The lure of trash

Or tranche. The 'oops' is still there. Too, ETFs now are a huge complicating factor. Everyone has seen them only on the upside where they provide a multiplying effect. On the down side, look for squashing to be huge.

This Quora question applies to the theme: Is-Wall-Street-working-on-a-way-to-bundle-student-debt-currently-at-1-5-trillion-dollars-into-tranches-to-sell-to-private-investors-all-over-the-world-like-they-did-with-real-estate-CDOs-prior-to-the-2008-meltdown.

Those finance types, they have to keep with their creativity. Some of these are PhD physicists who ought to know better.

Remarks: Modified: 11/29/2017

11/29/2017 --

Oops abound

No post here does not mean that there is not an interest. I see 'oops' all of the time. Some of these almost make me want to write something; it is certain that the urge is there.

So, this week, I read a WSJ op-ed. We can look it up. They have a guy who writes about cars on a regular basis.

This time? He had a mea culpa. I was surprised, too, but really had thought this in the back of my mind. Some dude parks his Mercedes, for a few days, at an airport. He goes off. It was not that long, less than a week.

Heck, I do that many times. Leaving my car at a hotel (park and fly sort of thing) while I jet off somewhere. My car has always been ready when I returned. Except, last year, in the spring, some ant, in the flying stage, got settled in the door's insulation (driver's side). I did not see this. So, plenty of the burgers flew off when I hit the Interstate. But, then I noticed these little things. And, sure, enough, they had established a colony. A quick trip to the car wash took care of most of this. Otherwise, I just picked them off as I saw then for awhile. Eventually, no ants.

This dude? Dead car. Could not open the door. Why? Battery drained by the electronics put in by silly valley. What gives?

Yes, silly valley? But, auto engineers are supposed to have their feet on the ground, on the tires. Features that are not really necessary.

I'll get back to this. But, it does show how we have taken several wrong turns. Silly valley. Say that a lot. Source of oops. Want me to do a litany?

Remarks: Modified: 09/19/2017

09/19/2017 --

Ten years

Ten years ago, I started this blog one month after I started the truth engineering blog. What precipitated this blog was the 'potemkin' even of the 787 project. With hoopla, a plane was rolled out and touted as being ready to fly. However, the test flight started about two years later.

Why would I have cared? I was watching a local subcontractor who had, formerly, been a Boeing site. The main notion was to have sections that were complete and joined together in Seattle (or wherever the final assembly was to be done). And, arrival of the pieces and first flight was supposed to be a matter of day. Nice concept. It eventually worked out.

But, up-front mouthing off got in the way of engineering. For a long time, this went on. Once the source of the issue was removed and an engineer took over. The program made progress and got into the sky.

And so, that was the end of that, right? Well, for the most part, downstream glitches popped up, but that is normal (out to be expected). The press (harpies) seems to not understand undecidability (which applies to any decision process, not just logic).

In fact, look at the idiots doing business press. They (and investors) want management to forecast to the dime future monetary concerns. What? These are smart folk being the dumbest ones on the planet. Guess what? As the 787 issues were resolved, the financial problems came to fore. Oh Lord.

Myself? I felt like Rip Van Winkle as I had not really paid close attention (for many reasons). So, there are enough posts here that lay out the issues. And, these are not resolved. The Fed (another blog that started later) brought their largess to bear, leaving themselves with a load of toxic crap that still has not been handled.

How to do this? We sure would like to watch this unfold. Also, big Ben tried to taper. That caused a tantrum. Investors? To me, it's like kids in a candy store. Where can we get a mature economy defined?

Given that people err, the 7'oops7 name stuck. Anything complicated has associated error. Business likes to talk risk management. Oh yes, those guys were talking in the 2007/8 timeframe that we would never have another serious downturn. Oh sure, everyone has forgotten? Well, guess what happened soon after that type of bragging.

Yet, there were not perps. None. Fortunately, the press gave us some snapshots of the rogues at a table. They were cowering before Congress, looking for assistance.

In any case, this graphic shows Wikipedia edits starting in 2005. The blogs started in 2007. And, that activity (requiring lots of research) took time. Then, later, the notion of re-looking at American history came to fore, with the added framework of real people who were here through it all. That, folks, needs attention.

To see specifics, go to this post on truth engineering (Ten years).

Remarks: Modified: 05/13/2017

05/13/2017 --

self-determination

Below are some thoughts, on the state of things computing. And, I have two solutions that seem to be timely.

Recently, I re-looked at Javascript and was impressed. Why? It felt like being with the Lisp Machine decades ago, That was a powerful environment (the best was having two cards - Lisp and Unix); and, lots of development came thus. 

• Hence, I wrote this: Code or not.  Be sure to follow the pointer about the 3D graphic engine. My proposal is a truth engine (with a corresponding work bench - one of my labs.  
• The adaptives - I had the opportunity to experience the results of the newer methods. The first bullet concerns issues that are very much needing attention. The WSJ, recently, had an op-ed about machine learning (et al). One MIT guy was quoted that we do not know. Ah, good professor, we do. Ever listen to an autodidact?
• A concept needing some attention deals with our psyche. The information would very well apply to the topics of this post: childhood determination. 

Finally, I wrote this after reading Adam's answer.

 ----- From Quora ------

Adam D'Angelo's answer to How he validated Quora? prompted this thought. I am 1G/2G, by choice. Not that I have not attempted to fit in. However, everywhere I looked it was insanity (yes). Quora stands out for reasons that we can discuss. Codacademy, too, was a fresh breath of air. FB? Not. 3rd Life? Perhaps, Blogger? Great (as cohort of Quora). Wikipedia? Needless to say, the epitome of a lot of things. CMS (Joomla, Drupal, Concrete5, and a whole lot more)? Not (to be discussed).

Aside: One reaction to the rapid rush to change was that I could see the security (and other) downfalls. It’s that other where we need a discussion (Carl, et al). Hence, I settled, for stability, on Linux and non-parametric methods. But, I am now bring in javascript to my HTML/CSS sites (TGSoc lab). As I do this, I’ll blog/discuss the philosophical issues.

The viewpoint? 0, 200, 400, 800. O? Of course, ‘tis now. 800? John and his cronies (this covered a large part of Europe), 200? That bit which created the flyover country. 400? Ah, the key (entry here, colonial times). This all applies (in a sense of symmetry, to this discussion).

So, two points related to various types of bifurcations.

• My decades of software engineering dealt with highly specific problems, though we, of course, used hi-falutin’ mathematics an’d logics. The thing was that we were driven by users who had to do something. The main problem was managing expectations (divergence twixt a smart human’s look and what is possible via computing - very much applies to deep learning - Google, et al, okay?). Word to introduce? SEI (look it up).
• Then came along agile, etc. This was driven by the match up of the human mind with the computer. It led, so far, to the muddy cloud (we can pick this apart and see where are the problems). At the same time, a generation came about that could exploit the situation. Guess what, fellas? That 400 is important (take Harvard, first example of youngsters rebelling - of a certain nature - we really need to study these - say, animal house of 1680 at that esteemed institution). So, the world ate up the stuff from the generation (me? only in part, remember 1G/2G in computing - at the leading edge in mathematics and modeling - in my mind ;>). Now, lots of this new computing reinforced imagination. Some of it helped memory (that is common). The driver, though, was the young buck perturbation spaces. Oh yes, we can talk the economic theory, too. Then, they pushed this off on the world. The result? Well, it’s far from a sustainable state (DOD, you goofed, admit it). Too, the young bucks made oodles of money (Stallman can be used as a counterpoint).

Now, Quora emphasizes thought. That is why you see the convergence (of course, the control via rules helps). Some of the answers have been superb. It’s chief competitor is Wikipedia that has the best accumulated summary of a topic that one can find, many times. Note, Wiki has no ads.

Now, it is, in part, the influence by the commercial minds that screwed things up. I can tell you tales. We need to support engineering, too (I agree with the funny tie guy, science is applied engineering - I said that before him). The computer will be a partner. ‘Enuf (Knowledge-based engineering - Wikipedia - old version, see corresponding sections on the Talk page).

And, so, humans are going to drive things. Our abilities are being ignored in the mad dash after all things automated. Our planet grieves. That was an aside. It is great to have the user remain in control. How are we going to do this? Well, I can relate to that given my experience in the 12 years since leaving an advanced computing position (retirement). We all can (and should) participate. Quora has been a great help in the matter. There are, no doubt, other examples.

Now, about code? Yes, everyone ought to. But, it needs to go along with our mental states. And, that is not borg’ing or altering the brain, necessarily. No, psychether is how it happens, in part. It’s more than Zen and such. However, to each her/his interpretation (that is the key, maintaining truth for oneself - autodidacts will be able to help show the way)

---- end ----

And so, let the work begin.

Remarks: Modified: 04/27/2017

04/27/2017 --

We let the genie out of the bottle

This is our first post of 2017. Lots going on. President Trump is now two months in office. How he is doing depends upon the person looking. One big story is that Russia paid for trolls to put out fake news.

You know, we let the genie out of the bottle. If we could go back 20 years, and given what we know, would we have done the internet release any different? I have written that this old guy was appalled at the lackadaisical manner in which it was thrown out to the public. The taxpayer funded its development. Ah, so many discussion to have there.

So, oops all around, don't you think?

But, the computer, in general, is still a source of all sorts of oops. So, we'll get back to that. I have been doing Quora for almost two years now. It has a question-answer format, but it also supports blogs. So, I'll be doing a blog there and here.

A question of late: If the US lost billions in the housing bubble burst of '07 and '08 (I lost 2/3 of my 401k), but it was all on paper, where did the money go? The link is to my answer. I have talked about that event here and in the Fedaerated blog. So, here  are some of those posts there.

Cheshire multiple (2014), Magical multiplier (2015), Let them eat cake (2015), Beyond your wildest dreams (2015), Dampening the magical multiple (2015) 

So, the computer is misused by the ca-pital-sino. And, part of that configuration uses (guess what?) the internet. Ah, yes genies were let out of the bottle. And, it was under Clinton's time of reign.

Posts in related blogs: Genie out of the bottle and Bottles and genies.

Remarks: Modified: 03/31/2017

03/31/2017 --