gnrme

I think this is the primary reason why some scripting languages end up in the education space (as a tool for learning), while others go mainstream and ubiquitous in the commercial space. Breaking stuff between versions is a headache and expense for everyone except the most superficial users.

The 'there should be one – and preferably only one – obvious way to do it' rule sounds like another reason. It's like being asked to choose between a perfect general use knife or a Swiss army knife.

Microsoft is dragging its users into the cloud. Something like ReactOS would let people live within the Microsoft environment without the baggage of the cloud. A personal computer rather than a glorified cloud terminal.

I'm the other way around. I immediately lose trust in a host as soon as they start reading an ad - it shows that the production doesn't have a strict separation of content and sales.

Indeed. Always look at the URL before reading an article to understand the environment in which it was written. There's lots of websites out there with agendas - some more blatant than others.

Yeah. The skills aspect is important. That bespoke CMS/MVC product that you spent years working with... it's kind of worthless. Employers and recruiters have a list of requirements to tick before narrowing down the candidates.

Once you get to the interview and they want to look at the code from a project, then sure, it will help a lot - assuming you created it.

Yep. Either go with: a free market approach - facing the full force of globalisation and international politics, where one year you could be producing at a loss and another year a good profit; or be protected by a nationalised system that's predictable and, well, mediocre. No in between, as that will undermine either system.

I see the Pi as more like a Spectrum. The Amiga of our era is, well, Apple. Yet Apple seems to have lost focus on desktop users.

It's the fear of missing out. All the social media services build their foundation on that addiction. Once you delete the accounts then the feeling slowly goes away and you get back to what life was like before all this nonsense started.

Every time I look at the BBC website, and find an article full of Twitter posts, a part of me dies.

I want proper news like in the olden days of several years ago... not gossip from a minority of social media users.

And that's the BBC, not some commercial outfit with financial troubles.

Perhaps 'useless' is a strong word. It's good for getting a general idea but too many books hover around the 4 mark. Whereas with IMDb anything 6 and above is worth the risk.

Goodreads rating system is useless anyway. It's 'out of five' which means most people will give a good book a 4 or a 5 star - it's not like IMDb's more nuanced 'out of ten' rating.

They also display a bespoke meaning for the stars (i.e. 3 doesn't mean average), so for those that follow that meaning, their ratings will be different.

iPads are primarily high end content consumption devices - in my mind, that makes them a strange choice for education.

It's probably a good thing to have made it this far without hearing about these people.

Plus the profits for international technology platforms - especially as they mature - leave the local and national community, often ending up in a tax haven.

People should be focusing on local and national businesses (and things like co-ops) to keep their communities alive. The startups that are celebrated on this website are the antithesis of that mindset.

Regulation protects customers and workers. It ensure travellers don't get over charged compared to other forms of public transport, it makes sure the driver isn't a criminal, it ensures the vehicle is within certain standards, it prevents a free-for-all that would push the driver's income below reasonable levels.

I like the libertarian/wild west mindset of the internet. It doesn't however lend itself to integrated public transport systems - of which, private hire taxis are a part.

Plus, it is replacing local businesses with a multinational that will probably send its profits to an island (like lots of other technology companies), rather than contributing to local economies. I think it is the next Groupon though, so at some point it may pop.