Mashups for the Masses

About a day ago, I started playing with a beta online service #IFTTT, which rhymes with "lift" and is an abbreviation for "If This, Then That."

Its name sums it up nicely. It takes events from approximately 30 popular social media services - Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress and etc. - and lets users create actions based on those events.

Happy Holidays

I've started my Christmas vacation, so I'm not sure how often I will be in front of the computer over the next few weeks. I wish you and yours a happy set holidays and that you'll enjoy this ode to Calvin and Hobbes' cartoonist Bill Watterson.

Defining the Indefinable

Earlier this week CFTC Commissioner Scott O'Malia chaired a meeting of the regulator's Technology Advisory Committee. As part of the discussion, a number of market participants, regulators and researchers presented their opinions on how the regulator might define high frequency trading. I toss in my two cents with this week's Friday Musings. You can view the entire session online here - just forward the video to the 215:00 mark.

Descendants Strikes Out

As a movie, The Descendants has wonderful cinematography and that is about it. As long as you ignore the plot or character development you may leave the theater with a warm fuzzy feeling.

The story revolves around the descendants of Hawaii's first families and how they deal with serious family issues. The movie gives the viewer the sense that the social and economic elite are just like everyone else, save not having to worry about day-to-day necessities.

Will Cloud Computing Survive the Regulators?

It came as no surprise that of the two recurring themes of this week's Waters USA conference in Manhattan were cloud computing and the impact of new global regulatory environment on banks' global IT infrastructure.

This week's Friday Musing looks at the intersection of these trends: Can financial firms deploy new global cloud-based infrastructures in light of the recent data and application retention policies set forth by various national regulators?