Monday, March 30, 2009

first attempt at network proxy

This is how you could get around the mlb.tv thing.

What you do is reroute your internet traffic through another server somewhere else, and mlb.tv thinks your in another place.

Here is a quick example. These images are both from my laptop in the last 20 minutes while using windows 7 snipping tool(very nice).


Above is my internet without using a network proxy. It got my zip code exactly right.

Below is after routing my network traffic through a net proxy. As you can see, they think I am in texas. Is it magic? Did my laptop travel through space and time going to texas and back?

the short answer, yes

Sunday, March 29, 2009

MLB.TV

For $80 Capital_Prototype can get the standard package and watch Da Cubs this year.

Windows 7 and Resulting Hardware Upgrade

So I am starting to realize that my old laptop, which is running very well for the tasks I require, is starting to show its age. Sometime after Windows 7 comes out I am thinking about purchasing a new desktop computer. Does anyone have a recomendation about specs or places to purchase computers in a year or two?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Woot Off

fucking disney cameras.

All I want is one more item before I go home for the weekend.

Hopefully it is the bag o crap, but just to see something besides these damned disney cameras would be nice.

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=7889

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Apple Masters Art

Apple has mastered the art of withholding features on its product, in order to rebrand and sell consumers those new features. In an article available here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123731209449458761.html


the journalist explains that for an upgrade of $9.95, users' iphone or ipod touch will be able to do such revolutionary mundane tasks as cut-and-paste.

Wow, talk about a "smart" smartphone!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

SBA Loans

Much of the current financial crisis can be attributed to banks making mortgage loans to people who could not afford the payments and who did not make substantial down payments. The reason these banks were willing to make these loans, in part, is because they were not obligated to hold those long term debt instruments on their books, rather, through incentivization provided by the government, they could collatoralize those debt obligations and sell them off to other investors.

As long as housing prices continued their upward trends, this scheme seemed to work. After all, if the borrower defaulted on the debt, the house could be reclaimed, sold or refinanced since the price of the house had increased from the time it was purchased.

Well, as more and more people rushed into the housing market under these assumptions, housing prices inflated and a bubble occured. Since, the bubble has popped and housing prices have declined. Investors are now holding long term, complex, and for the time being illiquid assets that have decreased in value in the short term, but do not want to write these assets down. Furthermore, banks holding these assets want to avoid these write downs, as they effect their ratios, which can in turn affect multiple facets of their business including, restricting access to capital, higher lending rates, and others. This has caused a banks to reduce lending, which in turn constricts the economy.

Currently these, and many other, problems are being addressed. However, the populist administration is afraid that by helping these financial institutions that keep this economic machine running, they will be seen by their constituents as bailing out the rich.

Therefore the Obama administration proposes to relax, what I fear are already lax, lending standards for Small Business Loans, as quoted in this article from the LA Times

"the administration is proceeding with plans to eliminate fees for lenders in its two signature small-business lending programs and to increase temporarily the percentage of each SBA loan gauranteed by the government."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-obama-smallbiz17-2009mar17,0,1842015.story

The increase in percent, if I recall, is upwards of 90%.

Now, after reading the following article

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Investigators-find-abuse-in-apf-14735795.html

or in the following novel by David Einhorn

http://www.foolingsomepeople.com/main/about-david/bio.html

one might, like myself, be a bit wary of the current SBA loan program. Which oftentimes imitates the so-called "liar loans" issued by the banks, and previously called "toxic assets" and now, for some reason referred to by Treasuery Secretary Timothy Geithner as "legacy assets."

Furthermore, Obama is rasing taxes on individuals making above $250,000. Unless a business is set up as a corporation, the income generated by the business flows through to the individuals tax return. This should have the effect of hurting small businesses, or at least the more successful ones.

Therefore, we arrive to Obama's politics. That is, a redistribution of wealth that punishes the successful by inefficiently, and perhaps recklessly, doling out their earnings captured through higher taxes.

Understatement

There is only one quote in this article, and it is a doozy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GE-gets-300M-contract-for-apf-14735819.html

Hobo Dog


My dog tried to become a hobo yesterday. She moved into some concrete in a drainage ditch next to the highway. Her roomate was a Muskrat. I think she wanted to eat her roomate.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Dark 'n' Stormy

The Dark 'n' Stormy is the National Drink of Bermuda and is enjoyed in several countries where England sent its rapers and thieves (Australia among others).

The cocktail consists of traditional Bermudanian drinks: Gosling's Black Seal Rum and Barritt's Ginger Beer. The Ginger Beer is like Ginger Ale, but with an enhanced ginger kick. Black Seal Rum is dark and much more flavorful than other rums from the Caribbean.

To make a Dark 'n' Stormy do the following:

1. Acquire favorite lowball glass
2. Fill with ice
3. Pour 2 0z. of Rum over ice
4. Top with Ginger Beer
5. Stir
6. Enjoy

*If you really want to spiff things up, add some lime slices between steps 3 and 4. You can also add some lime juice to give it a hint of Tropics and a flavorful twist!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_%27N%27_Stormy

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Home Video

I have been out of the home video game for an embarassingly long amount of time. This weekend my sister visited and brought with her a Blu-Ray player she purchased from the now defunct Circuit City, which was having trouble displaying video. When I looked at the back of the new Blu-Ray player I found that users have all sorts of options for transferring signals.

You can send signals through fiber optics, HDMI, DVI, S-Video, Coaxial, standard component and split color component (whatever that is actually called). It is pretty amazing the amount of options you have, I think. The player also had a port for a Lan line for home networking. You gotta love technology!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I fucking called it

I've been saying for a while now that the next iphone would be hailed as the

NEW VIDEO IPHONE.

It makes no sense for the current iphone to not have video, cause even crappy little phones have video. So why does 'the best phone' not offer video?

Same reason they didn't offer 3g services with there first iphone, so they could easily make it more exciting when they release the new one.

I know this is just a rumor, but I can't fucking believe apple and their stupid fucking fanbase that would follow them off a cliff if it would get them an apple logo.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10201345-37.html

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Post Diet Eating Habits

Yesterday I ate a McDouglass Chee-Burger, A Medium French Fry and a Regularo Coca-Cola for lunch

and a Pepperjack Melt with French Fries and Chili with a Regular Coca-Cola for dinner from steak-and-bake

Monday, March 16, 2009

Capital_Prototype Diet Results

Regular Sodas Consumed: 0
Hamburgers Consumed: 0
French Fries Consumed: 0
Potato Chips Consumed: 0

Miles Ran: >21
Net Gain (Loss) in lbs: 2

Thanks a lot exercise.

Friday, March 13, 2009

I though it was an old war woound from nam

I don't know my exact plans, but I will be leaving for champaign shortly, and will be getting thur around 1 and going to buf wild wings. Then, I will probably start drinking ecessively, and go to a bar for the Irrinois game around 5. Then I will continue drinking and there sill probably be some fat sammich involved.

Any one that reads this is invited for these activities.

Ah, excuse me captian hot tub. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

and an explanation for the nam lines, I am watching cliffhanger.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Ipod Shuffle

Gawd, my old i Pod Shuffle is so big and bulky. Can't someone make one that is smaller than a double a battery and speaks in a robot voice?
I think this is like the blade wars, when razor manufacturers were seeing who could put the most blades on a razor, only this exists entirely in Apple's head.
I think it is about time someone undercut the i pod shuffle. That is, made a clip on MP3 player that was really inexpensive.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My new toy

I got my bonus yesterday, and I spent it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882120064

The remote's kinda weak.

Internet Explorer Market Share

Yeah, Internet Explorer is the least secure because noone is going to sit around writing viruses for a web browser that either doesn't exist yet or has little market share (Google Chrome).
Making a a new web based application that is incompatable with the web browser with market share dominance (almost 70%) really makes a lot of business sense to me.

Best Off Brand


Advertising Based Content

Competition surely results in lower prices, which should be better for consumers.

In technology, new competition is causing many people to predict a fundemental change in the current business model. Microsoft has been dominant in the regards to their Office products and operating systems. They have had competition from Apple, who is essentially a niche player. They both operate on the same business model. Develop proprietary software, and sell that product for a mark-up, profiting on the difference. Apparently, many people see this business model as unsustainable and believe that they can turn computers into the next radio or television.

Radios are broadcast for free and supported by advertising. Following that analogy, users will purchase a unit, a computer, then purchase a subscription to the internet. However, once on the internet the user will be able to go online to use an office suite or product for free, which will show advertisements to the user. Furthermore, many believe the same could be done for an operating system.

Call me old fashioned, but I am just not getting it. If I am writing a paper for school, or working on a project for work, advertising would be an unwelcome distraction and both counter-productive and inneffective. Second, I don't quite understand how a company would advertise on an operating system, but I do recognize the value of an open source operating system such as Linux.

Someone should explain some of this to me, because I am still not seeing it.

Gmail and IE

The only web browser I have downloaded on my computer is Internet Explorer 8.

While using Gmail I have experienced a problem where the text I write does not stay within the boundaries of the text box, and instead goes off into a straight line, like in notepad or excel. Then it will randomly switch back and forth, and there is no horizontal scroll bar, so I will be stuck off to the right viewing a blank screen with no way of getting back. This has made emailing an unpleasant experience for me as of late.

When I went to tech support to see find a solution what I was told was to use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

So, is Google trying to make their program incompatible with Microsoft's Internet Explorer because they think they are enemies, or are they really shitty programmers who can't make an email application that can be used by the two highest web broswers by market share?

Monday, March 9, 2009

Draft instead of publish

Capital_prototype.

It has come to my attention that you sometimes hit the save now button instead of the publish post button.

2 subs instead of 1 and valemtimes day never got posted.

Just thought you should know.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Capital_Prototype Diets

For 358 days of the year Capital_Prototype resolves himself to the fact that he is slowly but surely on his way of becoming a fat pasty accountant, but for this week and this week only Capital_Prototype will be excersing and dieting (sort of).

Rules
1. This routine will last only from Sunday-Saturday
2. Fat Sandwhich is a wild card, and therefore is exempt from all rules.
3. No hot dogs, chips, hamburgers, fries, chips, italian beef sandwhiches, philly cheesesteak sandwiches, regular coke or other soda product... and so on.
4. Jog three miles per day.
5. All other sammiches and any alcohol is permitted.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Snowball Fight

I have a video game on my phone where I challenge other kids to snowball fights. This game also has items that you can buy. One of these items is a rock. The rock does twice the damage of a snowball. I think that a rock would do more than twice the damage of a snowball, I think that it should do four times the damage of a snowball.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

For Fun


funny