Gun Control, Fed Cut, Best Buy, Vista SP1, and an Invisible Bookcase

Supreme Court on Gun Control - The Supreme Court is hearing arguments to overturn a DC ban on hand guns. The arguments are based on what is a “reasonable” rather then 2nd amendment right. I don't even know why they bother. On this issue, the Republican leaning court will clearly support any anti-gun control measure. It’s a guaranteed 5-4 ruling. More then likely this case will be used to strongly discourage similar laws from being enacted in the future.

Fed cut, Dow Jumps - For reasons I can't really fathom, the Dow Jones continues to ignore what sales, housing market, and public (lack of) spending is telling everyone. Thanks to a huge Fed cut of .75, the short term interest rate for banks now sits at 2.25%. This brings the overall cut by a full percentage in less then three days, something the Fed never does. Clearly they see huge storm clouds on the horizon and trying to turn the tide. I am thinking it’s too little to late since the Bush economic plan hinged on the trickle down that never occurred.

Best Buys Customer Profiling - Best Buy's profiling PowerPoint presentation has been leaked. The slides (click the link) present how Best Buy categorizes its customers along revenue lines and how to try to turn those "needs" into increased sales. Useful to know so can identify how the sales staff sees you and how they might try to trick you into getting services you don't need (such as an extended warranty).

Vista SP1 Out - The service pack for vista is out that is supposed to speed up the OS and fix many bugs. You should be able to download via Automatic Update. The release notes provide the huge volume of bug fixes that are being addressed. Hopefully though you don't need it because you knew it was a clunker and stuck with XP. If you do work in a business environment that upgraded to Vista...the IT director should probably be fired for incompetence.

Invisible Bookcase - Click the link for a video that shows how you can install a bookcase that just appears as a stack of books on a wall with no shelving. The gist is to use an L bracket hidden into a cut up useless bottom book and use the stack to hide the rest of the bracket. It’s pretty creative and might have some uses for some (say a dorm room).