I was reading this article, and one of the comments by a reader really leapt off the page.

Charlotte the Hambeast wrote:

Walt, I am one of those women who would never come to a guy’s house to cook dinner with him as a first date….maybe a third or fourth date, but I will not spend any time alone in a guy’s home with him until I know him a little bit. If there is another couple there for the dinner, that’s different, or the guy’s mom or kid, but no WAY would I put myself in such a potentially dangerous situation unless I already know the guy fairly well. This doesn’t mean I “want a free dinner.” Personally I am not a fan of eating out. I’d prefer something that doesn’t involve expense for the guy, or danger for myself. We could go skiing in the winter (unless that’s too dangerous for HIM), go horseback riding with friends, go to the rodeo, the fair, a crafts market, a flea market or go garage saling together just as a way to do something inexpensive that provides for conversation…..

If a man rejected me because I vetoed the idea of dinner alone in his apartment as a first date, he isn’t worth my time because he cannot see past the end of his nose and isn’t smart enough to grasp the real reason a woman would not want to do this. It has nothing to do with mooching a free meal. I make more than enough money to feed myself, as do the lion’s share of women, and we have no interest in mooching off a guy. If that’s his idea of “the only reason she won’t come to my home alone on the first date” then he isn’t very bright, is he?

Seriously lady? You don’t sound like someone I’d want to penetrate with my worst enemy’s member.

I think the answer is quite simple. They’re not afraid of being raped, they’re afraid of nobody wanting to rape them. Mid to late 30s, starting to get a bit fat, still single – best to act the part of the attractive young girl who is actually in danger of being raped.. best for the ego, anyway. It’s always the ancient whales who probably have to pay young Sri Lankan boys to mount them that are so morbidly “afraid” of rape, too. In fact, I don’t think I’ve met a single fun loving young attractive girl who has ever expressed fear of rape. Do the world a favour, the next time you see a woman who is prime past her time express fear about the sanctity of her virtue, please waste no time in vigorously dispelling such fears with utmost lack of subtlety.

Seriously, barring the fact that a comment such as “we’re the best in the world” is going to be looked down upon from basically anybody from another country, this song is just not good:

Oh well, at least it beats my country’s national anthem…

It’s finally happening… I just really really hope that it doesn’t suck.

A version was originally started and then was scrapped. It was picked up again by bethsoft, and has received a lot of good reviews and is highly anticipated by all Fallout fans. In case you don’t know, both Fallout and Fallout 2 are amazing games that are very engaging and entertaining, even now. Considering that they are pre y2k, that’s really something special. Not many games let you slay innocent children, use drugs, become a slave trader, frequent prostitutes / prostitute yourself, massacre farmers, become a porn star, work with Scientologists to launch a spaceship into space, … the list goes on.

It’s coming out very soon, so, if you haven’t played Fallout 1 or 2, I suggest at the very least that you download and play through Fallout 2, and then dive into Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 Press Release

Recently, a hedge fund manager who posted gains of something like 900% decided to call it quits; he left us with a most excellent farewell letter that I think is worth of mention:

Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are.

I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.

So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don’t worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer’s company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job.

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient.

With that I say good-bye and good luck.

All the best,

Andrew Lahde

Those of you that belong to my generation should appreciate the beauty in this:

This has been around for quite a while, but I think it’s worth posting for those of you who have yet to be enlightened. Any practising Pastafarian knows the truth about the connection between global warming and pirates. I highly suggest you post your support for this letter to the Kansas School Board.

The dev community never seems to disappoint when it comes to writing documentation – it’s almost as if simply writing down steps in point form is too much. From what I read in the install docs of the cURL site, it’s as if it implies that it’s necessary to compile the cURL files available for download before using cURL with PHP. The PHP site, for what it’s worth, is similarly vague regarding the details of what’s needed to be able to use cURL run on Windows. Of course, I use a Linux server, but my laptop dubs as my local dev box (as I’m sure it does for most of you as well).

So – for the hopeless Googler out there looking to setup cURL on windows, this is what’s needed to be done, in step-by-step, no-nonsense English:

1. First, I’m assuming that you’re running AppServ – a huge time saver in itself with regards to setup, it can be downloaded and installed in a very no-nonsense way:
   AppServ – Apache, PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin dev bundle
2. Once you’ve installed AppServ, you need to find the following dll files and copy them to your WINDOWS\system32 directory. (”AppServ” will be the directory in which you installed AppServ, such as D:\AppServ or D:\devstuff\ApprServ or whatever)
   • AppServ\php5\ext\php_curl.dll
   • AppServ\php5\libeay.dll
   • AppServ\php5\ssleay32.dll
3. Once you’ve done that, open up your php.ini file (if you’re using AppServ, do this by Start->Programs->AppServ->Configuration Server->”edit php ini config file”
4. Search for “curl” and remove the ; from the beginning of it (change the line ;extension=php_curl.dll to extension=php_curl.dll
5. Restart Apache (can be done in the AppServ start menu group as well)
6. Check a php page that calls phpinfo() and search for “curl” – it should show up – you’re ready to go!!!

I wrote this quick guide because I’m quite frankly appalled at the lack of straightforward advice there is with respect to enabling of cURL on Windows boxes. If this helped you out, feel free to leave a comment in thanks – that’s all I ask

Happy scraping

I am happy to announce that I did manage to cash in the Macau Poker Stars $100K guaranteed. Went out in fifth ATs < KQo (about 62 – 38).

I made a couple of amazing reads, and I’m basically happy with my performance, although obviously I wished that I could have went a bit further. I got my money in good every time, so I’m happy about that.

I did get some photos of me at the final table and afterwards, and I’ll post them up when I get them. Watch out world of poker, here I come!

This version is kinda meh, but still, excellent song (Tiesto Ft. Christian Burns):

Quite possibly some of the most chilling stuff that I’ve ever read. If you’re at all interested in holocaust related history, this is a must read, even though it’s lengthy. I’ve always had a morbid curiosity with respect to the holocaust.

Suchomel’s testimony regarding Treblinka:

Edit: I’ve since found video / audio of this interview on Youtube – it’s absolutely amazing to see. This is part 1 of 7 – if you click on the link in the window you can open up the actual youtube page and watch the rest.

There’s another one that’s also shocking, written by a Russian guard, read it here:

Leleko’s testimony regarding Treblinka