I read NS in order:
1. Snow Crash, 2. Diamond Age, 3. Zodiac, 4.Big U, 5. Interface, 6. Command Line, 7. Cyrptonomicon, 8. Quicksiler, and 8. Confusion.
From this order it should bbe obvious that I am an SF fan who likes to read the entire work of an author. I've read Snow Crash several times and Cryptonomican at least three times. Cryptonomicon matched an interest in cryptography so I could relate fact and fiction in the historical pieces. My reading of the Baroque Cycle coincided with reading bios of Newton and Franklin, ditto.
That's all for context. I recognize that not everyone will have the taste for the Baroque Cycle, but as I actually enjoyed the first book, and like some others, could barely put down part II (I preordered it and part III from Amazon at the same time), I have to say that so far the series has been well worth the read. It is unusual for me to have interest in historically oriented fiction, so to some extent NS should be credited with opening access to a literature that otherwise I would have overlooked.
My copy of The System of the World should show up any day now. I highly anticipate its arrival, I say to any/. reader that if it is half the book (not in pages, but content) Confusion is, set aside a couple of days for it. I know I will.
I use company supplied notebooks (currently an IBM T23). I think an interesting question relates to battery performance degradation over the useful life of the battery. In my company one is expected to use the same battery about as long as the PC is in use, typically 2 - 3 years. I notice a distinct drop off in battery performance over time - on the order of 50% or so. We keep our notebooks on docking where they act as our main PC, and use them on battery typically on airplanes once or twice a week.
Is there any difference among the various brands discussed in this thread in terms of the rate of performance drop off?
At last, a topic in which I am an expert!. This stuff happens all the time. There is a cottage - read massive skyscraper - industry in suing tech comapanies on earnings surprises.
Red Hat undoubtedly buys Director's and Officers' insurance, albeit with a high deductible, I'm sure, and will turn this problem over to the insurers, who will do their ordinary stellar job of handling the situation (i.e., waiting for Red Hat to sue them for coverage...).
There is hardly a tech-oriented company in the US that hasn't had at least one of these. Being a white-hat is no protection.
I don't know about 'most' being Euorpean style. My only experience is with those of my own employer which are exercisable at will once vested, i.e., American style. I think this is the custome in my particular industy (financial servies), but could be wrong.
Your point about B-S noted, but I think my comment stands that valuing a 10 year option is extraordinarily imprecise.
"Expensing just means that the company should value the outstanding options. Effectively, it is just a matter of valuing it as selling a european-style call by the company (exercise only on expiry)."
- Sounds good in theory, but difficult in practice. Black-Scholes value is tough to calculate on an option, European or American, with ten year life. The standard deviations used in the models have so much uncertainty that any value to come to is speculative at best. I support valuing options, but accept that the valuation process will necessarily be iterative.
This was 1980 -1981. The IBM PC had not been launched yet as I recall. I used an HP machine - 88? 85? that loaded visicalc from a tape drive. The HP-?? definitely ran CP/M
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I read NS in order: 1. Snow Crash, 2. Diamond Age, 3. Zodiac, 4.Big U, 5. Interface, 6. Command Line, 7. Cyrptonomicon, 8. Quicksiler, and 8. Confusion. From this order it should bbe obvious that I am an SF fan who likes to read the entire work of an author. I've read Snow Crash several times and Cryptonomican at least three times. Cryptonomicon matched an interest in cryptography so I could relate fact and fiction in the historical pieces. My reading of the Baroque Cycle coincided with reading bios of Newton and Franklin, ditto. That's all for context. I recognize that not everyone will have the taste for the Baroque Cycle, but as I actually enjoyed the first book, and like some others, could barely put down part II (I preordered it and part III from Amazon at the same time), I have to say that so far the series has been well worth the read. It is unusual for me to have interest in historically oriented fiction, so to some extent NS should be credited with opening access to a literature that otherwise I would have overlooked. My copy of The System of the World should show up any day now. I highly anticipate its arrival, I say to any /. reader that if it is half the book (not in pages, but content) Confusion is, set aside a couple of days for it. I know I will.
Sounds to me like a great additive for the Soma we plan on giving the deltas...
I use company supplied notebooks (currently an IBM T23). I think an interesting question relates to battery performance degradation over the useful life of the battery. In my company one is expected to use the same battery about as long as the PC is in use, typically 2 - 3 years. I notice a distinct drop off in battery performance over time - on the order of 50% or so. We keep our notebooks on docking where they act as our main PC, and use them on battery typically on airplanes once or twice a week. Is there any difference among the various brands discussed in this thread in terms of the rate of performance drop off?
At last, a topic in which I am an expert!. This stuff happens all the time. There is a cottage - read massive skyscraper - industry in suing tech comapanies on earnings surprises. Red Hat undoubtedly buys Director's and Officers' insurance, albeit with a high deductible, I'm sure, and will turn this problem over to the insurers, who will do their ordinary stellar job of handling the situation (i.e., waiting for Red Hat to sue them for coverage...). There is hardly a tech-oriented company in the US that hasn't had at least one of these. Being a white-hat is no protection.
I don't know about 'most' being Euorpean style. My only experience is with those of my own employer which are exercisable at will once vested, i.e., American style. I think this is the custome in my particular industy (financial servies), but could be wrong. Your point about B-S noted, but I think my comment stands that valuing a 10 year option is extraordinarily imprecise.
"Expensing just means that the company should value the outstanding options. Effectively, it is just a matter of valuing it as selling a european-style call by the company (exercise only on expiry)." - Sounds good in theory, but difficult in practice. Black-Scholes value is tough to calculate on an option, European or American, with ten year life. The standard deviations used in the models have so much uncertainty that any value to come to is speculative at best. I support valuing options, but accept that the valuation process will necessarily be iterative.
This was 1980 -1981. The IBM PC had not been launched yet as I recall. I used an HP machine - 88? 85? that loaded visicalc from a tape drive. The HP-?? definitely ran CP/M
I recall it as running under CP/M originally.
Wait for the IPO, buy shares. People own corporations, you can, too.