Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

So, Joe Carnevale gets an idea in class, makes a barrel monster for pedestrian amusement, and gets charged with larceny by the witless cops.

The irony of course is that the barrel owning company does not want to press charges (in fact, the company’s president is amused), wants the monster back, and has asked Joe to make a T-rex barrel monster. And the cops refuse to drop the charges.

I’m quite sure that amusing pedestrians with barrels is a far more serious crime that warrants all this attention, given the fact that Raleigh’s crime rates for robbery, aggravated assault, violent crime, burglary, larceny, and property crimes are all higher than the national average. Then again, we are talking about cops here.

(And anyone else notice that 3 barrels cost $365? Screw bailouts, I’m going into the barrel business.)

Hey, you can call it dress-down Wednesday, but some of the big boys won’t give in. Cause they can punch you and stuff.

Bizarre exchange between an Adelaide man and his utility company.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Thankyou for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.

Regards, David.
From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David,
You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.

Regards, David.
From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane, Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.

Regards, David.
From: Jane Gilles
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95. Please make this payment as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Automated Out of Office Response

Thankyou for contacting me. I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.

Regards, David.
From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles
From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definately make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.
From: Jane Gilles
Date: Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached

Lately, everyone has been abuzz about the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer showdown.

I know lots of folks who know Cramer personally, and he’s supposed to a good, sharp guy, even if I do hate his show. On the other hand, I also like Jon Stewart and think he’s a funny, intelligent actor and that we need more of his kind out there.

But either way, I found the exchange between them to be rather sad and quite distasteful.

First of all, who does Jon think CNBC’s customers are? The regular joe or the guys on Wall Street? To answer that, look at who pays for most of the ads that are shown.  So, does it surprise people that CNBC targets Wall Street?

And secondly, while responsibility on CNBC’s part is certainly a laudable goal, let me play the devil’s advocate here for a minute.  Why should CNBC have any responsibility? At the end of the day, they are a TV channel. If SEC regulators and corrupt politicians did not foresee the economic problems of the day, we certainly cannot and should not expect a for-profit organization to. If anything, expecting them to do so is unfair and hypocritical.

Jon was being an ass to a guest who was doing a mea culpa. And worse yet, Jon didn’t care about Cramer. He just wanted to use him as a platform for for this entire thing.

Yes, it is wonderful to look back and blame people — but remember, at the end of the day, some of the smartest folks out there missed this coming. That’s the whole point of a bubble. But let me ask Jon this question. What about all those people who were said this was coming? Nassim Taleb, Warren Buffett, George Soros, Nouriel Roubini and a ton of others? Where was the daily show when these guys were talking about this? I did not see Taleb on the daily show in 2006. Oh wait, Jon was busy making fart noises and funny sounds.

But more importantly, Jon must realize one thing — if someone knew that this was all going to come down, it was more than likely that they were going to try and capitalize on this. You see, not everyone has jobs where they can get on prime time TV and make millions making fart noises. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

This happened earlier in the month, when the markets were sorta bullish.

Me: Bloody markets are up.
Friend: Yeah, don’t know why. Freaking annoying.

Of course, this was long before the current carnage.

This day, last year, people were predicting the DJIA to hit 20,000.

Now I think we’d be lucky if we did not go into the 6,000s.

Hurry!  Offers valid only until recession lasts (which will not be much longer, cause then the depression would set in).

(Pic courtesy Akshay)

Seriously, what’s up with all the sex in the news lately? Sex and Finance seems to be in the news a lot lately (and worse yet, it sounds like a really bad name of a b-school girl band).

First, there is a California girl offering her, umm, virginity for sale in an auction. Supposedly, the highest bidder of this “rare” commodity is 3.7 million dollars. Richard Branson should give her a job. Or maybe she’ll give him one.

And then of course, there are all these “impoverished” folks in LA who are letting film crews shoot in their houses because in their own words, they “…need money to maintain my lifestyle.”

In My Tub?

Jerry Mendoza says he’s willing to go to an extreme he wouldn’t have before the real estate slump.

…

His four-bedroom house in suburban Burbank, which Mendoza built in 2006, didn’t sell for the $1.3 million he asked, and when renters left in November he began leasing it for filming. The most he received for a day was $1,300, he said. So he posted an Internet notice that the property, which has an eight-person hot tub, was available to the adult-film industry, which he had heard pays as much as $5,000 a day.

A few months ago, “I probably would’ve said, ‘You want to do what in here?’”

Of course, I mean, why stop there? Might as well jump in if you see something you like. Besides, it’s a great chance to make more.

Well, okay, maybe not *everyone* gets it on during recessions. Think of this poor guy here…

“The Great Depression was a great period, and I’d like to see it redone in color.”

(Seen on Slashdot)

Great post on the Joel on Software discussion boards on software frameworks.

Makes me smile every time I think of a brand new one size fits all framework or “software factory” to handle all your enterprise needs.

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