Perhaps nobody else wants it, but I *love* Windows 8.

I've found it to be significantly faster than Windows 7 and I actually like the Metro home screen to the extent that I don't miss the Start button in the slightest.

I know it's deeply uncool to feel anything other than seething hatred for Windows 8, but there you are.

On what screwed up platform is this? Windows 7 installs.

I'm a trader for a prop trading fund; formerly I was a system architect and have designed a lot of the systems that our fund runs on. In addition to tons of C++ and code in JVM-based languages (principally Java and Scala), we interface a lot of our trading analytics with a MATLAB back end as a web service. This requires JRE 1.6. This is a hard-coded dependency that we have no control over. If we install the latest security update from Oracle, we no longer have access to Java 6 and thus our software breaks.

Getting a patch to fix security issues is great, but not if it breaks other fucking software on my system.

As of right now, this patch won't install for me unless I allow it to uninstall Java 6. The blithering fucking idiots.

Do they not understand that we might have business-critical software that works only with Java 6?

They're eminently sensible guidelines for prosecution, particularly in light of the current situation. They are in no way "chilling."

"Like hedge funds tweak (OK, manipulate) the short term value of a companies they invest in and then bail out to cash in on this 'improved' value. At the most a few quarters later said company has to cut back on personnel etc. to satisfy their new owners over-hyped expectations."

Precisely none of this has any relationship to what a hedge fund actually does.

"Or when they have a reasonably successful company take out huge loans and invest them elsewhere, then drop this now heavily indebted company and go on to buy the next with the money they've just extorted."

Again, this isn't what hedge funds do. It's not even what a traditional private equity fund does. You're describing what's called a leveraged buy out, where company A is taken over by company B using large amounts of borrowed funds, which are then loaded on to company A's balance sheet. Although it often works, I personally find it to be loathsome. But it's got nothing to do with the way a typical fund operates. The only funds that are even tangentially involved in things like this are called "distressed securities funds", and they might be interested in such a situation when a buyout has already failed and a company is placed in administration.

I understand that finance is mysterious to many people, I really do. But why people develop extremely strong opinions about things that they don't understand is something I find utterly mystifying.

"Show me a hedge fund interested beyond short term gains (less than 5 years). Hedge funds are by design interested in profits from speculation, not investments in the future."

Okay, let's accept that this is true. Now can you explain to me how my job drives up prices and puts others out of work?

This genuinely isn't trolling. It's simply that I often see this accusation leveled at hedge funds here on /. but it simply doesn't accord with what I know of the industry.

"Obama is likely to be somewhat less friendly to hedge funds and private equity companies, since they drive up prices and reduce jobs and wages for the profit of individuals."

I work for a hedge fund (algorithmic trading focused on managed futures and exchange-traded derivatives); previously I worked for a global macro fund. Care to explain precisely how I'm "driving up prices and reducing jobs and wages"?

Because I honestly have no idea how that could happen.

of the journey available here, courtesy of The Atlantic.

"Yet in many EU countries it is illegal to walk down the street if you shield your face from public view."

Quite apart from the fact that this is manifestly a case of an American making up bullshit to feel better about the fact that he doesn't live in Europe, precisely why do you think that not being allowed to walk down a French street with a balaclava is infringing on your personal freedoms? Don't you think that your personal freedoms should to be balanced against the freedom of others to not be intimidated by mask-wearing weirdos?

Aught for naught.

Back, and to the left... Back, and to the left... Back, and to the left...

"Done "correctly," HFC is bad for society because, like insider trading done "correctly," it specifically screws the "have nots" to benefit the "haves.""

I'm as critical of the industry in which I work as anyone, but I do feel the need to point this out: HFT is *nothing* like insider trading. If you don't understand why there's a difference between the two, I doubt there's a useful discussion to be had here.

"Yes, the screwed-up trades are a problem, but those are the side-show. The real problem is that those with the ability to do HFC can use that ability to "jump ahead in line" and screw those who don't have this ability."

Again, nope. The time-advantage aspect of HFT is no different to the first traders who made use of the telegraph system to run arbitrage strategies between Chicago and New York.

I do understand that the "high-frequency" aspect of high-frequency trading is often emphasized by the media but, as someone who's worked for the most successful HFT prop fund in Europe for six years, I can safely say that the "high-frequency" aspect is vastly overrated. Absolutely none of the successful strategies with which I'm familiar depend crucially on sub-microsecond (or even millisecond) latency. Rather, they're all based on extremely sophisticated combinations of statistical analysis, DSP, machine learning, and human intuition.

I know there's a good chance it's not, but if I had to guess I'd say that you're describing MATLAB down to a tee.