bloviation extrordinaire
Ken posted to my site! Ken, that means you can do no wrong! Get posting to your OWN site, you madman!!! :> Gimme a buzz if you need help…
Ken Etterman writes “Mike, nice job keeping up you blog, I notice you’ve been very regular (with the blog I mean). I would like to jump start mine again, you as always motivate me in that direction. Hope you guys are well – lets get connected soon.”
I’ve been to Vegas once or twice. It’s fun to play, but I would never bet more than I expected to lose. You can see how people get addicted to it though – it’s easy to start fantasizing and lose track of reality. Case in point…
I thought I had perfected my gambling angle to the point where it couldn’t fail. The idea is to shift the long odds to shorter by decreasing the payout. Here’s the details, it’s pretty simple.
First, some basic Roulette. You can play red (or black) with a 2:1 payout. What this means is that if you bet $1 on red, and the little ball lands on a red number, you win $1. If it lands on black, you lose. All the numbers are either red or black, so it’s pretty good odds – the only down side is the 00 number – if that comes up, EVERYONE loses. OK, now for the angle.
If you lose, double your bet and play again. Keep doing this until you win. Once you win, if you do the math, you will see that you have won $1 since beginning the round of betting. You ALWAYS WIN $1!
OK, one bad assumption has ruined many a scheme, and the same is true here: you can’t double your bet indefinitely. Therefore, it’s just a matter of time until you lose several times in a row, doubling your bet each time, until you hit the betting limit and you’ve lost your shirt. Losing your shirt is typically seen as a BAD gambling strategy.
It’s still not too bad though, if you look at the numbers… UPDATE: yes it is… move on, nothing to see here…
OK, I’ll make this short and sweet… the big V was straightforward, I was told the anaesthesia needle would be “something I would remember”, but it was painless – the only lingering memory I have is of the noxious smell of my cauterized vas…
BYE BYE MY LOVELY SPERM! You served me well. Now don’t anyone ever accuse me of holding back on the details of my personal life. :P
Ken wants to set up a blog, I thought maybe I could run it for him. Look at the potential!!
etterman writes “Saddam was captured on December 13 by US Special Forces. The US Intelligence intercepted a cell phone call to the Tikrit Dominos on Tigris Blvd. Saddam ordered a plain chesse pizza (large) under his own name. U.S. forces converged on the crawl space in which Saddam was hiding, reportedly Saddam opended the door in response to a U.S. Military personnel yelling “Dominos”.”
Tried to use one of those fancypants Windows DVD players but it turns out I can’t play a freakin’ DVD if I haven’t happened to have manually disabled my video-out on my video card. How sad is that! DVD *PLAYERS* have to go to great lengths to make sure you aren’t doing something as simple and fundamental as sending a video stream to an output jack. That’s like your car having an automatic refrigerator scanner in it to make sure there isn’t beer in your fridge before you go off driving somewhere. It’s so sad that it’s come this far…
I didn’t even think the video in/out was working on my Gainward video card. Hooked up my video camera to my tv-in jack and got this. At least I had a little fun in the end…
I am trying to adopt a “No Whining” philosophy, especially at work, where there are plenty of opportunities. With that in mind, I need to purge before going into full no-whine mode. I spent the last two days as follows…
> This is a reminder to email your brother since your brain is not
> functioning! He wants the complete specs, price list, and photos of the
> PCs that you are constructing! Give him the vendor web sites and do it
> NOW!!! If this doesn’t get you to remember, then I will never speak to
> you again!
>
> Does that jog your memory? eh? ;-)
OK punk, here it is, read it and weep. BTW, all this comes from
W W W . P R I C E W A T C H . C O M
which is where all hardcore pc enthusiasts do their shopping.
Just be ready to put a stop on your credit card if ya get screwed by some random “entrepreneur” hoooohoooo!
Today’s prices, INCLUDING SHIPPING (tomorrow’s will be cheaper):
mobo $129 http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=334
cpu $108 http://www.tcwo.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=1390 (get the $20 heatsink/fan)
mem $ 66 http://www.edgemicro.com/go.asp?&ic=PC2100256
case $ 77 http://63.74.13.42/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=electroseller&Product_Code=3508-400w
(get two extra case fans)
vid $152 http://avlogic.com/product.cgi?code=11002239
hd $ 70 http://www.esystor.com/shop/IPS003.asp?ProCd=HASAM6003H&LClssCd=000&LClssNm=
———
$602 TO YOUR DOOR! All you need is a screwdriver. :>
UPDATE: Check the comments for a warning on the CPU component.
Michael writes “Get yerself a Jabber account! Jabber server available at jabber.flyingbuttmonkeys.com (so you don’t have to use jabber.org and get blocked by AOL!)
Gabber is a good Linux client.
WinJab and the “commercial client” at Jabber.com are good on Windows.”