Live from Austin!

On Sunday, I was sitting in the living room when one of our female squirrels came to the back door and tapped on the glass to ask for food.

Entirely too cute, so by way of balance here’s a cockroach story:

This morning rothko found a cockroach in her shoulder bag. So of course, she immediately said "Eww! Roach!" and tipped it out onto the living room floor, at which point it retreated to under the sofa. I decided I might be able to get it, but I’d only have a single chance, so I fetched the Dyson. Sure enough, when I moved the sofa it scuttled towards the exercise machine, but the vacuum did the job. My intention had been to release the insect outside, but it turns out that a 1000km/h cyclone leads to incipient cockroach moribundity.

At this time of year they mostly creep in under the front door in search of water. Three this year, which seems to be about the usual number.

Update: I spoke too soon. This evening I noticed Chester staring intently at something in the bottom of his cage…

I’ve finally done some online gaming a couple of times, playing GTA IV with a couple of people.

I also have The Orange Box. I bought it mostly for Portal, but I’m amenable to the idea of Team Fortress 2.

At some point I need to find out whether my USB headset works with the PS3.

Would you like to see some video of Chester enjoying his disco ball?

The following information is taken from Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, from a chapter which talks about the marketing of fast food to children.

James U. McNeal, a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University, is considered America’s leading authority on marketing to children. In his book Kids as Customers (1992), McNeal provides marketers with a thorough analysis of "children’s requesting styles and appeals." He classifies juvenile nagging tactics into seven major categories.

1. A pleading nag is one accompanied by repetitions of words like "please" or "mom, mom, mom."
2. A persistent nag involves constant requests for the coveted product and may include the phrase "I’m gonna ask just one more time."
3. Forceful nags are extremely pushy and may include subtle threats, like "Well, then, I’ll go and ask Dad."
4. Demonstrative nags are the most high-risk, often characterized by full-blown tantrums in public places, breath-holding, tears, a refusal to leave the store.
5. Sugar-coated nags promise affection in return for purchase and may rely on seemingly heartfelt declarations like "You’re the best dad in the world."
6. Threatening nags are youthful forms of blackmail, vows of eternal hatred and of running away if something isn’t bought.
7. Pity nags claim the child will be heartbroken, teased, or socially stunted if the parent refuses to buy a certain item.

"All of these appeals and styles may be used in combination," McNeal’s research has discovered, "but kids tend to stick to one or two of each that prove most effective… for their own parents."

I don’t recall which methods I found most effective as a child.

I’ve split off a separate site for writing about work-related topics. It’s at lpar.ath0.com. I’ve moved a few older work-related posts there, and just posted the first fairly lengthy piece of new content.

Once upon a time, the US government set up three agencies to provide home loans to people.

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) was founded by FDR to improve the liquidity of the mortgage market. It sits in between the mortgage borrower and the lender. Its job is to assume the risk of mortgage default, in return for a fee. In the 1960s, part of it was removed from the federal balance sheet by spinning it off into a private corporation. It was replaced by…

The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). GNMA bundles mortgages into securities which it guarantees even if the mortgages default, and then sells them on to big investors. It handles mortgages for veterans and native Americans.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) was set up in 1970. It basically does the same job as the FNMA, and was set up to provide competition for that organization.

In addition, the The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (FAMC) provides loans for agricultural real estate and rural housing.

Finally, the Student Loan Marketing Association (SLM) was set up to provide federal student loans.

Before long, people working in the housing industry came up with names that were easier to say and remember than the abbreviations the government used. FNMA became known as Fannie Mae, after the candy company Fannie May. GNMA became known as Ginnie Mae, and someone came up with Freddie Mac for FHLMC, presumably because the H is silent.

By the mid 80s, all the government agencies were called Mae or Mac; the FAMC became known as Farmer Mac and SLM became known as Sallie Mae.

Once the slang names became sufficiently entrenched, several of the organizations decided to officially change their names to the slang versions. Hence, FNMA’s logo officially says FannieMae, and FHLMC’s says Freddie Mac.

Before long, some private corporations worked out that they could suggest that they were big government-backed outfits by naming themselves something ending in "Mae" or "Mac", without technically lying to customers. Hence a bank in Pasadena called itself IndyMac, and one in Brea called itself ResMae.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have ended up guaranteeing almost half of the mortgages in the US, for a total of around $5.3 trillion. Since they were officially run as private corporations, they were able to spend a lot of money ensuring that they remained unregulated and able to invest in subprime mortgages–i.e. mortgages that the borrowers would never be able to pay back, in quantities large enough to ensure that the CEOs and shareholders of the lending companies would get rich.

So as the housing bubble has started to collapse, so has Fannie Mae’s stock price. (Check the 1 year or 5 year graph.) Freddie Mac’s stock price has been just as ugly.

Now, as already mentioned, Fannie Mae is (strictly speaking) a private corporation. However, over the years they have bent the rules and implied that the US government backs their loans. It wasn’t true, but by lending unwisely they’ve become so big that the government now thinks it can’t afford to let them fail. So last weekend, the the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve announced that they would make funds available as necessary to keep Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac solvent.

In other words, last weekend the US government effectively added up to $5.3 trillion to the national debt, which is an increase of 50%.

So ironically, by a year or two ago the situation had become so dire that IndyMac and ResMae found themselves with names that had negative connotations. ResMae collapsed last year, and now IndyMac has collapsed.

Now, in the event of a US bank’s collapse, individual consumers are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC. Basically, the government guarantees your money won’t disappear if the bank collapses, up to a limit of $100,000 per person.

Unfortunately, the FDIC doesn’t actually have enough money to bail out all the banks that are expected to crash. In fact, before IndyMac crashed they had funds to cover just 1.19% of the total insured deposits. After IndyMac, they dropped below the legal mandatory minimum of 1.15% coverage.

Theoretically, the FDIC gets its money by charging premiums to banks who wish to assure investors that they are FDIC guaranteed. So the problem of bailing out the FDIC will be passed on to the average taxpayer, in the form of higher bank fees. And if that fails, the taxpayer will be forced to bail out FDIC directly.

Some analysts are now comparing the fiasco to ENRON. Except this time, it’s an ENRON where the taxpayer has to bail out the crooks. So, another great victory for reduced government regulation and the free market.

Update:

On 2008-09-08, the US government formally took FNMA and FHLMC into public ownership making the bailout official. While not every loan is going to be defaulted on, the taxpayer is potentially on the hook for the entire amount; it’s on the balance sheet as a liability.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Delia Derbyshire is the woman who created the original Dr Who theme. Last week, the BBC revealed that she had kept an archive of 267 tapes in her attic; archivists are now analyzing them.

Amongst the recordings is a piece from the late 60s, which sounds exactly like it was taken from a recent Aphex Twin album–preceded by the comment "Ah, forget about this, it’s for interest only."

Amazing. If it wasn’t the BBC reporting, I’d think it was a hoax.

What do you put mothballs in, if you don’t plan on using them for quite a while?

The Science Museum of Minnesota plans to shut down during the Republican National Convention next year so it can host convention events.

Presumably they’ll cover up the scary exhibits with drop cloths.

GamePro reports NPD sales data:

Of note, these are sales to end users, not number of consoles shipped; Microsoft prefers to cite the latter.

The Wii is now the #1 console in the US by installed base. So it seems as though as predicted, the Xbox 360’s best days could be behind it.

Once Sony got their act together and shipped a bundle with the rumble controller packaged along with the console, sales took off. When the 80GB PS3 with rumble controller replaces the current 40GB package, expect sales to rise again. It won’t take long to erase the lead in installed base Microsoft has.

This week, people are making a big thing about the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII is going to be cross-platform, appearing on the 360 as well as the PS3–but only in the US, as nobody in Japan has a 360.

I don’t see the Final Fantasy announcement as all that big of a deal, when you look at all the former Xbox exclusives that are now on the PS3 or will be soon.

• Saints Row was the Xbox’s supposed GTA-killer, and Saints Row 2 is going to be on PS3.
• BioShock was the 360’s highest rated game of 2007 on Metacritic. It’s now coming to PS3, with "graphical improvements".
• Half-Life ’s developer Valve was always a staunch Microsoft supporter, with Half-Life 2 an Xbox exclusive–but The Orange Box came out for PS3 earlier this year. (I’ve picked up a copy–FPSs aren’t really my thing, but I want to play Portal.)
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion made it onto the PS3.
• Dead or Alive 4 is being ported, and it’s rumored that the sequel may be PS3 exclusive.
• Ridge Racer 6 was Xbox 360 only, Ridge Racer 7 switched to PS3 only.
• Full Auto was Xbox 360 only, Full Auto 2 is on PS3.

So looking at the high profile well-reviewed Xbox exclusives, that leaves Command and Conquer, Project Gotham Racing, Mass Effect, Gears of War, and of course Halo. (Dead Rising is heading to the Wii, along with Beautiful Katamari.) It’s a good job Microsoft bought so many game companies, or they would hardly have any exclusives left at this point.

So the video game industry will avoid Microsoft domination for another generation. I think this is a good thing.