An interesting message board thread

This sounds relevant:

There is a physical switch that cuts the connection between the PC in
> the "lock up" and the network connection to the rest of the world.
> When certain time comes the PC as allowed to communicate with the rest
> of the world by someone flipping the physical switch.
>
> There are actually a few competing companies trying to get the same
> financial news information from the "lock up" to the outside in the
> automated trading world as fast as possible after the switch is
> flipped, so the milliseconds count.
>
> I was passively involved in some of the discussions regarding this,
> and the partial solution to this was to insert a hub on each side of
> the physical cut-off switch to keep the link state as up, there are
> all sorts of other issues related to this that are unrelated to Linux
> itself and are not being mentioned.

Just to be clear...

...I'm still not convinced the answer lies in the lock-ups.

A question for my readers re CEP News, Vigilant Futures, NTKN, Jed Capital

So we know that there was a CEP News / Vigilant Futures connection and a Need to Know News (NTKN) / JED Capital connection.

If you've been reading faithfully, you also know about two other mystery news organizations now accessing government lock-ups: World Business Press (wpbonline.com) and Econolive.

Are either of these connected to a proprietary futures trading business?

Please post your information in the comments or contact me at ann.brocklehurst@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance,

Ann

Things that make you say hmm... ( or WTF!!!!)

A letter from the UK Office of National Statistics

Dear colleague

Mobile phones and other appliances at ONS lock-in briefings

As you know, long-established practice at ONS lock-in briefings is for journalists to be instructed to switch off their mobile phones and similar devices and place these on the table where they can be seen.

We have decided that these measures are no longer sufficiently secure. We will introduce the following procedure with effect from 20 October 2009:

• Journalists will be required to put their phones/appliances in a labelled box specific to their agency (provided by ONS)
• Before locking the room and handing out briefing material, the ONS media relations officers will lock the boxes in the media relations office safe which is situated outside the briefing room
• At 9.30, the media relations officers will return the box to that agency’s desk and journalists will reclaim their appliances.

This is line with common practice in lock-in briefings elsewhere within government. This approach is the least bureaucratic and time-wasting method while at the same time the most secure for your property – because the phones will be in a locked safe.

No journalist or observer should have a mobile telephone in their possession during a briefing. We will take it on trust that all such appliances have been placed in the secure boxes. Anyone found not to have declared a phone will be in breach and their agency will be suspended immediately for an indefinite period. If people do not wish to hand in their phones they should not bring them to lock-in briefings. There will be no exceptions.

Yours faithfully,

David Marder
Head of Media Relations

Related: Bloomberg article from this summer on suspicious trading of Canadian Dollar.

Anyone heard of Fermin Englehart?

Ted Hastings rewrites Geosign history (sort of)

Here's a fun quote where he admits he was clueless:

Hastings had joined Geosign at the beginning of that year as president and had no knowledge that search engine giant Google was about to pull the plug on its business model.

Google was cracking down on a process known as search-engine arbitrage in which website publishers were making money from advertisers, yet steering readers to sites with little content besides ads.

Besides, Hastings wanted to do everything possible to help his major new investor, American Capital Strategies Ltd., recoup some of its money. They were the first people he called. He told them they could either support him or rush to Guelph to see what was going on, but that would only create more panic, he said.

He talked them into giving him a window while he created a new business plan. Then he began focusing on the positive. He had some strong partners, including Yahoo and several online properties. But he still had to go through the gut-wrenching process of letting half of Geosign’s 240 employees go.

Well, if Ted now admits he didn't know what was going on, how likely is it that the American Capital people knew? Not likely at all.

Looking for info. on Vigilant Futures?

Seems like this is the place to learn all about it.

Will answer emails and comments on weekend

Apologies for the delay. Things have been a bit hectic lately. Ann

How to upload videos from new 5G nano to your computer

Apple instructions are here including what you have to check in iTunes to get your iPod Nano to show up as an attached device and then to copy your recorded videos.

I don't want you to waste as much time on this as I did.

Local search, newspapers, new media models etc.

Is it just me or is anyone else noticing Yelp and Examiner.com showing up a lot more frequently in Google searches?

I'm seeing Examiner articles and Yelp discussion forums ranking on page one quite often, and I never noticed that before.

Anyone know why I'm getting quite a few hits re Geosign and American Capital?

Has something happened?

Sept. 28 - Comments are no closed. Too much teasing, not enough action. The end.

Yet another reason to hate Twitter

I have been locked out of my Twitter account (DogTwitterer) for what seems like forever.

When I tell Twitter that I've forgotten my password, they send me a password reset email which sends me to this screen:


I then fill in my new password, verify it and click change. The exact same screen reappears.

If I click login, after changing my password, and try to log in with my new password, I get a message that says, "Wrong username/email and password combination."

I have done this several times on several different occasions with new emails sent to me each time. It never works. Twitter has no technical support to speak of, which is yet another reason to hate it.

Can anyone help this Twitter hater get back into hateful Twitter?

CEP News, NTKN and high freqency trading

High Frequency Trading is apparently what CEP News, Vigilant futures, NTKN and Jed Capital were/are up to -- or some variation thereof. Time to get NTKN booted from the lockups, I'd say. And where's World Business Press these days? And who's its trading "partner?" Vigilant Futures?

Vigilant Futures funded CEP News

Confirmed by Vigilant Futures director Arvind Ramanathan in a telephone conversation yesterday.

Both he and Marco Gomez worked together at Refco and Gomez also worked at Vigilant Futures before he started CEP News.