Google Sidewiki entry by Gabriel

Why does Dropbox need system.privilege.admin?

in reference to: Dropbox - Help - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy. (view on Google Sidewiki)

Google Profiles: Limit Sections by Group

When will I be able to have a separate private profile that only my friends can see?

in reference to:

"improve profiles"
- About Google Profiles : About profiles - Accounts Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Sidewiki

Now I can answer tech questions on forums without having to create an account.

in reference to:

"Publish helpful information"
- Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

Motorcycle Parking Lot Closed

Signs have been posted at the motorcycle parking lot near the intersection of South St and Wall St that it will be closed as of April 13th 2009 for "construction".

This parking lot is in the Financial District in Manhattan in New York City under the FDR near the South Street Seaport and Pier 13.

View Larger Map

According to www.lowermanhattan.info:

• "The first phase of construction will take place on the waterfront between Wall Street and Maiden Lane; bus and motorcycle parking will be relocated in April 2009"

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/construction/project_updates/east_river_waterfront_78637.aspx#activities

I sent an email to Nicole Dooskin as indicated on the page inquiring as to the new location of this parking lot and this is the response I recieved:

"The city is no longer offering free motorcycle parking here. The website should not have said “relocate” and I’ve asked them to change that. ..."

I have been parking there for about four months now and was grateful for the convenience and utility of the parking lot. I am really sad to see that it is being taken away.

Maybe if enough motorcycle enthusiasts act quickly enough we can preserve this important public resource.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Federal Emergency Rescue Refinance Plan

I propose the creation of the Federal Emergency Rescue Refinance Agency

FERRA can buy Residential Collateralized Debt Obligations at 70% of purchase price or less.

• All CDOs purchased by FERRA are deconstructed to their component mortgages.
• Any defaults on these mortgages result in a FERRA refinance option.
• The loan is refinanced at a favorable fixed rate against a principal set at the lowest appraised value of the home over the next five years.
• Mortgage coupons will fall as the house value drops.
• Prior mortgage payments will be reamortized against the lower principal.
  

FERRA refinanced mortgages come with the following restrictions:

• No home equity loans or second lien mortgages are allowed on the property.
  
• Rental income on the property in excess of 103% of the mortgage coupon are paid to FERRA.
• In the event of a sale any value in excess of 3% APY return on the property are paid to FERRA.
• All money paid to FERRA are used to offset the large losses incurred by FERRA's purchase of the original CDOs.
• Restrictions remain in effect indefinitely beyond the repayment of the FERRA refinanced mortgage.
  
• Restrictions can be removed by fulfilling the terms of the original mortgage.
  

Benefits of this plan:

• Minimal inflationary impact.
• Victims of abusive predatory lending practices get to keep their homes.
• Houses stay occupied.
• Minimizes damage to credit markets.
  
• Minimizes investment bank welfare.
  

Yes, That's $2 Trillion of Debt-Related Losses

"...But there are ways to manage Bear or Fannie and Freddie in a fairer way. If public money is to be put at stake, first all the shareholders of these companies have to be wiped out. Management has to be wiped out, and the creditors of Bear should have taken a hit. Why did the Fed buy $29 billion of the most toxic securities, and essentially bail out JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which bought Bear Stearns?
...
Sometimes it is necessary to use public money to rescue institutions, but you do it in a way in which you're not bailing out those who made the mistakes. ..."

--Nouriel Roubini, Economist and Professor, New York University
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121763156934206007.html

Human Mirror at Improv Everywhere

They're wrong about oil, by George

Rip up your textbooks, the doubling of oil prices has little to do with China's appetite.

Just as the credit crunch seemed to be passing, at least in the US, another and much more ominous financial crisis has broken out. The escalation of oil prices, which this week reached a previously unthinkable $130 a barrel (with predictions of $150 and $200 soon to come), threatens to do far more damage to the world economy than the credit crunch.
...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/article3980797.ece

Google Page Creator Converter

I got fed up with having to convert my sites by hand to work with Google Page Creator. So I came up with a program that does it for me automatically.

It can be found at http://datasurfer.googlepages.com/GPCConverter.jar

It copies and renames all the files in a site folder down to a root folder. It effectively flattens the directory structure so that it can be uploaded to Google Page Creator and all the links will work. It then tries to find all the places those files were linked inside your js, css, and html files and reconfigure them to point to their new names and locations inside the new root directory.

Requires: Java 1.6 JRE (Most people have this already)
It should run anywhere Java runs.

I created it specifically for a site that was built with iWeb.

Let me know if it works for you.

Google Page Creator can be found at http://googlepages.com

It also works with Google Page Creator inside of Google Apps for Domains (http://google.com/a).

Wiimote controlling Halo 2