geekpondering's comments

It's linked at the bottom of the article, and that's the link that Dunedan provided.

I move around a lot and have run into all kinds of weirdness when it comes to CPAP stuff. Any time you establish a new doc, if your CPAP prescription is more than 1-2 years old you need to do another sleep study, so I think I've done 6 different sleep studies over the years.

The other thing to remember about CPAP is that it's not just the machine, you have to get replaceable supplies - masks, air tubes, etc every so often.

While not nearly as bad as linked blog entry, my worst situation was with Kaiser in the SF Bay Area. I had gotten a CPAP through them and then a few years later moved to a different part of the Bay. I set up a new doc also with Kaiser, but the records don't easily transfer and since it's a different Kaiser respiratory team, I had to (of course) do another sleep study AND go through a CPAP orientation on how to use a CPAP despite me already owning and using a CPAP and just needing a new mask, etc.

There's occasional talk in Japan for dumping Kanji in favor of Hiragana and Katakana only but Kanji makes it easier to read the written word: 1) Japanese doesn't use spaces between words (and the language is structured in a way to make it difficult to decide what is a 'word') - you'll sometimes see signs in Japan that use Katakana spellings for some words that aren't normally katakanized. 2) Japanese would have a TON of homographs if they got rid of Kanji, so determining which word is harder even with some context.

> You're not allowed to say here you only want certain kinds of well off immigrant

Not out loud, anyway. The Dutch have an immigration system that very much benefits well off immigrants (see the 30% rule vs agricultural immigration schemes), but yeah Wilders is considered ultra-right wing for wanting to kick out all the lower class immigrants (saying that they are all "Moroccans" doesn't help matters). Unfortunately despite him saying the quiet part out loud he got 25% of the Dutch voters to agree with him in November.

Yeah, I got yelled at once by JP passport control for coming back after a visa run, mainly because on the entry card I put a residential address (short term stay place) and that I was staying another 90 days.

The three main things JP passport control are looking for are asylum seekers, people over and people that are illegally working under the table and not paying into the Japanese tax/retirement system.

> Exploiting Market Inefficiencies == A More Efficient Market. The whole idea of "buy low, sell high" is exploiting inefficiencies in pricing, which is all HFT's are doing.

There's a difference between pricing inefficiencies and technology inefficiencies. In theory there should be equal access to markets. This is why SEC laws on disclosure exist. When people with greater technological ability can, in effect, toll everyone else, you are eliminating this idea of equal access.

> The HFTs are HIGHLY incentivized to not destabilize the market because they stand to lose a LOT of money if they make a mistake.

So are all traders, but that doesn't stop things like Enron and Lehman Brothers from creating smoking holes in our economy. When you start creating legal fictions and technologies that are barely understood by those that create them, much less those that provide executive oversight, government oversight, or the general public, you are getting into very dangerous waters.

Software only works as long as the assumptions of the programmer stay valid. HFT quants are incentivized to make their companies money, not to protect the market at large. An application on a desktop computer crashing and exhibiting weird behavior isn't a big deal. A HFT process going rogue is going to cost a company millions or billions of dollars at best.

"If Buyer D is still willing to spend $11, how is that perverting the market?"

What if Buyer D isn't willing to spend $11?

"only serves to make a market more efficient"

I would say it's exploiting inefficiencies. That doesn't make the market any more efficient. In fact, given the sizable number of 'computer errors' leading to significant volatility when they occur, HFT is in fact a destabilizing force in the market at times.

I don't think its necessarily a question of how close we are to the singularity. I think it's a question of how close we are to the Orwellian Memory Hole.

HFT doesn't "facilitate transactions".

What is often happening is Seller A wants to sell something for $10. Buyers B, C and D submit an order to buy it for $10. The computer sees this, knows that it might be worth more than $10, and while Buyers B and C get their orders through, the computer buys it out from under Buyer D because their computers are faster. Buyer D now gets a notice that "oh, sorry, that thing you wanted is now $11."

It's the same thing as you overhearing your neighbor saying the Apple Store only has one iPhone left for sale at the Apple Store and, because you have a faster car than your neighbor, you get to the store and buy it and then offer it for resale at a higher price. That's not facilitating a transaction, and it certainly is perverting the market. When the people with the fastest computers and best geographical location get items cheapest, that's not a 'free market'.

Middle-men have classically existed to provide a _service_, adding value to a previously less valuable or more difficult transaction -- wholesalers or retailers. Wholesalers existed to pare down which goods are offered, and existed primarily because smaller retailers couldn't afford to purchase in bulk. Most 'middle men' of these classes have gone away due to the digital age and/or conglomeration. Grocery stores or websites that provide value by having multiple items in the same place that you can pay for all in one financial transaction.

...middle-men that aren't providing any service or benefit to anyone except those that profit from those trades.

These "middle-men" are injecting themselves between buyer and seller to take their cut simply because they have the money, resources, and -- increasingly these days -- the geographic location to beat someone else to the punch.

<pedant>

Edward.

</pedant>

"The price of not having to learn is that you give up control to someone else"

Some people don't see that as a 'cost', which is what many people in the tech industry don't understand at all.