Archive for February, 2009

Microsoft AutoRun Fix

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Microsoft has finally addressed the problem I described here and and released an official update to let you really disable AutoRun. (via The Register.)

The Formula That Killed Wall Street

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Wired tracks down the actual mathematical formula used by the investment bankers and credit rating agencies to wreck the economy.

Maybe it’s unfair to blame David X. Li, who did warn that his formula was being used inappropriately. (On the other hand, he did say it was “better than nothing”, which seems not to have been the case.) Probably if the Gaussian copula function did not exist, the whiz kids would have found something else.

An Illustrated TARP

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Greg Newton dug up a series of photos that seems to do a nice job of explaining the system.