PCs are not PC?
The
Volokh Conspiracyhas a funny piece about LA County requiring that computer disk drive configurations not be described as master and slave. It sounds like they have taken the interim step of putting tape over the jumper setting connections. For the sake of consistency, they should probably also remove the master and slave cylinders from the brake systems of their vehicles, though they should feel free to continue driving. Hey, it's no skin off my nose -- they are unlikely to reach the Boston area with no brakes, and if they did, they would not seem entirely out of place.
Change of focus
You will probably continue to see generic rants here, since I am an excitable boy, but I'm trying to devote more attention to finance, accounting, and computers. You may have already noticed. These are topics that I can maybe give an informed opinion and maybe some useful information. Opinions without information are not exactly in short supply in the blogosphere.
With that in mind, another mystery has been solved. When it became apparent that MFS Investments was the subject of an investigation by the SEC, I wondered why the funds involved were domestic, rather than international, funds. There is little opportunity for market timing in domestic funds, since the funds are priced at the same time as their underlying securities. The only thing that made sense was late trading, which is illegal. That is exactly what happened, and it looks like the MFS shareholders were the victims of a corrupt brokerage and the hedge fund that kicked off the whole scandal, Canary Capital. Read about it here. It looks like the NYAG and SEC, together with the Comptroller of the Currency, are landing on the brokerage with both feet. The brokerage is being dissolved, and there are felony charges being brought (at last!). MFS itself looks clean.
