Slashdot Mirror
MIT And HP Announce Joint Quantum Computer Project
MetaCow writes: "CNN is running this article which describes a joint effort between MIT and HP to build a quantum computer. Nothing expected any time soon, though: 'Quantum computing research is farsighted, and it may take 10 years to develop a fully operational quantum computer ...'"
Fisrt, Maybe
By Elena Molinari
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The market for new stock offerings has dried up, but a rising tide of legal wrangling is keeping Wall Street bankers busy.
No initial public offerings are expected this week. And only one company, reinsurer Max Re Capital Ltd., made it to market last week. That brought this year's IPO tally to 61 -- 80 percent less than a year ago -- and the total amount raised to $27.5 billion, considerably down from $60.7 billion in the same period of 2000.
At the same time, lawsuits are filed every week against companies that went public during the IPO craze of 1999 and early 2000 and their underwriters -- the Wall Street firms that marketed the offerings.
The suits essentially claim investment banks and their big customers conspired to inflate prices of newly public companies. Those deals caused many IPOs to skyrocket on their first day of trading only to deflate later, hurting small investors who bought into the craze, the suits allege.
Wall Street executives by-and-large maintain it was business as usual during the IPO boom -- with orderly distribution of shares and no secret deals to inflate prices. Insatiable demand for Web companies caused the bubble, they say.
It's tough to keep track of the complaints, because many are filed each day and some target the same company or investment bank. As of Wednesday, Aug. 15, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had received 680 complaints. At least 50 new cases were filed last week alone.
The suits could be the real star of the IPO market in the next months, possibly resulting in billion-dollar settlements by Wall Street firms, plaintiffs' lawyers say. Even the start-up companies that raised money could be on the hook, if investors prove the IPO prospectus was misleading and failed to disclose the alleged secret agreements between bankers and institutions, they say.
That's what plaintiffs will try to prove in the case against supplier of Web-based software VA Linux Systems Inc. Linux's stock had the biggest first-day pop ever, rising 698 percent when it started trading on December 1999, and has become the symbol of the IPO excesses. The company's shares closed Friday at $1.83 on Nasdaq
That case by itself could turn into several million of dollars, said Melvyn Weiss, partner of New York law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which is the lead counsel in the case against Linux and its underwriters. Milberg -- a firm specializing in shareholder law suits -- already has filed 134 IPO-related lawsuits.
The first deadline for the cases alleging securities fraud is Sept. 7, when Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will hold a first hearing.
LAWYERS FOLLOW SEC PROBE
The suits, most of which are seeking class action status, are riding on the coattails of regulatory and criminal probes into the way Wall Street firms doled out IPOs. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers all are conducting their own investigations.
Both the criminal and the civil lawsuits allege that, when the demand for new stocks reached its peak in 1999, it was common for institutional investors to enter quid-pro-quo agreements with investment bankers to get shares of the most sought-after deals.
Some institutions paid Wall Street firms set a percentage of their IPO profits in unusually high trading commissions or agreed to buy more of the new issue on the first day of trading -- guaranteeing a ``pop,'' or solid rise in the new issue's stock price, the suits allege. That practice artificially inflated the prices of many new stocks, mostly in the Internet and technology sectors, on their first trading day, the suits claim.
Chances that shareholders can recover the damages they allegedly suffered largely depend on the success of the government's probe, securities law experts say.
``It's costly and difficult for law firms to prove these frauds,'' said Jack Keeney, a lawyer at Washington law firm Hogan & Harston. ``And usually cases filed following a federal investigation tend to have more merit and settle on higher amounts than suits brought independently.''
The suits already have put the spotlight on investment bankers and the way they manage IPOs.
``Brokerage houses are going to be more cautious in allocating IPO shares in the future,'' said John Coffee, professor of securities law at Columbia University. ``In this market, however, some manipulations wouldn't even be possible. I don't see the same inflated expectations of big gains that generated past excesses.''
But some things will never change.
``Even in a slow market, the best deals always go to the big money managers,'' said Ross Sakamoto, portfolio manager of the Chase H&Q IPO Emerging Company Fund.
Could it be?
[CENSORED]
How about a Beowulf cluster of these not-as-of-yet-existant computers? Hmmm, think how much better a bunch of nothings linked together would be than a single nothing!
I can't believe there are still people performing "first posts." Will the carnage ever end?
got goat?
While the classical bit can store any number between 0 and 255 on each of its eight bytes
C'mon, people, let's get some writers with at least a *little* techincal background.
Indeed, you are.
Who cares?
This is a link to CNN [CNN.COM]
2199327th Postus, Beeotchii!!!
pleeease?
Free Brian K Now!
Slashdot might not care about oppressed hackers but you should.
Somebody already did! Free Brian K Now!
Slashdot might not care about oppressed hackers but you should.
Nastard, your name is almost a combination of Nads + Turds.
Nastard dips his nads in turds! Eeewwe! Nastard likes having his dick sucked off by guys, lets his jizz drip down onto the floor, and then poops on it! And he eats it!
Nastard like licking the greasy shit from other guys balls! Nastard, you sick faggot you! I can't beleive that you like to lick the sweat, cum, and shit out of some random black guy anus! You are such a fucking pervert. I can't believe you like it when a whole bunch of guys jack off all over your face and you sit there and swallow every last drop, and then vomit it all up and let them all shit on it and then suck it up with a straw.
You queer, demented homo!
Nastard, how many times are your going to take your sister's used tampons, stick them up your ass so they soak up 12 guys cum, put it in a blender with your mother's shit, and make a milkshake out of it?! How many times are you going to drink it on your webcam?
You are one sick fucker, you!!
"RyanFenton" should be replaced by "Gay Motherfucker" in this comment.
a beowu.... ah, nevermind.
Well, your school, Calif. State U. Fullerton, is also full of faggots and queers. I bet my pal Nastard goes there. Nastard's name is a combination of Nads + Turds. He could suck you off and your could cum on his turd. He then smears it all over his nutsack, and you get to lick it off. Mmmm
Imagine the power we will have to get laid when quantaum computing goes through...
THE BABES!! (Alyson Hannigan)
There should be a law that Ryan Fenton is anally raped and his ass filled with the jizz of several large black men. That's about all his worthless ass is good for.
"I'll do it!" - Nastard.
Ryan, meet my friend Nastard. His name is a combination of Nads + Turds. He will suck you off, let you spill your ball batter all over his turd, and then smear it on his nuts for you to lick off.
You sickos.
Anyone have friends at MIT?
Brittney Sphere is dead too...
She passed away in her home in California
this morning from dehydration. Even if you didn't like her songs you've probably enjoyed
her luscious beast and bountiful ass.
Truly a righteous ho.
The article above contains a goatse.cx link in disguise. A bug in Slash 2.2 does not show it as a link to goatse.cx but instead to IBM.com. Mod it down to the basement.
Overrated!?! Who moderated that? How do you call something still on it's default rating overrated?!?
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.
I have a friend who goes to MIT. His name is Nakoruru. Here is an account of when I first met him:
Nakoruru, what is that, Indian? Go make me a slurpee, Nakoruru, and give me one of those little "wassup" ligthers, too. I love that shit. Is it true you people eat your own children? I think I'll pass on that hot dog, Nakoruru. I don't want to be muching on little Nakoruruette. Hey, what are you doing? Why are you unzipping your pants? Put your pants back on! Oh
Post