War between technologies? It's a war between rights. If it's illegal for US citizens to 3D print gun parts or drone parts, yet the government and its contractors are utilizing citizens money to develop, design, and test via oppression across the globe, who's losing the war between technologies?
How do you think a thousand dollar rep-rap competes with a million dollar commercial printer?/loadedQuestion
You'd have to preemptively destroy all government military funding because of what it *might* be used to do, and that will lead to a revolution./ludicrousClosingStatement
Well that's not what I said happened, but I can see how you may have misinterpreted.
To tell you the truth, I haven't heard enough about how the situation was actually resolved.
However, the article does say the SEC redacted trades that +/- % 30 of the opening price, which apparently isn't normal for them.
Or just pay millions of dollars to get a fat pipe out of the Chicago and New York stock exchange, write a program that bases itself on the Black-Scholes equation, and take advantage of all the traders that aren't operating on the millisecond timescale.
There's always that option too. Oh and if you're too lazy to watch kill switch connected to your billion-dollar monster, just ask that your bogus trades be cancelled when all hell breaks loose.
Is there an tolerance in allowable phase difference between generators? I'm pulling thoughts out of my ass right now, but I would assume one location to another has it's own unique profile of phase error vs time. Perhaps the phase difference between generators is significantly less than that caused by the grid demand / supply fluctuations?
On the other hand, if someone has a reference for this universally similar noise characteristic, couldn't I filter it out of my file, then insert noise from a different time period? For instance, if I filtered out the noise typical of a 12/12/12 12:12 recording with that of 11/11/11 11:11 recording, and you analyzed it, what time period would you intuit it was recorded in?
I have family who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
They treated my mother and brother the same way. Waited for a psychotic episode (proper term would be a VERY extreme mixed-state). Have family members agree the individual is a "risk to themself or others." Police bring individual to hospital. Treat individual with anti psychotics and lithium. Worked relatively well for my mother. I think she only went to the hospital 2 or 3 times. She has been holding a steady job, presumably enjoying life without depression, for many years. Constantly on medication.
They tried the same thing with my brother. Now he's pumped up on anti-psychotics and lithium. He can carry on a conversation, smile, laugh, etc, but it seems like he will never be the same. Currently he is living with my parents, without the desire to seek a job, exercise, or connect with old friends. They will switch up his anti-psychotic sometimes, maybe increase the dose. He will never be cured with this method. Some company is going to profit off his condition, and there's a group of professionals and government employees that have little incentive to seek alternative treatment.
What my brother needs is not some device implanted into his brain that gives stimulation. It's whatever unique experience my mother had, sometime in between going completely psychotic and starting to live a normal life again. They were both apprehended, drugged, and released in similar fashions. They had two very dissimilar results. Once someone finds out WHY, it will make a great difference in my family. I'm not saying that drugs can't be used, but continual treatment with antipsychotics is not treatment at all, it's harm reduction.
I realize they are treating Alzheimer's patients with this. However, if it works at reducing brain denigration in Alzheimer's patients, it wouldn't be bad to assume THEY will use it for other treatments.
The whole Myerrs-Briggs type indicator test is a sham.
And here's why. It only captures one snapshot in time, and that snap shot has relatively low resolution(poor questions).
Now let's make a big assumption, and assume the MBTI test has great resolution (great questions) on Introversion/Extroversion. It can tell exactly how introverted someone is at a PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME. Then, the people who made the test, assign you to a unique category.
A whole entire field could be dedicated to the RATES at which human beings travel between introversion an extroversion. You could also look at the relative peaks of introversion/extroversion, and the typical RANGES at which an individual moves in a week, month, year, etc.
However, people aren't doing this. They are just wasting time subjecting people to the MBTI test, once here, once there, and looking at the individual results. And here's the problem with MBTI, it's preventing us from studying someone that's better at understanding people. It's a really simple test and it's being embraced too widely. Studying rates, ranges, and etc would help you predict when your neighbor will transition from ISTJ to ISFJ, how long they are going to stay there, and here's the BIG ONE - what will make them switch.
Maybe it was just my MBTI administrator, but she claimed you are more or less a particular type (ISTJ, etc) from birth. She explained there was some natural movement from one category to another, but we didn't dwell too much on the topic.
It's similar to IQ tests. We're always stressing on a particular person's IQ. Why not stress on IQ change. I would like to work with people who are actively trying to increase their IQ, as opposed to those that are probably on the decline. Further more, isn't it weird how we have to ask different age groups different questions to gauge IQ? Why is this? It's probably because the brain is going through a time period of (relatively) rapid development. But if we keep on testing people's IQ, we're probably going to learn very little about the brain development process.
[Introduction] (My apologies for the long introduction to the question, but Slashdot only allows one!)
Mr. Kaspersky,
In the 1970's, following an Arab enforced oil embargo on Israel, the United States found itself a midst an energy crisis. President Jimmy Carter educated America on the Energy Crisis, warning that the issue could escalate into a national crisis, and equating the energy crisis "the Moral Equivalent of War." President Carter outlined 10 policies which touched on reducing demand through conservation, pushing for "predictable and certain" governmental policies, creation of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and development of new sources of energy.
Fast forward to the 2010's, and America is in a similar economic condition. Unemployment is rising, economic rebound is uncertain, and inflation all but inevitable. I see the US government pointing fingers of blame at "China" (as if all Chinese hackers represent their state) targeting security vulnerabilities of private and public US companies' databases, which often hold valuable, private information on US citizens. I assume the US government either funding or assisting in the development of malware as a Tool for International Policy. The economic incentive towards hacking continually increases, yet no few steps are made to prevent it.
[Question] Imagine you are President (any country in general, not necessarily the United States) - what policies would you put forward to curb this Security Crisis we are entangled in . I've read some snippets about the 'internet interpol' and 'internet ID,' but I'd like to offer you the opportunity to put forward a short, detailed plan (perhaps 5 or 6 bullet points) towards combating this Security Crisis. If you want to change any past statements, or add a little more substance to them, feel free.
[Post Statement] I hope your own opinions have more sustenance than immature, ultra-libertarian view that government's role is to shrink into nonexistence, ridding the world of its evil. I understand the government is both extremely powerful, yet also inefficient in some cases. I like government, but only when the correct checks and balances are in place.
The city of Minneapolis also estimates travel time and displays the information via over-road screens. I'm not sure how they calculate the trip time (I don't believe it's via bluetooth), but it's a waste of effort, time, and thus money
Here's why it sucks:
The display boards are infrequent - there's like 1 board along my 25 minute drive, and I drive via heavily traveled highways and freeway. Because they are so infrequent, I can only obtain trip length information for half of my trip.
Here's what they should have done: Hired a developer to create Android and Apple apps which pull trip information from Google Maps for each individual's specific route. Google Maps already adjusts the estimation for trip time when additional traffic is on the road. Google has already done the calculations - no need to reinvent the wheel.
Further more, the trip time is virtually worthless by itself. It only serves to give you a realistic expectation. Ideally, we should suggest alternate routes, for example, leaving the freeway early and driving on a less traveled frontage road. If they took off optimized the number of travelers on the freeway, it could speed up the average speed of those on (and off) the freeway.
I pay like 45 dollars per month for health care. Then I also add $500 of my own towards health care expenses. It's an HSA, and it makes a lot of sense.
I live in Minneapolis and I was sooooooooooooo close to getting Republic Wireless. Beautiful business model, except that they will always be behind in the times with cell phone hardware. Takes them forever to develop their software or whatever, and by the time they release it, the phone is old news. For instance, look at the Motorola Defy XT, runs GB 2.3.7. Sooo 2010.
Kind of pathetic, in the world of extreme phone customization we live in (flash a new ROM or kernel in no time), Republic Wireless can only issue 1 phone, and it will always be last year's model.
With that said, I realize not everyone buys a phone because it has todays most blastingest fastest process with trilogigs of ram. Lots of people would be perfectly fine with a smartphone that runs android 2.3.7. I'm not that way, and I waited to see what their newest phone was, and when I found out, I bought a Blaze 4G and signed up for a popular $30/month unlimited 4G plan.
I guess I'm in a different category from you two.
My habit is, go to Google News, check out my two favorite custom categories (atheism and yoga), click on links from stories that interest me.
I always find myself on some smaller news site that I've never heard of before.
The question isn't whether or not you're familiar with your local news sources. The question is whether people clicking through Google News (which is probably a majority of the site's traffic for a local news source that generates a headline on Google News) would be familiar with the site. I'm agreeing with Atilla Dimedici on this one.
_______
However, I'de like to put out another "controversy" regarding site traffic and google advertising. I search "mr. clean" on google. The "first result" is www.mrclean.com, which is correct - that's what I was looking for. If I click on that link, I'll be directed to the the site I want to go to. However, if I click on the very top url, which is an "ad related to mr. clean," I'll be directed to the same site, albeit at the expense of whoever paid for the advertisement related to the search for "mr. clean." Both of these situations end with the user in the correct location. However, one is at the expense of the advertiser.
I was running GB on my gTablet, mouse worked just fine. I agree that they have to SOME support for traditional input methods, but it SEEMS that creating their own input methods & standardizing them could work just as fine. I feel your pain, but more in the area of physical keyboards. Swype is fun to use and everything, but as slashdotters have previously noted, it's not touch typing.
If wikipedia is correct, it sounds like you're applying your own definition of intrinsic value. For physical objects, like a rock (or maybe a penny, just to confuse), intrinsic properties are those shared by the whole group. I understand what you're saying, but it seems like there is already a specific application for "intrinsic value" in finance.
As in
" An option is said to have intrinsic value if the option is in-the-money. When out-of-the-money, its intrinsic value is zero"
or
"For example, if the strike price for a call option is USD $1 and the price of the underlying is USD 1.20, then the option has an intrinsic value of USD 0.20."
or
"The total value of an option is the sum of its intrinsic value and its time value."
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_value_(finance)
First of all, let me say that I buy tech products on price point, and overall Apple can not compete in this category.
However, on the sut carrier-subsidized devices, the game changes a little bit. Apple's contracts with carriers allow them to receive larger subsidies per phone. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57419822-37/analyst-carriers-are-locked-into-those-steep-iphone-subsidies/
Hypothetical situation:
Apple and Samsung spend $600 on hardware
Verizon applies a $350 subsidy to the Apple phone, $300 subsidy to the Samsung phone.
Consumer's choice: pay $250 for the newest Apple phone, or $300 for the new Sammy - both with very similar hardware specs.
I really want to see some market research on people's phone buying behavior. For example, % buying subsidized phones, average life span per phone, user's changing carriers. It's way too easy to say something like "Android leads the smartphone market share with 68%" when you have such a dynamic industry.
Arbitrage isn't an ill of the financial industry. It's an opportunity to capitalize on a specific characteristic of dynamic markets. HFTs have negative aspects too, but it's more of a programming issue than anything inherently evil about the high sample rate. When/. bashes the HFTs, it makes me think of Bobby Boucher's mother in The Waterboy, when she doesn't understand something, she calls it the devil.
First off, I'm excited to see a Bitcoin based card that can be used just as easily as other credit/debit cards. However, it's disappointing to see that the interchange fees will be comparable to Mastercard and Visa (1-3% p15 http://www.gao.gov/assets/300/298664.pdf). Maybe there will be a reduction in the fees as more options come forward?
"In the case of stock markets, this means that the price of a stock at any given time should represent the perceived value of the assets it represents."
Judging from someone else's analogy of purchasing a can of Coke in microseconds, it sounds like many have this misconception. Stock prices don't solely reflect commodity prices. It' s not like you can buy BP's stock under the assumption that oil costs a lot (or will cost a lot more tomorrow). There's a different class of stocks devoted to perform this function, and from my limited personal experience, fail at this function. Exchange Traded Fund USO attempts to reflect the spot price of a barrel of West Texas Light Intermediate Sweet Crude (sounds tasty! http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=USO). Regardless, stocks are not simply a reflection of current commodity prices. There's also an entire market just for commodities, the Futures Market.
"algorithms do not have the capability to make these types of judgments. Nor do they care about the present or future relationship between price and actual underlying value. All they care about is pricing inefficiencies."
That's what pricing inefficiency is. A difference in price and underlying value leads to a pricing inefficiency. Like others have pointed out, HFT's can lower spreads quicker, which is beneficial to us long term investors.
BTW, humans write algorithms, and humans have judgement. If you write shitty code, or fail to evaluate fringe cases, your algorithms might have some costly repercussions. If you write elegant, robust code, you can prevent people from dying while operating machinery, fly a spaceship to the moon, or (as of late) prevent your firm from losing millions of dollars by making shitty trades.
"Why would any sane person invest in the stock market when they have no faith that asset prices are accurately reflecting the value of their underlying assets?"
Hedging. Sane people hedge their investments. Insane people don't. Then insane people complain when their retirement savings gets chopped after buying a bunch of over-priced stocks. It's possible to invest more money in the market and end up with a more conservative portfolio. Counter intuitive, ain't it? Add in some stock options, an understanding of the Black-Scholes Model (differential equation), and now you can begin hedging against a variety of risks.
I've seen soooooo many people hate on that which they don't understand without justification (or logic). Hoping they're just old geesers, otherwise we're going to continue with bubble trouble.
So it seems everyone is not too concerned about the ability to bring malware unscathed through Apple app store? I understand the malware was a windows virus was packaged up quite well in the app, and dormant unless unpackaged and executables were ran. However, wouldn't it be possible to offer an update to the app that, if connected to a windows computer, unpacks and maybe even attempts to execute? If not through an update, perhaps offer a different app that performs the functionality?
I realize these questions are far out there, but to me, passing malware through the screening process should be the hard part.
How about distributing via SD card full of ISO files or something similar. It probably costs way more, but I'll assume there's something else that can compete with optical drives. Maybe allow re-distribution of the installation media, and make users connect online to pay for a "cd"-key (if that's what your company is in to).
Slashdot Mirror
^ I like this comment :D
War between technologies? It's a war between rights. If it's illegal for US citizens to 3D print gun parts or drone parts, yet the government and its contractors are utilizing citizens money to develop, design, and test via oppression across the globe, who's losing the war between technologies?
How do you think a thousand dollar rep-rap competes with a million dollar commercial printer? /loadedQuestion
You'd have to preemptively destroy all government military funding because of what it *might* be used to do, and that will lead to a revolution. /ludicrousClosingStatement
Well that's not what I said happened, but I can see how you may have misinterpreted.
To tell you the truth, I haven't heard enough about how the situation was actually resolved. However, the article does say the SEC redacted trades that +/- % 30 of the opening price, which apparently isn't normal for them.
Or just pay millions of dollars to get a fat pipe out of the Chicago and New York stock exchange, write a program that bases itself on the Black-Scholes equation, and take advantage of all the traders that aren't operating on the millisecond timescale.
There's always that option too. Oh and if you're too lazy to watch kill switch connected to your billion-dollar monster, just ask that your bogus trades be cancelled when all hell breaks loose.
source = http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-usa-nyse-tradinghalts-idUSBRE8701BN20120801
Is there an tolerance in allowable phase difference between generators? I'm pulling thoughts out of my ass right now, but I would assume one location to another has it's own unique profile of phase error vs time. Perhaps the phase difference between generators is significantly less than that caused by the grid demand / supply fluctuations?
On the other hand, if someone has a reference for this universally similar noise characteristic, couldn't I filter it out of my file, then insert noise from a different time period? For instance, if I filtered out the noise typical of a 12/12/12 12:12 recording with that of 11/11/11 11:11 recording, and you analyzed it, what time period would you intuit it was recorded in?
I have family who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
They treated my mother and brother the same way. Waited for a psychotic episode (proper term would be a VERY extreme mixed-state). Have family members agree the individual is a "risk to themself or others." Police bring individual to hospital. Treat individual with anti psychotics and lithium. Worked relatively well for my mother. I think she only went to the hospital 2 or 3 times. She has been holding a steady job, presumably enjoying life without depression, for many years. Constantly on medication.
They tried the same thing with my brother. Now he's pumped up on anti-psychotics and lithium. He can carry on a conversation, smile, laugh, etc, but it seems like he will never be the same. Currently he is living with my parents, without the desire to seek a job, exercise, or connect with old friends. They will switch up his anti-psychotic sometimes, maybe increase the dose. He will never be cured with this method. Some company is going to profit off his condition, and there's a group of professionals and government employees that have little incentive to seek alternative treatment.
What my brother needs is not some device implanted into his brain that gives stimulation. It's whatever unique experience my mother had, sometime in between going completely psychotic and starting to live a normal life again. They were both apprehended, drugged, and released in similar fashions. They had two very dissimilar results. Once someone finds out WHY, it will make a great difference in my family. I'm not saying that drugs can't be used, but continual treatment with antipsychotics is not treatment at all, it's harm reduction.
I realize they are treating Alzheimer's patients with this. However, if it works at reducing brain denigration in Alzheimer's patients, it wouldn't be bad to assume THEY will use it for other treatments.
What happens when "generally happy" isn't universally agreed upon?
The whole Myerrs-Briggs type indicator test is a sham.
And here's why. It only captures one snapshot in time, and that snap shot has relatively low resolution(poor questions).
Now let's make a big assumption, and assume the MBTI test has great resolution (great questions) on Introversion/Extroversion. It can tell exactly how introverted someone is at a PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME. Then, the people who made the test, assign you to a unique category.
A whole entire field could be dedicated to the RATES at which human beings travel between introversion an extroversion. You could also look at the relative peaks of introversion/extroversion, and the typical RANGES at which an individual moves in a week, month, year, etc.
However, people aren't doing this. They are just wasting time subjecting people to the MBTI test, once here, once there, and looking at the individual results. And here's the problem with MBTI, it's preventing us from studying someone that's better at understanding people. It's a really simple test and it's being embraced too widely. Studying rates, ranges, and etc would help you predict when your neighbor will transition from ISTJ to ISFJ, how long they are going to stay there, and here's the BIG ONE - what will make them switch.
Maybe it was just my MBTI administrator, but she claimed you are more or less a particular type (ISTJ, etc) from birth. She explained there was some natural movement from one category to another, but we didn't dwell too much on the topic.
It's similar to IQ tests. We're always stressing on a particular person's IQ. Why not stress on IQ change. I would like to work with people who are actively trying to increase their IQ, as opposed to those that are probably on the decline. Further more, isn't it weird how we have to ask different age groups different questions to gauge IQ? Why is this? It's probably because the brain is going through a time period of (relatively) rapid development. But if we keep on testing people's IQ, we're probably going to learn very little about the brain development process.
[Introduction] (My apologies for the long introduction to the question, but Slashdot only allows one!)
Mr. Kaspersky,
In the 1970's, following an Arab enforced oil embargo on Israel, the United States found itself a midst an energy crisis. President Jimmy Carter educated America on the Energy Crisis, warning that the issue could escalate into a national crisis, and equating the energy crisis "the Moral Equivalent of War." President Carter outlined 10 policies which touched on reducing demand through conservation, pushing for "predictable and certain" governmental policies, creation of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and development of new sources of energy.
Fast forward to the 2010's, and America is in a similar economic condition. Unemployment is rising, economic rebound is uncertain, and inflation all but inevitable. I see the US government pointing fingers of blame at "China" (as if all Chinese hackers represent their state) targeting security vulnerabilities of private and public US companies' databases, which often hold valuable, private information on US citizens. I assume the US government either funding or assisting in the development of malware as a Tool for International Policy. The economic incentive towards hacking continually increases, yet no few steps are made to prevent it.
[Question] Imagine you are President (any country in general, not necessarily the United States) - what policies would you put forward to curb this Security Crisis we are entangled in . I've read some snippets about the 'internet interpol' and 'internet ID,' but I'd like to offer you the opportunity to put forward a short, detailed plan (perhaps 5 or 6 bullet points) towards combating this Security Crisis. If you want to change any past statements, or add a little more substance to them, feel free.
[Post Statement] I hope your own opinions have more sustenance than immature, ultra-libertarian view that government's role is to shrink into nonexistence, ridding the world of its evil. I understand the government is both extremely powerful, yet also inefficient in some cases. I like government, but only when the correct checks and balances are in place.
My phone is in the 1700- 1800 Mhz Range
The city of Minneapolis also estimates travel time and displays the information via over-road screens. I'm not sure how they calculate the trip time (I don't believe it's via bluetooth), but it's a waste of effort, time, and thus money
Here's why it sucks: The display boards are infrequent - there's like 1 board along my 25 minute drive, and I drive via heavily traveled highways and freeway. Because they are so infrequent, I can only obtain trip length information for half of my trip.
Here's what they should have done: Hired a developer to create Android and Apple apps which pull trip information from Google Maps for each individual's specific route. Google Maps already adjusts the estimation for trip time when additional traffic is on the road. Google has already done the calculations - no need to reinvent the wheel.
Further more, the trip time is virtually worthless by itself. It only serves to give you a realistic expectation. Ideally, we should suggest alternate routes, for example, leaving the freeway early and driving on a less traveled frontage road. If they took off optimized the number of travelers on the freeway, it could speed up the average speed of those on (and off) the freeway.
I pay like 45 dollars per month for health care. Then I also add $500 of my own towards health care expenses. It's an HSA, and it makes a lot of sense.
What if I'm shopping ordering online from a local company?
I live in Minneapolis and I was sooooooooooooo close to getting Republic Wireless. Beautiful business model, except that they will always be behind in the times with cell phone hardware. Takes them forever to develop their software or whatever, and by the time they release it, the phone is old news. For instance, look at the Motorola Defy XT, runs GB 2.3.7. Sooo 2010. Kind of pathetic, in the world of extreme phone customization we live in (flash a new ROM or kernel in no time), Republic Wireless can only issue 1 phone, and it will always be last year's model. With that said, I realize not everyone buys a phone because it has todays most blastingest fastest process with trilogigs of ram. Lots of people would be perfectly fine with a smartphone that runs android 2.3.7. I'm not that way, and I waited to see what their newest phone was, and when I found out, I bought a Blaze 4G and signed up for a popular $30/month unlimited 4G plan.
I guess I'm in a different category from you two. My habit is, go to Google News, check out my two favorite custom categories (atheism and yoga), click on links from stories that interest me. I always find myself on some smaller news site that I've never heard of before. The question isn't whether or not you're familiar with your local news sources. The question is whether people clicking through Google News (which is probably a majority of the site's traffic for a local news source that generates a headline on Google News) would be familiar with the site. I'm agreeing with Atilla Dimedici on this one. _______ However, I'de like to put out another "controversy" regarding site traffic and google advertising. I search "mr. clean" on google. The "first result" is www.mrclean.com, which is correct - that's what I was looking for. If I click on that link, I'll be directed to the the site I want to go to. However, if I click on the very top url, which is an "ad related to mr. clean," I'll be directed to the same site, albeit at the expense of whoever paid for the advertisement related to the search for "mr. clean." Both of these situations end with the user in the correct location. However, one is at the expense of the advertiser.
I was running GB on my gTablet, mouse worked just fine. I agree that they have to SOME support for traditional input methods, but it SEEMS that creating their own input methods & standardizing them could work just as fine. I feel your pain, but more in the area of physical keyboards. Swype is fun to use and everything, but as slashdotters have previously noted, it's not touch typing.
If wikipedia is correct, it sounds like you're applying your own definition of intrinsic value. For physical objects, like a rock (or maybe a penny, just to confuse), intrinsic properties are those shared by the whole group. I understand what you're saying, but it seems like there is already a specific application for "intrinsic value" in finance. As in " An option is said to have intrinsic value if the option is in-the-money. When out-of-the-money, its intrinsic value is zero" or "For example, if the strike price for a call option is USD $1 and the price of the underlying is USD 1.20, then the option has an intrinsic value of USD 0.20." or "The total value of an option is the sum of its intrinsic value and its time value." source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_value_(finance)
First of all, let me say that I buy tech products on price point, and overall Apple can not compete in this category. However, on the sut carrier-subsidized devices, the game changes a little bit. Apple's contracts with carriers allow them to receive larger subsidies per phone. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57419822-37/analyst-carriers-are-locked-into-those-steep-iphone-subsidies/ Hypothetical situation: Apple and Samsung spend $600 on hardware Verizon applies a $350 subsidy to the Apple phone, $300 subsidy to the Samsung phone. Consumer's choice: pay $250 for the newest Apple phone, or $300 for the new Sammy - both with very similar hardware specs. I really want to see some market research on people's phone buying behavior. For example, % buying subsidized phones, average life span per phone, user's changing carriers. It's way too easy to say something like "Android leads the smartphone market share with 68%" when you have such a dynamic industry.
Arbitrage isn't an ill of the financial industry. It's an opportunity to capitalize on a specific characteristic of dynamic markets. HFTs have negative aspects too, but it's more of a programming issue than anything inherently evil about the high sample rate. When /. bashes the HFTs, it makes me think of Bobby Boucher's mother in The Waterboy, when she doesn't understand something, she calls it the devil.
First off, I'm excited to see a Bitcoin based card that can be used just as easily as other credit/debit cards. However, it's disappointing to see that the interchange fees will be comparable to Mastercard and Visa (1-3% p15 http://www.gao.gov/assets/300/298664.pdf). Maybe there will be a reduction in the fees as more options come forward?
"In the case of stock markets, this means that the price of a stock at any given time should represent the perceived value of the assets it represents."
Wrong. It also represents the future worth of the company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_price
Judging from someone else's analogy of purchasing a can of Coke in microseconds, it sounds like many have this misconception. Stock prices don't solely reflect commodity prices. It' s not like you can buy BP's stock under the assumption that oil costs a lot (or will cost a lot more tomorrow). There's a different class of stocks devoted to perform this function, and from my limited personal experience, fail at this function. Exchange Traded Fund USO attempts to reflect the spot price of a barrel of West Texas Light Intermediate Sweet Crude (sounds tasty! http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=USO). Regardless, stocks are not simply a reflection of current commodity prices. There's also an entire market just for commodities, the Futures Market.
"algorithms do not have the capability to make these types of judgments. Nor do they care about the present or future relationship between price and actual underlying value. All they care about is pricing inefficiencies."
That's what pricing inefficiency is. A difference in price and underlying value leads to a pricing inefficiency. Like others have pointed out, HFT's can lower spreads quicker, which is beneficial to us long term investors. BTW, humans write algorithms, and humans have judgement. If you write shitty code, or fail to evaluate fringe cases, your algorithms might have some costly repercussions. If you write elegant, robust code, you can prevent people from dying while operating machinery, fly a spaceship to the moon, or (as of late) prevent your firm from losing millions of dollars by making shitty trades.
"Why would any sane person invest in the stock market when they have no faith that asset prices are accurately reflecting the value of their underlying assets?"
Hedging. Sane people hedge their investments. Insane people don't. Then insane people complain when their retirement savings gets chopped after buying a bunch of over-priced stocks. It's possible to invest more money in the market and end up with a more conservative portfolio. Counter intuitive, ain't it? Add in some stock options, an understanding of the Black-Scholes Model (differential equation), and now you can begin hedging against a variety of risks.
I've seen soooooo many people hate on that which they don't understand without justification (or logic). Hoping they're just old geesers, otherwise we're going to continue with bubble trouble.
So it seems everyone is not too concerned about the ability to bring malware unscathed through Apple app store? I understand the malware was a windows virus was packaged up quite well in the app, and dormant unless unpackaged and executables were ran. However, wouldn't it be possible to offer an update to the app that, if connected to a windows computer, unpacks and maybe even attempts to execute? If not through an update, perhaps offer a different app that performs the functionality? I realize these questions are far out there, but to me, passing malware through the screening process should be the hard part.
How about distributing via SD card full of ISO files or something similar. It probably costs way more, but I'll assume there's something else that can compete with optical drives. Maybe allow re-distribution of the installation media, and make users connect online to pay for a "cd"-key (if that's what your company is in to).