Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Myke.

We all know the failure of the year 2008 and all of the economic crap.  People lost their ass on 401k plans, stocks, bonds and hell, we even lost out on cash value.  Our economy was so bad the Mexicans left for their home land.  Well I decided to take a look at some of the predictions that were made during and for the year 2008.

1. “A very powerful and durable rally is in the works. But it may need another couple of days to lift off. Hold the fort and keep the faith!” —Richard Band, editor, Profitable Investing Letter, Mar. 27, 2008

At the time of the prediction, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 12,300. By late December it was at 8,500.

2. AIG (AIG) “could have huge gains in the second quarter.” —Bijan Moazami, analyst, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, May 9, 2008

AIG wound up losing $5 billion in that quarter and $25 billion in the next. It was taken over in September by the U.S. government, which will spend or lend $150 billion to keep it afloat.

3. “I think this is a case where Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) are fundamentally sound. They’re not in danger of going under…I think they are in good shape going forward.” —Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chairman, July 14, 2008

Two months later, the government forced the mortgage giants into conservatorships and pledged to invest up to $100 billion in each.

4. “I’m not an economist but I do believe that we’re growing.” —President George W. Bush, in a July 15, 2008 press conference

Nope. Gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5% annual rate in the July-September quarter. On Dec. 1, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that a recession had begun in December 2007.

5.“I think Bob Steel’s the one guy I trust to turn this bank around, which is why I’ve told you on weakness to buy Wachovia.” —Jim Cramer, CNBC commentator, Mar. 11, 2008

Two weeks later, Wachovia came within hours of failure as depositors fled. Steel eventually agreed to a takeover by Wells Fargo. Wachovia shares lost half their value from Sept. 15 to Dec. 29.

6. “Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008″ —Headline of a National Association of Realtors press release, Dec. 9, 2007

On Dec. 23, 2008, the group said November sales were running at an annual rate of 4.5 million—down 11% from a year earlier—in the worst housing slump since the Depression.

7. “I think you’ll see [oil prices at] $150 a barrel by the end of the year” —T. Boone Pickens, June 20, 2008

Oil was then around $135 a barrel. By late December it was below $40.

8. “I expect there will be some failures. … I don’t anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system.” —Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, Feb. 28, 2008

In September, Washington Mutual became the largest financial institution in U.S. history to fail. Citigroup (C) needed an even bigger rescue in November.

9. “In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules.” —Bernard Madoff, money manager, Oct. 20, 2007

About a year later, Madoff—who once headed the Nasdaq Stock Market—told investigators he had cost his investors $50 billion in an alleged Ponzi scheme.

10. “There’s growing evidence that parts of the debt markets…are coming back to life.” —Peter Coy and Mara Der Hovanesian, BusinessWeek, Oct. 1, 2007.

Oops.

I think this speaks for itself.

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Myke.

After I read the below story, I actually got mad at this moron!  All I could say after reading it was, “So help me God, if I ever see this Michael Newdow I will punch him in the nuts”.  He has tried twice before and has lost so he thinks that three times a charm.  He is suing to remove the statement ‘So help me God’ from the inauguration speech ceremony for Barack Obama.  While we are at it, maybe we can also remove it from all currency here in the US and while we are at that we can ask that all churches remove any and all signs from their buildings.  Maybe this Michael Newdow can even call God and ask him to remove his name from the Holy Bible.  I am not even in the least bit religious but this guy is a f**k tard!

A number of atheists and non-religious organizations want Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony to leave out all references to God and religion. 

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, the plaintiffs demand that the words “so help me God” not be added to the end of the president’s oath of office.

In addition, the lawsuit objects to plans for ministers to deliver an invocation and a benediction in which they may discuss God and religion.

An advance copy of the lawsuit was posted online by Michael Newdow, a California doctor and lawyer who has filed similar and unsuccessful suits over inauguration ceremonies in 2001 and 2005.

Joining Newdow in the suit are groups advocating religious freedom or atheism, including the American Humanist Association, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and atheist groups from Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; and Florida.

The new lawsuit says in part, “There can be no purpose for placing ’so help me God’ in an oath or sponsoring prayers to God, other than promoting the particular point of view that God exists.”

Newdow said references to God during inauguration ceremonies violate the Constitution’s ban on the establishment of religion.

Newdow and other plaintiffs say they want to watch the inaugural either in person or on television. As atheists, they contend, having to watch a ceremony with religious components will make them feel excluded and stigmatized.

“Plaintiffs are placed in the untenable position of having to choose between not watching the presidential inauguration or being forced to countenance endorsements of purely religious notions that they expressly deny,” according to the lawsuit.

Among those named in the lawsuit are Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, who is expected to swear in the new president; the Presidential Inauguration Committee; the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies and its chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California; and the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee and its commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Rowe Jr.

The two ministers scheduled to participate in the ceremony also are named: the Rev. Rick Warren and the Rev. Joseph Lowery. The document includes a quotation from Warren on atheists: “I could not vote for an atheist because an atheist says, ‘I don’t need God.’ “

Newdow told CNN that he didn’t name President-elect Barack Obama in the suit because in addition to participating as a government official at the ceremony, he possesses rights as an individual that allow him to express religious beliefs.

“If he chooses to ask for God’s help, I’m not going to challenge him,” Newdow said. “I think it’s unwise.”

Newdow said that as a member of a racial minority, Obama should have respect for atheists, who also are members of a minority.

Newdow said religious references in the inauguration ceremony send a message to non-believers.

“The message here is, we who believe in God are the righteous, the real Americans,” he said.

Newdow said it’s unconstitutional to imply that atheists and others are not as good.

He acknowledged that his suit is unlikely to be successful.

“I have no doubt I’ll lose,” he said, adding that he hoped to eventually succeed through appeals and hoped future inauguration ceremonies would exclude religious references.

Lawsuit seeks to take out ‘So help me God’

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Myke.

On behalf of myself and…well…okay I am lying a bit here.  Actually on behalf of Britain’s National Physical Laboratory we are all getting one extra second tonight to correct the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  Due to the earth spinning way out of control we all lost a second over the last year.  I KNEW IT!  It felt like we lost something somewhere…serious.  My guess is that one of the “retarded” Global Warming freaks is going to blame this on Global Warming.  Dumb asses.

My question is, how does anyone know exactly how time is tracked?  I mean, did Jesus or God or Budda or some freak alien come up to someone a long time ago and say…”Hey, so this is how time is kept”?  I actually want a full explanation as to how anyone knows for a fact that we live by seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.  This all goes back to things that me go hmm.  Why is the sky blue?  Because it is a reflection of the ocean.  Why is the ocean blue?  Because it is a reflection of the sky.  I am a firm believer that the movies The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Matrix and The Happening are the best depictions of our World and how it all works.  *CAUTION:  Movie spoiler coming up*  In the Hitch hikers guide, the Earth is built by another life form just like we build cities and buildings.  Makes sense being that every project has its flaws and mistakes.  In the Matrix we are just cattle being herded around by a higher technology.  If you make it out and are good enough to figure it all out…they are try and kill you off for good.  Better yet, f you do not believe in aliens maybe you can follow The Happening.  This movie shows us how plants, trees, bushes and grass can take control of everyone.  My take on that movie was that it was Mother Nature’s way of controlling the World’s population.  I know folks, we could go on forever here.  Anyways, here is the complete story.  You can accept the extra second or be a rebel and cheer 1 second ahead of everyone else tonight.  I plan on drinking enough Jaeger/Bing Cherry shots that it will not matter to me anymore. 

Immediately before midnight a leap second — the first for three years — will be added to atomic clocks around the world by official timekeepers.

Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory, said the Earth’s erratic rotation meant an extra second needed to be added.

“The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be corrected, so this New Year’s Eve we will experience a rare 61 second minute at the very end of 2008 and revelers… will have an extra second to celebrate.”

Traditionally time has been based on the passage of the Sun across the sky — a modern version of this is still used by astronomers to track distant stars and spacecraft.

However, since 1967, an atomic timescale — the extremely accurate Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) — has been the world’s official clock and is used for broadcasting time signals across the world.

The accuracy of UTC is essential for the smooth running of GPS and the Internet.

By comparison, the Earth is far less reliable. It does not rotate at a constant speed — it can even wobble — and disruptions to its core, extreme weather, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can influence the length of a day.

Therefore, leap seconds are occasionally added to align atomic time with astronomical time and ensure that the Sun remains overhead at noon.

Whibberley told British media anyone sober enough and who had a digital clock that picked up leap second information from a reliable source, would see the final seconds of 2008 as 57, 58, 59, 60, 00 — with 60 being the extra second.

Time added to 2008

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Myke.

Back by popular demand, we are posting the website is down in full detail from youtube.com.  This is one of the greatest videos ever made and all credits go out to the guys over at http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Myke.

Some time ago I was cruising through the Internet when a friend sent me a video link from youtube.com.  I went and laughed my ass off, seriously…it fell off.  Ever since then I have been hooked on Bo Burnham.  He is funny, smart, talented and full of thoughts from my head.  I know, scary thought isn’t it?!?  He has since become quite the Internet hero and legend, almost as high as the Star Wars kid.  :-)  Except Bo is actually talented unlike the short bus drool bucket wearing Star Wars kid.  All I can hope for is that someone somewhere will give this kid a shot with some serious background music.  Maybe we can get him hooked up with Ronald Jenkees and he can cut him some beats for Bo to through down some lyrics on.

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Monday, December 29, 2008 by Myke.

Ever wonder to yourself, I wonder if I could get away with that?  Well a few folks have tried various ways of making money or getting back at others using the Internet but most fail one way or another.  The thing to remember is that someone somewhere can figure out who was there and what was done.  I mean come on, some of the greatest hackers of the world now hold top jobs in the IT Security field across the world.

Here is the best of 2008 when it comes to busted Capers.

1.    Pepper Spray Bandit
In September, a robber disguised as a gardener pepper-sprayed an armored car driver using a pesticide sprayer and ran off with a bag stuffed with $400,000 in cash. When police arrived seconds later, they found the sidewalk crowded with dozens of men decked out in the same attire as the perp: blue shirt, Day-Glo vest, safety mask and glasses. While the cops hacked through a forest of suspects, the real perp fled to a nearby creek and escaped in a waiting inner tube.

Turns out the unwitting decoys had been lured to the crime scene by a Craigslist ad that promised construction work to those showing up in a “yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask … and, if possible, a blue shirt.” A month later, following a lead from a homeless man who witnessed the preparation for the Brinks job, police arrested 28-year-old Anthony Curcio fresh from a Las Vegas vacation. Curcio is now charged with “Interference with commerce by threats or violence,” because “Pulling the most awesome robbery ever” isn’t listed in the U.S. code.

2.    Nickel and Dime Your Way to the Top
If you’ve ever linked up your checking account to an online brokerage house or digital payment service, you may have noticed that the company automatically initiates one or two small deposits — typically less than a dollar each — for verification purposes. If you’re hard up for cash, or just really bored, you might have thought, “if only there was a way to make real money off this …”

Twenty-two-year-old Michael Largent of Plumas Lake, California allegedly figured out a way: Volume! Prosecutors say Largent wrote a script that rapidly opened about 60,000 new accounts under aliases like Johnny Blaze and Hank Hill, then linked them all to a handful of bank accounts under his control. Largent allegedly accumulated some $58,000 in nickels and dimes from Schwab.com, E-Trade, and Google Checkout, and transferred the free money to pre-paid debit cards before the companies could renege on their generosity. The venture was ultimately thwarted by bank reporting regulations, and Largent is now facing federal computer and wire fraud charges.

3.    Master Splynter Wins This Round
Not every brilliant caper is masterminded by a criminal. For two years, a mysterious Eastern European cyber crook known as “Master Splynter” ran a flourishing cyber crime supersite called DarkMarket.ws. Brazen and defiant, Splynter boasted of turning his nefarious site into “the premier English-speaking forum for conducting business” — i.e., buying and selling stolen identity information and hacked credit card numbers. And he took particular delight in spitting bile on the federal agents trying to take him down.

In September, following the arrest of another DarkMarket administrator in Turkey, Splynter announced he was getting out while the getting was good. A month after he shuttered the site, which boasted 2,500 members at its peak, DarkMarket’s displaced denizens learned the truth: the site was a sting operation, and their buddy Master Splynter was Pittsburgh FBI agent J. Keith Mularski. The FBI says the long con netted 56 arrests worldwide, and prevented $70 million in fraud losses. Threat Level thinks Mularski would make a damn fine criminal if he weren’t one of the good guys.

4.    Forgot to Change the Default Password
First spotted in 2005, this caper takes advantage of retail ATM owners and operators who leave the administrative passcodes on their Tranax and Triton cash machines set to the defaults published in easily-obtained service manuals. Armed with the passcodes, fast-fingered swindlers reprogram the ATMs to think they’re loaded with $1.00 bills instead of $20s, so a withdrawal of twenty bucks (say, on an anonymous, pre-paid debit card) nets the thief $380 in free cash.

Last August, Lobo’s City Mex in Lincoln, Nebraska, was the scene of the first known arrest for the long-running ATM hack. Manager Raul Omar Lobo held two purported PIN-pad perps at gunpoint after they allegedly showed up to add to the $1,400 they’d already plundered from the restaurant’s Tranax MiniBank. Local prosecutors charged Jordan Eske and Nicolas Foster, both 21, with four counts of theft by deception, and one count of computer fraud, for allegedly stealing a total of $13,600 from Lincoln-area ATMs.

5.    Russian Style Big Gulp
You’re a Russian hacker who’s just managed to crack a server that processes transactions from Citibank ATMs at 7-Eleven convenience stores. No fool, you suck down thousands of Citibank customers’ account numbers and PIN codes. Only one problem remains: How best to monetize your hacking haul.

The solution: offshore it, of course. The hacker, identity unknown, farmed out the stolen data to confederates in America, who traveled from as far as Missouri to converge on the Citibank ATM supercluster known as New York City. Using blank cards programmed with the hacked account numbers, the gang managed to steal at least $2 million from Citibank accounts, sending 70% of the take back to mother Russia, before a lucky traffic stop unraveled the scheme. In the end, the FBI made ten arrests, including two Ukrainian immigrates with more than $800,000 each stashed in their closets. That’s a lot of Slurpees.

6.    On the Road Again
How do you run a profitable interstate trucking company without all the hassle of driving trucks? Step one: Visit the online “load boards” where brokers advertise cargo in need of transport and negotiate a deal to, for example, haul a load from California to Maryland for $3,500. Step two: hack into the Department of Transportation website that maintains the master list of licensed trucking companies, and change the contact information for a legitimate firm to an address and phone number you control.

Step three: Profit! Posing as the company whose identity you just stole, outsource your job to another trucking firm for whatever price it wants; when the load is delivered, collect your $3,500, leaving the company that actually drove the truck trying in vain to invoice the company you hijacked. Step four: Get a lawyer. In October, federal prosecutors charged Russian immigrants Nicholas Lakes and Viachelav Berkovich with computer fraud for allegedly pulling this scam over-and-over again, to the tune of $500,000.

7.    Deaf, Dumb and Blind…Not Really
When 18-year-old Matthew Weigman’s telephone line was disconnected, the legally-blind phone phreak didn’t just get mad; he got royally pissed. First, the FBI says, he social engineered the phone company into reconnecting the line — take that, phone cops. Then he made another pretext call to obtain the unlisted phone number and home address of William Smith, the Verizon security agent who got him disconnected.

Armed with the information, Weigman allegedly began calling Smith and berating him over the phone. To ensure that Smith answered the calls and took his punishment like a man, Weigman social engineered the phone company into giving him near real-time access to Smith’s billing data, then repeatedly used Caller ID spoofing to make the harried security official think people were returning his own calls: when Smith phoned a travel agent to book a flight, his phone would ring a few minutes later, displaying the number of the travel agency he’d just called. It wasn’t until Weigman took his vendetta into meat space and showed up at Smith’s New Hampshire home with his burly older brother that he was arrested. He now faces federal charges of intimidating a witness.

posted by: Myke Reinhold
credit: Wired Magazine

Posted in Technology, Funny | Print | 1 Comment »

Monday, December 29, 2008 by Myke.

Congrats to Dan Chianelli and Nick Greenlee on a very cool video.

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Monday, December 29, 2008 by Myke.

Ellie Nesler has passed away due to a battle with Breast Cancer.  You may or may not remember this woman but in my eyes she deserved a medal of honor.  Many parents across the nation felt her pain and thought what she did was right and justified.  Her then 6 year old son has since become quiet the little law breaker and he of course blames this molestation.  Now, since I was never molested I cannot tell you how I would have turned out…but at some point and time people need to take ownership for their own actions.  Just to clarify, I wrote this post to tell you of his mother’s great moment in life…not his.

On April 2nd of 1993, Ellie shot twice-convicted child molester Daniel Driver 5 times in the head in a California court room.  He was in court facing multiple charges of child molestation, including one charge for molesting her then 6 year old son.

I am a proud parent and would put my own life on the line for any one of my children.  I would even place my life on the line for some family members and friends (you know who you are).  Rape and child molestation are two of the worst crimes in my mind.  There is currently no form of punishment that fits the crime for either one but if the people and the government want some help I would lend a great hand in changing that.

(12-29) 12:43 PST Fresno, Calif. (AP) –

Ellie Nesler, who sparked a national debate about vigilantism after killing her son’s accused molester in a courtroom in 1993, has died of cancer. She was 56.

Nesler died Friday morning at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, according to hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown. She had battled breast cancer since 1994.

Nesler made headlines when she shot Daniel Driver five times in the head in a Tuolumne County courtroom during a break in his preliminary hearing for allegedly molesting four boys, including her then-6-year-old son William, at a Christian camp. Some hailed her for exacting her own justice, while others condemned her for taking the law into her own hands.

Nesler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, but her 10-year sentence was later overturned because of jury misconduct. She cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to manslaughter and get out after serving three years because she had breast cancer.

The case became a 1999 TV movie, “Judgment Day: The Ellie Nesler Story,” on the USA cable network.

After the shooting, the Nesler family remained entangled in the legal system. In 2002, Nesler was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to selling and possessing methamphetamine. Outside the courtroom, she maintained her innocence, saying she felt she couldn’t get a fair trial in Tuolumne County.

She was released from a women’s facility in Chowchilla in 2006.

Meanwhile, her son got into legal troubles of his own and was convicted of first-degree murder in 2005 for stomping to death a man hired to clean the family’s property in Sonora. The 23-year-old said he believed David Davis was letting people pick through the family’s belongings.

William Nesler killed Davis less than an hour after he was released from a 30-day sentence for an earlier assault on him. He is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence.

Prison officials allowed William Nesler to speak with his mother on the phone when she was hospitalized, and he spoke to family members Christmas night about her condition, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“He knew she was very ill, and he knew her death was impending,” Thornton said.

William Nesler has asked for a temporary leave to attend the funeral, and the request is being reviewed by prison officials, Thornton said.

Posted in Good Feeling, The Facts | Print | 1 Comment »

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 by Myke.

If you know me you understand my love for all music, no matter what it is.  If it is good, I will buy it and listen to it.  Well, today the wife and my 7 year old told me about this Christmas song that was sung by Straight No Chaser “The 12 Days of Christmas”.  Well needless to say, I was hooked right away.  I found numerous songs on line by this group and everyone was amazing to me.  Yes, I was a choir boy…so to speak.  I sang but was not actually a “Choir Boy” if you know what I mean.  To me, music is life.  I hear music everywhere and in everything.  Without my CD’s, MP3 players and MP3 files…I would be a lost soul.  Being int he Christmas mood, I decided to share some of there videos from youtube.com.

This first video is the famous “12 Days of Christmas”

This video is from Boyz II Men, “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye”.

This video is from Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”.

This video is of Bryan McKnight’s “Superhero”.

To learn more about this group, go to their website Straight No Chaser.

Posted in Good Feeling, Music/Movie | Print | 1 Comment »

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 by Myke.

Nintendo sued over ‘dangerous’ Wii controllers

So the story goes that this mother, Molly Elvig of Littleton, CO, has filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo for “ineffective wrist straps on the controllers”.  She is suing for $5,000,000.00 (side note: new 52″ Samsung TV would cost about $2,000.00)!  The lawsuit has been brought upon after her son broke their 52″ Samsung television while playing Wii Bowling.  I cannot go any further…this has to be stopped people.  After many nights of playing Wii with the family, drunk friends playing Wii into the late evening and having the kids bring friends over…we have never had a single problem other than the occasional controller slammed into head moments.  But each one was due to us, the players.  So I decided to write a letter to this mother…

Dear Molly Elvig,

I do not work for Nintendo and want you to know this is a letter of concern after reading your lawsuit you filed against Nintendo.  I understand that your son claims (as well as you do) that the strap on his controller broke sending his controller through your 52″ Samsung television while playing Wii Bowling.  *cough cough* BULLS**T *cough cough*

Between my family, friends and co-workers, we have played many many hours on the Wii and we have never seen a controller strap break or come loose.  What bothers me is that you claim it was due to him playing bowling.  How the hell does your son play bowling???  There are so many other games that you could have blamed this on and it might sound more true but no, you blame the bowling game?!?  If I were you, I would have a long talk with your son and have him explain the truth to you about what happened to the TV.

One last thing, it is people like yourself that have made Americans look so damn stupid in the eye of other countries.  You are basically a money grubing dumb a$$.  Do us all a huge favor and package up your Nintendo Wii and all of your games and sell it on eBay so someone who deserves the game system can buy it.

Yours truly,
Myke Reinhold
http://ihatemykereinhold.com

p.s. Dumbass!

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