Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker: Market Savant & Radio Host -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wooden ships who wrote (5304)	5/31/1998 6:25:00 PM
From: Ken Brown	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42834

>> 2) 9 September 1999 ...Since "999" ordinarily indicates "end of file" in computer language, the similarity of the date (9/9/99) and the end of file command could wreak some havoc in computer systems.<< I think "999" as an EOF indicator is a Cobol issue. (I vaguely remember that, from a college course I took long ago.) I'd be surprised if anyone could introduce a bug that would mix that up with a date of 9/9/99. I do agree the other two problems mentioned may prove troublesome, but compared to the Y2K problem, they're likely to be minor issues. (Actually, that comment applies to the 29 Feb 2000 issue only. I know nothing about the GPS "roll over", so have no opinion on it.) Ken

To: wooden ships who wrote (5304)	6/1/1998 1:15:00 AM
From: wooden ships	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42834

This weekend's "Barron's" reported that the inimitable Mr. Buffett "continued to harvest gains in the first quarter(1998). Berkshire Hathaway realized $470 million in investment gains in the period. It's possible that those gains came from sales of zero-coupon Treasury bonds, but it's a good bet that Buffett sold a small portion of Berkshire stock holdings after unloading net $1.3 billion of equities in 1997." This Big Boy appears to be light- ening up. As an aside, "COINage Magazine"(June 1998) cited a report by the "Financial Times of London" which posited that Warren Buffet, having accumulated "20% of all available silver," proceeded to sell off 30% of his silver hoard at an average price of $7.10 the Troy ounce "for a quick profit of $80 million." It should be noted that, by most accounts, Buffett originally purchased nearly 130 million Troy ounces of silver. His cost has been estimated in the vicinity of $650 million which sum itself represents only about 2% of Buf- fett's holdings, this according to "COINage." It would be interest- ing to learn whether this reported $80 million profit from the silver sale has been booked into Berkshire's first quarter's realized gains of $470 million, the sum noted by "Barron's."