tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280097032012-01-29T16:49:16.807-05:00Techniques, How-To's, Fixes, Reviews, and News — focused on Software Development, Technology, Programming, 3D CAD, SQL Server, Nvidia CUDA, VMware, JavaScript, SVG, and more. Plus, stimulating discussion — economy, stock market, investing, finance, politics, environment, energy, and other far flung ideas for improving the world.Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.comBlogger2371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-8991067781404573632011-12-18T17:04:00.002-05:002011-12-18T17:04:40.534-05:00

Nvidia's CUDA technology has been around for 5 years now, and only 6 months ago blogged about Nvidia's CUDA technology when the CUDA Toolkit 4.0 was released.  Nvidia is keeping up the pace of innovation with a substantive upgrade to both Nvidia CUDA Toolkit (with version 4.1) and Parallel Nsight (now at version 2.1).   CUDA: What is it? CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-49143671223326863192011-12-14T13:52:00.000-05:002011-12-14T13:52:18.479-05:00

VariCAD 2012 CAD Software Sale ends December 28th, 2011 If you are in the market for an affordable 2D and 3D CAD software package for personal, hobby, or professional use, give VariCAD 2012 a look now while VariCAD corporate is offering a 20% off sale through December 28, 2012, and MV4T.com (the USA VariCAD reseller) discounts it by another nearly 20%!  That puts the current price at $525.00

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-24575390149692345302011-11-30T12:24:00.001-05:002011-11-30T13:53:39.125-05:00

Run Redis.io DB as Windows Service I recently started experimenting with Redis database (a NoSQL DB) as an alternative to SQL-Server for certain development requirements. "Redis is an open source, advanced key-value store. It is often referred to as a data structure server since keys can contain strings, hashes, lists, sets and sorted sets." Since I do most of my development under Microsoft

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-78465461344135548482011-11-29T12:56:00.001-05:002011-11-29T17:16:09.456-05:00

NPM (Node-Package-Manager) Package Install Errors:Misleading Error Messages I recently found myself encountering some nearly useless NPM errors when I was trying to install the redis-node package (i.e., Redis.io database connectivity layer for Nodejs), and it did not instantly occur to me why I was seeing error messages during NPM's archive-unpacking operation, especially as the

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-3969896131198982632011-10-25T12:52:00.002-04:002011-10-25T12:53:00.462-04:00

Green Technology : Energy-Savings Techniques Saving Money by Reducing Energy Consumption I was just reading the Computerworld top 12 green-IT organizations list for 2011, and after many pages of reading, it was clear that certain energy-savings strategies were quite common across the range of companies featured in the article. I am all for saving energy, as this not only reduces the

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-35783003782358275892011-10-18T18:18:00.000-04:002011-10-18T18:18:12.825-04:00

FireFox not firing SVG onload event (Windows) Shortcut handling to blame... I do a fair amount of work with SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) images / files that contain embedded JavaScript for various event-driven interactive-SVG components. The onload() event, within SVG files, is something I regularly use too. Today I ran into a strange "feature" or "bug" that shows up in Firefox but not in

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-4474097701190497742011-10-14T13:01:00.001-04:002012-01-12T00:16:11.344-05:00

Delphi XE2 : Reviewers / Users Not Pleased I am a long-term user of the Embarcadero Delphi (formerly Borland, Inprise, and Codegear branded Delphi) RAD (Rapid Application Development) IDE, programming language (which is object-pascal) and VCL (Visual Component Library).  Recently I wrote a blog about the Exciting New Features in Embarcadero Delphi XE2 and how much I was looking forward to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-79725976066121988022011-09-17T01:54:00.001-04:002011-09-17T01:54:39.954-04:00

All of us eagerly awaiting VMware Workstations 8.0 could probably have guessed that its official release date was quite near given recent discussions about related VMware server products, like the blog I did just a couple weeks ago about VMware ESXi 5.0 New Features and vSphere 5.0 New Features. There were hints of what to expect with the desktop applications aligned closely with the ESXi/

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-1602401641559409852011-08-30T15:36:00.003-04:002011-08-30T16:48:49.564-04:00

Embarcadero Delphi XE2 Review of New Features — VERY Interesting Features! I have been anxiously awaiting the official Embarcadero Delphi XE2 release now that this RAD (Rapid Application Development) IDE and Component-Set are poised to bring about some of the most exciting changes in Windows (and cross-platform!) application development seen in a long time. Yes, Embarcadero (formerly Borland,

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-2934653267231613382011-07-29T14:30:00.000-04:002011-07-29T14:30:26.867-04:00

Java 7 / JRE 7 (Java Runtime Environment 7) and Java Final Released Java 7.0 : A Five-Year Wait, Finally Released Seriously folks, it has been a whopping 5 years since work was started on the successor to Java 6. In that time, Sun Microsystems was purchased by Oracle Corporation, and so much has changed! Think about where the web was 5 years ago and where devices were: you didn't have

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-84893218740039507212011-07-20T23:24:00.000-04:002011-07-20T23:24:24.584-04:00

I recently posted a blog about the expected VMware ESXi 5.0 New Features, and since that posting just a couple months ago, VMware has released to the public the details of new features in VMware ESXi 5.0 and vSphere 5.0; so, this is a followup blog to cover the "official" new features in ESXi 5.x ... New Features in VMware ESXi 5.0 Before getting into the new features in vSphere 5 / ESXi 5, I

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-91672191752757193012011-07-19T12:02:00.000-04:002011-07-19T12:02:04.657-04:00

Windows 2008 / 2008r2 Server Enable Shutdown Option on Logon Screen Display the Shutdown / Restart Option on Login (Log On) Screen Since I tend to run a lot of software development virtual machines, I quite often want to start up, and shut-down, various instances of operating systems with as little additional effort (and wasted time) as possible. Windows 2008 (and 2008r2) is one of my

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-25839522362461009292011-07-15T16:12:00.000-04:002011-07-15T16:12:34.030-04:00

Enable Copy / Paste in ESXi 4.1 / vSphere 4.1 Guests - VMware Virtual Machines vSphere 4.1 Copy/Paste options : Change of Default Behavior This is one of those changes that was implemented "for security reasons", where an existing behavior and capability (with ESXi 4.0 / vSphere 4.0 and earlier) suddenly seems to no longer work for you: you simply want to Copy/Paste to and/or from your Guest

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-41540574644690979832011-07-14T13:47:00.000-04:002011-07-14T13:47:21.476-04:00

Delphi 2010: How to set Default Font for New Forms Delphi 2010: Great IDE, but a DefaultFont fix needed! I use Embarcadero Delphi 2010 (formerly Borland Delphi and/or CodeGear Delphi) for developing various Microsoft Windows®-based applications, and I generally love the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for this RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool and object-oriented-development

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-5258753951106553822011-06-07T17:09:00.000-04:002011-06-07T17:09:09.288-04:00

It has been not quite 6 months since I last blogged about Nvidia's CUDA technology when the CUDA Toolkit 3.2 was released.  Now it is time for a substantial upgrade to both Nvidia CUDA Toolkit (with version 4.0) and Parallel Nsight (now at version 2.0) — and Nvidia is positioning this upgrade as a way to garner "broader developer adoption", which hopefully it will. CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-18079297422316109702011-05-19T10:56:00.000-04:002011-05-19T10:56:44.244-04:00

I just ran into a situation where I needed to, for better lack of a term, "Crop" a Flash Movie using Adobe Flash Professional CS4 Professional.  I had an existing Flash animation at the top of my Houston Software Consulting company website that was 780-pixels wide by 205-pixes high — the width was fine, but I wanted to quickly perform some cropping on the Flash movie and remove a large portion of

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-59538740981587264802011-05-05T12:48:00.001-04:002011-05-06T00:45:29.094-04:00

Being an avid Microsoft SQL-Server developer, I love creating interesting algorithms for solving common business requirements — especially stored procedures and user-defined-functions that exploit the relational database strengths of set-based operations. I have published some of my free source code for SQL-Server (link) online for others to adapt and learn from hopefully. Set-Based SQL

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-89246519222299598952011-05-02T13:29:00.002-04:002011-07-20T23:29:25.307-04:00

I am a rather ardent fan of VMware (Public, NYSE:VMW) computing hardware virtualization products, especially VMware Workstation and VMware vSphere ESXi (a "bare iron" virtualization product). As a software developer, these tools give me the ability to maintain many simultaneous testing environments on any given desktop or server I employ for writing, testing, or deploying software — a huge time

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-73784608145692879162011-04-28T12:03:00.001-04:002011-05-06T00:59:24.442-04:00

If you are a JavaScript developer that is interested in writing multi-threaded applications with JavaScript, you may be looking into using Web Workers to accomplish this.  And, if you are using the Google Chrome browser for running and/or testing your web worker code, you may have run into what appears to be a problem with running web workers on your local machine. But, do not worry, there is a

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-67029162729370383202011-04-27T11:33:00.001-04:002011-05-06T09:42:00.225-04:00

If you are a CAD (computer-aided-design) hobbyist or professional, you will be pleased to know that VariCAD has just released another update to their very capable and affordable 2D (two dimensional) and 3D (three dimensional) CAD Software program.  I fall into the former group (hobbyist and self-declared "inventor"), and I really enjoy being able to create 3-dimensional models of my various "

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-49815952619019743062011-04-21T14:00:00.000-04:002011-04-21T14:00:20.137-04:00

Humans are hopelessly spiraling toward their own demise — thank politics for speeding the process!  For being the supposed smartest animals on the planet, we sure do everything in our power to prove our ability to ignore fact in favor of ideological beliefs and opinion.  Science and technological advancement is wonderful: as long is it does not surface data that challenges the merits of our

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-73294805818958261212011-03-10T13:28:00.001-05:002011-05-06T09:44:26.219-04:00

Why are these constant and increasing trade deficits "unexpected"?  I am so sick of reading that type of headline, when it is so obvious that we (as a country) are not doing anything to alter our behavior in a way that would actually bring about long-term trade-deficit reductions. The latest report I read on Bloomberg today was titled: "Trade Deficit in US Widened More Than Forecast in January"

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-74246271721025893842011-03-03T16:08:00.000-05:002011-03-03T16:08:23.813-05:00

For any of you that like to avoid sugar, you may know what Stevia is: a particular herb/shrub genus of which one species, Stevia rebaudiana, is grown for its sweet leaves that makes for a great sweetener and sugar substitute.  As a sweetener, it is as much as 300x sweeter than sugar and has a negligible effect on blood sugar (blood glucose).  And, the sweetness lasts longer (from my experience).

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-16598668810235300052011-01-24T18:37:00.002-05:002011-05-06T09:45:18.617-04:00

I wanted to evaluate the latest SquirrelSQL client on a Windows 7 64-bit desktop, so I downloaded the latest 3.2.1 version from the Squirrel-SQL SourceForge web site, and attempted to install the JAR file. Once I had the squirrel-sql-3.2.1-install.jar, I simply tried to execute it in order to install Squirrel-SQL, but I quickly encountered some errors and issues preventing me from installing it.

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-67105491038251200142011-01-21T13:18:00.001-05:002011-05-06T09:46:06.049-04:00

I was just installing SQL-Server 2008R2 Management Studio (SSMS) Client Tools and SQLNCLI 10.5 on a Windows-7 Professional x64 (64-bit) machine when I ran into a very uninformative, or clearly misleading, error message during the install procedure that stated (something close to this): Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Setup: The following error has occurred: A network error occurred while attempting to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-23525887161728513412010-12-21T11:44:00.002-05:002011-05-06T10:02:39.507-04:00

The latest Nvidia "Fermi" GPUs (Graphical Processing Units) are available in a wide range of powerful new Nvidia Graphics Cards. If you have been waiting for a good reason to upgrade your graphics card, Nvidia has certainly provided some great reasons to upgrade: these new CUDA-capable Nvidia cards are just amazing! For over a year, I was patiently waiting for the new Fermi architecture to hit

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-19060046919077853512010-12-20T00:13:00.001-05:002011-05-06T10:12:47.756-04:00

I was just researching the cost of taking a Microsoft Certification course for SQL-Server database development, and I was poking around the Prometric web site when I stumbled upon the fact that there are price-differences between what technology professionals in the USA must pay for the exact same Microsoft certification test that a resident of India or China can take (note: they get it for much

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-71048489254259536672010-12-16T10:40:00.001-05:002011-05-06T10:20:04.262-04:00

If you find the current economic situation in America disheartening, and you want to understand "why" things are the way the are with regards to high unemployment and the massive disparity in wealth between the upper few and the rest, do not listen to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke: he is out of touch with reality! He may be a very smart guy, but he seems to be missing some blatant truths

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-28080271504155931982010-11-30T11:49:00.004-05:002011-05-06T10:26:56.086-04:00

I began today reading the various news headlines, and I soon encountered an article in particular that made me think: YOU MUST BE JOKING! Essentially, courts are ruling that, in some cases, STEALING SOCIAL-SECURITY NUMBERS is "OK".  What the @#??! Here is an excerpt from the article that you may find very enlightening: "Is using a forged Social Security Number -- but your own name -- to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-8886644599889615062010-09-29T10:16:00.005-04:002011-05-06T10:38:33.851-04:00

I totally recommend VMware(Public, NYSE:VMW) ESXi 4.1, which is VMware's latest free bare-metal hypervisor for server-based virtualization and virtual-machine infrastructure. VMware has a wonderful series of products in their vSphere suite and other virtualization products to complement this also. Now, if you are like me and need to perform an upgrade from ESXi 4.0 to ESXi 4.1 on an existing

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-43662292865702446622010-09-10T14:36:00.001-04:002011-05-06T10:39:48.330-04:00

I do not know if you are aware of the Florida pastor's plan to perform a mass Koran / Quran burning on 9/11/2010, but you probably are thanks the the MEDIA giving this guy so much attention.  Muslim anti-Americanism and the threat of "retaliation" (and, of course, not in a one-for-one burning of Christian Bibles, but more likely bloodshed) became so bad, thanks to the media, that even President

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-51071107007746225572010-09-07T15:48:00.000-04:002010-09-07T15:48:45.753-04:00

I found this awesome product, or so I thought, at CostCo last year... a 10 or 12-pack of FEIT Electric (brand) LED Night Lights that were going to save me all sorts of money based on the reduced power consumption they promised. Well, sure, they may not use much power, but: THEY DO NOT LAST, and more than half of those purchased are dead after 1yr! So much for the stated "30,000 hour lifespan"

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-65430255265177507602010-08-24T17:12:00.001-04:002011-05-06T10:42:56.400-04:00

Boehner, wake up! Rep. John Boehner (the current House Republican leader) is back on the road today (in Cleveland, Ohio) making the typical Republican case for extending the Bush-era tax cuts. I am no fan of taxes, but GIVE ME A BREAK: IF THESE BUSH-ERA TAX CUTS WORKED / WORK, WHY ARE THEY NOT WORKING NOW - THEY ARE STILL IN EFFECT!! That seems to be the one question that Republicans want to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-49466576027480878122010-08-13T17:13:00.000-04:002010-08-13T17:13:03.400-04:00

The latest Nvidia "Fermi" GPUs (Graphical Processing Units) are making their way to the stores now by way of the latest Nvidia Graphics Cards that are definitely worth a look if it has been over a year since you upgraded your graphics card - the processing power per watt now is just unbelievable!  And, the latest Nvidia CUDA Toolkit 3.1 release has some features specific to the new Fermi cards

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-53820578918202994312010-07-09T09:56:00.006-04:002010-07-09T10:40:06.348-04:00

Just in case you thought the Gulf of Mexico was a pristine body of water prior to the BP Oil Leak incident, think again. I find the response to the oil-spill in the Gulf , by the public at large, both predictable and amazing in a way... they mostly exhort passionate outcries and admonishments focused around how evil BP is and how terrible the oil spill is because it is poisoning the water in the

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-21330172828983657782010-06-28T10:22:00.004-04:002010-06-28T11:10:35.385-04:00

So, you think the oil-spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is bad? Why? Is it terrible that petrochemicals are poisoning our water? Is it terrible because it is ruining our beautiful beaches? Of course! So, why is it "OK" to destroy our water and land on a mass scale throughout the United States, through a process known as "fracking" or "fracing"... a process which is poisoning water

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-6811338564252744352010-06-23T10:52:00.003-04:002010-06-23T11:26:47.839-04:00

Perhaps it is no surprise: the world's wealthiest individuals were easily able to grow their net worth and expand in numbers while the vast majority of people were simply hoping not to lose their job, home, and standard of living. I just finished reading a BusinessWeek article about how the number of Millionaires in the World rose sharply during 2009 : a period when many others were not faring

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-31530691662933834282010-06-09T15:48:00.004-04:002010-06-09T16:43:29.547-04:00

With British Petroleum (BP) stock share-price (ADR : NYSE:BP) at a 14-year low, and a market-capitalization that has fallen to roughly 90-billion dollars (USD) at this current price, perhaps it is nearly time that BP considers taking the company private in the not so distant future! We have all by now heard on the news what BP's pre-Gulf crisis financial condition and operating results were...

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-25342012860943104182010-05-25T11:13:00.005-04:002010-05-25T11:54:24.163-04:00

I am completely annoyed with the anti-BP rhetoric surrounding the Gulf disaster that is unfolding: it is yet another case of redirection and avoidance of discussing a difficult truth. How can ANY OF US complain about what happens in the Gulf when WE ALL create the *demand* that drives further oil production and the risks associated with it?Are we all going to give up driving in order to mount a

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-27654880483399194652010-05-21T10:35:00.013-04:002010-05-21T13:39:10.687-04:00

The entire world population needed a wake-up call! Liberals, Conservatives, "tree-huggers", the "drill baby drill" crowd, and others alike: everyone that uses energy needs to feel some personal "ownership" in the Gulf-Coast oil spill disaster that puts British Petroleum (BP) on center stage in the ongoing story of human consumption and the resulting waste we produce. BP, Haliburton, Transocean

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-52500106505005131642010-04-21T22:31:00.003-04:002010-04-21T22:57:08.785-04:00

I just finished watching the American Idol Gives Back event tonight.And, to be blunt: the Blacked Eyed Peas are simply terrible. The lyrics are horrendously simple and lame; the singing not much better. They must write these "songs" while going to the restroom - the setting, and length of time to write a song, would be appropriate. I have seen them on a few shows recently, and their appearance

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-62693574362586639992010-04-18T21:17:00.003-04:002010-04-18T22:34:16.381-04:00

I just finished watching tonight's Dateline special that presented a rather in-depth look at the problems (understatement) facing Detroit, MI. As I sat watching in utter amazement, or more accurately - in near horror, at how far the city has decayed, I could not help but think about how Detroit's fortunes may well foreshadow the fortunes of many other industry-cities throughout the United States

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-79136852724004791252009-12-03T07:56:00.004-05:002009-12-03T08:24:08.929-05:00

If you are in the market for an affordable 2D and 3D CAD software package for personal, hobby, or professional use, give VariCAD 2010 a look now while VariCAD corporate is offering a 20% off sale through December 20, 2009. This software, even though super-affordable (especially compared to the "big name" 3D CAD packages like AutoCad and SolidWorks), is incredibly robust and still simple enough

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-20224666353269089672009-11-01T22:04:00.005-05:002011-05-06T10:46:00.334-04:00

Have you found yourself facing an Adobe Distiller (Adobe Acrobat Pro) error message something like this recently, when trying to print / output to a PDF file from a non-Adobe application on Windows? "Unable to find Adobe PDF resource files" that mentions the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Settings" and the supposed missing file "Adobe PDF Converter.joboptions"?

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-72897530469357636702009-10-29T08:47:00.007-04:002009-10-29T10:45:27.134-04:00

I have been a long time VMware Workstation user enjoying all the benefits of virtualization to ease my computing requirements on the desktop. I regularly have multiple virtual-machines open running nicely isolated applications for tasks related to software development, database design, office productivity applications, 2D and 3D CAD systems, and sandboxed-web-surfing.My VMs (virtual machines)

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-10707335802679876512009-07-28T14:16:00.003-04:002009-07-28T14:30:54.101-04:00

I have been anxiously awaiting news like today's, as I have my own house for sale currently, and want to see signs of housing price stabilization as well as affordable mortgages (i.e., low interest rate home loans and mortgages) to help someone acquire my home more easily too.CNN had this to relevant and exciting news release just a bit ago:NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The value of U.S. homes grew

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-33393590311170974852009-06-09T11:15:00.004-04:002009-06-09T11:34:39.709-04:00

Forget Tax Incentives...It should be rather clear by now that the average United States consumer has little concern for vehicle mileage when purchasing a car; at least, that is, until the price of gasoline is absolutely oppressive. And, tax incentives for hybrid vehicles and the like make little difference too. Doing what is "right" for the environment just does not seem to matter either.So,

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-22104573200984990172009-04-10T23:45:00.005-04:002009-04-11T00:04:50.212-04:00

In case you happen to be an enthusiast of Microsoft's newest SQL-Server Database software - SQL Server 2008 - you may be interested in knowing the latest Service Pack 1 for SQL2008 is now available. What you may not care to know is how small the list of new features is with this SP1 package -- it is mainly a cumulative bug-fix release.Microsoft sums up the new features with three bullet points,

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-69695973259391468052009-04-06T23:24:00.005-04:002009-04-06T23:43:32.005-04:00

With mortgage interest rates being at super-low, rock-bottom, and certainly historically low levels, I have recently been thinking about how these rates really filter down to the consumer. I see home equity loan interest rates advertised as low as under 4 percent, though I am having a hard time determining if those are fixed-rate home equity loans (since they are quoted as Prime plus 3.25% or so

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-39771333121760987082009-03-25T11:19:00.003-04:002009-03-25T11:53:53.451-04:00

Did you see the 10 Trillion and Counting episode of PBS's Frontline last night (March 24, 2009 episode) that discusses the ENORMOUS NATIONAL DEBT and DEFICIT SPENDING AS AMASSED UNDER PRESIDENT BUSH (Jr.). OH MY GOD!Watching this episode about the explosion of the Debt under GW, and the constant tax-cuts, entitlement program expansion (to garner votes) like Medicare-partD, and ignoring all

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-63911363164847933152009-03-11T10:52:00.005-04:002009-03-11T11:09:17.833-04:00

Does this image say it all? Since I develop various software applications that, among other things, create reports in Adobe's Acrobat / PDF format, I tend to keep quite a few versions of Acrobat reader around for testing my program output with. And, I just could not help laughing when I looked at my file-server's Acrobat Reader executable programs directory, where, since 1997, I have

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-75794217575906743322009-03-10T13:15:00.005-04:002009-03-10T14:01:23.406-04:00

I am of the opinion that, although mark-to-market (M2M) valuation principles make sense in some accounting situations where asset and financial-instrument market prices are readily obtained (on open exchanges - like commodity exchanges, ForEx, etc), this M2M accounting methodology does not make much sense for assets like homes and property, where the prices of those assets at any given time is

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-43759168519283558872009-03-02T23:04:00.004-05:002009-03-02T23:19:01.946-05:00

Even a minimally-educated investor knows that, unless you expect an asset to only decline in value more, you do not sell it. As such, the government really needs to consider slowing down this push to sell of AIG "Assets". If they ARE truly assets, and not some sinking ship of a mess, then it is time this government does what Bernanke has said -- use the fact that the government CAN be in it for

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-55658598285927451062009-02-14T15:19:00.004-05:002009-02-14T16:51:16.890-05:00

I ran into a rather weird Windows Installer error while installing the latest Java Developement Kit (JDK or Java SE Development Kit) version 6 Update 12 (otherwise known as JDK6u12). I was installing Java 6u12 dev kit into a Windows 2003 Server VM (Virtual Machine - VMware) and kept running into this whacky Windows Installer Error 2203 (followed by some other installer internal error code

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-60528824178579666602009-02-03T16:46:00.003-05:002009-02-03T17:04:27.648-05:00

A CNN Money article today about how Citigroup (NYSE:C) has supposedly put their TARP funds to use got my attention for a variety of reasons. The most ridiculous item in their list of disbursements of these TARP monies was the one about how, out of $45 Billion they recently received from the government, they put $10 Billion towards purchasing "mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-6741586174740373732009-01-28T16:26:00.007-05:002009-01-28T17:31:31.436-05:00

I just finished looking over the latest KDE42 (K Desktop Environment version 4.2.0 for Linux), and I was so impressed I just found myself repeatedly thinking: this latest FREE KDE42 desktop for Linux looks spectacular, and even more, it is extremely functional (yes, useful outweighs looks - are you listening Microsoft?) Over and over, feature after feature, I kept saying to myself "WOW!"I am

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-72679666456658128882009-01-24T12:23:00.004-05:002009-01-24T12:50:53.966-05:00

I am all for purchasing American-made, USA-manufactured goods and services where possible. But, I am sick of hearing UAW members and representatives, automobile dealers, and others going on about purchasing "American made" cars and vehicles. Why? Because of the underlying hypocrisy everywhere surrounding such statements.Case and Point: I have attended an event, sponsored by General Motors

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-34825685558090546612009-01-21T10:37:00.005-05:002009-01-21T11:28:41.435-05:00

Even after all the current financial market and investment related issues that have swept the market, I keep encountering advertising and marketing propaganda from investing, insurance, banks, and related financial companies that are nothing short of misleading - if not plainly incorrect or impossible.Allstate (Allstate Insurance Company - NYSE:ALL)The first example of misleading advertising I

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-72644850906030023582009-01-06T13:54:00.004-05:002009-01-06T14:28:02.448-05:00

I just purchased a new MS Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 for my desktop computer. I used it for a couple weeks on the initial charge, and everything was fine and working wonderfully, but then it was due for a recharging and it just would not charge, and instead presented me with a blinking red LED while on the charging base after just a minute of green-LED status preceding that.I was all ready to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-12593003452045597682008-12-16T13:23:00.007-05:002008-12-16T14:20:18.130-05:00

Here are some recent observations about the state of the economy, from the viewpoint of a small business owner (I have a few diverse small businesses) that has also been discussing business and sales trends with other small and medium business owners throughout the greater Cleveland, Ohio and Northeast Ohio region. The observations surely do not leave much room for optimism about the economy at

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-64414028026779347422008-12-10T10:38:00.007-05:002008-12-10T12:50:45.670-05:00

For a long time I have been fascinated by modern 3-dimensional modeling capabilities that 3D CAD Software makes possible, but at the same time I have been frustrated by the cost of such software.I have had dreams of using CAD software to help me take the ideas I see in my mind, and put them into a visual model to share with others. I am always trying to invent some new product, design some

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-21710267703770027742008-12-05T11:36:00.005-05:002008-12-05T12:29:22.610-05:00

Since I own a few small businesses, I receive a boat load of small business credit card applications. The mailers always say the same thing in GIANT BOLD PRINT: get your "BUSINESS CREDIT CARD". Yeah, sure... "business" credit card, so long as you sign with a personal guarantee.As I sit here watching the unraveling of the American debt-laden financial system in this current economic crisis, I can

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-11360769840877521032008-11-18T12:11:00.004-05:002008-11-18T12:41:05.279-05:00

With the current economic meltdown tracing its roots back to the housing bubble and subsequent bursting of that bubble, I could not help wondering why we have not heard much (if anything) in the news or in Congressional testimony and the like about Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), and its (supposed) role (or absence) in minimizing the impact of mortgage defaults . If you purchased a home at some

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-48128622266642114202008-11-14T10:01:00.008-05:002008-11-14T10:40:00.095-05:00

I had a very timely experience with what I call "sales plan insanity" at J.C. Penny recently, where JC Penny was essentially giving inventory away for nearly nothing (almost FREE). And, when I first encountered this sales strategy first hand, I knew for certain that JCPenny's earnings were going to suffer dramatically.But, I guess the "analysts" that cover J.C. Penny Stock (NYSE:JCP), do not

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-62965460134181183892008-11-07T09:16:00.009-05:002008-11-07T10:36:11.434-05:00

I just have to compare and contrast the operating results reported by two companies today (Nvidia and Ford Motors), and especially discuss a fundamental difference between these two companies' management philosophies and ability to adapt to changing markets. That difference is a large one, and an obvious one: market agility and anticipating the future - Nvidia does this well, Ford does not.Both

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-60417499840334980382008-11-04T00:09:00.003-05:002008-11-04T00:21:44.092-05:00

Here I am in a Cleveland, OH suburb, and it is midnight, the night before the election and voting for the 2008 Presidential Campaign...I had my front window open until 11pm, and my Barack Obama yard signs were still in position. Now, they are BOTH gone, and my neighbor's signs are gone too. Some S.O.B. stole ALL the Barack Obama / Joe Biden signs for as far as I could see on our street!Of

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-68912090497502908692008-10-23T22:17:00.009-04:002008-10-23T23:40:00.418-04:00

What better way to find buyers for massive amounts of government debt than to scare people into buying that debt?Do not fall for it people! Stocks would be plenty safe if the government quit talking all gloom and doom. That talk is self-serving for the government (at this very moment), and this is why...The United States government needs a way to quickly raise enormous amounts of cash, and to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-88814871519006958072008-10-16T14:29:00.006-04:002008-10-16T15:13:18.628-04:00

I am not picking on "Joe the Plumber", though I need to start with this very current and in-your-face example that both candidates used in yesterday's presidential debate (quote from Fox news article link above):Joe Wurzelbacher, 34, told Obama that he was preparing to buy the plumbing company he works for, and that its revenues come to more than $250,000 a year.Does everyone realize how

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-21890284746168883092008-10-10T09:05:00.004-04:002008-10-10T09:30:41.870-04:00

I predicted from early on, that if I were to put out yard signs promoting Barack Obama in an Ohio town that is predominantly white, middle-upper class, and generally Republican, that those same Republicans that constantly tout their "values" and "religious convictions" and such, would be the first to act in a fashion that is anything but what is preached in the Bible or in anyway reflect the same

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-63683217391002396982008-10-08T09:58:00.012-04:002011-05-06T10:56:00.276-04:00

I just purchased an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) X-25M 80GB SATA SSD (Solid State Drive) from Buy.com (search for:X25M80GB) for $638.00 (a splurge, but I really wanted to speed up my primary software development desktop system!) I am pleased to report that, even with this "investment" coming at a rather steep price compared to traditional SATA hard-drives, I think it is worth it because of the massive

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-15877217047443250492008-09-25T23:11:00.006-04:002008-09-26T09:32:40.408-04:00

I just read the transcripts of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric (CBS News), and I just can not help thinking: "Please God, do not let this person become Vice President (or President!)"---UPDATE: The LA Times posted a nice extract of Sarah Palin's interview showing just exactly how absolutely scary-ignorant Palin is, and appropriately titled the piece: Palin talks to Couric -- and if

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-80120218355813822902008-09-24T21:39:00.005-04:002008-09-24T21:57:07.610-04:00

It is amazing how quickly market-reaction can be tracked with modern information flow and technology. In this case, I was watching how the foreign exchange currency rates (FOREX) markets responded to President Bush giving a speech about his (administration's) proposed $700 Billion bailout program for Wall Street.I took a screen-shot of live mid-market currency-exchange rates both immediately

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-13011416577886595732008-09-24T21:18:00.002-04:002008-09-24T21:28:57.651-04:00

This financial and investing blog entry is directed at Mr. Paulson, The Treasury, The Federal Reserve, Congress, The White House, and Wall Street in general.My Challenge to Wall Street and Executive ManagementI hereby challenge Wall Street executives to meet or exceed my personal commitment to fixing the financial system problems in this country, and doing so with the same promise I make to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-72915034384584387672008-09-23T19:11:00.009-04:002008-09-23T20:30:16.625-04:00

FIXING AMERICA'S ECONOMY for the LONG-TERM!(common-sense math to start things off)I can't believe the staggering figure this current government bailout push entails. We are hearing $700 Billion for the latest bailout add-on, and this comes on top of other 10's of Billions. So, let me just round this all to an even TRILLION DOLLARS and start trying to help the average person (and perhaps our

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-83030539036550247752008-09-19T19:07:00.008-04:002008-09-20T00:35:51.142-04:00

The United States Government this week made it quite clear that it applies its own demonstrated methods for lack of financial discipline and fiscal responsibility to EVERYONE in America that follows their lead. The government can not live within its means, and makes insane decisions with their money, and now they reward everyone else that abides by their policies of spending more than they have,

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-76105550075226429502008-09-17T20:18:00.005-04:002008-09-17T20:49:28.726-04:00

I hardly know where to start any discussion about GM and all the issues they suffer from, but perhaps first and foremost is they they NEVER LEARN when it comes to showing really hot looking "concept cars" and "prototypes" that, upon production run, turn into generic, boring, basic, (and occasionally hideous) typical GM junk.Case in point: years ago (1994) I went to the Greater Cleveland Auto Show

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-22361328291972232732008-09-15T17:09:00.006-04:002008-09-16T14:23:05.017-04:00

I personally suggest that a Federal Reserve Interest Rate Cut is imminent, if not nearly immediate. After today's 500+ point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, and the pressure that various financial firms' stocks are under, I nearly guarantee the Federal Reserve (aka, "The Fed") will act quickly. It's their game plan, or at least it has been, every time some major swings and

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-25799994668624217272008-09-13T16:06:00.003-04:002008-09-13T16:33:31.586-04:00

This has to end!From a CNN headline yesterday about "Interior Department sloppiness costing US [taxpayers] Billions", that coincides with the latest sex and drugs scandal there:Royalties from the energy industry are an important source of revenue for the U.S. government. But regulatory mismanagement means much goes uncollected, a GAO report finds. "Uncollected" is a nice way of saying: SOMEONE IS

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-44687768305883695572008-09-06T22:31:00.004-04:002008-09-08T14:48:46.741-04:00

For years I have been awaiting the release of SSDs (Solid State Disks, aka Solid State Drives, aka RAM disks) that were affordable, offered great performance, require nearly zero power consumption to operate, and come from a "mainstream" technology company in a standard interface (SATA).Well, you can't get more mainstream than Intel, and Intel has just recently announced / released their first

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-88172592134237037002008-09-05T09:19:00.003-04:002008-09-05T09:57:56.834-04:00

Reuters just reported the August 2008 Unemployment Rate, and I couldn't help thinking that ECONOMISTS ARE IDIOTS as a whole! If you want more background on why I think so, see my prior blog posting on the Inflation rate, and how "I told you so". Per Reuters today: The US unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.1 percent in August, its highest in more than 4-1/2 years, as employers cut

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-75290838845061756522008-08-21T11:24:00.000-04:002008-08-21T11:24:00.710-04:00

I have been telling people for quite some time that inflation is out of control, and for various reasons.  First and foremost, I blame our government's inability to control spending, and the subsequent issuance of massive amounts of debt.  In a Bloomberg news article about current inflation a couple days ago, I just received further proof that most "ECONOMISTS" ARE IDIOTS (or, they are saying

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-16030753674925147852008-08-17T21:41:00.004-04:002008-08-17T22:51:21.786-04:00

It is no surprise that even national television shows like Bill Moyer's journal and others have featured segments on the State of Ohio's Payday Loan businesses recently. These overnight lending or short-term lending facilities have been charging rather absurd interest rates to anyone willing to subject themselves to what may best be termed "credit for the desperate", but is sold as a short-term

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-5688117167016332052008-08-07T14:07:00.003-04:002008-08-07T15:04:51.028-04:00

It is about time! I have been anxiously awaiting the much overdue and delayed release of Microsoft SQL-Server 2008. Microsoft just released SQL-Server 2008 to manufacturing, and if you are lucky enough to have a MSDN / Technet subscription, the SQL-Server 2008 download files are supposed to be available now.For those that have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on a copy of SQL-Server

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-655109392676372512008-08-06T10:31:00.008-04:002008-08-07T14:06:36.607-04:00

I am always one to keep up on the "up and coming" and/or "cutting edge" in computer hardware and software developments, and one of the technologies I have been following is that of the DisplayPort interface standard - the presumed successor, or at least complement too, HDMI video interface technology.DisplayPort is the most recent major display-interface / graphics-interface technology to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-30317208150457318612008-08-04T10:43:00.004-04:002008-08-06T14:13:06.757-04:00

It does not take an economist to tell you that handing out a pile of "free money" in the form of deficit-spending stimulus checks is a highly inflationary maneuver. In a prior blog posting on this topic I wrote on June 10th, telling our politicians and political candidates (John McCain and Barack Obama) how these stimulus checks will lead to mass inflation, all the while they are talking more

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-6975580764838647522008-07-31T13:18:00.000-04:002008-07-31T13:18:01.101-04:00

Above is a picture of the new HP TouchSmart IQ506 touchscreen / touch-enabled PC. Calling it a Personal Computer may be a bit of an understatement though, since this nifty gadget has a lot more to offer than most "normal" desktop personal computers. First and foremost in the innovative feature set (and the thing that attracts me most to this machine) is the awesome 22" 1650x1050 resolution

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-78236703997645968692008-07-30T09:55:00.003-04:002008-07-30T10:03:35.157-04:00

IT WAS SO OBVIOUS that once started, the Federal Reserve could not stop it. I contend that this is the ONLY way these (borrowing) firms are staying afloat. And, when the Fed first started this "short term" program a few months back, I told everyone that it was setting a precedent for continued access to cheap and easy money that could not easily (or perhaps EVER) be retracted.Here's and excerpt

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-67533441875780392482008-07-29T21:29:00.004-04:002008-07-29T22:31:52.428-04:00

If you have not seen the new Dell Studio Hybrid PC Computer yet, perhaps that picture says it all. It's so cool! Heck, I am almost sold just on the design and color options (interchangeable nonetheless!) alone, as it definitely stands out.I liked how this picture gave a better feel for proportion - allowing you to see how it compares to the size of a standard DVD or CDROM. Size and weight

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-36859053083337768522008-07-29T12:17:00.002-04:002008-07-29T12:41:25.548-04:00

Something I have not heard talked about much during this latest round of negative news in the investment banking, banking, and mortgage related financial businesses is how mergers have concentrated points of failure throughout our financial system. Mergers have been all the rage in the past couple decades, with the big companies getting bigger and bigger through rampant acquisition activity.

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-1295459353669706382008-07-11T10:09:00.004-04:002008-07-11T10:48:26.919-04:00

In case any of you readers think that these TV advertisements about further drilling (for oil) here in the USA will do anything to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, or otherwise reduce the price of gasoline, it is time you wake up to reality. Fact is, even though certain politicians (and a nice big pile of special-interest groups - i.e., big oil companies) talk about meeting America's

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-27699563925787292192008-06-20T08:33:00.004-04:002008-06-20T22:32:45.717-04:00

I just started using the new Mozilla Firefox 3 Internet / Web Browser yesterday, and I have already reached the conclusion that this version is simply fantastic, and oh my God is it FAST!Speed, Speed, Speed...The page rendering for most of the sites I commonly browse - both on the Internet and on my local Intranet / LAN network - is easily twice as fast if not faster. I have experienced

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-82144574887590701322008-06-10T12:25:00.004-04:002008-06-10T12:47:19.457-04:00

I am of the belief that ALL politicians in the United States will ignore common sense economic principles in order to gain attention, and Barack Obama (whom I currently prefer over John McCain) is making the same mistakes (or intentional stupid statements) about how to fix the United States economy. In particular, he's calling for yet another round of economic stimulus checks (aka, rebate checks

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-18439417059542733012008-06-10T12:07:00.003-04:002008-06-10T12:18:47.728-04:00

IBM is always at the cutting-edge of SuperComputer development, and things are no different today with the release of news about their new Roadrunner super-computer that is to be delivered to the US Nuclear Security Administration. This thing has absolutely insane levels of computing power, turning in over a Petaflop of computing ability (that is one quadrillion, or 1000 Trillion, operations per

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-44371203889086905132008-06-04T08:33:00.003-04:002008-06-04T08:58:02.098-04:00

I have considered MySQL a database option (of sorts) for low-priced web-hosting solutions where I need a simple rudimentary database available to data-driven dynamic web pages (typically from PHP pages). But, every time I start thinking about using it for more significant applications - especially anything to be considered "mission critical" business applications - I am constantly reminded of

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-26151177961598672082008-06-02T21:36:00.000-04:002008-06-03T07:59:23.567-04:00

One of the primary problems, or challenges, that Linux faces is being able to clearly communicate the state of the Linux Operating System (especially the core, or "kernel") software development to those who would like to know what is going on. I am one of those interested in keeping track of the progress that Linux makes (mainly against Microsoft Windows or Apple OSX features), since Linux is a

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-70031405673481758542008-05-02T14:52:00.003-04:002008-05-02T15:33:44.731-04:00

Finally, the Swiss-Cheese and House of Cards known as our "Economy" is starting to emerge from the shadows, though ever so slowly and quite reluctantly, as the Federal Reserve takes drastic measures to maintain the secret: our "economy" is crap! It's smoke and mirrors! It's vapor! It's garbage!We live in a country where the majority of "growth" in our GDP is driven by military spending, other

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-60449304670302425142008-04-30T09:53:00.005-04:002008-04-30T10:22:00.997-04:00

My blog-article title today is a forward looking best-case scenario outcome of what is possible if the United States would simply balance its current trade deficit. Stick with me for a minute as I run the (very basic) math that extrapolates a result from today's headline on GDP growth for the first quarter of 2008.I was just reading on Bloomberg.com how, even though it feels much like the United

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-51168423027033026082008-04-16T23:49:00.003-04:002008-04-17T00:08:38.221-04:00

Ted Turner (of CNN-founding fame, and mega-millionaire status), recently made some rather interesting comments on PBS about how extreme the global situation could become if global warming continues unchecked. One of the dire warnings he put forth for consideration was the prospect of how people, when pushed to the limits with lack of available food, may resort to cannibalism. Here's some of the

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-55789554236539514012008-04-08T23:16:00.003-04:002008-04-08T23:30:38.271-04:00

I hope you are planting a garden this year! If not, don't be surprised if you go broke trying to obtain food.Ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations this week confronted the issue of extreme food inflation worldwide (and shortages too). Here's a recap from the meeting:Earlier this month, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called for a new co-ordinated global response to

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28009703.post-56895916361619156722008-04-07T22:09:00.002-04:002008-04-07T22:21:43.087-04:00

I just couldn't help posting about this study that goes completely against the old "no pain, no gain" rule of weightlifting and muscle building.Check this out:Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting, in a

Mike Eberharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16410014970702142362noreply@blogger.com1