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I think the British pub near Fenway used to have a sign on their website saying no Yankees gear in the pub. I don't remember any trouble though when I lived in Boston.

This is all turning out to be very interesting. I do wonder as well whether it will force companies to become more transparent in future. The risk that somebody may steal documents showing illegal activities, leak to Wikileaks and saying to hell with the consequences if their employer catches...

There looked like a lot of TV stuff at the CES this year. From what I could see the #D stuff has a strong showing - 3D video recorders and 3D monitor screens. I wonder if the projectors are doing that yet?

I figured that was what Dominic was probably eluding to in his post. Looks like I did remember something from the syllabus after all ;).

I suppose if you could turn the bottom screen into a touch screen keyboard and change the key configuration depending on what language you were typing in, if you were gaming etc. this would be very useful. Manufacturers wouldn't need to produce laptops with different keyboard layouts, so from a...

I could def see a use for this if you were doing Flash for example. Top screen for animation and bottom screen for the time-line - but yeah I do wonder how practical it would be for most folks. I use two monitors at work, but would be stuck without the keyboard ;).

Thanks for the link. Yeah me too, it sounds like a pretty cool 3 days out in Vegas. I've had this interest in 3D printers like the Stratasys Dimension ones, ever since I saw this video: So I was hoping there might be some at the CES that were more on the home/consumer end of the market.

Did anyone here visit the CES this year? I saw some videos of new products that were featured and there was some very cool stuff. The kitchen counter that heated saucepans without the need of a hob was fantastic and the iPod docking station that projected stereo sound to anywhere in the room...

Slim - Just my 2p's worth (I'm not a Quant either, but studying the subject). You can do courses with LSE via the London International programme as well. This will allow you to work and study part time (they offer a graduate route as well) and is a good option open to you if the cost of doing...

The meaning of life (sorry couldn't resist the Hitchhikers pun there). Having just studied variance in my undergrad Stats course, I presume this is a case of population versus a sample? Does this apply to undergrad students as well? Thanks

The average UK salary is something in the region of £24K if I remember correctly? So £100K for an entry level job sounds pretty good to me.

I'm sure BAe system will sell them a few of those Taranis jobs - BAe seem to sell anything to anyone with a few million spare. Intercontinental range, unmanned and stealth tech sounds like exactly the type of combat aircraft of the future.

Shame the big red star gives it away though eh ;) Did anyone catch the Stealth UAV which was launched last year: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294037/Taranis-The-143million-unmanned-stealth-jet-hit-targets-continent.html Now this does look like something out of skynet!

I've just signed up for this. It sounds like an interesting project.

abcde - I did my first undergrad in Software Engineering and my second (in progress) in Banking and Finance. I'd say some combination of Mathematics and Computer Science would be good.

I'm not sure you can blame the decline of industrial Northern England and the Midlands on London's growth as a financial hub though. Competition from cheap imports (the primary factor), nationalized industries becoming moribund, militant unions, the Tory governments approach to dealing with the...

Ultimately arguments like this are going to come down to personal choice. Having worked in London, and now being based near New York, I prefer London, I also prefer Boston to NYC. I find the cab situation in London is a lot better than NYC and public transport is excellent in London as well (as...

I think that is a little premature to be honest. London has been through worst and survived. There are plenty of things that come to mind that would suggest if anything NYC is the one in danger of losing its position.

Dominic touches on an interesting point here. It seems that African American is essentially a term used based upon somebodies skin pigmentation and perceived heritage. I can't see US citizens from the Maghreb, Eygpt or the Boers of the Traansval being included in this. Take Emmanuel Derman as...

Ancient Roman sewer grates were in fact square (and the pre-cursor to the man hole). I guess having a round cover means over time, there are no corners which can get burred and puncture tyres. I'd say round man-hole covers are a by-product of mass produced cheap metals like Iron and the...

I'd like a 3D printer. I'm tempted to download DAVID (the 3d scanning software) and install it on my toughbook. But I'd a 3D printer to replicate the scanned images. There seems to be a lot of open source solutions out there, however something like a Dimension desktop 3d printer would be cool...

Being an avid amateur historian, the subject of genetics (well actually mDNA) is something of interest to me. The work of Brian Sykes of Oxford Uni is fascinating as he uses mDNA (which is only passed through the maternal line) to map migration patterns over thousands of years. Which brings me...

Thanks Andy. A guy I worked with who was a trainee Network Engineer at a firm up in Boston I worked at was telling me about the Bentley trading floor as he did his undergrad there. Seems like the idea is catching on. Bentley seems to turn out some good grads as well if this guy was the norm.

Agreed. The company I am currently employed at has need for an illustrator on occasions, they use somebody in the UK, who pretty much runs their business from word of mouth, online portfolio and their web presence. If you have skills like this I think you can make a very good living, or some...

That pretty much makes up my Maths 1 course syllabus (with a few other topics) on my Banking and Finance undergrad. I've found it an interesting course and if you are looking for a refresher on the basics I'd say this sounds good before moving onto advanced topics.

Yeah the Stamford train goes into Grand Central. There is the Accela and the regular Metro-North train. People commute in from New Haven to Grand central which is about 1:40 hrs each way on the train. I suppose Stamford is about 30 - 40 mins outta NYC.

bigbadwolf - Not sure this will set you back $100, but who knows in the future: Make: Online : MIT's food printer

Thanks, I'll check that out. I watched one guys presentation on 3D printers. Some of the stuff that is achievable now is frankly bloody impressive. The prosthetic limbs look liked something out of a scifi movie and they are dishwasher safe :)!

Those of your working in I.T/Quants etc. may find this an interesting video. A good lecture from Dr Rohit Khare on Network and Computing from Singularity University at NASA's Ames Research Center http://www.youtube.com/user/singularityu#p/u/12/55IKampQm0o I'd never heard of this institute...

And what if their parents are wealthy, can afford private health care and spend a lot in the economy? In fact with all the empty houses sitting around in Florida, encouraging retirees from around the globe who will bring in a decent amount of money (on condition they pay for their own health...

I know some folks at Akamai and some folks who used to work there. It's a good company to work for.

Of course the problem is, if you don't train up the unemployed with new skill sets, then they aren't equipped to fill the new roles that present themselves. Therefore employers are going to hire the immigrant with the correct skill sets, rather then train up an ex-real estate agent to fill the...

It doesn't help that the US is paranoid restrictive on those who can give blood though. For example I can't give blood because I was resident in the UK during the mad cow disease scare. Surely if CJD was that bad half of Britain would be dead, but as far as I am aware only a handful of people...

Well done! I was thinking along the binary route myself having tried out several other routes (remainders, bases, summing the digits etc.)

I don't disagree with you on the point about the Poly's and it was the Tories who started expanding the education sector. However under Labour we saw this accelerate, complete with the fees being introduced. Labour had the opportunity to build a parallel vocational route to that of academia...

If you like the course I wouldn't let that put you off. Also I presume a bank of similar could still sponsor you a visa if they think you are the right stuff? These measures are really being aimed at the bogus colleges out there IMO. I remember reading an interview with a young lady from India...

I have to agree with some of the comments below regarding the over-expansion of the higher education system in the UK. I think it really came to a head during the New Labour years, there was an inverse snobbery of types at play where vocational qualifications were seen as sub-par and everyone...

Looks like Charlie's driver decided to take the usual route to the West End, even though the protest had spread out from parliament. Bit stupid. Shame about the Rolls Royce though, lovely motor they have there.

These kids are at Columbia, but evidently not too bright. Leaving wads of cash laying around in your dorm room, and stuffing jars of weed into a sock draw is kinda asking for trouble. That's their careers screwed.

I know people who worked for Kroll in the UK, when they were students themselves. I'll have to ask them what the whole school background check involves when I see them next.

Looks like I stand corrected on this then, I presumed you would just submit your best marks with an application.

ABrown - I'm not sure how this works, but I guess you could consider it as follows: You can re-take your GRE and only have to submit the highest score. So in theory if you did a degree, were not happy with your performance and thus did a second, I could see no problem with applying for a...

Yos Feit - Bunac is British Universities North America club. It actually covers more then just the UK, US and Canada these days, but also Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The organisation however is not "fishy" in any way. A lot of students in the UK use it for visas to go backpacking in...

Rebelex - Hopefully my advice will be helpful, I'm not a quant first of all. I am a software developer who has contracted to banks and worked for companies where we do work for banks. I'm tailoring my career towards being a quant but don't have an Ivy League background. First of all - Get good...

Andy - No problem, go for it :).

Since I'm the OP I am more then happy to answer some further questions on the above (obviously within reason). Daniel you're right, it does sound mostly like catching trains and to be honest that is how it felt for the 7 months of the contract ;) however I will endeavor to expand on my role...

5:45am - Alarm goes off, time to get up and get ready 6:30am - Head to bus stop 6:40am - Bus to train station. 6:55am - Arrive at train station, purchase coffee. 7:15am - Find seat on train 7:30 (ish) - Train heads off to London - usually read a book or the Economist or similar. 8:30ish - Arrive...

Cesc - I hear Warwick business school is very good, I don't know though if they offer a MFE course though. Have you checked Cambridge as well? I would have though LSE is a good bet. The UoL which LSE is a part of also offers courses via the International programme if you want to study part time...

Andy, No problem. I'll have some time over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll put something together then :).

Thanks for the post, that was an interesting insight. I worked as an I.T contractor in London for a major bank and can say those hours do not sound surprising. I was up at 5:45 every morning to catch my various bus/train/tube connections (from Brighton) and would often get back to my apartment...

Amazon.com: Principles of Corporate Finance with SP bind-in card (9780073368696): Richard Brealey, Stewart Myers, Franklin Allen: Books This is one of the recommended texts for my undergrad Finance class and I've found extremely useful so far. On a side note though, I'm not sure the...

That is certainly a nice place to be studying, York is a fascinating city from a historical perspective I very much enjoyed my last visit there. I agree with what you have suggested on the job front as well. yerikzheng - I'm sorry to hear you aren't eligible for funding that's a shame...

I'm partial to a good Cheddar myself, but this seems pretty ludicrous. Why is the government - which appears to be cash strapped buying it and distributing it? Surely the money could be spent on something a little more pressing, considering Ireland's economic situation?

R I saw the R in a Nutshell book in Barnes and Noble the other day. I was tempted to purchase it, but would appreciate anybody else opinions on whether this is a good text to start with?

There is also the University of London's International Programme - which has been on the go in one form or another since the 19thC The courses are designed by the member schools, for example Banking, Finance, Economics etc. are LSE designed courses. Exams can be sat in most countries. The...

A fair point. After finishing school at 16 in England (back in the 90's) I did a Btec as part of my studies before going to Uni. The course lasted two years and included COBOL, Assembly and Pascal (amongst some other very interesting subjects). Part of our final year project was three...

Dominic - not sure if it is still the case but Hallam University in Sheffield used to teach on their Software Engineering course: C++ SQL (Oracle) Java HTML/CSS/JS Boolean Algebra/Z Spec Amongst many other things. This obviously contrasts with some of the courses mentioned above and Hallam is...

An odd article on the part of the author, to complain about the situation, but to stick around in the industry for a couple of decades. I presume this gentleman donated his "astronomical" pay to charity and lived on an average US salary, so what's that somewhere around the $40K range? I very...

I believe the UK is cracking down slightly on immigration now as well, although the UK PM suggested this wouldn't affect skilled workers. If you come from India though, I think you get a better deal in the UK. Putting aside the already large well established Indian community and things such as...

I studied COBOL for two years between '97 - '99. There was a lot of COBOL guys around then doing work on the Y2K issue (and another date issue to do with 9999). So it was useful to learn the language from an academic perspective at the time. I didn't see the language in use until around '07 at...

Yeah I think you are right here. You could make a few grand less but get a much better deal a bit further outside NY, probably with flexi hours and work from home. I guess at the end of the day though, if the work is the kind of thing you want to do then that is what really matters (as long as...

I work with JS day in and day out in my current position. The language has really come along over the years (and ECMA script in general, look at AS), and the frame works out there such as JQuery are really useful. With HTML 5 and the next Gen of browsers on the way, I can see JS playing an even...

I'm doing a Banking and Finance undergrad at the moment (I also have a undergrad in Software Engineering though) so I guess there are some of us!

Yeah that may come as a bit of a surprise!

Better to have tried and failed, then never tried at all! It's often a battle in my experience to push good UI practices in non banking areas as well so I don't think you folks are alone. It often descends into "design by committee" so everyone gets to make "their stamp". It sounds though like...

I worked as a consultant at a large bank in London and we had access to the USB drive. In fact we would often work weekends from home and bring in updated code on a Monday ( I once left the USB drive at family members house and having just travelled 100+ miles into London, had to then go and do...

I really couldn't help but laugh reading this. Surely one would hope this was the case if you are married ;).

Inequality. My thoughts on this topic stem from a conversation I had a few evenings ago, regarding the current health care debate here in the US. There are plenty of people here in the US who are successful, or good at the job they do. That job though may be an unskilled job. They may turn up...

I have to chuckle at this. Coming from an SE and especially a UI background I can only imagine. I recently saw an application that was being run at a large Public Utility corporation that looked like a three year old had dragged and dropped various UI components from Visual Studio onto a form...

Very short sighted on the part of the British government I think.

Where abouts do you lecture, and is it academic or business orientated out of interest?

Sorry I think I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Andy, I did my first BS in Software Engineering, and I'm now about to start a banking and Finance undergrad. Currently I work in I.T and have contracted to banks in the past, which got me interested in the subject.

DominiConnor - That sounds a hell of a lot like other areas I've worked in, within I.T as well ;). The C++ lecture sounds interesting though!

Greece Thanks for posting the link, that was a fascinating article. I was over in Greece in 2007 and none of this comes as a surprise. The fact you can walk down a shopping street and pirated goods are sold openly demonstrates just how powerful the black market is there. As a side note...

Hi there, Wondering if anyone out there is familiar with the SAOS (School of Oriental and African studies - a college of University of London) CeFiMS (Centre for Financial & Management Studies). The centre is part of the University of London International Programme. They are offering a MSc...

How coincidental that whilst reading this thread I've just been asked to order another Ipad :). Our sales and marketing team use them for displaying portfolios to clients and it seems to go down well.

FF here. I find it the best browser for Web Dev by far due to Firebug, LiveHTTPHeaders etc.

forum alain, connor - Thanks for the responses, I'll certainly have a dig around in the forum for more information on the educational front. As for the MS in Computer Science. This is certainly something I have considered in the past so I'll have a look at some of the programs out there which...

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and looking for a little advice if anyone can help? I did my first undergrad degree in Software Engineering and I am currently doing a second undergrad in Banking and Finance (and a top up year after in Math). I've also got 8 years experience as a Software...

Hi there, I'm thinking of moving over to the world of Quants and wanted some feedback as well: First undergrad - Software Engineering Subjects I studied I think are relevant included: Formal Methods Set Theory SQL C++ and Java Web technologies OOP/Design Patterns Second undergrad (currently...

Coming from a non-Quant Software Engineering background where we had a team of Mathematicians doing number crunching, the common tool was Stata. I downloaded a copy of the R environment and it seems like a impressive tool, if anyone has any recommended resources I'd be interested in checking...

Hi there, I'm new to the forum but interested in the subject of Finance. I was wondering if there is much call for Formal Methods as a skill in the world of Quants? When I studied my first undergrad (Software Engineering) we did a lot of work on Set Theory, Formal Methods and Z spec/notation...

Never said that, or if I did, never meant it. Although gaining knowledge might be a strugle every so often ;)