It’s been a while since I last posted anything, but lately I’ve been hearing that the sky is falling. Most notably by the corporation for whom I work declining COLA (cost of living allowance) raises, promotions, etc. despite reporting record profits. So I did a little digging.

The recession started at the beginning of Q4 2008 and ended at the beginning of Q3 2009. The GDP declined a total of 16.97% during that period; but here’s the good news, since then, the GDP has rebounded to being only 5.91% below where it started out. Meaning that the economy has recovered 88.25% of what it lost. While that’s good, it’s not great ’cause during the same length of time the economy has not fully recovered. But here’s the good news. Things are looking up! Woohoo!

There’s only one thing I hate more than being wrong…and that’s admitting being wrong.

A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) findings, confirming what all the doomsayers have been saying for the past nine months. The 4th Quarter GDP findings for 2008 is that the GDP decreased (was down) 5.8 points AND the 1st Quarter GDP findings for 2009 is that the GDP was down 3.5 points. Thus, by definition, the GDP being down for two or more consecutive quarters, indicates a recession. This is the first recession in U.S.  history in 51 years (1957Q4 to 1958Q1) .

Generally, there are two trains of thought regarding under which president what economic boost/recession occurs so, here they are: Republicans believe that what they do while in office affects the future economy; thus, republicans explain away any bad economic terribleness that occurs during their term and take credit for anything good afterwards. While Democrats believe that what they do in office affects the present economy, thus taking credit for anything good during and ignoring anything bad before and after. However, I am of a third, what happened in the past influences the future, but only for the number of years a president is in office in quarters after he leaves office, e.i, President Franklin Roosevelt served 12 years, thus, he’s responsible for 12 quarters after his exodus from office .

Here’s what that breaks down to, from 1953-today, the best economic presidents in order are:

1.     President Jimmy Carter (D) >> 186.8
2.     President Ronald Reagan (R) >> 126
3.     President Gerald Ford (R) >> 116.6
4.     President Lyndon Johnson (D) >> 102
5.     President Dwight Eisenhower (R) >> 88.4
6.     President Richard Nixon (R) >> 88.3
7.      President Bill Clinton (D) >> 78.4
8.     President George H. W. Bush (R) >> 78
9.     President George W. Bush (R) >> 62.1
10.   President John Kennedy (D) >> 27.1

Now, an argument might be made that it’s not fair that Kennedy is last since he was assassinated; based upon my assumption, he only affected four quarters. Yet, that argument is valid still! So, dropping him from the list, President George W. Bush is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER, at least economically (I’m not going into the political, social, and moral crap, ’cause all that’s subjective), and still, there’s 7 quarters that we’ve yet to consider so if the economy keeps going craptastic, thank President Bush.

Historically, Republicans had the most positive influence nearly doubling that of Democrats but there’ve been 50% more of ‘em too, so normalizing for that, Republicans only performed 10% better, or 2% better per president, but then, Carter nearly 50% better than the next best…a Republican.

Anyway, all of this is to say…recessions suck…and I hate being wrong…you’d think by being married I’d be used it by now, eh?

So, this is for all you tree-hugging, crunchy, big government loving hippies.

Medicare, you know that terrible program that I pay for that I will never use and is used to pay the bills of people who think they have a right to my money since they don’t take responsibility for themselves,  is paying to buy guns for old people. Click here to find out more.

Well the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the new Third Quarter Gross Domestic Product information. The result: the GDP was UP yet again by 3.6% compared to being UP 4.1% and UP 3.5% the previous two quarters. The net result? WE’RE STILL NOT IN A RECESSION!

Well, there’s a lot of hullabaloo revolving around the infestation of DRM on consumer PC games. I can understand the publishers’ point of view since they claim that DRM is a necessary means in the fight against piracy, and I agree, but it merely delays the inevitable. When I was in college, I was pretty big into the piracy scene. I was broke, computer savvy, and liked to play all the new glitteries. Me being broke was the main motivation for pirating games since I liked playing games but the majority of games on the market don’t exactly have any replay value, so after I beat it, I’m done. Since I had an Über-Fast internet connection, I became what was known as a “dump-site”. Meaning I got all the new fantabulous stuff before anybody else did. What I noticed during that time is that I often got “gold issue” versions of games that weren’t even out yet. Yeah, you read that right; to use a modern example, I would be playing a full, retail release quality copy of FALLOUT 3, right now! Now, since I’m married, my wife acts as a moral compass for me so I’m not allowed to pirate crap anymore, and since I can actually afford to pay for them, I’m not exactly motivated to put in the effort of procuring games through piracy. In all likelihood, if I were to venture onto usenets or IRC I could probably find a version of Fallout 3 but it’s not worth my time, especially since I already have the Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition on preorder. What I’m trying to say is, DRM doesn’t prevent or limit crap! Nine times out of ten, the pirated copy is some leaked gold version that someone working at the publisher or someone working at a retailer stole and sold to a pirate group. Yes, there is money involved and quite a bit as I imagine the ones getting paid take a significant risk in supplying the goods. So technically, like all pirate groups claim, “we buy our games” they do, it’s just stolen property. But enough of that ranting! Here’s the solution to the DRM: Subscription model. Now, before I get a crap ton of flame comments, hear me out. Charge $10-15 for the media or digital download, one month access, and the serial to activate. Then charge $2-3 per month for access to the game with the caveat that the game will be completely unlocked in the event that the game is officially “retired” or no longer supported, with a minimum term of support for two years, but no minimum requirement on the part of the subscriber. It’s a model based on the World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, etc. Sure, it’ll piss off a few people, but I for one would be more than happy to shell out $15 for the actual game, and then pay a total of about $50 for unlimited play for a year. Since I normally get bored or beat a game within that timeframe. Of course, like the MMORPGs listed, it’ll require an internet connection to log on to play but considering that according to a 2007 survey 47% of all households have high-speed internet, I’ll take a jump that 94% of gamers have it. And approximating that 50% of individuals between the ages of 14 and 40, exclusive, are gamers, there are approximately 50891140 gamers in the US so, 47837671 of them have broadband, and estimating that 25% of them will buy any particular game, 11959418, and that only 25% of those will buy it because they don’t like the subscription model, that leaves roughly 3 million people buying a game and paying the $3/mo. I would like to believe that this is conservative since most people would find $15 once and $3/mo quite reasonable, and since the company wouldn’t be wasting development dollars on a new DRM scheme that will be broken tomorrow or even next week it equates to more revenue. Hell, let’s be really conservative and say that 1% of gamers with broadband would buy into this. That’s 478377 gamers @ $15 a pop=$7175655 once and $717566/mo presuming that only 50% of those stick with it. That’s a nice chunk-o-change. In my mind this resolves the whole piracy issue. It takes the wind out of the sails of those who “do it because of DRM” and those who “do it because they can”. Besides, who cares if they continue to pirate it? Even if they manage to spoof the registration key, they’re still paying $3/mo to continue to play.

Ok, all of you Chicken Little’s out there with your sky falling. Let me get one thing straight. THERE IS NO RECESSION! Yeah, you read right. NO RECESSION! How do I figure? Well, a recession is a mathematical fact defined by a decrease of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters, (read: six or more months). Guess what? According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. hasn’t had a recession since 1982, that’s right, 1990Q4 and 1991Q1 were two consecutive quarters where the GDP was down. Accordingly, the GDP has been up every quarter since G.W. took office, except 2007Q4 and the quarter he took office, and then, it was only down 0.04% and 0.12%, respectively. Now, there are indications that we might be leading into the start of a recession, but that won’t be finalized until the end of this month and even then, preliminary reports show that the GDP will actually be up again this quarter. So the FACT IS: WE’RE NOT IN A RECESSION!

So, it’s been about three months since I downloaded Rohos. All I have to say is, “I’m impressed.” I have noticed that there are a few glitches in it though, either using Rohos to change the password on the machine doesn’t work for roaming profiles, or it doesn’t like high ANSI characters, e.g. ¢?ìçª?éáô²?Í׸·¥°ÂÞ?ݤå÷÷¶?ķ˽Ё?Ĩ?´þ?äÜ ¬Öøçùá?ò?¼?þ??âËøâ, ’cause I stupidly managed to completely bork my computer using those. I’ve since changed to use only alphanumerics AND using the proper Windoze network password change mechanism, I’ve not had any problems since. The only problem I occasionally have is when I try to use a computer that isn’t my own, since I don’t exactly know the password. I get problems.

Woot! I’ve been at The Shaw Group for three months! HOT DAWG! Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. I guess I never really thought I’d be doing a job that I actually enjoy and getting paid to do it. It’s quite rewarding to have persevered through the crap I put up with working at Wal-Mart and the never-getting-to-see-my-wife terribleness of working at FedEx to land the job that I have. Granted, it’s not a perfect job, there’s a lot of beaureaucratic BS that goes on that stems from the relics/legacies/management of yesteryear who haven’t quite made it into the 20th century yet. Yes, I said 20th century; that’s how far behind some of the things that go on are. I guess that’s just something that I’ll deal with since every company/coorporation seems to have it. For example, while I was working at Wal-Mart, my supervisor asked me, “So you’re pulling from the bins before pulling from the pallets, right?” I replied, “Yes, of course.” To which my supervisor replied, “‘Cause that’s what we do here.” And I’m thinking, “No kidding! As I recall, it was ME who went to your supervisor since you are unable to get my coworkers to actually rotate the stock, as I do, since you claim, ‘we are working on it’ even though this should have been something instilled in my co-workers from day one, retroactive training isn’t exactly effective.” Of course, when I did bring it up with his supervisor, I was told “You’ve been working here, what, two months? Your supervisor has been doing this for two years.” WHO CARES?! Nevermind my 10, YES TEN, years of experience in retail, so just blow me off ’cause I’ve not been here as long as that guy.

So, I’m playing around with this nifty little program called Rohos, it seems really cool so I thought I’d give it a try. You guys can give it a look here,

Well, today is my first day at work. All I have to say is, “The Shaw Group is freakin’ awesome!” More updates later.