Slashdot Mirror

don't forget most people still think computers run on magic.

Wait, what? You mean they don't?. Then explain this.

I worked at an office where we used Baggy pantsing to achieve this same effect. It worked brilliantly until on particular manager tried to make it seem like we were causing the problem, not pointing it out. I don't think that person lasted too long though.

The oddest thing about Osinski's article is his claim to be "the one" to have written the CDO packaging software that brought down Wall Street-

I wrote the software that turned mortgages into bonds.

That statement alone pegged my bogometer. Sweeping claims for sole ownership of a *type* of system that developed by many banks - bullshit.

During the 80s and 90s, I worked for several major Wall St. IBs, writing institution-level portfolio risk-valuation software - dealing with billions in net value across markets, trillions in notional face value (whoop-t-do.) And I collaborated with coworkers who wrote and maintained, get this, CDO packaging/securitization systems.

Osinski, wherever he was at the time, wasn't "the one." Many people worked at this, across numerous banks (eventually.) That he has a guilt complex about it is kind of absurd. He might have been an early developer, though certainly not the only one, and he was most definitely not the inventor of mortgage-backed bonds. That alone should clear his conscience.

His guilt is either misplaced, or amplified to a level that runs way, waaay outside his actual responsibilities as a developer.

Also, his claim that the code became "the standard" used by IBs around the world seems utterly bogus. At the firms I was employed by (and consulted for), while we did license code and contract out for systems developed by quant software boutiques for specific needs, things like securitization systems were in-house. Because: a) it was very complex, b) it had to be very specifically tailored to your "inventory" systems (and the retail banks you bought from), and c) at the time, you did not want an outside firm getting into your books or onto your network. (This was in the days before FIX became a standard.)

So, maybe this guy is seeing a second/third career as a writer. Good luck with that.

Dark energy == Bogon flux. This is why scientists have been finding more evidence for dark energy and dark matter (condensed bogons) as educational standards have deteriorated and politicians have multiplied. In fact, we can all thank our failing edumacation systems and bloated governments for single-handedly (?) ensuring the Big Crunch, thereby saving us all from the heat death of the universe.

Whee.

Dark energy == Bogon flux. This is why scientists have been finding more evidence for dark energy and dark matter (condensed bogons) as educational standards have deteriorated and politicians have multiplied. In fact, we can all thank our failing edumacation systems and bloated governments for single-handedly (?) ensuring the Big Crunch, thereby saving us all from the heat death of the universe.

Whee.

Bells and Whistles begs to differ.

However, since the historical record shows that the worst part of the Little Ice Age occurred during the Maunder Minimum, when the sunspot level was also atypically low for a protracted period, then if the current conditions on the Sun continue for long enough, it should provide evidence that would either confirm or debunk the premise that global warming is a function of fluctuations in solar activity. Unfortunately, as the controversy has assumed the status of a holy war, regardless of what happens, both sides will accuse the other of misinterpreting the data and persist in their claims.

See the Crunchly Saga from the Jargon Lexicon, particularly the section starting here. (The comics appeared in the dead-tree Hacker's Dictionary 2nd edition version as well.)

See the Crunchly Saga from the Jargon Lexicon, particularly the section starting here. (The comics appeared in the dead-tree Hacker's Dictionary 2nd edition version as well.)