654 karma · joined March 4, 2009
I worked in the california mortgage industry before going to college. These guys would convince families living paycheck to paycheck to buy/refinance REALLY expensive homes. If they were on a 30 year fixed, we get them on an option-arm. If they are on an option-arm, we get them on a 30-year fixed.
This is all typical finance stuff. But here comes the kicker--they would actually outright LIE about interest rates and had a few shady notaries to back them. They would say you have a 1% interest rate (for 30 years) when it was really a 5 year option-arm and screw people. The worst part is, CA has some sort of law that protects mortgage lenders from unhappy customers after 5 years time (exactly when the 1% interest rate would fly to the market rate). Needless to say, several people left the company when we found out. Some folks reported them to the BBB--I don't know what happened to those scumbags though. I really hope people like that stay out of science.
Julia looks interesting, but I don't see anything that makes me jump up and say, "I want to use that!" Everything I have seen so far can already be done with R, Python, or a combination of the two. If there are a few minor drawbacks to any process in R or Python, I would rather live with it than learn yet another language. Speed is not an issue -- if it is then I am likely coding incorrectly. If I have coded correctly, then it is worth taking the time to create a C library (and since everything else is in perspective, this is just "monkey coding" and never takes as long as we think).
I wish all of the folks who are bright enough to create their own language would voice their wants and needs to the existing coding communities to see if their needs can't be met rather than making something brand new. This kind of community interaction is crucial for a language to mature. Wouldn't you rather have a few very mature languages rather than a million young ones (each of which has its own pros and cons)?
Take the fortune 500 approach. It's not a bug unless customers complain.
I love using Java for the exact reason the author claims Clojure is so powerful--the magnitude of libraries.
If a decent web framework is available, then I would be inclined to give it a go.
Back then, real systems programmers did hexadecimal arithmetic – today, “there’s an app for it!”
What would you think if you received a similar email from Apple or Google?
I like Twin Peaks myself (although it's pricey). If you are moving out from a suburb and would like to "ease" yourself into the city, Twin Peaks would suit you just fine. One of the additional perks is that Twin Peaks is right in the middle of SF.
I lived in Hunters Point for a while (super cheap), and taxi drivers would refuse to take me home (due to the high crime rate in that area).
I remember taking a C class in my undergrad, nailing the code to perfection, and getting an F because I had written the code in under different architecture and compiled with a different compiler (not specified in the prompt by any means). It ran well on my computer (and I proved it), but since it wouldn't run on my professors computer or TAs computer, I still received an F.
So yes, I still maintain strong malice towards C :-)
I'm not a web-dev guy at all--is this still a problem today?
However, I do see how this could be useful for tasks which aren't creative or need much thinking. Say for example, brushing teeth after lunch.