The AIG bailout and other ramblings

As you well know the federal government has repeatably given AIG several bailouts. Basically trying to keep AIG in business, because if they were to fail the economy would crash. So we the taxpayers have given AIG $175 billion. Yesterday while listening to the radio I heard that AIG has given some employees around $165 million in bonuses. That $165 millions is taxpayer money. Giving that money as bonuses to their employees is unacceptable. The $165 million should be rescinded and paid back to the government. Better yet, we should let AIG fail. I'm tired of giving them bailouts.

An example would be giving your friend some money. Your friend begs and says that they need the money so they can pay their bills. A few days later you find out your friend is using your money to make road trips and buying cigarettes and beer. If you knew this before hand, you would have never loaned your friend money.

On another note, I was reading the latest issue of CPU magazine. There is an article about Windows 7. One of the new features of Windows 7 is the calculator. For some reason Microsoft decided to add a mortgage calculator. I'm not really sure why Windows 7 needs a mortgage calculator, but it sounds neat.

Lastly, the Dow ended its 4 day rally today. Today the Dow lost 7 points, to close at 7216.97. The Dow is better than it was 1 week ago, but things could change rapidly. Also, gas prices are on the way down.

Bobby Knight motivational speech

SOLID!

Just for fun I added this one:

Which coach in the NCAA tourney is gonna have a blow up?

Purdue is Big Ten Champions

BOILER'UP

Edit: So I got a few emails asking what this is all about. Well its story time.

Over Xmas, Purdue was considered the top team in the Big Ten, with Illinois projected to be one of the lower teams in the league. My brother a U of I graduate and I made a timely bet at the time. I said Purdue would sweep Illinois, and for added punch I gave him a requirement that Purdue would sweep Iowa. The rules of the bet, loser would have to wear either a rediculous Illini hat (one of those North Dakota winter hats, at least I assume) or a fabulous pink Purdue shirt for 2 weeks.

My brother a key financial broker for a major financial firm required I wear the hat for every game Purdue lost to the four. Well they lost to Illinois, twice.... So to save my pride I reapplied the deal. I said double or nothing. Purdue will do better than U of I in both the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA tournament. Well today, one of the two requirements are complete, and poor Illinois lost their leader to injury. Oh and Purdue beat U of I in the Big Ten Tournament and went ahead and won it for the championship. I'm sure I speak for a small 2-4% of the majority but I have Purdue winning it all in my bracket.

WRONG!

Everything is amazing, nobody is happy...

Louis C.K. was on Conan and has sort of a technology rant. It's pretty entertaining.

Alarm Clock changes time by itself

I was listening to the radio earlier today and I noticed something kind of weird. The host said the time and then I looked at my alarm clock and it was 20 minutes fast. I thought that maybe the radio was wrong, but my cell phone, laptop and watch all had the correct time.

Last night I did play with the alarm clock, I tried changing the radio stations and change the brightness from low to hi. I don't see how any of these things could have changed the time. Maybe my cat changed the time. She now likes to sit on my laptop keyboard.

Update: I checked the alarm clock later in the evening. The time on the alarm clock said 9:32pm. My cell phone said 9:20. I turned the brightness from high back to low and the alarm clock has kept the correct time. I shoudln't buy any more electronics from Meijer.

Paypal Part 4

Yesterday night, I went to check my credit card statement online. I noticed that the paypal verification charge had been posted. I copied the pin number that appeared with the transaction and verified my account. I was supposed to be able to withdraw money, but my account still had limited access.

This morning, I checked my email and my account was fully restored. So this whole process took 12 days. If I had a business account and had to pay bills, how was I supposed to wait 12 days to pay bills.

Paypal Part 3

This is my third blog entry about my PayPal account. After changing passwords and verifying all sorts of information, I assumed that within a few days the "limited access" would be lifted. After eight days I waiting, I finally got tired. I tried to call PayPal but got caught in IVR hell. So instead, I went online and found out that I need to enter a credit card number, which PayPal will charge $1.95. Once I see the charge on my credit card statement, I provide PayPal with the four digit number associated with that transaction. Paypal will then deposit the money back into my account. Then hopefully I will have full access to my PayPal account. This is a pain in the neck.

I know that protecting my identity is something that should be taken seriously. I understand that PayPal doesn't want someone using my account again. I just wished things were explained more clearly. I spent about 15 minutes just randomly clicking buttons.