I wrote a post questioning the need for companies to expense options.  Cisco proposed a way to make the current system of expensing options less relevant. My original point was "expensing options using Black Scholes will create even more uncertainty as public companies will be able to easily manipulate the true cost of options (like they do with pension plans)." 

Cisco's proposal is another way of using acceptable accounting/finance methodologies to increase reported earnings (or in their case lower their earnings by a lesser amount).