You guys don't seem to understand how modern javascript interpreters work.

If you're going to build a SPA (which it doesn't sound like he is), you should seriously consider AngularJS. "Those who don't know angular are doomed to repeat it." ;P

Linq is the best thing since sliced bread (esp. linq to sql)...imho.

Design by Contract. There's support for it in one of those little extra languages that they fiddle around with, but I'd like to see support (language-level? just a library?) for it in C#.

Just thought I'd offer my take on the corollary. So here's a list of possible online sources and where they fall short (all can be good at times): 1) Articles -- Sometimes not in-depth enough. Often the situation presented in the article is too specific to a particular application. 2) White papers -- Often waaaay too theoretical. 3) Search -- Way too often gives broken links, outdated information, and/or un-relevant (is that a word?) information. 3) Wikis -- One of the better sources, imho. Often incomplete though. 4) Forums -- Any person can say whatever they want. What makes this really bad, though, is that people often don't or refuse to backup their statements (and yes, I can back that up :)). 5) Blogs -- See forums, although here you can get the advantage of finding a true expert who adheres to some type of intellectual and professional integrity. For me it all boils down to this: Writing and publishing a book is still a lot of hard work, so more thought and effort is put into it and the quality of the information is generally higher. This is also true of some books that are published online, although definitely not all.

Maybe at the least we can compare notes sometime.

I understand and agree completely with what you're saying as far as the farming goes. And I agree there is hardly a level playing field (I could give numerous examples that apply to US markets and the individual investor as well). The thing that always bugs me is that more regulations usually actually end up hurting the individual. The restriction of hedge funds to 'sophisticated investors' is a good example. This year has been tough for me in some ways, but I've still managed to make money while "Main Street" has been taking a bath. Why are they taking a bath? Because most people's investment vehicles are only allowed to go long stocks. To make it worse, most mutual funds have limits on the amount of cash they can hold...so the only option is to get into the least losing stock they can. The best option would be to get into cash. The irony in all of this is that the restrictions on investment vehicles are supposed to be there for the protection of "Main Street." I think you're probably right about the sub-prime problem. This may sound cold, but I believe that the debtors are also responsible. That's a tough pill to swallow, but true. The lenders and the debtors deserve each other. My wife and I just put an offer on a house. We didn't even negotiate on the asking price at all, instead we're asking the owners to finance (and at a higher than average rate, I'll add). But I think they're going to sit on it instead...I wouldn't be surprised to get a phone call in 6 months. If they do call, would it really be unethical of me to lower the price? No. They're the ones that decided to take the risk of holding, and they should man-up to the consequences. I was a CS major for awhile in college...then studied numerous other topics (it's been a winding road)...I started programming again about 2 years ago in order to automate my trading (talk about jumping into the deep end). Now, in addition to working on my own trading projects, I also have started doing some freelance programming for others. I try to stick to trading related projects, but occasionally take on other projects. If you're interested maybe we should talk...I've been thinking about looking for a partner to help work on our proprietary trading software.

Actually his post (to which you were replying) was part of a discussion I was carrying on with Thomas George. Let's just go our separate ways here.

To be fair, I must first say that I actually trade for a living and I've been trading for years, so obviously I'm coming from a certain perspective (not feeling good today, so I'm taking it easy). I believe the existing trading does benefit both producer and consumer. How? By providing for orderly price discovery. Without this a loaf of bread might cost $0.99 today and the same loaf $3 tomorrow. The speculators that you seem to think are the problem (of which I might be one I guess), provide the liquidity for those contracts. So if ADM wants to sell their wheat in a month at today's prices but yet Sara Lee isn't buying...that's where the speculator *risks* his money and buys. Of course it can go the other way. The people who owned the shares should get out. They should trade their shares for cash. Especially in the stock market (because of upward bias), people aren't going to short without a good reason. Personally, I mostly trade currencies, so for me you are always in a position. If your long stock, you are short cash, and vice versa. I would be interested to hear what regulations you think might be safe and effective (and I didn't really think you meant tariffs or subsidies) (you already said you don't know, fair enough :-D )...but first an example of a really bad regulatory idea: Some of our politicians have been talking about changing the capital gains taxes. The thinking is that private equity firms would then be paying their fair share to the government (not a bad goal). The problem with this "solution", that I see, is that doing so would hurt everyone who has been investing...including retired people. So when they go to pull money out of their 401k, IRA, pension, whatever...they now have less money than they would've had when the rates were lower. This doesn't strike me as a great idea in the current climate.

modified on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:10 PM

Lol. Must've hit a nerve there. Sorry that I happen to believe in reasoned discussion. My bad. I'll answer your question and call it done then. Of course, every country *attempts* to manipulate prices (usually through subsidies and tariffs). But this doesn't mean it's a good thing. And if the original comment we're talking about is correct (and I'm not saying it is)...basically that regulation would cause scarcity...at the very least we'd have a lot more complaining than we do now, at worst riots, there are lot of other possible unpleasant scenarios I'm sure.

Oh, and you didn't answer the question either... of what you think will happen if the government did create scarcity. I'll be fair and answer yours, though...obviously none of those are pretty. But I do still ask what makes you think they can be prevented?

And what makes you think those things can be prevented?

I take your remark as sarcastic. Therefore I have to ask...if he's right, what do you think the consequences would be? If the government started telling people "you can't buy this and that...or only so much," I don't think it would be pretty.

I agree with you concerning short term movements being driven by speculation. However, I don't think regulation would help. If anything I think it would make things worse. I think there's actually a lot of credence though, to the idea that electronic trading has had a lot to do with the volatility we're seeing...but I don't think it's the culprit in any way that can really be "fixed." The system will have to adapt somehow. As for oil prices...they have been in an uptrend for a long time now, ever since it broke $70 at the least, hardly short-term. I can't speak for other commodities, but I would bet we'd see the same there, except for lumber. I know gold has been going up for at least 6 years now. I agree with you on your other two points. I'll just say that I'm religious myself (Christian), but I can see the problem clear as day and believe it's something that needs to be addressed. As for how all of this integrates with my theism, well, I've got a unique theological perspective on that which I'll hold off.

(started off as a reply to one post, but ended up being my thoughts in general) The trading of commodities on exchanges happens for a reason, which is to allow for the smooth operating of business. I think if you eliminated the exchanges we would have big big problems in the form of price instability (much worse than it is now), and I'm sure you're aware that at settlement commodities do settle for physical delivery. As far as supply and demand not being the driver, I think we can be fairly certain it is, especially for commodities other than oil. Witness the food riots in other countries. When it comes to oil I think OPEC has A LOT to do with it. However, individuals would rather blame politicians and politicians would rather blame capitalists (corporations, speculators)....all because there's nothing that anyone can do about OPEC. Our politicians are constantly proposing this and that solution on various problems, most of which would be ineffective (for one thing, people don't understand that markets are bigger than governments). They have to propose these solutions though, because it makes people think they are doing something. To be fair, that is the function of an elected official in our country. I think you're right when it comes to the solution, but that pill is evidently too hard for most people to swallow. It seems that even some very bright people here would rather look to someone else to solve their problems (which will never work) rather than take personal responsibility. As an aside, I've come to realize over the last few years that this isn't a trait unique to the US...unfortunately it's just a human trait :( One last note. Whenever I hear/read conversations about pollution/global warming/climate change, I always think about the problem of population growth. I've read some arguments that this problem is far worse than the other problem and that it will kill us all much faster than global warming. When you consider that the concerns about population growth are based mostly on solid, scary, mathematics and not speculation...and also that increases in population growth are certainly contributing to the pollution problem ...Well, it always strikes me as interesting about how people never talk about it. just my .0001592 of a barrel of oil ;P

Lol. A little rough, but you make same very good points. If you aren't in business for yourself, you should be. You've got the hard-nosed attitude necessary to make your own way. Most people prefer the safety of whining and complaining.

As a former educator in the US (NOT in programming), I think the problem is much more pervasive than just CS. I won't get into the ugly details X|

Maybe I should move to India and set up shop! ;P

I might be able to use ExecuteAssembly, but it's going to take a bit more work than I want. I'll try it out. BW

I'm using AppDomain.CreateInstance() Then I'm unwrapping the ObjectHandle, and calling Form.Show(). Pretty much every example I've been able to find hasn't dealt with creating UI objects in another AppDomain. I'm pretty sure this would work fine, if it was just a plain old object. BW (Looking at that link now...)