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Comment Re:The fine wasn't all of the punishment (Score 3, Informative) 192

by Software (#45222289) Attached to: Knight Capital Fined $12M For a Software Bug That Cost $460M
If Knight had put the $460 million in a pile and burned it, there would be no fine. The problem was that their algorithm was wildly buying and selling shares in the open market, and thus distorting that market. See the graph at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/the-knightmare for an example of a stock that was affected. What if you were an investor in that stock who had set a stop-loss at $10? Knight's wild selling would have triggered the stop-loss, and you'd lose money because of Knight's actions. This gross market distortion is what the fine was meant to punish.

Comment Re:Not SOX, just GAAP (Score 1) 619

by Software (#27234775) Attached to: iPhone 3.0 Software Announced
No. What you may be thinking of is the rule that if a sale in one period is contingent on an event in another period, then you can't book all of the revenue from the sale in the first period. However, that doesn't apply here, since sales of the iPod Touch were not contingent on anything (nitpick: Apple has to make the usual set-asides for returns, repairs covered by the limited warranty, etc.). There is absolutely no accounting reason why Apple can't give away the software update.

Comment Re:Sick and tired of people ragging on mark-to-mar (Score 1) 368

by Software (#26217775) Attached to: How To Create More Jobs
Oops, wrong button. The second quote should be:

FASB's "mark-to-market" accounting rules forced AIG and Bear Stearns to admit that their liabilities had exceeded their assets, instead of allowing the companies to invent a price for the assets until the assets were finally sold.

For too darn long, companies could just make up prices for assets they wanted to value. Forcing the assets to be valued at what they're actually worth (i.e., what somebody will pay for them) is just common sense.

Comment Sick and tired of people ragging on mark-to-market (Score 1, Interesting) 368

by Software (#26217733) Attached to: How To Create More Jobs
FTFA:

FASB's "mark-to-market" accounting rules helped drive AIG and Bear Stearns into bankruptcy, even though they were cash-positive.

should be:

FASB's "mark-to-market" accounting rules forced AIG and Bear Stearns to admit that their liabilities had exceeded their assets, instead of allowing the companies to invent a price for the assets until were finally sold.

FASB's acc
Privacy

Submission + - Texas County to Iris-scan Al Children

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I actually like Texas, generally, but sometimes they seem like a great big bunch of freaks. This article on a "Safety Project" talks about how some county wants to use nifty technology from their prisons (a boom industry down there, I'm told) to track ALL children. They promise to delete the database records once the kids turn 18, so they claim there's no privacy issue.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - KFC is hosting the "Ultimate Gamer Sweepstakes

Submitted by
Phil Montgomery
Phil Montgomery writes: "Please consider sharing the following information with the readers of your Web site. KFC is giving gamers the chance to win the "Ultimate Gaming Sweepstakes" including a 50" Flat Screen TV, surround sound speakers, a Next-Gen video game console and two games. For more information you can visit www.ultimategamersweeps.com. Please let me know if you have any interest in this information or may want to share this with your readers."
Software

Submission + - Spotlaser - How to Improve Spotlight!

Submitted by
Xof711
Xof711 writes: ""What... Where... When... Who..." I am sure you heard that one before... If like my buddy Seb, you are a Spotlight fan, you'll probably welcome Spotlaser! I love Spotlight, but it frustrates me to use it. It's just not "that" convenient to use..."
Businesses

NYT Reports Steve Jobs' Exoneration 129

Posted by Zonk from the happy-days-for-stevo dept.
heyitsgogi writes "The New York Times is reporting that Apple has cleared Steve Jobs of any wrongdoing. From the article: 'In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple said that while its investigation revealed that the company's stock option procedures did not include sufficient safeguards to prevent manipulation, Mr. Jobs did not benefit financially from any questionable stock awards.' As a result of the internal investigation, Apple said it would record $84 million in expenses related to the options awards."
Biotech

Submission + - Parasite makes us dumber or sexier

Submitted by odie_q
odie_q writes: It has long been known that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite alters its host's behaviour, but now it seems the way it alters it depends on the sex of the host. From the article, "A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says.", and further, "Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls."

So, next time you want to score with a chick, slip some... eh.. cat feces in her drink.
Slashdot.org

Slashdot's Games of the Year 364

Posted by Zonk from the what-we-played dept.
Not everyone who works on Slashdot plays games. Enough of us do, though, that I thought it would be interesting to tap my co-workers to see what folks would call their 'game of the year'. Below are comments on the best gaming of 2006 from Chris Nandor, CmdrTaco, Chris Brown, Scuttlemonkey, and myself. Then, once you've read that, we need your help in the comments. What was the game you couldn't put down? Perhaps it was over quickly, but you know you'll be thinking about it in the future? Was it a next-gen title, or something for the good old PlayStation 2? In your opinion, what was the best game of the year?

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