bvan

Impressive

So far, the biggest contribution to financial markets has been hype and promises. I expect this will eventually dissipate into disappointment for most.

Not to be too cheeky, but take javascript out to the woodshed and I expect a marked improvement in mental health all around.

Property insurance and health or life insurance are very different markets.

If insurance was very profitable ‘in the US’, top-tier insurers would not be leaving states like Florida and California. There is a reason why they decide to no longer cover wildfire losses or hurricane losses. In the case of Florida, rampant fraud has turned the market into a basket-case.

You assume it’s bullshit. Difference.

Without insurance, we’d be living in much different circumstances. Just consider parts of the world where insurance is just not available to much of the population.

Insurance works on the basis of (a) quantifying risk and (b) charging fairly for the protection. In the long-term, getting better at (a) and consequently, (b), is in everybody’s interest. For far too long, certain risk covers have been under-charged. At the end of the day, difficulty in finding affordable insurance, or any insurance at all, tells you something about the level of risk and the ability of insurers to charge appropriately for it. Regulators are often way behind the curve, to the detriment of insurers and consumers.

Whatever happened to the Jtagulator? It no longer seems to be available.

Thanks for that reference. Very useful.

Such a neat story.

BASIC opened the door to computing for a great many people. It usually gets bashed by (a) academics or (b) CS students who have not yet had any productive, real-world, development experience. I know many folks who started with BASIC and went on to become excellent programmers/developers.

At the end of the day, what matters is the end-product. Your users don’t care what programming language or tech you used to solve their problem.

Should have used ChatGPT to generate this. A bit of a word salad.

While very impressive, the latest AI craze is a huge distraction. In fields where original research and discovery is key, AI will for the foreseeable future have little marginal impact. My 2 cents. Canadian.

This is a fantastic resource, actually.

These animations are just phenomenal - best I’ve seen by far.

Hey look, proper documentation! Even has clear IP classification in front and revision history! How standards have fallen…

A catastrophe is not synonymous with a black swan event. Your friendly insurance company estimates the probability of catastrophic losses on a regular basis.

Very impressive. Great job.

I would look at Financial institutions’ IT groups. Lots of mediocre SQL query tinkering out there and having an experienced SQL person around can be gold. Think banks, pension funds, insurance companies, not fintech/insurtech. In Chicago, AON has a very significant presence (reinsurance/insurance broker).

All involved have clearly demonstrated the lack of credibility in self-governance or the ability to make big-boy decisions. All reassurances from now on will sound hollow.

Watch mechanics are fascinating. If only software was developed with such care and accuracy..

Yes, please.

What happened to jtagulator? I would have thought this would have been included as a go-to JTAG tool.

Very good essay. The new cathedrals are being build on very loose foundations these days.

If you’re going to take in your hand luggage, be discreet about it and don’t brag. In most people’s hands it’s a totally harmless device anyway. Most owners don’t have the patience or skills to learn how to use it effectively.

Great article. Much of these things were still very relevant in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Today, I had to create a couple of handwritten reference index cards. Went to the trouble of finding a ruler (remember those things?) to cleanly underline my headings. It was a wonderful feeling.

No sympathy for textbook publishers at all.

Those were great books. Also, the regular column on math/physics in the Game Developer magazine - forget the name of the author.