Meebo?

Finally someone started to hack something for mobile Instant Messaging. I know there are mobile clients for smartphones that connect to AOL, for example, but I've been missing the browser equivalent of Trillian for some time. For those that don't know Trillian, it's an IM client that can connect to virtually any IM server in parallel (and yes, it's also the name of the girl in the Hitchhiker). I use it for Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, and IRC, the five networks supported out of the box. So, instead of having 5 separate IM trackers on my screen, I have just one, with all networks living happily side-by-side.

Now, the downside of Trillian is that it requires my PC to run it. If I am using someone else's PC or get Internet access in some Cafe, I'm out of luck. No more, thanks to Meebo. Those three guys (actually, 1 guy, 2 gals) from Stanford brought the Trillian idea to the browser, by using some clever Ajax coding. Cool stuff.

I just wonder what Meebo means. Maybe it's another typo taking a life of its own, kinda like Google, which was supposed to be named Gogol. Anyway, I'll be able to chat now from airport lounges and every other place that runs a browser.

Little error. Huge impact.

"Are you sure you want to proceed with this transaction?" At least that kind of question I would have expected in yesterday's Mizuho disaster. To recap, a broker at Tokyo-based Mizuho Bank accidentally sold 610.000 J-Com stocks for 1 Yen, instead of selling 1 J-Com stock for 610.000 Yen. Tiny difference.

As an analyst looking after data quality, it seems odd that the system would even allow such a stupid transaction. As a general rule, I would have expected that the selling price is checked against last close, last sale, or some average. Apparently, this was not the case, and the system relied on the user (duh!) to do the quality check.

Maybe the expected loss of 30 Billion Yen (approx. 210 Million Euro) helps, getting some data quality program in place. As I keep telling clients: "you gotta check data quality as much upstream as possible, ideally when it gets entered, generated, submitted, loaded or otherwise activated."