* Posts by Tony Benn

5 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jan 2008

Rogue trader blows sox off control systems

Tony Benn

Mostly the banks fault.

'created fictitious customer accounts to balance the books'

Mmm did we not hear that before somewhere? I'm surprised he was allowed to deal on a hunch as that was 1980's style of trading. Today there is no need ever to take this kind of naked risk as most systems now days maintain a risk free neutral position and futures only offset the underlying position. This is all done in software and some 25% of all world transactions are now fully automated with algorithms. This can soften the blows in all but the worse cases of what the markets can throw back.

I blame the bank they had the technology never to allow this to happen again and as a trader myself taking such large naked risks is pure suicide. Of course there will always be bad trades but the losses should be manageable. As someone posted before no one though would have said a word if this trade had paid off and thats the life of a trader.

As sure as the sun will come up there will be more institutions in serious troubles in the weeks months ahead. They had leveraged risks against the plateau of stability in the markets between 2005 and late 2007 then the stability snapped across all world markets which started back last September. From gold, oil, stocks, housing, euro/dollar pound/dollar all putting in extreme levels not seen for several decades and they are hedging like mad hoping it will come back to normal. Odds are it wont and there will be more funds throwing in the towel very soon.

Computer system suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

Tony Benn

BSOD

They were all very bloody lucky. It could have been far worse

BSOD....Blue Scream of Death!

Some years ago while traveling back from Barbados our plane was about half way back to the Heathrow UK and everyone settled down for the night flight. Suddenly without warning the engines cut to a tick over and the plane went into a VERY fast decent. So fast the cabin lights came back up bright and emergency lights lit along the floor and door exits. There was chaos on the plane while we dropped some 20,000ft in about 2 mins. I dont know how low we got to the sea but via a full moon i could see the wave tops so i guess less then 10,000ft.

Whatever the reason after some considerable delay the captain announced there was a technical glitch and we could not continue. This led to speculation that we could end up ditchin in the middle of the atlantic! Whatever we limped back at no more then 10,000ft at 200knots with the engines on very low power which took 9 hours to get to Trinidad as Barbados had no equipment to help with this type of problem. We spent the weekend in Trinidad while they fixed the plane. Someone may been on that flight with me but its not documented anywhere. However i overheard a conversation at the airport it was a computer problem that showed as an alarm for the engines.

Join the army, get your ID pinched - MoD laptop goes AWOL

Tony Benn

Heads should roll!

I fail to see why CD's of data ever need to go in the post. They cant suggest for one second its more secure then sending it over the net with encryption. I mean heck we can all download a couple of gigs worth over night now so whats the problem? Laptops should NEVER hold a database of sensitive stuff unless essential and then it must be at least a complex 16 + character password and encrypt the entire disk plus bios locks. USB memory cards and sticks should be banned from containing any public persons data...........period. They must lose hundreds of these things a week and most are FAT32 and open.

Those that need access to data on a large public scale should only do it via a centralized server with a couple of layers of VPN. Then if a lappy goes missing there is nothing on it at all to worry about its just a dumb box.

Yahoo! backs! OpenID!

Tony Benn

...can't take any more.

Its all getting too much. Maybe just have eyeball scan instead but after a few beers you cant log in to surf anywhere with bloodshot eyes:)

Evesham Technology goes into liquidation

Tony Benn

gone for repair...

"sent my PC to Evesham for repair on 24th December which they have received and signed for, i still have not paid for it as was due to be paid 12 months later (Feb 2008), will i get it back repaired? Will i still have to pay?"

Differed payment means its gone out to finance company so Evesham has already been paid for your machine unless they formed their own finance which is unlikely. If the new company takes on full customer base with the warranty liability you might get you machine back repaired and then your liable to make the payments you signed for. If you don't then everything maybe "written off" even though there is a high chance the finance company may come looking for payments. If i was you if you don't hear something in a week from Evesham or so then contact the finance company and let them know you don't have the PC as effectively they own it. However everything seems up in the air to me having read this thread and it could be subject to full liquidation of all on site physical assets. Just make sure you have proof of return and keep any letters safe.