Bits and Bobs
In what could be construed a promotion I am now working on a new high-profile project which will revolutionalise our risk evaluation strategies with considerably more advanced algorithms. This is being driven by in part the growth of debt securitisation and also by new technology, such as multi-core processors and grid processing frameworks, which allows us to employ far more complex analytics in real-time. Its quite sobering to realise that the debt security market [globally] now has a value which far exceeds the value of the underlying. Anyway it seems I’m going to be very busy over the next few months.
Fellow blogger Stef thinks there is something not entirely convincing about the recent Crevice trial leading to the conviction of five men. Certainly there are some strange inconsistencies about some of the narrative as there seems to be with every terror trial we’ve had to date compounded with continuing resistance to a full 7/7 inquiry.
Israeli daily Haaretz has a panel examining the up and coming US presidential election, ranking the candidates on their Shabbat Goy credentials it seems. The tag line to the survey is somewhat priceless.
If like me you are a flickr user you may find free online photo editor Preloadr useful. It is quite fast, simple to use and has a small set of well thought out features. Particularly good are the filters and layer editing of images already in your photo-stream.
I have no intention of upgrading to Microsoft’s new DRM poisoned operating system Vista but do find myself coveting some of its prettier new features. If like me you fancy the vista sidebar on your Xp computer then you could download lightweight instrumenting system Samurize and add the Vista Sidebar 4 Widget which gives you the most authentic Vista sidebar experience I’ve seen yet for Xp. Its a bit tricky to configure but uses much less resources than other solutions.
Erin Baker at The Telegraph motoring desk weighs into the “why don’t people like Harley riders” debate, rather predictably garnering a host of vitriolic comments. Having been a Harley rider for the last thirteen years this is rather old news to me but then I stopped giving a damn what people thought many years ago.
Biker news blog Helmet Hair reports that failed TV series Heat Vision and Jack, about a crime-busting astronaut and his talking motorcycle (directed by Ben Stiller, the bike voiced by Owen Wilson), is now being considered for being made into a feature-film. Check out the clip from the pilot, its surreal.
…poisoned operating system Vista…
I have no intention of ever going over to it. The XP will do for now, then it’s over to Mac.
wolfie
i have been a debt trader for 15 years now. im retiring this year. the last 5 years i spent trading credit derivatives of junk bonds. my prediction is that the deriv mkt has produced a moral lending hazard so extreme that in around 3-5 years, there will be the most massive asset price implosion. good luck with your new model!
Don’t we all know it Pommy. We just carry on doing our jobs and pretend it isn’t going to happen but with the whole world locked in an asset price bubble the only thing you can do is protect yourself and your family as much as you can.
Vista don’t seem much different to XP to me, certainly no real problems so far. Security stuff like “Are you sure?”, dark screen, “Are you really sure?” just to move a shortcut on the start menu is pretty irritating though.
I just had a succession of crappy MZ 250s and a Suzuki 400. Harley Riders, Pah! I have no idea why I am supposed to say that but obviously it is expected.
I think it depends what you use your PC for. I can’t upgrade because I have incompatible hardware but also I manipulate digital video material which will be affected by the DRM features. Google enough and you can find many people who have been frustrated by them.
I’ve never understood the anti-Harley sentiments of some bikers, as far as I’m concerned a bike is a bike and if you’re on two wheels your fine by me.
“the only thing you can do is protect yourself and your family as much as you can”
and how would you go about doing that?
For a start, if you have credit-cards pay them off and destroy them. If you have a mortgage make sure you pay-off early if you can or have savings to meet repayments should interest-rates soar. Reduce liabilities.
That would be a start.
Been there done that
but I was lucky enough to buy, and buy within my means, before the bubble really started to swell
It’s hard to see what anyone who got on the property ladder over the last few years is going to be able to do now - well and truly skewered…
http://politickybitch.blogspot.com/2006/02/muslims-got-baited-and-they-bit-but.html
some links are dead, it’s old
sure don’t make it easy to comment, do ya? will number three make it through the putrid spam catcher without disappearing the comments?
Sorry about the comment thing, its not my fault. Its the hosting company based in NYC. They keep fiddling with the servers and the PHP libs go into fits.