Ho John Lee’s Weblog

On the occasion of the Academy Awards, an interesting video montage featuring faces of famous actresses. via Instapundit 

I’ve noticed that over the past several years, I basically don’t see movies in theaters, except for kids movies. Everything else is either on airplanes, cable, DVD, or online.

• The Kirk Report : Trading Wisdom of William Eckhardt
  “Don’t think about what the market’s going to do; you have absolutely no control over that. Think about … those things you want least to happen and on what your response will be.”
  (tags: trading markets risk management strategy finance investment education)
• Economic Indicators.gov
  Not dead yet! - “The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) has decided to continue the economicindicators.gov website. “
  (tags: us government economy market investment statistics reference data finance)
• Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys
  An interesting attack on encryption keys retained in DRAM memory, which turns out to be less volatile after powering off than disk security designers assumed.
  (tags: security personal computing crypto technology hardware hacks encryption hacking memory privacy research)
• Disk encryption may not be secure enough, new research finds
  Discussion and comments on DRAM encryption key attacks described by Ed Felten’s research group
  (tags: security personal computing crypto technology hardware hacks encryption hacking memory privacy research)
• Cheat Sheet Index
  A collection of programming language cheat sheets.
  (tags: programming software language reference css html javascript php)

• Next-Gen PC Design | Finalists
  A collection of design concepts for future PCs, submitted for a contest sponsored by Microsoft
  (tags: microsoft pc design ubicomp future trends consumer electronics appliances)
• Heavens-Above
  Assorted astronomy info, sunrise, moonrise, current visibility, etc.
  (tags: astronomy science space reference education)
• Illusions to lottolab.org: understanding the ecological basis of complex systems
  A collection of visual illusions of brightness, form, color.
  (tags: visual vision science psychology color perception illusion fun)
• Lessig ‘08 - Change Congress.
  Larry Lessig may run for US congress.
  (tags: us government politics copyright technology law publishing media ideas)
• Alea | Jerome Kerviel: P&L Picture
  A P&L graph excerpted from SocGen’s report on Jerome Kerviel’s future trading.
  (tags: futures trading kerviel socgen risk management culture)
• Progress report of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Societe Generale (PDF)
  SocGen’s report on Jerome Kerviel’s future trading, with details on transactions and counterparties. (In French)
  (tags: futures trading kerviel socgen risk management culture)
• BBC NEWS | S Korea to send ‘kimchi’ to space
  A specially-developed recipe of the much-loved pickled cabbage dish is among several Korean food products approved for the April 2008 mission.
  (tags: korea kimchi food culture space random)

I was thinking about taking a look at tonight’s lunar eclipse, but it turns out that it will be difficult to get a good look from here. The eclipse will last from 7:00 to 7:52pm PST, but moonrise isn’t until 7:42pm PST. By the time it clears the hills, trees and houses, I don’t think there will be much to see from here.

This is sad news - over the weekend, the Namdaemun gate at the center of Seoul was destroyed by fire. The Namdaemun gate is over 600 years old and is designated as the top item on the list of Korean National Treasures. For some perspective for non-Koreans, it’s kind of like hearing that the Statue of Liberty, London Bridge, or the Eiffel Tower burned down over the weekend.

Pictures from the BBC 

Primary elections are Tuesday in California and many other states. I already sent in my mail-in ballot, but if you have one and you didn’t mail it already, you can still take it to a polling location in person to get it counted.

• ta-lib.org - Technical Analysis Library and Software
  Free technical analysis routines in C, C++, Java, and Excel. Includes a wide variety of commonly used indicators
  (tags: technical trading stock futures options analysis excel programming software library finance free)
• Sprout Builder » Home
  Online tool for building Flash widgets.
  (tags: flash web2.0 marketing publishing software services)
• FDIC: Failed Bank List
  List of officially failed banks in the United States. No banks closed in 2005 and 2006, three closed in 2007. One so far in 2008.
  (tags: us bank fdic finance economy insurance risk management)
• Los Angeles Times : A tipping point? “Foreclose me … I’ll save money”
  On homeowners in Southern California, who would rather get foreclosed on their underwater loans.
  (tags: california economy realestate subprime bank finance economics investing housing crisis risk management trends culture)
• Beijing 2008 Q & A: Susan Brownell | Seattle Times Newspaper Blog
  On the culture, business, and politics of the Beijing 2008 Olympics from inside China.
  (tags: china asia beijing politics culture business trends olympics)
• FRB: H.3 Release–Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions–January 31, 2008
  Net banking system reserves turned negative in January 2008?
  (tags: us banking finance monetary policy subprime systemic risk)
• Market Ticker: SPECIAL TICKER EDITION - CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE WATCH IS UP
  Comments on William Ackman’s analysis of bond insurers (MBIA, Ambac), and letter to NY state regulators.
  (tags: subprime mortgage finance economy crisis risk management model)
• cover letter for Pershing Square open source model (PDF)
  Letter from Pershing Square to NY state insurance regulators regarding MBIA, Ambac mortgage exposure.
  (tags: subprime mortgage finance economy crisis risk management model)
• YouSendIt - Pershing Square open source model (subprime exposure)
  Downloadable model of positions held by Ambac and MBIA. Large (>110MB).
  (tags: subprime mortgage finance economy crisis risk management model)
• How to Lose $7.2 Billion: A Trader’s Tale - WSJ.com
  More details on the Jerome Kerviel story. At the start of January 2008 he was actually up by 1.4B euros, but needed to keep the unauthorized trades under wraps, eventually leading to disaster.
  (tags: banking risk management stock futures trading markets culture)