Options (novel)

Options is a 1975 absurdist science fiction novel by Robert Sheckley, published in paperback by Pyramid Books. The first British edition appeared in 1977, and a French translation was published in 1979.

The story is ostensibly about a marooned space traveller's attempt to get a spare part for his starship, the Intrepid III. He has a robotic guard, programmed to guard him against all planetary dangers. But soon he discovers that the robot has not been programmed for the planet where they are, with comic results. However, the narrative later descends into a mass of diversions, non-sequiturs and meditations on the nature of authorship. Eventually the diversions take over the book to the extent that the author openly introduces an increasingly bizarre succession of deus ex machina in an attempt to get the novel back on track, but eventually admits defeat.

Reception

Spider Robinson reviewed the novel favorably, declaring that although Sheckley deliberately broke most of the rules for successful storytelling, Options was "hilarious . . . an exploding cigarette, a velvet banana, a bearded tractor, a Presbyterian platypus."

Computer configuration

In communications or computer systems, a configuration is an arrangement of functional units according to their nature, number, and chief characteristics. Often, configuration pertains to the choice of hardware, software, firmware, and documentation. The configuration affects system function and performance.

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Option (finance)

In finance, an option is a contract which gives the buyer (the owner or holder) the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified date, depending on the form of the option. The strike price may be set by reference to the spot price (market price) of the underlying security or commodity on the day an option is taken out, or it may be fixed at a discount or at a premium. The seller has the corresponding obligation to fulfill the transaction – to sell or buy – if the buyer (owner) "exercises" the option. An option that conveys to the owner the right to buy at a specific price is referred to as a call; an option that conveys the right of the owner to sell at a specific price is referred to as a put. Both are commonly traded, but the call option is more frequently discussed.

The seller may grant an option to a buyer as part of another transaction, such as a share issue or as part of an employee incentive scheme, otherwise a buyer would pay a premium to the seller for the option. A call option would normally be exercised only when the strike price is below the market value of the underlying asset, while a put option would normally be exercised only when the strike price is above the market value. When an option is exercised, the cost to the buyer of the asset acquired is the strike price plus the premium, if any. When the option expiration date passes without the option being exercised, then the option expires and the buyer would forfeit the premium to the seller. In any case, the premium is income to the seller, and normally a capital loss to the buyer.

Yield

Yield may refer to:

Measures of output/function

Computer science

Yield in programming context simply means "brings". It is usually used when some kind of execution context surrenders control flow to a different execution context. In some cases, upon surrendering control, the first execution context may send (i.e., yield) a data value to the second execution context. See Generator (computer programming).

Physics/chemistry

Earth science

Production/manufacturing

Yield (chemistry)

In chemistry, yield, also referred to as reaction yield, is the amount of product obtained in a chemical reaction. The absolute yield can be given as the weight in grams or in moles (molar yield). The percentage yield (or fractional yield or relative yield), which serves to measure the effectiveness of a synthetic procedure, is calculated by dividing the amount of the desired product obtained by the theoretical yield (the unit of measure for both must be the same):

The theoretical yield is the amount predicted by a stoichiometric calculation based on the number of moles of all reactants present. This calculation assumes that only one reaction occurs and that the limiting reactant reacts completely. However the actual yield is very often smaller (the percent yield is less than 100%) for several reasons:

Yield (college admissions)

Yield in college admissions is the percent of students who choose to enroll in a particular college or university after having been offered admission. It is calculated by dividing the number of students(#) who choose to enroll at a school, which is often based on their decision to pay a deposit, by the number of offers of acceptance and multiplying by one hundred. A higher yield indicates greater interest in enrolling at a particular school of higher education. The yield rate is usually calculated once per year based on admissions statistics. As a statistical measure, it has been used by college ratings services as a measure of selectivity, such that a higher yield rate is a sign of a more selective college. For example, the yield rate for Harvard University was 76% in 2010, while the yield rate for Dartmouth was 55%, and the yield rate for Colorado College was 37%. The yield rate has been sometimes criticized for being subject to manipulation by college admissions staffs; in 2001, a report in the Wall Street Journal by reporter Daniel Golden suggested that some college admissions departments reject or wait list well-qualified applicants on the assumption that they will not enroll, as a way to boost the college's overall yield rate; according to the report, these actions are part of an effort to improve a college's scores on the US News college ranking.