A Good Imagination and a Pile of Junk

(Hat tip to DougM over at SondraK)

Speaks for itself.

(Hat tip to @tferris)

UPDATE: Sassafraggaragginvisualeditmode. Thanks CG o/

I’ve got a problem.  When I go back over my trading notes I notice a couple interesting things:

- I’m getting pretty damn good at getting in to a trade.  I have a couple trade setups that I recognize and time very well both to the long and the short side.  In fact, my success ratio is a little bit over 2 to 1 which is exceptional.  My trading is pretty basic still, but for now that’s all it needs to be.

- While I don’t “cut winners short and let losers run” I absoLUTEly “cut winners short.”  While I’ve gotten somewhat better at bearing the necessary drawdowns as things work themselves out I still hop out of trades at the first sign of trouble, once they’ve started working for me.

Again and again I look at notes that say: “jumped out too early”, “damnit it kept going”, “bitched out of the trade” and a couple less complimentary phrases.

I’m entirely frustrated by my lack of exit criteria.  I’m not going to go in to what they are, since this whole thing was just a lead in.

I sat down tonight (having exhibited this exact behavior on my two winning trades today) and collected a bunch of trading books, a notebook and a bunch of 3×5 cards.  I said (out loud actually) “I’m looking to learn one topic, exit criteria of successful trades.”

Then I came over here and opened a blog post.

*bangs head on desk*

Yes yes I know, it’s 12:45 am.
“ah, I should just go to bed so I’m fresh for the morning.”

*twitch*

Alright alright.

Definitely worth a read.

Top Ten Myths of American Health Care

American health care is an inefficient hybrid of public and private, costing more than it should for the care provided. The problem is too much, not too little, government intervention.

Santelli is the most lucid voice on the entire CNBC network. He’s just about the only reason I ever tune in any more. Check this out:

Trader Buzz on the Government’s Plan

(I’d embed the thing but I’m not sure how with that site and I’m disinclined to go spelunking through the html)

UPDATE: Embedded the youtube version.

Tired of being underappreciated and manipulated by powerful "others," you fight back. Though possesssing a cold, violent outside, you have a soft, scentimental inside. You love your partner, you cherish family heirlooms, and you want nothing more than to be geniunely happy — but you don’t mind having to kill a couple of nimrods who happen to clutter your path. Take the What Pulp Fiction Character Are You? quiz.

(H/T GGRN)

But I’m clearly the only thing between you and fruition of whatever your evil plan may be.

I’m sick to fucking death of sites that want me to register. Look, your site, your right, hands down.

But really. Does every sodding blog and news site I visit really need to track me that tightly?

I suppose if you’re the site owner, admin you can ban people if they’re problematic. But use some global ID thingie. (I’m sure there are three dozen WikiCapNamed services out there that serve this purpose.) Sure, a popular one of those I’ll add myself to.

Every once in a while I can understand it. Some people get real and meaningful threats. Sure. Lock it down.

But I’m just not going to register to your podunk newspaper website, and I suspect you’re doing yourself a disservice

Meh. Just bitching.

Haydn? Who knew?

I don’t know nothing about nothing about classical music. This came up somewhere in the twitterverse. I listened to it (twice) then dug around for other videos of people playing the same piece. They all sounded mechanical in comparison.

Twitter + YouTube, is there nothing they can’t do?

Check this out:

 1: template <class T_>
 2: class SimpleTemplated
 3: {
 4: public:
 5:   T_ i;
 6: };
 7:
 8: template <class T_>
 9: class Container
10: {
11: public:
12:   typedef SimpleTemplated<T_> Composite;
13:   typedef std::list<Composite> Collection;
14:   Collection l;
15:   void run()
16:   {
17:     Collection::iterator iter;
18:   }
19: };

Here’s the pretty colorized version

Line 17 fails compilation (g++, cygwin, vista) saying

scrapyard.cpp: In member function 'void Container<T_>::run()':
scrapyard.cpp:17: error: expected `;' before 'iter'
make: *** [scrapyard.o] Error 1

Anyone? ANYone?

If I change line 12 from:

12:   typedef SimpleTemplated<T_> Composite;

to

12:   typedef std::string Composite;

it works fine of course.

It’s not a direct issue with the stl collection class either. I’ve also tried vector, as well as attempting creation of const_iterator and size_type, all with the same result.

Something about the SimpleTemplated template class is preventing me from declaring a var of a type defined within the containing collection class instantiation.

Pulling my hair out. (This is what happens when I come back to c++ after a year or two off and try something like this first thing. *ugh*)

The classic blond joke reminds me of the Aristocrats. Too funny.

HA! Gotta love ‘im. Unfortunately I didn’t see this yesterday.

Found link via drudge, but it doesn’t seem to be there any more.

I’m having problems believing congress is even pretending to act in our best interests.

I’m currently looking for optical character recognition software to see if I can’t work towards converting this thing to normal text. I can’t take a substantial bite “in time” but here’s the link: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30700

Here are the first 3 paragraphs.

Democratic staffers released the final version of the stimulus bill at about 11 p.m. last night after delaying the release for hours to put it into a format which people cannot “search” on their home computers.

Instead of publishing the bill as a regular internet document — which people can search by “key words” and otherwise, the Dems took hours to convert the final bill from the regular searchable format into “pdf” files, which can be read but not searched.

Three of the four .pdf files had no text embedded, just images of the text, which did not permit text searches of the bill. That move to conceal the bill’s provisions had not been remedied this morning at the time of publication of this article. (You can find the entire bill on the House Appropriations [http://appropriations.house.gov <http://appropriations.house.gov/>] website.)

This is insanity.

They Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid worked all through the night - in secret - on a deal while freezing the Republicans out completely.

The Democrats assisted by three RINOs are passing the largest bill in American history against the will of the American people. Even though the American people are calling the Capitol demanding that their representatives in the House and Senate vote no, they are voting yes and saddling the American people with a debt that they will pay back for generations.

I simply don’t believe that members of congress are even pretending to act in the best interests of the people. This has gone beyond the bounds of ideological differences and has become a naked power grab. Handily controlling two of three arms of the federal government is seducing them to grab more.

Their phones are ringing off the hook. They just don’t care.

It’s just Alinski.

UPDATE: Hat Tip to Chicago Boyz

A long time ago I had a brief email discussion with the then host of USS Clueless, Steven Den Beste. His writing on the subject of politics has been superlative and my question to him was essentially: Given that we have you, Bill Whittle, Victor Davis Hanson, et al… who is there on the other side? Who is your opposite number?

A couple rounds of email of head shaking and shrugging left me frustrated. There must be a simple voice of reason who doesn’t get all frothy with ‘chimpy mcbushitler’ and evil genius and puppetmaster Karl Rove talk, someone who can talk about the liberal perspective while seeing it’s proponents for what they are. Someone with whom I DISAGREE, but can still enjoy reading.

Well readers, that conversation is now six (or perhaps seven) years old and I’d all but given up the search. Until I realized that right under my nose is someone I’ve been reading for some time, who sometimes makes me wince but at least I can get through it. And while I disagree with her on something close to everything, it’s not because she’s an idiot ;)

A rocky first few weeks

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment’s thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject appeared in my last column.) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.

1PM One That Fools Your Brain Into Thinking It's Warm

Complaining sales girl: I'm freezing!
Jaded sales girl: No, you're not, it's an illusion. They paint the walls a color that fools your brain into thinking it's cold.
Complaining sales girl: Really?
Jaded sales girl: No, not really. Now go put on a damn sweater and quit complaining to me!

Shop
Atlanta, Georgia

Overheard by: sasha

via Overheard in the Office, Feb 9, 2009

Ya know, I made a big mistake and did this guy a disservice by succumbing to the character assassination stuff from my side of the political universe over the past year and a half.

This is pretty plain and lucid stuff…

My brain hurts now. But this works:

template <class T_>
class Base
{
public:
typedef void (T_::* TestFunc)();

int main()
{
Child c;
c.Go();
}

It’s the keystone of an important part of what I want my C++ unit testing library to do.

I tried having Base::run_it use the implicit ‘this’ pointer instead of needing the T_ parameter, but it pukes all over the place. I may try hitting it with a bigger hammer, play some casting games and see if I can do it without rending the fabric of the space time continuum asunder.

I has teh dubm nows.

UPDATE: Why it switched fonts in the middle there I’ve no idea.

UPDATE: Once my brain recharged I realized that since I have the T_ type in the base class I CAN use the “this” pointer by explicitly casting it. Passing “this” into the base class constructor is pretty stupid.