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- Because AT&T was a regulated utility, forbidden from making a profit by selling software in competition with IBM and Digital, the [Bell] Labs distributed these tools [UNIX] freely to universities. This dissemination produced an entire generation of programmers who thought of programming not as a chore, but as a literary endeavor with the computer as medium.

- On Wall Street until the late 1990s, PhDs rarely listed their degrees on their business cards, because to do so would have outed them immediately as nonbusiness people. For the same reason, it took a long time before quants and programmers routinely put their email addresses on their business cards. A rise in the prestige of PhD degrees occurred slowly but steadily between 1996 and 1999 as dot-coms prospered.

- In 1985 when I entered Wall Street it was amateur heaven, a fluidly makeshift field filled with retreads from other disciplines who could learn quickly, solve equations, and write their own programs. [...] By the late 1990s, there were scores of master's programs, hundreds of conferences, and thousands of books. Physicists and mathematicians, either unable to find academic positions or, grown weary of academic politics and pay, increasingly sought out Wall Street jobs. The quantitative life of practitioners, formerly the happily casual domain of self-taught amateurs, was becoming a discipline, a business, and a profession. It was simultaneously becoming a little less fun, too.

Emanuel Derman, "My Life as a Quant. Reflections on Physics and Finance" (2004).

Date: 2006-08-20 10:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] piggymouse.livejournal.com
Спасибо. Юникс бог с ним, хотя забавное объяснение. А вот остальные два абзаца прекрасные.

Эта книжка где-нибудь есть в электронном (i.e. украдабельном) виде?

Date: 2006-08-20 11:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdwatcher.livejournal.com
Где-то должна быть, Амазон продает pdf (дороже, чем бумажную книгу). Но бумажная книга бросово дешевая, давайте я вам просто пришлю? Оставьте скрытым комментарием адрес.

Date: 2006-08-20 01:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] piggymouse.livejournal.com
Огромное спасибо за предложение! Я бы её сам с удовольствием купил, просто узким местом как раз является почтовая пересылка в Россию. И тут уж неважно, от хорошего человека или от товарища Безоса. Идёт месяц и не всегдя доходит. Вот прямо сейчас две амазоновские посылки за пять недель не могут дойти. :(

Date: 2006-08-20 05:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] birdwatcher.livejournal.com
Да, дешевле ста долларов за большой конверт (федекс/юпс) эта проблема решения не имеет.

Date: 2006-08-20 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] piggymouse.livejournal.com
Возможный способ обойти проблему: как раз украсть в электронном виде. Жаль, в сосле оно не нашлось.