1,081 karma · joined August 27, 2010
Google Maps to the rescue; it gave me 100% accurate directions 100% of the time.
Perhaps it's better this way, otherwise I'd probably be at Starbucks a lot more often.
The author implies that if you have a healthy skepticism when megacorps throw around billions of dollars, you're not "grown up."
This is insightful, and in addition to this, culture change can and does happen at companies.
Just because they're evil today, doesn't mean they'll be evil tomorrow.
Similarly, just because they're good today, doesn't mean they'll be good tomorrow.
We should always look with suspicion at megacorps acting with what appears to be outrageous altruism. Companies don't throw around $7.5 billion without expecting to profit from it.
It's never time to stop being cautious about megacorps.
To think that Microsoft spent $7.5 billion for altruistic reasons, without a plan to actually turn a profit on the purchase, is dangerously naive.
They should be trying to include everyone, telephone and non-telephone users alike.
Clearly it would be a mistake to limit this to just phone users.
It's terrible to have to keep reaching up and pawing at the screen.
Because newspaper ads didn't track us, didn't bounce and shake, and didn't execute malware on our computers.
Until recently, I ran a Minecraft server on a $10/month DigitalOcean Linux VPS. (I consider $10/month dirt cheap.)
It ran very smooth. No lag or performance hiccups.
This is a subjective opinion (i.e., subject to debate), and also a harmful one. "The other guy is worse" is never a good defense.
Those who control the web browsers control the Internet. And web browsers have gotten so huge and hyper-complex that only wealthy corporations can afford to enter the market as new players.
Some level of technical excellence is required, though, otherwise complex technical debt piles up, and we are then no longer able to deliver working programs.
Please don't be rude.
Verbosity is so much worst than syntax complexity because you ends up having dozens of different patterns that do the same thing overall but with subtile differences on edge cases.
There's a level of verbosity/terseness that's ideal for (your average) human. I don't know precisely what that level is, but I think many programming languages, such as C++ and Rust, have stepped way past that line.
If you look at JavaScript pre-ES6, you had at least 10 ways of doing OOP with really different behaviors when it came to inheritence or encapsulation. This makes the code so hard to understand.
The problem with JavaScript OO was, in my opinion, the use of prototypes.
As long as you introduce syntax to help with what people are actually doing (and not juste because it looks cool) syntax addition enhance the code readability.
This is simply an unsupported claim.
Our civilization is going to end up with countless dead languages -- dead programming languages, that is -- because future generations won't know how to read the increasingly terse and arcane syntax that is all the rage these days. Either that, or the investment necessary to read these crazy languages will be considered an ill advised investment in resources. We'll end up recreating the wheel indefinitely, but in different languages.
I would like to see much, much simpler programming languages, even if they're more verbose, as long as the result is improved readability and longevity of the code written in said languages. I think some of the older languages are far superior in many ways, if only because, with some of them, you can actually read and understand the code without even any formal training in the language.
I'm not sure why your comment was down voted, but as both an IRC and Slack user, I have to say I love Slack's built in pastebin.
Why do you think FreeBSD is free as in freedom?
Minetest is great, but ultimately will remain niche. Vanilla Minetest is just too sterile (no mobs, "dead-ish" world--big turn-off for kids), and installation+mods is just too hard for non-technical people.
Updates. Updates, updates, updates.
I've come to trust Apple. Why? Because my iPad 2 still gets OS and security updates. Because my iPhone 5s still gets OS and security updates.
Apple has demonstrated that they support their tablets and phones at least 4 or 5 years. That's why I'll buy another Apple tablet. That's why I'll buy another Apple phone.
Why would I buy an Android phone or tablet that's unsupported and abandoned after less than two years in many cases? Where security updates (think Stagefright) take months and months to get patched, if they ever get patched at all on your device? Android devices simply aren't safe.
Even the Nexus devices can't compete with Apple on longevity of support.
Android manufacturers could convince me to try their products if they'd simply patch them in a reasonable time and update them for a reasonable amount of time. I would define reasonable as at least 4 full years after purchase. For that, I'd pay Apple like premiums.
Until that time comes, my only viable option is Apple.
And without extensive training and experience in software development they'll automate those things very, very badly, and likely with a lot of bugs. And if those things grow out of control, the mountain of technical debt will be terrifying. If lives are in the balance in any way, it could be a disaster.
Just like someone without carpentry training or experience is likely to create very low quality kitchen cabinets which may even be unsafe.
The companies for which truckers work already have people and computers and software to route them from delivery to delivery and from pick-up to pick-up efficiently. The trucker himself or herself wouldn't benefit one bit from familiarity with the Traveling Salesman Problem or from rudimentary computer programming experience.
In addition, recording expenses via some overly complex solution such as a computer spreadsheet is ridiculous. It's much more efficient for them to write down their expenses with paper and pen and submit their receipts. It takes literally seconds.
I won't comment on your other examples, but they look equally weak.
That being said, a rudimentary class or two in grade school/junior high/high school seems like a good idea so that people with a natural aptitude for programming and who derive enjoyment from it can discover that fact.
Source: Father was a truck driver.
There's an option in Outlook to turn that "feature" off, but of course, nobody does.
It's a horrible, terrible default feature of Outlook.
Wow, that is poor discoverability. Also, thanks so much -- I've been wanting that for ages. I never knew about it.