Dienstag, 25. Oktober 2011

< The Matrix has got you. >

New Scientist has written an article about a nice study from the ETH Zurich, that shows how interconnected the global capitalistic network we live in has become.

Small teaser from the paper, page 6:


In detail, nearly 4/10 of the control over the economic value of TNCs in the world is held, via a complicated web of ownership relations, by a group of 147 TNCs in the core, which has almost full control over itself. The top holders within the core can thus be thought of as an economic “super-entity” in the global network of corporations. A relevant additional fact at this point is that 3/4 of the core are financial intermediaries.


Here is the article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html

and the study itself:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf

Freitag, 21. Oktober 2011

< dlsym(), ISO, C++, gimme a break >

Today, while trying to implement a simple class that can dynamically load new C++ classes into a running program using dlopen() and dlsym() on Ubuntu 11.04 using g++ 4.5.2, I came across this error:

algorithm.cc: In static member function ‘static algo::algorithm& algo::algorithm::load(const std::string&)’:
algorithm.cc:24:67: error: ISO C++ forbids casting between pointer-to-function and pointer-to-object

Couldn't be clearer, could it? According to ISO, there is no way you can convert a pointer-to-object into a pointer-to-function - PERIOD! But wait! We can fix that by adding four simple green lines (comments not counted):

#include "algo/algorithm.h" 
#include <assert.h> 
#define dlsym __gimme_a_break__ 
#include <dlfcn.h> 
#undef dlsym 
#include <string>

// redeclare dlsym to be a function returning a function
// pointer instead of void *
extern "C" void *(*dlsym(void *handle, const char *symbol))();

algo::algorithm &
algo::algorithm::load(const std::string &algo)
{
    // to at least get the illusion of safety...
    assert(sizeof(void *) == sizeof(void (*)()));
    std::string nm = "libalgo-" + algo + ".so";
    void *lib = dlopen(nm.c_str(), RTLD_NOW);
    assert(lib != 0);
    algo::algorithm *(*mk)() =
        reinterpret_cast<algo::algorithm *(*)()>(dlsym(lib, "make"));
    algo::algorithm *a = mk();
    assert(a != 0);
    return *a;
}   // load()


Voilà, everyone is happy again (except the language advocates maybe)...

Freitag, 7. Oktober 2011

< Eurozone Banking Stresstest >

Breakingviews has done it's own interactive banking stress test, but with government bonds marked to market:

http://www.breakingviews.com/credible-eu-bank-tests-need-a-higher-pass-mark/1609896.article

In the worstcase scenario (all of the PIIGS countries needing a really short haircut) and under the current Basel II accord, 53 banks would fail the test. I don't know how meaningful the results are, but it is still fun to play around with ;-)

Mittwoch, 5. Oktober 2011

< IWF, EFSF, ESM, WTF?!? >

http://www.openeurope.org.uk/docs/draftesmtreaty.pdf

I won't comment this draft treaty at all - I'll just mention two quotes that seem to fit the bill:

"Insanity is when one is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-- Albert Einstein

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
-- Henry Ford

Samstag, 13. August 2011

< Kyokushin Summercamp on Sylt >

From 1st through 6th of August I participated as a candidate for shodan in this years German Kyokushin summer camp in List on the island of Sylt. The approximately 40 participants, among them four kids, were housed in the youth hostel "Mövenberg", in the north of Sylt. Here is a picture of some of our group members:

Here is a picture of our accomodation, called "Peter Pan" (you know what Peter used to say: everyone can fly - all one needs is a happy thought ;-) )


The mood was very good and the camp started with an evening training at 8pm on the very first day; during the next days Marek Zmarzly took care of the German competitors as a trainer for the coming world championships in Tokyo: Alireza Shams (1st Dan, Hamburg), Darius Schoeneich (1st Dan, Dortmund) and Milena Kovaleva (4th Kyu, Frankfurt). Other sempais (including me) joined the group to help prepare the guys for the championship.
Our group had to perform a running course each day at 6am and we were drilled by Marek with fighting combinations and sparring.

The other group was trained by Sensais Ulrich Münzer, Darius Czaplarski, Slawomir Urbanczyk and Sempai Peter Gawlik, while the performance of the examinees was always thoroughly monitored by the black belts.
Independently of the groups, there were normally four training sessions per day, and the breaks between the trainings were spiced up by beach-volleyball, Sumo and Rugby.

We visited various nice places on Sylt ;-) Here with my "XXL-Burger" in the restaurant Sansibar:

We all enjoyed the good and mostly sunny weather, the sunbathing and the water training with Gi - the sunsets on Sylt were also very nice:



A spontaneous "after-work" party in front of "Peter Pan":



On the fourth day, the examinees had to show kihon, kata and their stamina under the eyes of the present Sensais and Sempais.
The final test for the shodan candidates, 20 rounds of kumite against brown and black belts, came on the fifth day. I was tired but happy when the examination was over and I was already looking forward to the sayonara beachparty, here Evgeny and I directly after the test:



This is the beautiful landscape where Evgeny and I passed our shodan test:


On the sixth day, we had a final running course at 6:30am (half an hour later as usual due to sayonara partying last night ;-) ), then we all met for breakfast to hear the results of the examinations: Sempai Evgeny and I passed and we are now proud to be Kyokushin Shodans - OSU!

For me personally, going Shodan on Sylt was an experience that I will never forget. I wish to thank all Sensais and Sempais for helping me redefine my own limits ;-)

Some more impressions from northern Sylt:


Freitag, 29. Juli 2011

< A true gem... >

I'm always open for new experiences...
http://www.astrogenital.com/
(link is in german)

Dienstag, 12. Juli 2011