Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in The Boston Diaries' InsaneJournal:

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
11:45 pm	Nostalgia is caustic, but gosh darn it, I need some optimism right now http://boston.conman.org/2008/10/02.1 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
4:35 am	No wonder economics is called the “dismal science” http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/29.2 For starters, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "government sponsored enterprises". Though technically privately owned, they have particular privileges granted by the government, they are overseen by Congress, and, most importantly, they have operated with a clear promise that if they failed, they would be bailed out. Hardly a "free market." All the players in the mortgage market knew this from early on. In the early 1990s, Congress eased Fannie and Freddie's lending requirements (to 1/4th the capital required by regular commercial banks) so as to increase their ability to lend to poor areas. Congress also created a regulatory agency to oversee them, but this agency also had to reapply to Congress for its budget each year (no other financial regulator must do so), assuring that it would tell Congress exactly what it wanted to hear: "things are fine." In 1995, Fannie and Freddie were given permission to enter the subprime market and regulators began to crack down on banks who were not lending enough to distressed areas. Several attempts were made to rein in Fannie and Freddie, but Congress didn't have the votes to do so, especially with both organizations making significant campaign contributions to members of both parties. Even the New York Times as far back as 1999 saw exactly what might happen thanks to this very unfree market, warning of a need to bailout Fannie and Freddie if the housing market dropped. Complicating matters further was the 1994 renewal/revision of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. The CRA requires banks to to make a certain percentage of their loans within their local communities, especially when those communities are economically disadvantaged. In addition, Congress explicitly directed Fannie and Freddie to expand their lending to borrowers with marginal credit as a way of expanding homeownership. What all of these did together was to create an enormous profit and political incentives for banks and Fannie and Freddie to lend more to riskier low-income borrowers. However well-intentioned the attempts were to extend homeownership to more Americans, forcing banks to do so and artificially lowering the costs of doing so are a huge part of the problem we now find ourselves in. An Open Letter to my Friends on the Left (emphasis added) I want to quote the whole thing as this explains my thoughts behind the recent financial markets, but really, why should I quote the entire thing when I can just point to it and say “read the entire thing”? So … read the entire thing already! (Comment on this)
3:02 am	And best of all, it doesn't require a time machine http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/29.1 “You must try Alain Ducasse,” declared my editor. At first, I thought this was a cruel joke. The press was buzzing about the new restaurant from France's maestro-chef that boasts a $2 million interior, a $160 tasting menu, and a bill for four approaching $1,500. Although the phone lines weren't yet open, the word on the street was that the 65 seats a night were already booked for six months, with a 2,700-person waiting list. According to The New York Times, “Ordinary diners have less than a snowball's chance of landing a table at Ducasse.” I was clearly in another league of exclusivity. Lay eaters wouldn't dream of trying to enter a restaurant where if you order verbena tea they bring the plant to your table and a white-gloved waiter snips the leaves with silver shears. Still, I had no choice. Via Hacker News Pocketful of Dough The author explains a technique that will get you into exclusive restaurants quickly, even those that require a reservation. It isn't cheap, and takes a certain nerve to do, but amazingly, it does seem to work wonders. I just wish I knew about this earlier, if only to ask Mom just how pervasive this technique was. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
2:23 am	1973 http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/26.1 In this video about our current economic crisis (via spin the cat) it's mentioned that legislation passed in 1995, in order to make “mortgages more affordable”, set us up for this major fall. But just prior to viewing that, I read What (Really) Happened in 1995? (via New Mogul) which stated that in 1995, legislation was passed dropping the fractional reserve that banks have to keep on hand, while at the same time, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan dropped his previous course of setting the interest rate per the price of gold, possibly because another faction of the government was attempting to manipulate the gold market (read the paper, it's absolutely fascinating), thus setting up the entire fiasco we're in now. Interesting … I wonder what else happened in 1995 … (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
6:50 pm	“I'm refusing to run this program and you don't like it!” http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/25.2 And while I'm on the subject of security through annoyances, if you ever find yourself trying to use FastCGI under Apache using suEXEC, keep in mind that suEXEC is very fussy and won't run any program unless it passes a 20 point inspection test. (Comment on this)
6:20 pm	THE INFOCAPALYPSE IS NIGH UPON YOU! http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/25.1 I swear, I want to take a clue-by-four to some of these so-called “computer network security consultants.” One of our clients just received an audit from these people, and just like the last time (although last time it was some other company) this audit report is just inane, if not shorter (thankfully). For instance, this lovely bit (not the full table): Attackers use a port scan to find out what programs are running on your computer. Most programs have known security weaknesses. Disable any unnecessary programs listed below. Protocol Port Program Status Summary ICMP Ping   Accepting Your computer is answering ping requests. Hackers use Ping to scan the Internet to see if computers will answer. If your computer answers then a hacker will know your computer exists and your computer could become a hacker target. You should install a firewall or turn off Ping requests. Really? Hackers can use ping to target my computer? THIS IS A XXXXXXX WEBSERVER YOU MORONS! DISABLING ping WON'T “HIDE” THIS COMPUTER FROM HACKERS! XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX IS THIS STUPID! Okay. I'm calming down now. And to be fair, it may be that these so called “computer network security consultants” had no idea what the computer was tasked to do and erred on the side of Armageddon. But generally, I feel such reports are, at best, worthless and at worst, scaremongering tactics to extract a lot of money (link picked at random) for what you get, which is nothing more than a list of open ports that may “help a hacker to gather information about what is running on this machine and what kind of machine you have.” Have these people not heard that security through obscurity doesn't work? That if I have to hide what I'm actually using I've already lost? That a false sense of security is bad because you're deluding yourself that you are safe? Sheesh. In fact, the entire report can be boiled down to: We found a computer at this IP address. This is bad because then “hackers” can break into the computer and do bad “hacker” things. Cut the network cable, yank the power cord, smash the computer to bits, embed in concrete, dump into the middle of the Pacific ocean, and nuke the site from orbit, just to make sure everything is secure. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
10:38 pm	Reason #√-1 I hate PHP http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/22.2 So Smirk has me installing the PayPal module for osCommerce on behalf of one of our customers. I download the appropriate archive, extract the files, and start reading on how to install this puppy. That's when I read: To install this module, back up your existing installation to a safe place and then just copy the included catalog/ directory over your existing osCommerce files. This will replace the modified files and add the new files. However, if you have modified your osCommerce installation, you will need to manually compare the new files with your existing ones, and possible manually merge the changes. Oh bloody hell. This installation of osCommerce I'm installing into has been in production use for several years now. Of course it has been modified! You can't help but modify it if you want to change the layouts or the verbiage. There have been countless modules added over the course of several years. Heck, I hate touching the thing because it's 88,067 lines of PHP code across 999 source files in 154 directories. And this module from Paypal? It's 39,765 lines of code across 199 source files in 29 directories. And Paypal expects me to manually compare the new files with the existing files … heh. Heh. Heh. Heh heh heh. Oh! It is to laugh! (Comment on this)
10:38 pm	“I can't see the forest! There's too many trees in the way!” http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/22.1 See Sean. See Sean mad. See Sean hit desk with head. Bam. Bam. Bam. See Sean fall over unconscious. Can you say “unconscious?” I knew you could. Silliness aside, I just spent the past five hours trying to solve what ended up being a non-issue, and right now, being unconscious sounds appealling. I was trying to install our second PostgreSQL version of “Project: Leaflet” and was not having an easy time of it. The MySQL version? Trivial, if only because every Linux distribution pretty much supports the LAMP stack and it Just Works™; not so much the LAPP stack. In fact, our setup is rather custom in nature and was missing a key ingredient—PHP support for PostgreSQL. Only after that was installed did the five hour non-problem start. When installing “Project: Leaflet” (by running install.php) Smirk, P and I kept getting the following error: Error in query: CREATE TABLE leaflet_ban ( id serial not null, address varchar(50) NOT NULL default ”, note varchar(75) NOT NULL default ”, status smallint NOT NULL default '1', PRIMARY KEY (id, address) ); Table 'mmpro_ban' already exists (Error #: 1050) Further compounding the issue—when I reinstalled over our working PostgreSQL version, it worked. Let's see—it works under PostgreSQL 8.2.4, but fails under PostgreSQL 8.2.9. That was the only difference (as it turned out) between the two systems. Apache and PHP were the same. Only with Wlofie's help (or rather, he sat there as I ranted, and then asked a few pointed questions) did I realize what the problem was all along—when I installed the PHP/PostreSQL module, I forgot to restart the webserver. D'oh! (Comment on this)
10:38 pm	Notes from a ★★★★★ restaurant … http://boston.conman.org/2008/09/21.1 I have this theory about gourmet food, which is partially derived from the book Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, and partially derived from watching countless episodes of Iron Chef America (“Today's secret ingredient … squid eyeballs!”). The food in a four or five star restaurant is of course going to be the best example of whatever it is you are getting, whether its Beef Wellington or pan seared squid eyeballs in a lemon-butter sauce. If it weren't the best example it wouldn't be a four or five star restaurant, now would it? Now, to frequent such a place, you have to either be rich, or have access to a fantastic expense account. And I'm sure that after your twelfth perfectly cooked Beef Wellington, you'll get bored. So maybe that pan seared squid eyeball in a lemon-butter sauce sounds interesting. I mean, it'll be the best squid eyeballs you've ever had because this is, you know, a four or five star restaurant. And there's only so much Beef Wellington you can eat. And that is why I'm convinced that is the only reason chefs cook such odd dishes as squid eyeballs in a lemon-butter sauce, lest their clientele become bored with Black-and-white truffle pizza with Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, heirloom tomatoes and fresh lemon basil drizzled lightly with extra virgin olive oil from the Azienda Agricola Librandi region of Italy, again. Back in November of 2000, I had Thanksgiving Dinner with John, the paper millionaire of a dot-com at his house in an exclusive neighborhood of Boca Raton, Florida. During dinner, we were served an acorn squash soup. I hate squash. Doesn't matter which kind of squash, I hate squash (and pumpkins—can't stand pumpkin pie in fact). But since I was a gracious guest, I decided to at least try the acorn squash soup. It was the best acorn squash soup I ever had. Sure, I hate squash but it was so good I wish I had seconds. Yes, five star food is incredibly good, even if you don't like it (and yes, I still hate squash and squash soups). But it's not everyday I get to dine at a four or five star restaurant. Unlike today. Today, Bunny and I dined at Chef Allen's, a five-star restaurant in Aventura. She had been invited to a retirement dinner for a friend, and Chef Allen happened to be this friend's brother-in-law. Once inside, we found our seats and checked the menu for the night's dinner. Zucchini & Ricotta Ravioli Brown Butter and Spinach Or Blue Crab Cake Pineapple Tzatiki, Summer Kimchee ******** ******** ******** Organic Green Salad Herbs, Nuts and Berries ****** Pan Seared Grouper Giant Peruvian Lima Bean Sofrito Or Herb Grilled Medallion of Beef Scallion Mashed Golden Yukons, Wild Mushroom Port Sauce While I love crab cakes, I'm not a fan of sauerkraut (and by extension, kimchee, acorn squash soups aside), therefore I decided to try the ravioli. My only complaint about this dish was the toughness of the pasta, but I was advised by Bunny (and later on, by Wlofie) that the rather firm al dente I encountered was the proper way to serve pasta. Outside of that (and I will admit I tend to like my pasta a bit softer) it was very good; Bunny found the crab cake a bit on the hot (spicy) side (due, no doubt, to the kimchee) but still, very good. This was followed by the salad. If there was a dressing, it was so light it wasn't noticeable, but even so, it was excellent (and I tend like dressing with a little bit of salad). The toasted walnuts may have been a bit too toasted for my liking, but at this point, even I will say I'm being too nitpicky. This was followed by a small scoop of raspberry sorbet with a fresh mint leaf to cleanse the palate. I heard from some people around me that the raspberry sorbet was too tart, but the intent was to eat the sorbet and the mint leaf at the same time; the mint counter-balanced the tartness of the raspberry to make for a refreshing palate cleanser prior to the main course. And it's here I think I've watched one too many episodes of Iron Chef America—“counter-balanced the tartness” indeed. I'm not a real big fan of seafood, so I skipped the surf and went for the turf—the herb grilled medallion of beef, which was as tender as butter. The knife didn't so much as cut as it fell through effortlessly. I was relieved that the scallion mashed golden yukons were indeed, mashed and not the trendy “smashed” but again, that's a personal preference on my part. And they were delicious. So was the asparagus, crisp and not at all mushy. The whole meal was excellent (personal preferences aside) but that's to be expected, because this is a five-star restaurant. Why wouldn't it be excellent? (Comment on this)