HFT divides the financial universe into insiders and outsiders. The resources required to compete are beyond the means of any but the most sophisticated and connected organizations. Any system that requires low millisecond access to the data stream is overtly biased towards the few. If you think you can participate by buying stock in companies that do this and share the profit you are showing gross stupidity. It's just like making hedge fund money; by definition, anyone below the top .1% is locked out.

Real world value does not change in millisecond increments, except for earthquakes and nuclear holocaust. Therefor the profit in HFT is extracted by decreasing value for non-HFC entities (that would be you). It's analogous to entropy.

The value extracted by the insiders disproportionately degrades the system for everyone else. It's equivalent to oil production in the Nigerian delta. The people who live there have a horribly destroyed environment, and people far away make huge profits.

HFT is vulnerable to mistakes and deliberate manipulation. Can you say Flash Crash? Remember, there is no real time way to tell the difference between a misbehaving algorithm and a deliberate market manipulation or a hostile attack. It's not even clear that you can differentiate after the event is over.

Anyone with a shred of self preservation should be scared shitless by this situation. For Wall Street HFT is a sacred institution, and any attempt to reign in the abuse is treated as an attempt to defile a holy site. They own the casino, and given the centrality of international banking institutions, everyone is forced to bet no matter what.

Wall Street types should be treated like meth freaks with rabies, because that's how they behave. They are actively dismantling the world economy for their own individual gain, and if they are not stopped there will be nothing left to save.

This latest revelation shows the true nature of the "War on Terror". It is actually a war on everyone. On one side are the political insiders and the ultra rich, and on the other side is the rest of the world. It also illustrates that there is no honor among thieves, but that shouldn't be a surprise.

The full bore surveillance state that has emerged in the US/Great Britten/etc since the 9/11 attacks has an autonomous agenda. Coping with terrorism is not it's primary goal. It's aim is to permanently protect the current ruling clique from all challenges. It is intrinsically anti-democracy and anti-capitalism. Functioning democracy and capitalism reduce the control and economic position of the power elite, so democracy and capitalism must be being suppressed.

This is the inevitable result of an out of control security system. There are secret organizations governed by secret charters overseen by secret courts with elected officials sworn to secrecy. The people running the organizations lie to everyone all the time. They justify their behavior by claiming that since they are the "good guys", it's OK to do evil things. This is literally the road to hell based on good intentions.

Once an unaccountable organization has the ability to spy on anyone for a good reason, it will spy on everyone for any reason.

As others have said, read the code. Do this top down; start at the main function and look at the call tree.

As you are doing this, start generating you own documentation. If the code doesn't use DOXYGEN, add that. Reformat and add comments. Write external documentation. When you are documenting, think of what you wish the previous coders had done for you, and then do that.

This is the way I write code from the beginning, and it leads to better code. If I can explain what is going on then I know I understand it. If I can't explain it, then there is a pretty good chance that there are bugs. It's good practice whether you are taking over someone else's code or starting from scratch.

Once a corporation gets large enough, it will inevitably start making profit by illicit means; it will become corrupt. This often means making money from people who actively break the law. The corporation will both implicitly and explicitly support illegal activity because it makes them more money. At the same time they will defend their behavior as being honest, moral, ethical and legal. In actual fact, they are co-conspirators in a large scale criminal enterprise.

Cell phone manufacturers and service providers make money from stolen cell phones. When someone has to replace a phone they always get a newer model, and this is often tied to a new contract, which is where the carrier makes their money. Providers also make money on the stolen phones once they are in use. The proof is in the behavior of the manufactures and providers. They have done as little as possible to address the issue. That's why law enforcement at the local level is the agent of change. It's local police who are calling out the phone industry.

This is no different then Big Pharma and prescription drug abuse. It is certain that they know how much of their production goes to illegal use, and they do nothing to match supply to legitimate demand. Once the pills go out the door, they wash their hands of all responsibility. No matter how much they publicly pretend to oppose drug abuse, they do everything they can to keep the status quo in place. They profit from a distribution system that makes it easy to divert drugs. Drug regulation falls on the states, where enforcement targets doctors and pharmacists who cater to addicts. This is a system doomed to fail, as evidenced by the huge explosion in addiction to prescription drugs. Meanwhile the corporate executives get good citizen awards for sponsoring local little league teams.

This is endemic to all big corporations. Sometimes they have deniablity like drug companies. Other times they just buy legislation and make their illicit behavior legal. Can you say EULA? No sane person would by a car if it it had similar take-it-or-leave-it liability.

There are plenty of other examples. Wall Street runs on corruption. It's all over the military industrial complex. Agribusiness has used gene patents to extort money from farmers who's neighboring crops have been contaminated by GMO cross pollination, which they initially said couldn't happen. It's hard to find a sector of the economy that doesn't work this way,

The Bakersfield Calif Sheriffs Department killed a man while taking him into custody. Witnesses alleged that excessive force was used.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-kern-sheriff-fbi-beating-death-20130514,0,7559565.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/david-silva-police_n_3280663.html

One woman frantically called 911, telling the operator: "The guy was laying on the floor and eight sheriffs ran up and started beating him up with sticks. The man is dead laying right here, right now. I got it all on video camera and I'm sending it to the news. These cops have no reason to do this to this man."

Two cellphones were confiscated by the sheriffs. Although they did get search warrants, they effectively held the witnesses with the video hostage until they gave up the phones. The warrants were not issued until after the cellphones were in police possession. When the cellphones were returned, one of the videos had been deleted. The owners of the cellphones said they watched both videos and at least one other person saw them as well.

Because of the obvious conflict of interest, the FBI is looking at the case. They also examined the cell phones. They have not made any statements so far.

Kern County just paid out $4.5 million for a very similar beating death that occurred in 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County_Sheriff's_Department

You don't need a crystal ball to know how this will turn out. There will be an internal review that will "exonerate", i.e. whitewash, the cops and no charges or internal disciplinary actions will occur. The family will sue and get a big settlement. It will be resolved without going to trial, so there will be no transparency. The sheriffs office will maintain that they acted professionally and obeyed the law. A statement identical to this one will be issued: "Chief Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations says the jury's findings and the amount awarded to the family are excessive." That was the response to the settlement that was just awarded.

Every cop in California knows about this. They now have a new number one priority: destroying cellphone video evidence of anything they do. Don't be surprised when cops start attacking and arresting people with cellphones so they can delete videos.

If you record the police acting badly, leave the scene as quickly as possible. Upload the video and/or take it to the local news immediately. The people recording in this case thought that by calling 911 and telling the dispatcher about their recording that it would stop the beating and save a life. The actual result was that the officers involved will literally get away with murder.

So people with "an obscene amount of money" and a political agenda who think "they are entitled to what they want when they want it" are "a plague on society".

Does that apply equally to the Koch brothers and their NRA connected group ALEC?

The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, which brings together corporate lobbyists and Republican state legislators to write “model” legislation to introduce in Republican-controlled states on behalf of the corporations, has been doing everything they can to help out the gun industry.

As reported by Alex Kane on AlterNet, they include:

Guns on campus

Doing away with waiting periods to buy guns

More “Stand Your Ground” laws like the one ALEC got passed in Florida

No borders to firearm movement between states

Annulling local gun-control regulations

Putting in jail government officials who take away people’s guns in emergencies

Promoting more semi-automatic weapons like those used by the Newtown killer

Yes, the Feds should go after the Kochs because "Anyone with that much money is bound to have broken some law, somewhere, sometime."

How does that shoe feel now that it's on your foot? Uncomfortable?

Just to make thing crystal clear, you are as dumb as you sound.

Dumbshit.

So who is more likely to want a cheep dangerous single shot weapon, a law abiding citizen or a religiously inspired psychopath who is willing to hack someone to death with a meat cleaver?

Don't you get it? Cheep, easily available untraceable guns have the greatest appeal to people who have the worst motives. You have a drug habit and you want to rob the liquor store? Think you need to flash a gun to get some cred on the street? Want to do a drive by? Want to intimidate that asshole who just cut you off in traffic? Decided that Jihad is the answer to your frustration?

3D printers are going to be everywhere in 18 months. There will be virtually no entry barrier for possessing a gun. I fully expect these kinds of weapons to be showing up in backpacks of junior high and grammar school kids in 36 months. Kids will be buying single bullets the way they buy single cigarets. There will be a thriving black market.

If some idiot decides to take a shot at you, it doesn't matter how many guns you own. What if he is shooting at someone else and you take the bullet? How to you out draw that?

How many dead children is it worth to you? How many suicides? How many wounded by stray bullets?

It's not about liberty or protecting yourself, it's a perverse fetish. It's an emotionally ill fixation that reveals a crippled mental state.

If it was just the gun nuts who were killing each other off I would be perfectly happy. You could all kill each other and the world would be a better place for me. Not a problem. The trouble is that you are going to maim and kill a lot of people because of your sick obsession, and I could be one of them.

In the US Constitution the initial basic right is life, followed by liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Without life all else is meaningless, and you moronic gun nuts are endangering my life. Fuck you and fuck your damned guns.

The Chinese government is waging ongoing cyber warfare against the US, and we are loosing the defensive battle.

One of the big problems is that non-governmental organizations that are not part of the defense industry have no legal responsibility to provide security. In fact, there are not even any meaningful federal level guidelines. This is, to a great extent, due to lobbying efforts on the part of entrenched business interests.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/03/nation/la-na-cyber-security-20120803

But theU.S. Chamber of Commerceand other business groups strenuously opposed the measure, condemning it as excessive government interference in the free market and arguing that cumbersome federal regulations could hamper companies trying to defend against cyber intrusions.

Democrats overwhelmingly supported the legislation, but for Republicans, it meant a stark choice between competing constituencies: national security officials and business leaders. Even after the bill's backers made the standards voluntary, the Chamber of Commerce, which spends more on lobbying than any other trade group, opposed it.

On Thursday, the Senate cyber-security bill failed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster. Analysts say the bill couldn't breach a wall of anti-regulatory sentiment that proved resistant to the dire warnings.

The measure fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate, 52 to 46, with 40 Republicans joined by six Democrats voting in support of the filibuster.

"Rarely have I been so disappointed in the Senate's failure to come to grips with a threat to our country," said Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and one of the bill's chief sponsors, who had tried in vain to sway her GOP colleagues. Just four sided with her.

So the Republicans and the business community put their own short term interests ahead of the security of the United States. They are literally dumber then a box of rocks. Even so, if you listed to Republican rhetoric/propaganda they claim to be only ones who know how to defend the country. It's pathetic and frightening.

The only reason someone would accuse 9th grade students of scientific fraud is that they are themselves prone to committing fraud.

You don't like the result because you are a computer geek. Any proof that computing gear has negative biological effects challenges your fundamental beliefs. Since this angers you, you respond with hostility and engage in a personal attack.

The reason you bring up fraud is that it's what you would do if you wanted to force a result. People who don't consider that kind of cheat wouldn't jump to that conclusion.

It is certain that these children have a better understanding of the scientific method then you do. They thought of an experiment, tried it and reported the results. Perhaps the outcome was a fluke, perhaps not. If other scientists try to refine their results then the effect will either be proven or refuted. It's called the scientific method.

All you have shown is that you are a truly horrible human being. Your first impulse is to call someone a liar when they say something you don't like. Besides being better scientists, those children are certainly more decent then you are.

Yes, she's lying her teeth out.

Recently I needed a car tow on the weekend. It took me about two and a half hours to get home. When I arrived I immediately went to send out email and I was getting targeted adds for used Mercedes cars and auto loans. They don't need to bother implanting a tracking chip. It would be redundant.

When will the first assassination occur with this weapon? That is the real reason it exists in the first place. As target shooters have already said, it's meaningless for sport shooting because it removes the skill component. For hunting it's like using explosives to catch fish, no fun if for anglers who enjoy the sport.

The target audience (pun intended) is extreme gun geeks, psychopathic hunters and assassins. So who will be the first human victim?

LA Times: Here's why medical pot isn't going away

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/08/local/la-me-holland-pot-councilman-20130308

Bill Rosendahl lifts his walker over the threshold and carries it into the grow room before anyone in his entourage — press secretary, pot shop owner, pot consultant and bud tender — can rush over to help.

Even after 13 hits of radiation and seven rounds of combination chemo, Rosendahl moves steadily, straight as a poplar, past 2-foot-high cannabis plants labeled Hindu Skunk and Humboldt O.G. And, he says, Herbalcure, the Westside pot dispensary we're touring, is responsible for his vigor.

This is what decades of battles over marijuana use have come to in L.A.: A city councilman taking a journalist around to show where he scores his dope.

Fuck you, asshole. My mother died of cancer, and it was literally torture. This was before medical pot was available, so the only pain meds she could get left her incapacitated. It was either suffer agony without the meds, or take them and not be able to function. Either way, she was reduced to a pathetic state of uselessness before she was gone. If I knew back then about how pot can ease cancer pain I would have risked jail to get some to make her final days less horrible.

You are a soulless worm without a shred of human compassion. You are pig ignorant and proud of the fact. Your arrogance matches you stupidity.

You mock those who suffer. Given how many good people die in needless pain, it is obscene that a moral degenerate like you so easily denigrates their tribulations. I wish you and your family nothing but ill.

Wolfe, besides his outstanding writing talent, has an equally brilliant imaginative streak. If you get a copy of Endangered Species it contains four stories in the Thag sequence.

The hook in these stories is that people can leave the universe and live Not In Nature, or NIN. (This has nothing to do with Nine Inch Nails.) It's an alternative to dieing. Going outside of nature means you can travel in history, but that includes fiction and myth as well as time travel. The only time I ever encountered a similar idea is in an Alfred Bester short story, which is the kind of grand company that Wolfe deserves. Do your self a favor and read his works. If you do you will come back to them more then once. They're that good.

Mod this up. H1-B visas are the new indentured servitude, which is why US corporations want an unlimited supply. The STEM shortage is bogus.

Eeeeew, used electrons. Icky icky icky.