Exchanges and HFTs versus internalizers

A plan to limit internalization and market fragmentation. I guess the HFTs are for it so that they can see more order flow, but I really do think it's a win.

Open-source tools for Windows server management

How useful!

A design document for Plan 9

Read it here. So much fun.

How to fix IBM

RXC gives some ideas. It's not pretty.

Resetting the root password on OpenBSD

Just had to do this. My first time booting in to single user mode. I feel like a big boy. Thanks to Geeklog for holding my hand.

Reboot the server

At boot> prompt type boot -s to boot into single user mode: boot> boot -s

Next you will see a message as follows:
Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh:

Just hit [Enter] key to load sh shell.

Next mount / and /usr file system in read-write mode:
# mount -uw /
# mount /usr

Finally set or change the password for root user, enter:
# passwd

Press CTRL+D to boot into multiuser mode or just reboot server:
# reboot


Improved GC in .NET 4/4.5.1

I'm a little late to the show, but this is a good article for those who wish to review the interactions between workstation/server and concurrent/background/regular garbage collection.

CPAN Testers - Platforms needed

The Perl community needs some help folks - here's the article.

During CPAN Day, unsurprisingly, there were quite a number of CPAN Testers reports (37764 in 1 day, which although 10k higher than the average, wasn't the highest we've seen in a day, that was 47929 back in January). One aspect of which I wanted to see was, how many different OSes were being tested? The subject also cropped on the mailing list, thanks to Dean Hamstead, as to which OSes are undertested, which we would really love to see more reports for. Of the testing that has been done over the last few months, the following popular OSes could use a bit more testing. So if you have a spare box and are looking to get involved with CPAN Testers, one of the following would be very gratefully appreciated:

• Solaris
• Irix
• Windows (Cygwin)
• NetBSD
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD

I'm getting my Cygwinsmokers back into working order, and am working on the BSD angle. Will gladly run Solaris on SPARC given the hardware.

Object::Util, a useful module

Perl indistinguishable from rubbish

Poor Perl. You really do look like line noise sometimes.

This pilot fish is working his first job as a web developer -- and it's also the first time he isn't in an office full of fellow techies.

"I was teaching myself Perl, and needed to print out some code," says fish. "I printed it, and when I went to the printer, the output tray was empty. . . .

SQL unit testing?

Haven't used it yet, but it looks like it could be good.

Control Spy

Control Spy is a neat little tool to help you see how Windows controls work. You can see styles, send messages, etc.

Control Spy is a tool that helps developers understand common controls: how to apply styles to them, and how they respond to messages and notifications. Using Control Spy, you can immediately see how different styles affect the behavior and appearance of each control, and also how you can change the state of each control by sending messages.

Wedbush fights back against FINRA

About time.

On August 18, Finra, through its Department of Market Regulation and Department of Enforcement, filed a complaint against Wedbush Securities alleging deficiencies in its policies, procedures and controls related to its market access operations from January 2008 until August 2013. In a counterstrike against the equity market regulator, Wedbush said that it believes that its risk management controls and supervisory procedures in the area of market access were reasonably designed to achieve compliance with evolving regulatory requirements, and that they were consistent with the rules and guidance provided by FINRA.

Why bother having laws, when we can have regulations that no one understands, including the regulators themselves?

Bye bye Ballmer

Here are some humorous quotes.

The dangers of readonly fields in C#

Jon Skeet!

Understand The X Windows System

A lovely introduction. HT to OSNews.

Settlement and bitcoins

An interesting explanation of how trading and settlement works, and some ideas on how Bitcoins could make that better.

Backup, backup, backup. And not to Amazon, if you're on Amazon.

A terrifying story.

Code Spaces had replicated services and backups, but those were all apparently controllable from the same panel and, thus, were summarily destroyed. The company says that some data still remains, and it's working with customers as best it can to provide access to what's left.

This is why I use tapes.

Lessons learned from mainframe usage

An excellent overview of what learning to program on a mainframe was like. GDGs for source control, oh my. This comment on what you needed to do to get terminal time is so excellent:

My junior year I didn't yet have keys to the building (I got them senior year so I could have office hours for the business-school freshmen I was teaching FORTRAN - that never made sense to me either...), so we worked out the following: unlock a window in the terminal room. Climb onto the first-floor roof of the student services building. Cross that to the sciences building. Climb the ladder to the astronomy observing platform on the top of the building. Go in that door, down the hall, out the window onto the roof *again*, then in through the terminal room window.

Looking to log in to SourceForge via OpenID

Looks like they're trying to phase out support, but for now go to https://sourceforge.net/account/login.php?openid

Also posted this on Webapps.SE in case anyone knows more.

Security problems in Unix screensavers

You crash the screensaver, the computer unlocks. Really? Apparently yes. And major distros are making easily crashable screensavers.

Rollbacks important

Rollbacks are important in my business. It's pretty astonishing to me how difficult they are, or impossible, on mobile devices.

How to sell on Gumoad

Quite useful if you're looking to start a business on the side.