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The issue is whether a state-by-state single payer system would be universal. It would not be in the US--the Republican states would never enact it. How would Canada's system react if Ontario had single payer but British Columbia did not?

A non-technical boss managing technical employees can lead to problems. It is rare to have a non-technical manager who 1) knows what they know/don't know, and 2) can effectively manage a technical team.

The growth is impressive, but did Whitman cause it to happen, or did she manage it as it was happening? My opinion is that she managed it as it was happening. That may make her a competent manager, but I think HP needs much more than just a competent manager. HP should be about technology leadership, especially if the commodity PC business is sold off.

You make a good point. I started to write what promised to be a lengthy reply, but I realized it came down to a simple characteristic--flexibility. Ultimately, what's needed is flexibility provided to the employee. Provide the means to work from home (VPN, etc.), to arrive/leave the office as needed, etc. Does the employer trust their employees to do what they need to get their work done?

But if that is the main (or only) goal, why spend $3 billion to buy the company when you could license or buy IP for much less?

The FPGA fabric will also have to be configured whenever power is lost. This probably includes the low power states of the Atom since the FPGA wasn't designed to support it. It would make sense for this to be part of the BIOS-level code since the FPGA is useless until configured.

There is a savings in board space, but, otherwise, this solution provides no additional value. You can already connect an Atom processor and FPGA through PCI Express.

The comment on the fabs is not exactly true. If Intel has maxed its fab capacity on higher margin chips, then producing lower margin Atoms is undesirable. If there is fab capacity remaining after producing sufficient quantities of the other chips to meet market demand, then it is advantageous to manufacture the lower margin chips. There is nothing lower margin than an idle fab.

It can be that bad. Such a chart can be gamed (like any table or chart). It can also be a crutch. Do you need the chart to show your differentiation versus the competition? If the perspective customer would otherwise not know how you're different, then you may be better off investing your time work on the message.

You're already seeing domain specific chips, but they're in the form of a FPGA rather than an ASIC. If it can be implementation with traditional gates, a FPGA is the way to go for low to medium volume.

While Lyric may incorporate classic gates in their design, it also sounds like the heart of their technology uses something different from classic gates.

This is a great point. Power usage is growing in importance. I think power management APIs will continue to evolve. In the not too distance future, power will be another axis of optimization.

The prices vendors quote are also, in a sense, pulled out of thin air. There is some floor to the price based on cost to produce and minimum acceptable margin, and volume also plays a role. But, there are many other factors that are subjective. For example, perhaps the part manufacturer is looking to get its first part into Apple, so they knock some more off the price.

While only Apply knows how much an Apple-proprietary processor costs, it is possible to estimate a cost for it based on process technology, die size, pin count, package, etc.

I have lived in SV, and I currently live in Austin. The $1M for a house is not completely out of line, It does depend on how far you're willing to drive and if public school quality is a factor.

I think is $200k for Austin is a little low. It is possible to buy a home in Austin for $200k. Like all things housing, location is very important as is public school quality. If you don't care about the quality of the schools and don't mind a commute, then it is possible.

Practicing in the form of a game makes practice more fun, and, therefore, makes it more likely that you will practice. Those of us would-be casual musicians may need an additional motivation to practice other than a pure love of the instrument.

Is this really that much different from releasing the hard cover well before the paperback version?