If it is a convertible bond, that isn't really as silly a question as the article makes it out to be, and is very relevant given Yuri Milner's convertible bond offer - in which case I believe the answer is "1 year, unless Yuri decides to exercise the option to convert".
I fail to see how the following code from the book is an example of a singleton:
01 var mySingleton = function(){
02
03 /* here are my private variables and methods /
04 var privateVariable = 'something private';
05 function showPrivate(){
06 console.log(privateVariable);
07 }
08
09 / public variables and methods (which can access private variables and methods ) */
10 return {
11 publicMethod:function(){
12 showPrivate();
13 },
14 publicVar:'the public can see this!'
15 }
16 }
17
18 var single = mySingleton();
Also, the code is missing semicolons. Missing semicolons is a problem when minifying the code. I would recommend running your example code through JS lint for the next edition of the book.
Still, I've been looking to improve my JS foo and reading through this book may help. I will continue. It is attractively formatted and addresses topics that I want to know more about.
The code above doesn't provide a Singleton implementation, you can test it by using the expression mySingleton() == mySingleton() which should evaluate to true, while it evaluates to false. The problem is that the function returns an object literal but every time the function is called it creates a new one (i.e. {} == {} evaluates to false). You can find a sound definition of a Singleton in JavaScript which makes use of the (quite tricky) Lazy Function Definition here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1895635/javascript-single... . EDIT: Took a deeper look at the "book" and the singleton section and I think it somewhat misuses the term Singleton (or it uses in a "broad" sense): the example you reported provides some information hiding but no single instantiation restriction, which it is instead provided by the final example/iteration.
Mihi cordi est legere de lingua Latina temporibus recentibus reanimata. O tempora, o mores, quibus litterae antiquae flocci aestimantur! Qui sese ad pecuniam adipiscendam vehementer pellunt nullo intervallo excepto, cum ad summam divitiarum demum adveniant, bene vivere non sciunt. Ut ait noster Lucius in Epistulis Moralibus: "Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura."
The biggest shock for me was how little 'cutting earmarks' actually accomplishes, at merely $14 billion. I'm shocked because of how much political hot air is exhaled on it.
"Gold lies on the streets and you just need to dig it up with ideas. Ideas are like the shovel," he says.