We just lost the speed advantage in computer computing to China recently. They won with the astounding number crunching capability of 2.5 times 10 to the 15th power per second. In other words:
2,500,000,000,000,000 calculations per second.
Talk about a twinkling of an eye. So once again in yet another venue we have ceded first place to the Chinese.
Here is what this could mean. Let's take the stock market for example. High-speed computers can now sample the fluctuations in stock prices in almost real time. They can tell, within microseconds, trends in an individual stock price based on two simple factors; one, the most recent price and two, the volume of shares traded. Pretty simple algorithm really. As share volume and prices in a stock fluctuate the computer calculates to a certainty of 99% the next trade share price and then executes a buy or sell transaction. If you're trading millions of shares, by trading in the right direction 99% of the time you will, without a doubt, make millions of dollars. Do this millions of times a day and, well, you do the math.
High-speed computing gives the user untold advantages in every endeavor man attempts.
Fortunately, access to equipment of this kind is not available to currency traders, commodity brokers, stockbrokers, bond traders, or money manipulators of any kind.
HA!
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Happy Halloween
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Another platitude bites the dust
As the media relentlessly scours every dark corner of people’s lives for daily grist, one thing has become abundantly clear; at least to me. No one seems to be the saint they claim to be.
Virtue is no longer the key to success. Guile seems to be the new key.
Take banking for example. Banks have been the self-described bastian’s of integrity and honesty for centuries. Now they hang their heads in disgrace after news that their outrageous incomes come at great expense to their own investors. What’s up with that?
The dawn of our new millennium is not as yet spiritually uplifting. War is up while the workforce is down, and Wall Street is being held responsible.
We need a way to stimulate our nation’s morale. Blowing away less developed parts of the world will not accomplish that. Falling behind in every humanitarian statistic which measures our place in the world is not the answer.
Doing something for ourselves like rebuilding our infrastructure or reinventing our educational system or reducing our dependence on foreign oil, all the while creating jobs and alternative energy solutions in the process is the answer.
It is time to elect a few politicians who realize that the way forward is not to go backward. Getting rid of the politicians who have been presiding over the declining circumstances of America will be a great start to correcting our decades long losing trend.
Virtue is no longer the key to success. Guile seems to be the new key.
Take banking for example. Banks have been the self-described bastian’s of integrity and honesty for centuries. Now they hang their heads in disgrace after news that their outrageous incomes come at great expense to their own investors. What’s up with that?
The dawn of our new millennium is not as yet spiritually uplifting. War is up while the workforce is down, and Wall Street is being held responsible.
We need a way to stimulate our nation’s morale. Blowing away less developed parts of the world will not accomplish that. Falling behind in every humanitarian statistic which measures our place in the world is not the answer.
Doing something for ourselves like rebuilding our infrastructure or reinventing our educational system or reducing our dependence on foreign oil, all the while creating jobs and alternative energy solutions in the process is the answer.
It is time to elect a few politicians who realize that the way forward is not to go backward. Getting rid of the politicians who have been presiding over the declining circumstances of America will be a great start to correcting our decades long losing trend.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Most of us are in the middle.
Golly, how profound; knock me down with a feather!
The truth is, there is a huge difference between:
• The brightest and the dullest among us
• the most beautiful and the most visually challenged
• the most athletic and the clumsiest
• the richest and the poorest
• the most erudite and the least educated
The dichotomies are endless. But the fact is both extremes amount to a very small percentage of humanity. The vast majority of us fall into the middle 90 percentile.
With the middle’s overwhelming numbers it would seem the world should be a middle-class oyster. But we don't control our own destinies. We defer to others to decide our fate.
We could bequeath the world to the future with no more wars… no more poverty, or starvation, or disease. It seems unfortunate we spend far more of our combined capital and resources today blowing ourselves apart than we do working towards what should be every one's common goal.
It seems our overwhelming fear of humanity, in its various unfamiliar forms, overwhelms our love of humanity and the self-sacrifice it takes to do well by each other. Perhaps another millennium is required for humanity to reach the level of benign neglect we need to survive one another.
One thing is guaranteed. Polar religious views will not help speed the way. Religious leaders will in fact, only be dragged by the heels, kicking and screaming, into the future. Their vision will cause loss and disruption and devastation until their progeny, the product of their continual, millennium long, brainwashing has finally been replaced with a less self fulfilling, self-aggrandizing prophecy. Once the fanatics have finally been eradicated in all their myriad forms can humanity rest in peace and look forward to its future.
The truth is, there is a huge difference between:
• The brightest and the dullest among us
• the most beautiful and the most visually challenged
• the most athletic and the clumsiest
• the richest and the poorest
• the most erudite and the least educated
The dichotomies are endless. But the fact is both extremes amount to a very small percentage of humanity. The vast majority of us fall into the middle 90 percentile.
With the middle’s overwhelming numbers it would seem the world should be a middle-class oyster. But we don't control our own destinies. We defer to others to decide our fate.
We could bequeath the world to the future with no more wars… no more poverty, or starvation, or disease. It seems unfortunate we spend far more of our combined capital and resources today blowing ourselves apart than we do working towards what should be every one's common goal.
It seems our overwhelming fear of humanity, in its various unfamiliar forms, overwhelms our love of humanity and the self-sacrifice it takes to do well by each other. Perhaps another millennium is required for humanity to reach the level of benign neglect we need to survive one another.
One thing is guaranteed. Polar religious views will not help speed the way. Religious leaders will in fact, only be dragged by the heels, kicking and screaming, into the future. Their vision will cause loss and disruption and devastation until their progeny, the product of their continual, millennium long, brainwashing has finally been replaced with a less self fulfilling, self-aggrandizing prophecy. Once the fanatics have finally been eradicated in all their myriad forms can humanity rest in peace and look forward to its future.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
We are entering the final stretch.
November elections are just around the corner and the airwaves will soon be saturated with political ads. At this point the best prevaricator usually wins.
The few voters who have kept themselves apprised of issues will soon be outnumbered in the polls by those whose entire knowledge of a politician's position has been formulated by 30 or 60 second sound bites. At this point in an election cycle total gibberish holds sway in the media. For an opinion favoring your bias just pick your favorite talking heads and follow their lead.
Those citizens whose opinions are formed by a close analysis of an individual candidate's voting record ... wait a minute what am I thinking? The few voters who even know the names of the candidates running for office in their district prior to the "voting season", or those who actually understand the issues, are so small in number as to be, polling wise, insignificant.
Is This Smart?
Is a democracy bought and paid for by the deepest pockets really the best answer to running the country? After all, as a population we are incredibly naïve. We have bought into it every subterfuge our government has run by us for over 40 years. We are suckers for a good pitch.
However, allowing the best advertising agencies to run campaigns which eventually dictate the future of this country seems, well, even more insane.
Without an educated electorate I wouldn't bet against Wiley Coyote winning the race for governor in Arizona… if he was running against immigration.
The few voters who have kept themselves apprised of issues will soon be outnumbered in the polls by those whose entire knowledge of a politician's position has been formulated by 30 or 60 second sound bites. At this point in an election cycle total gibberish holds sway in the media. For an opinion favoring your bias just pick your favorite talking heads and follow their lead.
Those citizens whose opinions are formed by a close analysis of an individual candidate's voting record ... wait a minute what am I thinking? The few voters who even know the names of the candidates running for office in their district prior to the "voting season", or those who actually understand the issues, are so small in number as to be, polling wise, insignificant.
Is This Smart?
Is a democracy bought and paid for by the deepest pockets really the best answer to running the country? After all, as a population we are incredibly naïve. We have bought into it every subterfuge our government has run by us for over 40 years. We are suckers for a good pitch.
However, allowing the best advertising agencies to run campaigns which eventually dictate the future of this country seems, well, even more insane.
Without an educated electorate I wouldn't bet against Wiley Coyote winning the race for governor in Arizona… if he was running against immigration.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The "TYPO" of the 2010 election season to beat.
If I were a cynic I would probably read more than is strictly necessary into this story I heard on Keith Olbermann's show (MSNBC 5 p.m. on DirecTV channel 356). Keith picks up this thread from a reporter in the hotly contested November election race for governor of Illinois:
A Chicago Board of Election’s touch screen test poll covering about half the counties spelled the “Green” candidate’s name correctly in their listing all of the candidates, but as soon as you cast your vote on those machines the green candidate’s name comes up misspelled. The error, according to the Chicago Board of Elections, cannot be fixed in time for the election.
Half of the wards where the test was conducted are predominantly African-American. The candidate's name is Rich Whitney and the typo was a loss of the letter “n” from his last name.
Good luck, Rich Whitey, in those close black districts come November's election.
A Chicago Board of Election’s touch screen test poll covering about half the counties spelled the “Green” candidate’s name correctly in their listing all of the candidates, but as soon as you cast your vote on those machines the green candidate’s name comes up misspelled. The error, according to the Chicago Board of Elections, cannot be fixed in time for the election.
Half of the wards where the test was conducted are predominantly African-American. The candidate's name is Rich Whitney and the typo was a loss of the letter “n” from his last name.
Good luck, Rich Whitey, in those close black districts come November's election.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Platitudes are the bane of truth seekers.
Take, for example, this pearl of marketing wisdom, and I pseudo-quote, having been genetically overlooked in the eidetic memory department: “if you are looking to build a giant list, make your customers an irresistible offer and they will join your list! Let me repeat, make your customers an irresistible offer and they will sign up to join your list!" DUH!!
This sounded like an interesting approach so I followed up on the results of this guru’s conference call and found that one avid devotee of the above advice offered his subscribers a $600 laptop for each one year, $150 per month subscriber who joined his list. He subsequently went broke trying to fulfill his promise! Everybody took the laptop and most subscribers subsequently cancelled their subscription.
The guru was right but his advice overwhelmed and quickly buried his student.
Moral of the story: beware the gilded thorn for, while pretty, It will pricketh or sicken thee.
This sounded like an interesting approach so I followed up on the results of this guru’s conference call and found that one avid devotee of the above advice offered his subscribers a $600 laptop for each one year, $150 per month subscriber who joined his list. He subsequently went broke trying to fulfill his promise! Everybody took the laptop and most subscribers subsequently cancelled their subscription.
The guru was right but his advice overwhelmed and quickly buried his student.
Moral of the story: beware the gilded thorn for, while pretty, It will pricketh or sicken thee.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Mother Nature Abhors A Phony!
Whenever we as a race have, in our supreme arrogance, thought we have mastered some technical problem like living below sea level, read New Orleans, or living on hillsides and beach front property, read California, Peru and elsewhere, or thinking we are safe behind some dam, read the entire middle of the country of Pakistan, for one example, we are corrected.
And not in a gentle way. Mudslides, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, solar flares, volcanoes, viruses, plagues, and nonspecific diseases will continue to torment humanity.
We will continue to suffer smack downs for quite some time to come from nature, as ants do, for as long as we live on this planet. We will never rule here. After all, we are only human.
PS: George Carlin is my muse.
And not in a gentle way. Mudslides, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, solar flares, volcanoes, viruses, plagues, and nonspecific diseases will continue to torment humanity.
We will continue to suffer smack downs for quite some time to come from nature, as ants do, for as long as we live on this planet. We will never rule here. After all, we are only human.
PS: George Carlin is my muse.
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