IdeaHamster

> Also, what does the "structured" in "structured web programming" mean?

I would guess it's a reference to the optional static typing. There's a growing movement behind static typing and functional programming that resembles the movements behind dynamic typing and OOP of a decade ago...

Is there a reason they didn't just call this ScalaScript?

There's an interesting extension of this line of thought. My sister-in-law works in Istanbul for a Greek company. She says that most of the actual profit-generating work done for this company is done in Romania or Turkey. The Greek offices, from what she describes, are more or less completely dysfunctional.

Now, take that insight of conditions on the ground along with a chart of the growth of the Greek vs Turkish economies over the last decade, and then ask yourself: why is Greece a full EU member and included in the Eurozone, while Turkey's membership negotiations have completely stalled (and will probably conclude with Turkey not joining the EU)?

Can you imagine a world where Greece is allowed to leave the Euro, massively devalue its debt (and take the decade or more of restructuring/rebuilding its economy that would come with that), and Turkey with its strong manufacturing sector and youthful, growing middle class is brought in in Greece's place? The EU and the Euro would be in a far stronger position...but it will never happen. Unfortunately, European cultural prejudices are still to ever-present and will result in Greece continuing to be dragged along while Turkey gets shunned.

Related: Are you considering remote employees? There seems to be a trend of the top Rubyists working remotely (that's if you want a top Rubyist, I'm pretty sure you can find a competent Rubyist if you keep looking).

I understand what you are saying...that Steve has the taste and design sense to guide Apple's development process. While I agree that this is true, I don't think this is why Apple has been successful. It's Steve's obsession with perfection that has driven the company; his unwillingness to ship just anything that will sell and make money.

Steve doesn't do it all himself. Even much of the original Macintosh design is probably better attributed to Jeff Raskin, Woz, and Bill Atkinson. Steve is a good showman, and good showmen know to never introduce the stage-hands, but Steve has had plenty.

Now, you might argue that if Steve had zero taste, then he also would not have had the sense to demand design perfection. That may be true. But if you are a CEO of a company today and you are hoping to replicate Apple's success, you would be much better served by cutting your product line in 1/4 and demanding absolute perfection from the remaining products, than by going off to find a guru, take Caligraphy classes, and stare at van Gogh all day...

Turkey has a lot of potential Software Engineering talent going to waste...shame there aren't more entrepreneurs looking to harness that unrealized potential.

But there is no mystery! All successful business people have the one same trick. Warren Buffet put it best:

Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.

I mean, can it be said any more clearly? The problem is, much like putting chocolate cake in front of a fat man on a diet, telling a CEO that they shouldn't take the quick buck because staying the course will yield greater returns in the long term...well, I guess you can imagine how well that works.

I think you're wrong. The last couple pivots weren't even his (though I understand that they did have his approval).

City's have advantages independent of a location to work. For example, do you know where the individuals with the lowest carbon footprint in the entire USA live?

New York city.

Clarke was right, about the technology. He was, unfortunately but rather predictably, so very wrong about people's willingness to adopt the technology. Currently, I'm looking to move from one very large city to another, even larger, city and all I want is a job that is willing to let me work remote from my new home. Unfortunately, because the new city is not one of the "blessed" cities where people expect software developers to work, I'm having an extraordinarily difficult time finding a good opportunity.

Even when there is no financial reason, no technological reason, people are still, inherently, unfortunately wary about people working from "just anywhere"...

Thank you for doing the digging for me! I've been hearing all this controversy about overriding 'cd', but when I open a shell (with RVM installed), I still see the following:

    ~/Desktop > which cd
    cd: shell built-in command

Manhattan (well, it was just New York at the time) and Brooklyn were their own cities. Also, each NYC borough is in its own county (Manhattan --> New York County, Queens --> Queens County, Brooklyn --> Kings County, Bronx --> Bronx County, Staten Island --> Richmond County).

Also worth noting that New Jersey is the only state to have a programming language named after it. Just saying...

Speculation on Steve Jobs' successor strikes me as, well, pointless. The dynamic that drives Apple today is very much the same dynamic that drove it at the start: Woz and Jobs. We saw, in the late 80s and early to mid 90s what happens when the "Jobs" half of that dynamic is not there. The "Woz" dynamic, however, has had a good line of succession to cary it forward the entire time. Looking forward, it seems pretty clear that with a few more years of grooming and practice on stage that Scott Forestall will replace Jobs and keep that part of the company moving forward. Astute observers, however, would also be focusing on Federighi. It seems less clear to me that he will be able to carry on Woz's legacy...but I could be wrong.

Apple with Jobs, but without Woz, is just an empty suit...a really, really well hand tailored $6000 fine Italian 3-piece suit...but still just a suit

Here's what I find most interesting about what has happened to the middle-class in America:

When the middle-class in America was booming, you would have had to be crazy to leave America. Good job. Nice car. Family and a house? You're set! Why leave?

Another way of viewing what has happened in the US over the past 20 years or so, is that the US middle-class is falling back to earth. Now the average middle-class family in America could move to just about anywhere in Europe and enjoy a pretty similar lifestyle to what they currently have in the US. Sure, gas is still more expensive and clothing is still a bit pricy, but it's nothing like it was in the 80s and early 90s. (I still remember seeing electric razors advertised for the equivalent of $150 on my first trip to Germany when the equivalent model in the US would've cost no more than $50.)

Take that one step further, and the average American family could now potentially consider a move to one of the BRIC or CIVITS nations, and they would find themselves with only slightly less access to the luxuries they might expect in the US.

Why is this important? Because I think that for the first time in the history of human kind, we might just be reaching the point where the choice of where to live and work could be made based solely on things like the climate or the culture instead of on things like "Can I eat?" or "Will I have a roof over my head?"

That would be a world I would want to live in...

Condolences to rtm and family.

It's a poignant reminder of just how young our field is that we are mourning the loss of some true early pioneers. Imagine if you were a physicist just learning of the passing of Newton? It's also a reminder to value the experience and wisdom of those who are still here with us...

To answer #1, I offer you the biographical sketch of Jens Skou, who decided to take up programming in 1988...at the age of 70: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1997/...

Parrot (http://www.parrot.org/)

Not a bad idea...in fact, I'd wage there's a market for this sort of technology. :)

Wait...but it is the AT&T from the Bell System. The fact that it was one of the spin-offs buying back the mothership probably has little consequence in terms of attitudes and/or business strategy. I imagine the AT&T ethos of old was pretty well spread between all the "Baby" bells and "Mama" Bell.

Also, you forgot the part where shortly after SBC bought AT&T, the "new" AT&T bought Cingular, a partnership between Bell South and the former AT&T. Oh, and the part where before buying AT&T, SBC also bought Ameritech, the parent company of the Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin "Baby" Bells, and Pacific Telesis, the parent company of Pacbell and Nevada Bell.

...and what of the other "Baby" Bells? Well, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX combined to form a company you may have heard of: Verizon!

(source...and a fun read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Bell_Operating_Company...)

"Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

-- Warren Buffett

Probably true, but the money to be made is probably less than what can be made by catering to the 80% of people who buy supermarket tabloids and are influenced enough by the ads therein to drive the ad supported economy...

But it is also worth pointing out that data != information. The human eye captures more data than a fly eye, but both we and the flies manage to get the same information out (i.e. avoid predators, find food, shelter, mates, etc.) and both survive.

As a quick counterpoint: I'm curious how much you pay directly for the quality writing/journalism/investigative reporting that you consume each day? So far, journalism knows only two business models: direct sales or ad revenue. The first is dying/dead, and until someone invents a new business model for content producers, expect this to be the new reality moving forward.

Or when NeXT bought Apple. I only see good things from this.

I've often wondered to what extent programming is like learning a musical instrument or another language. That is, you can learn these things when you're older, but in order to truly master them you must start when you're young.

This seems like a promising implementation of Vi in Javascript: http://gpl.internetconnection.net/vi/

Sony makes the Playstation, Vaio Computers, Walkmen (well, not anymore), BluRay, Cybershot cameras, Bravia TVs…going to Amazon and just searching for Sony under electronics indicates that there are over 50,000 items for sale. Certainly some dups, but Sony has A LOT of SKUs…

…and they made $17.6B profit last year.

Apple makes the MacBook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Touch along with some peripherals…

…and they made $17.2B profit last year. And some would claim that Apple has let the SKU list get out of hand over the past few years…there's probably some fat trimming in the company's future...

Two completely different corporate philosophies. Chance of merger: 0%.

…but it still can't compile Ruby 1.9 :-P

Gruber has good sources ;)