails I get). The funniest ones are typically in the first two categories. I've no idea what's up with the watch thing. I've been amazed by how much "watch spam" I get, but it must work otherwise the spammers wouldn't be sending it. But sometimes I'll get a spam email that just contains random words. I imagine a phishing link is sent along with those, but I've never really checked (they're obviously spam, so I just delete them).

So anyway, I just cleared out my spam folder and here are the gems (actual letter-for-letter spam subjects):

Great pics of bosoms
Shoot your load further
Fire up your rocket today
Shoot harder and further with this
Your male device is super
Michael Jakson glued up a person a plaster
Your bazooka will explode her
Time to repair your male plumbing
thus allowing more blood to enter the cavern creating a longer and thicker erection.
re: pink, wet and 18
Hanging long and hard
Fondle all her internal nerve endings
Having a larger rocket in your pocket gives you more confidence both in life and around women.
Ever heard the sound of a huge one slapping against a tight woman's butt?

While reading these I thought my favorite was "your male device is super" until I got to the bazooka one!

The nerve endings one is kind of creepy. As is the blood cavern one!

Enjoy!

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Home Owners’ Association Woes

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:08:08 -0700

I live in a new-ish development that was set up by Rottlund Homes. There are 22 other single family homes besides mine on the west side of the main road. Then there are like 284 condominium units on the other side of the road. For some reason Rottlund setup a single association including all the single family homes and the condos.

As far as I understand, every house and condo unit has the same annual dues.

All the stuff that the association takes care of (e.g. maintenance of “common areas”) is within the condominium community. The single family home owners don’t get any benefit out of the association.

Since this is a new development, the developer (Rottlund Homes) currently controls the association. They’re essentially the current board. In about a month they’ll be transitioning control over to actual members of the association.

Ever since the single family homeowners moved in (and before) many of us were told different information regarding the association. Many claim they were flat out lied to about it. We feel the best thing would be for us (the single family homeowners) to break away from the rest of the association.

There was a meeting last night with people from Rottlund to discuss the transition process. Some of us had been told that the transition would be our chance to essentially secede from the association if we wanted to. The main representative from Rottlund last night told us that it would be very complicated and difficult to do and she didn’t recommend it. She also said she “felt no responsibility” to try to help us with our situation.

When the transition happens, a board will be elected by all 307 members (23 houses and 284 condos). Each has an equal vote. The Rottlund lady said that if we wanted to break away from the association, among other challenges and difficulties she alluded to, that we would need a vote of about 75% of all members. Currently the house owners pay into the association, but don’t get anything out of it. So we’re subsidizing the condos. What are the chances that the condo members will want to let us out of the association? Also, what’s the likelihood that the house owners will have control of the board? It’s “taxation without representation” as one house owner put it.

We asked if Rottlund had any other associations that included single family homes and condos. They said there was one other. We asked if we could talk with those homeowners to see how they handled their situation. “Handled what?” was the Rottlund lady’s reply. She wasn’t listening to our problems at all.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to appeal to the condo owners’ sense of integrity and fairness. I have some friends that live in those condos and I’m sure they can appreciate the dilemma we’re in. Also, the dues from 23 (out of 307) units that they’d end up losing isn’t really all that much. And if they actually think that we (the house owners) get the same value as them, then there’s no financial reason for them to want to keep us in the association, because by losing us, they’d lose our dues, but also our “expenses”, so it’d be a wash.

So… wish us luck!

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Internet Etiquette

nobody@vox.com(Jake) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:06:34 -0800

Here's an excellent video on VideoJug that gives a little lesson on how to behave in forums on the internet.

Thanks to Jayson from xeai (a private forum) for the link!

I have nothing more to add.

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