https://flexaxion.com/blog The ULISSES Project blog: essays on investment technology, computing and the history of ideas, in three columns, the Founder's Corner, the Director's Message and Invited Commentary. en Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:19:18 +0000 https://flexaxion.com/blog/open-source-quants-and-code-appropriators https://flexaxion.com/blog/open-source-quants-and-code-appropriators Mon, 15 May 2023 20:41:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I recently got a call from an old friend that I used to work with. He is a lawyer and had recently accepted a job as COO with a high profile quantitative hedge fund. He called me because he wanted to… https://flexaxion.com/blog/unexpected-paths https://flexaxion.com/blog/unexpected-paths Sat, 22 Apr 2023 00:29:42 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Those of you who know me well have heard the story about how Columbia University lured me away from the green mountains of North Carolina where I had already accepted a prestigious Ph.D. fellowship… https://flexaxion.com/blog/going-back-in-time https://flexaxion.com/blog/going-back-in-time Fri, 14 Apr 2023 21:58:19 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I had a conversation a few days ago with a friend works for a financial data company that is trying to reinvent itself as a technology start-up. We laughed at how large firms do not understand that… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-highbridge-and-athena-options https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-highbridge-and-athena-options Thu, 30 Mar 2023 21:38:45 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner J.P. Morgan has spent billions of dollars in an effort to transform its computerized systems, most recently via Athena, 35 million lines of Python code. Before this disappointing effort that came… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-importance-of-the-right-partners https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-importance-of-the-right-partners Fri, 24 Mar 2023 22:42:23 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Over my time at the University of Utah, I look back and understand that we never could have helped $400 billion in pension funds to reimagine how they do what they do without many helping hands along… https://flexaxion.com/blog/julia-and-modeling-the-world https://flexaxion.com/blog/julia-and-modeling-the-world Wed, 22 Mar 2023 22:47:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Last week I said I would discuss the language and my thoughts on Julia for the ULISSES Project. Related to this, I would like to explain why our new company will be using Julia for certain projects… https://flexaxion.com/blog/building-bridges-not-walls https://flexaxion.com/blog/building-bridges-not-walls Wed, 08 Mar 2023 22:19:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I’ve always been a big believer that it is only through excavating to the lowest levels, that we can build a foundation for the highest buildings or strongest bridges. That is exactly what we are… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-two-jamess-and-the-fork-in-the-road https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-two-jamess-and-the-fork-in-the-road Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:01:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Last month I recounted how John Regino had assumed the day to day leadership of the ULISSES Project and he had then asked me to stay on as a Advisory Board member. I agreed and then he asked me to… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-covid-pivot-bill-walsh-and-the-super-bowl https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-covid-pivot-bill-walsh-and-the-super-bowl Thu, 09 Feb 2023 01:32:32 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner It has been over a year since I wrote a blog entry. Now that I’m starting to speak more freely about what I’m doing, John Regino wants me to continue to post on the ULISSES Project website in a… https://flexaxion.com/blog/intermezzo-intelligence-work https://flexaxion.com/blog/intermezzo-intelligence-work Wed, 19 May 2021 16:58:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I’ve had some interesting conversations lately, one, in particular, was with the man who rewrote the Pentagon’s hardware and software acquisition guidelines. After his time in the US Airforce, he… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-and-entering-industry https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-and-entering-industry Thu, 08 Apr 2021 21:19:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner In grad school, I was running my own server room at my co-op thanks to a NeXT/Apple-related consulting project, and in addition to the money that the contract brought, it also generated additional… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-columbia-and-minos https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-columbia-and-minos Thu, 01 Apr 2021 06:02:35 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Despite the fact that I turned down Columbia three times and Umberto Eco jumped ship, I felt safe in New York City (thanks Angus Young) and enjoyed myself almost immediately. As far as what I… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-the-mormon-trail https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-the-mormon-trail Wed, 24 Mar 2021 17:24:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner My Optimization Odyssey continued in Utah, but not without a temptation to go back to Cali. In many ways, I was doing a reverse trek. You see, Wallace Stegner, the legendary founder of the creative… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-the-oregon-trail https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-3-my-optimization-odyssey-the-oregon-trail Wed, 17 Mar 2021 10:36:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Now, that we’ve had a little introduction to linear programming, I think the most useful thing to do before proceeding into more complex areas is to give you a walk-through of my own experiences with… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-2 https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-2 Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:31:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Among my friends and associates, we have a varied group of heroes we follow, so much so that confusion sometimes occurs. For example, a while back I mentioned to my colleague Hal Tolley, “I… https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-1 https://flexaxion.com/blog/defense-against-the-darq-arts-optimization-part-1 Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:44:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner While I’m more of an Inkings guy (like the Dean of Oxford Business School, Peter Tufano), but in homage to BYU’s Dean Brigette Madrian and herHarry Potter obsession, I’m going to start a series of… https://flexaxion.com/blog/dan-bricklin-is-a-loser-and-other-things-bankers-say https://flexaxion.com/blog/dan-bricklin-is-a-loser-and-other-things-bankers-say Wed, 24 Feb 2021 19:18:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Some months ago, I had an investment banker tell me that “Dan Bricklin is a loser!” He told me that he had met Bricklin at a Vermont ski resort and that Bricklin was a loser because, while he was… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-second-renaissance-part-2 https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-second-renaissance-part-2 Mon, 09 Nov 2020 16:08:23 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Now that the US election season is behind us, I wanted to continue my thoughts on the Second Renaissance. https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-second-renaissance-part-1 https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-second-renaissance-part-1 Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:04:19 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner In the 1450s, the world was introduced to one of the greatest innovations in history, the metal moveable-type printing press. Johannes Guttenberg and his invention did more to democratize information… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-3-the-mountain-range-as-the-new-frontier https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-3-the-mountain-range-as-the-new-frontier Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:01:33 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner There are problems with the current financial system. There are few places where this is more clearly demonstrated than in the state of underfunding of the world’s pension funds. https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-2-the-tower-of-babel-and-the-rise-of-python https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-2-the-tower-of-babel-and-the-rise-of-python Sat, 17 Oct 2020 04:07:40 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I usually do a blog entry a week, but considering that I took a three-month hiatus, I have a massive backlog of information and ideas to convey, so I will likely be doing blog entries for the… https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-1-foundations-of-sand-and-the-future-decline-of-aws https://flexaxion.com/blog/the-past-as-preview-part-1-foundations-of-sand-and-the-future-decline-of-aws Thu, 15 Oct 2020 19:43:15 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner It’s been three months since my last entry, something that I did not expect. In the next entry, I will update you on some of the exciting recent changes and why it took me three months to complete an… https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-3-modern-languages-and-languages-of-creativity https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-3-modern-languages-and-languages-of-creativity Wed, 15 Jul 2020 22:15:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Last week I continued a discussion about my teacher, Joachim, and what he had taught me about languages as tools. He had a unique perspective on this as a former rabbi and professor of ancient… https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-2-modern-languages-and-languages-of-structure https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-2-modern-languages-and-languages-of-structure Wed, 08 Jul 2020 21:58:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Last week I discussed my great teacher Joachim, the greatest linguist and semiotician I have ever met. While I turned down Joachim’s offer to work for him and “join the family,” it was his teachings… https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-1-language-as-a-tool-and-structure https://flexaxion.com/blog/in-search-of-the-perfect-language-redux-part-1-language-as-a-tool-and-structure Wed, 01 Jul 2020 21:20:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner In my life, I have been fortunate to have some very special mentors. Among those great teachers, none were greater than Fausto and Joachim, my great Italian teachers. While Fausto was a father to me… https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-3-in-search-of-the-master-algorithm https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-3-in-search-of-the-master-algorithm Wed, 24 Jun 2020 15:32:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner In my last entry, I wrote about Machine Learning, the A in DARQ and I’d like to continue on this topic a bit more. My old friend from high school Kelly White also said he didn’t like the term… https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-2-the-future-of-ai https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-2-the-future-of-ai Wed, 17 Jun 2020 20:16:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner The Economist’s Technology Quarterly this last week was entitled “Artificial Intelligence and It’s Limits.” It’s worth a read or two. While it is meant to address the limits of AI in general, much of… https://flexaxion.com/blog/intermezzo-thoughts-on-current-situations https://flexaxion.com/blog/intermezzo-thoughts-on-current-situations Sun, 07 Jun 2020 13:16:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I’m going to take a break from writing on the DARQ Arts to give some thoughts on current events here in Utah and around the nation. Last Monday, after a full day’s work, I sat down to dinner and… https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-1-the-future-of-blockchain https://flexaxion.com/blog/dreaming-is-nursed-in-darqness-part-1-the-future-of-blockchain Thu, 28 May 2020 13:16:12 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner Question: What do Jane Fonda’s activist lawyer, a celebrated science teacher and former nun, and a future music mogul have in common? Answer: They were not the characters in an Afterschool Special… https://flexaxion.com/blog/into-the-darqness-an-introduction https://flexaxion.com/blog/into-the-darqness-an-introduction Mon, 25 May 2020 05:27:00 +0000 James Claus Founder's Corner I believe that the future doesn’t lie in some great beyond, but it is in the great now with mankind utilizing technology correctly just like heroes in the movies. But the technology that will allow…