STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 17 January 2014

[jtuck004]

38. Isn't that what said about the demise of the slide rule when calculators came in.

So, yeah, come to think of it, you have a point, because it did seem to be nicer back then. Especially if you were white. But things were changing, and maybe we let technology get too far out there while we haven't even left the station yet.

But as to why you need competent people...

The old joke is that the tv repair person walks in, looks at the bad picture, moves a hand to the left side of the tv, reaches down about 6", and gives it a sharp whack. The picture clears. "That will be $!00".

The person he is helping gulps and says "For just hitting my tv?"

The repair person says "No, for knowing "where" to hit your tv".

These are just tools. And we need, apparently thanks to the NSA, to think about not just competent people who know when to use what tool, but moral people who believe in the security privacy gives us. We are a little short on those, I think.

Or we just all decide that East Germany wasn't that bad a place after all, bore holes in the walls, and spy on our neighbors. Because I think it will either die or spread.

Good article at Ritholtz, Spying on Metadata, since you mentioned the NSA. Enlightening, like learning about torture without the blood.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/01/spying-on-metadata/

(Off topic a little. I was listening to or reading a report about Brazil the other day. It said they were so enraged by the NSA snooping that they have taken to adding things to all their electronic communications specifically for another nation who would spy on them. It's a national joke now. Things like "My heart explodes with love for you, like dynamite". I think they are funny people I would enjoy being around.)