Saturday, August 18, 2007

Painless FreeBSD upgrade (6.1 to 6.2)

I've dreaded upgrading my personal web server from FreeBSD 6.1 to 6.2 because I'm new to FreeBSD and totally screwed up my unbuntu dev box the other day upgrading from 6.10 to 7.04. However I must give Colin Percival a giant THANKS for making this FreeBSD upgrade a very painless exercise. Trust me folks, if I can do this anyone can! Yet another reason to dump your Linux distro and run FreeBSD.

Check out Colin's notes on upgrading FreeBSD from one version to another.

1 comment:

Patrick Burke said...

Patrick Burke with Navistaff. I came across your information today on Linked-In and wanted to bring to your attention a fantastic position in Algo Trading with Goldman Sachs in NYC.

My apologies if you feel this is spam. After seeing your info on Linked-In, this was the only way I could figure out to get in touch with you.

This is an absolutely top-shelf role and one I'd recommend looking into...even if you are not actively looking. One of the best areas within Goldman to get involved with. I've placed plenty of people in this group there, so I can give you plenty of information.


Job spec:
The Quantitative Strategies team is a quantitative Portfolio Management Desk. The Desk manages one of the largest hedge funds in the world using sophisticated quantitative models. It trades across assets classes on a global basis using a wide variety of instruments (cash securities, futures, forwards, options, interest rate swaps and many other OTC derivatives). QS Technology supports the full breadth of the platform which the business uses. It spans a production statistical portfolio construction system, through to generating and executing orders in derivative instruments.

The technology group is building out its algorithmic platform and requires a strong technologist to take a tech lead role on its algorithmic trading project. This role will require deep appreciation of business logic and application design down to the system level. It will focus on latency, scalability, control, data fabric, consolidated user experience, simulation and testing.

The right individual could be a mature point in their technical career and looking for a fresh challenge or at a slightly earlier point and looking for an growth opportunity to apply and build their technical expertise and advance their role. Experience of relevant technical challenges will be a most attractive quality.

Principal Responsibilities:

• Work in QS Algorithmic Technology team as the technical lead.
• Shape the design of a proprietary algorithmic trading architecture.
• Ensure the design is engineered according to a well thought out technical vision.
• Develop a technical roadmap that integrates with commercial deliverables.
• Engineer a methodology which allows a short pipeline to production for new algos.
• Be hands and make a substantial personal contribution to the system.
• Work across multiple software technologies: Java, Sybase, UDB, Oracle, .Net and UNIX/Linux.

Experience/Skills:

• At least seven years of Java experience preferably in a trading technology role.
• Expertise in the design and development of systems where scalability and latency are important.
• Experience of Databases (including SQL) and highly performant data access.
• Experience with broker and market data integration, in particular FIX and conversion of real-time streaming data for event based processing.
• Experience in working with vendor supplied components and services.
• Cooperate within a team and work in a rigorous and stimulating environment.
• Evidence of commitment toward best practices within enterprise development and deployment.



Patrick Burke
Vice President, Recruiting
908.273.6960 ext. 102
pb@navistaff.com

IT staffing for the Wall Street community.