When I think of all the articles that have passed through the HN front page about mobile developers' terrible experience with the app store, I can't imagine why a desktop software developer would voluntarily subject themselves to it.
Sure, iDevice developers have no choice. But for desktop software there's this handy thing called the Internet. Why kick up revenue to apple, subject myself to submission rules and arbitrary rejection, absurd technical limitations and switcheroos like the one described in this article, and all the rest?
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest fucking hour.’"
I agree with the author that there's much to be gained by shrugging off the consumerist expectation that we spend all of our income on junk. The next step in that progression though, in my opinion, is to learn to obsess over money exactly as much as is necessary, then start paying attention to what really matters in life. This guy's OCD approach to money sounds exhausting.
The only way we're going to achieve AI in the short term is by loosening the definition of the phrase, for example to include a new generation of complex automatons. I look forward to AI meaning about as much as "cloud" does today.
I'm a lilypond user and I can tell you we're totally spoiled by the quality of that project - it is just immaculate. The Vexflow samples look very primitive by comparison but it's a great idea and with open work like lilypond already having tread this ground, hopefully they will have a lot of resources going forward.
While we all argue, accuse and bemoan, my parents, grandparents, non-technical friends, and the rest of the world continue logging into facebook every day to post baby pictures and invite people to parties. They care not for any of this.
I languished in my computer science degree in much the same way. I graduated with good marks but it was like pulling teeth. I questioned whether I had chosen the correct path.
Now that I'm a programmer in the real world though, I love my job and I've learned more since entering the workforce than I ever did in school. The passion has gone from 2 to 9 and the rest flows from that. Maybe you're just not wired for the college learning format - god knows I wasn't.
Starting little businesses to write microblogging and photo sharing websites does not matter in the scope of human history. Comparing web startups to the industrial revolution?! You gotta be kidding me, I don't care how much ajax or standards compliance or user generated content your social grocery networking website has, you're deluding yourself.
Aquafina and Dasani, bottled water from the Coke and Pepsi companies, are made with municipal source water that is filtered to improve the taste. Dasani here in the Toronto area comes from Brampton, Ontario tap water, and there is nothing special about Brampton tap water.
I think the implication was that the water didn't need treatment at the municipal level because it comes so clean from the source. Once any city water reaches your tap, it is potable and does not require extra filtration except to improve flavour. Unless you're one of those fluoride conspiracy nuts.
It's nice to have an algorithmic way to find the pitches in a chord, but honestly anybody with a good ear can pick that out. Try sitting down with a Bill Evans recording and figuring out the different chords you hear - something jazz students do all the time.
The fact that it's not reproducible on a standard-tuned guitar might have stopped guitar players from figuring it out on the fretboard though.
Ok, I will address your argument directly. You state that it's possible to write maintainable C in the best case, but that the worst-case is more revealing. However if we're to be fair, we must also look at the worst case for scripting languages. For example, which of these is more maintainable?
I would suggest that neither one is particularly maintainable, nor are either of these styles of code likely to appear in the real world. Therefore the worst case for these languages is not really more telling, and not applicable to this discussion.
And unless my knowledge of the Python standard library is way off, the Python standard library is written in Python, not C. That's what all those .py files are in the /lib folder. So python scripts spend most of their time calling into Python libraries. It's true that the interpreter is written in c (c++?,) maybe that's what you were thinking of.
You reveal the primary flaw in your thinking with the phrase "C folk." Languages are not enemy camps. Just learn them both and use the appropriate tool in the appropriate situation - python for glue, prototyping, business systems, web programming, etc. C for operating systems, networking layers, database engines, etc. Try not to attach your ego to either one.
Why would you bring manliness into the discussion? Are you suggesting that Perl and Python are somehow manlier? Because I have no idea what that means.