http://marc-bourassa.com Reality from Marc's point of view! Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:28:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The last time we saw legislation so ill-fitted to the ideals this amazing Constitutional Republic was when that most heinous piece of trash legislation called (ironically) "The Patriot Act" was cobbled together and dumped in representatives laps with no time for them to review the outrage contained therein. Nobody could ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/07/general-american-sentiments-and-empathy-concerning-the-kneejerk-bailout-plan Forwarded to me by my brother. This tongue in cheek interview goes a long way toward explaining the subprime crisis, notably the terrible excess of greed, lack of judgment and twisted incentives that lead to this issue. The ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/06/subprime-crisis-explained I just checked my 401(k) statement and it tells me that my yearly rate of return for the year to date is...-22%  (!)It almost makes me wish I'd blown it all on household electronics.All those forecasts - "We'll use the conservative model of 7% growth per year" - aren't looking ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/06/my-yearly-rate-of-return I'm running Vista Enterprise on a T60 laptop and connect to my office using Cisco's VPN client version 5.x .Lately I've been having problems with my DSL where it drops for about 15 seconds and then springs back to life (they're sending me yet another modem to address the issue...). ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/05/your-cisco-vpn-drops-and-you-cant-reconnect I had the computer set up and it was showing fairly steady power consumption of around 220 watts. Again a little less than I expected. Turning off my smaller monitor drops the consumption by 19 Watts (s/b 34 Watts), the larger monitor by about 26 Watts (s/b 55 Watts).I'm going ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/05/kill-a-watt-ez-p4460-main-computer-results This is a pretty good idea. The stars just bring up the issues and aren't pushing their personal agendas beyond actually getting you off your sorry behind and getting you out to vote. I don't usually put much stock in what actors have to say on the issues as they're ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/04/register-to-vote-and-then-go-do-it In case you're wondering what all those little silhouette icons are about, they are placeholders for folks with no avatar.An avatar is a graphical representation you provide to give others some kind of insight into who you are. In this largely anonymous "interworld" it can provide a way to let ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/04/gravatars In a word - Great!The iGolf neo is a compact GPS unit you can use while golfing to let you know how far away you are from the front, back and center of the green. The maps are downloaded from their website to which you subscribe for a modest fee. ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/03/igolf-neo-my-latest-gadget-for-golf I originally heard about "Woken Furies" on a "Tech Nation" podcast interview with author Richard K. Morgan. The universe he described sounded intriguing so I picked up the book last December and have been slowly reading it ever since. I don't tend to rush through books I'm enjoying as I ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/10/01/woken-furies-by-richard-k-morgan-2 I had intended to let the Kill A Watt have a little more time with my hair dryer but I was having such gargantuan issues with my DSL today that I decided to turn off my whole computer system (UPS, Router, Modem, the works). Since this is such a rare ... http://marc-bourassa.com/2008/09/30/kill-a-watt-ez-p4460-hair-drier-results