traversals of a schizoverted mind
mind — (nay, billions of cells evolved over millions of years out of hydrocarbon molecules)
Month: May, 2012
May 23, 2012
NASDAQ pre-IPO algorithm.
Irrespective of the FB part, the article made me hypothesize about the actual algorithmic changes that caused this problem.
My first hypothesis was to think, Ok, the old algorithm had a hard limit on (no of re-calculations/executions of the calculating function) and with the new algorithm that was removed..
Almost immediately, i realized that’s the brute force first idea, but not likely to be true. An organization as big as NASDAQ, grew up that big with having some set of processes. There ought to have been atleast 2 stages(code review and/or pre-prod testing(i don’t really buy that it’s hard to simulate these conditions excuse in this case. The algorithm was designed to calculate pre-IPO prices based on bids by traders. I might buy there was a Fermi estimate on the max. load (while simulation) which was exceeded by facebook IPO)) which noticed that simple a blunder.
The more likely change would have been than that the developer wrote a different termination condition and managed to convince everyone involved and the process that the new termination condition is better and does ensure termination. Now this is where my lack of knowledge of the actual algorithm/code hinders any progress. The article doesn’t say but implies it was written in java and run on a jvm. But that doesn’t help much, given i really haven’t worked on java for a long time.
I would love to know, what/how it went, but have no way of finding out. So am just calling out to people who have better knowledge of the jvm to expand on the more likely change.
Please comment your ideas/suggestions.
May 23, 2012
stackoverflow jobs 2.0 irony
The irony in this ad being the image background set in a golden yellow, meant to be reminiscent of the 80s/90s. And the text claiming ” since 2010″. Ofcourse i have no idea what bg colour would be used for 2010s/2000s but the irony is unmistakeable.. Wonder if it was intentional or just an accident
May 14, 2012
The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won't Get Better Any Time Soon
This is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today:
Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn't it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn't afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and…
May 14, 2012
The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won't Get Better Any Time Soon
This is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today:
Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn't it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn't afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and…
