skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You can use ruby without gems. I think you confuse gems with "pure" ruby as such. I have seen horribly code in gems and I think the whole gems idea is the wrong solution. But I am in a minority here.

I also do not know why cpan is mentiond FIRST as perl's greatest assets. To me i think a language should easily provide the capabilities to the programmer without addons, AND I also think that there SHOULD BE ONLY ONE "CPAN" FOR ALL THE SCRIPTING LANGUAGES OUT THERE.

I find it totally silly that there are any distinctions at all.

But back to gems:

I for example am using Ruby since almost 5 years without gems. Others seem to like it that you can simply do "gem install rails" and thats it (unless the debian package manager starts to hate it again... which is btw another thing that sucks.)

I agree that there are people who are concerned with "namespace" pollution, but I simply think so many people are trying to overemphasize. The worst was when I talked to a C# hardcore guy. He basically claimed that being flexible like Ruby is ALWAYS bad (C# does not allow you to change core methods. You must subclass and change that new class then. This is not a smart solution, it simply binds and restricts the developer, and claims that this will be better in the long run. My question is - why not allow being flexible AT THE CHOOSING OF THE DEVELOPER IN QUESTION? The reason is simple. C# is a typical language that is developed from the top-down.

It would be so much better if creating good languages would be a lot easier, so noone has to cater to arrogant developers who try to impose their thinking pattern onto your brain.
I think you are not alone. But then again, there are also many people who look forward to get to use Perl6 for real.

It has been underway for a long time, since 2000. Do notice though, that Perl6 isn't just a revision up for Perl5, it is a thorough redesign.

As for all the kids - well, if they are going for the (percieved) latest and greatest language all the time, they will be quick to try Perl6 when the right christmas comes around.

I think Perl6 will hit a sweet spot, but we'll see. Maybe your dire predictions will be fullfilled; maybe not.

I don't think age necessarily is a bad thing for a language - I bet a lot of programs you use are written in C, for instance.
Also I would like you to name which library specifically causes this problem :)

Whenever I read it, people seem to make up contrived problems - and do not give any example.

I would like specific examples please where this interferes with your code.

So far it simply did not interfere with my own ruby code, and I have written really a lot over the 5 years here, including my own bigger "alternative" to gems. (I wanted to release it, but I was lazy and always felt it is easier to use my own idioms. The problem with this approach is that, while it really makes creating something super fast, I would either have to unbundle everything again so I can distribute it, or bundle everything. Both things have huge problems, because if i unbundle everything it will take quite some time to rewrite things really "cleanly" enough for _other_ people. For my personal needs it is totally fine. And if I would distribute things "bundled" together, which means I could release today, then people would simply complain that there are so many things "bundled" together they simply wont need.

Complaining people are annoying.

i know because I am one of them)
I would pay happily even $5 per file for a web service that would just translate subtitle files from english to japanese, even poorly. So many films arrive late in Japan, and many classics are simply unavailable on DVD.
Ruby doesn't have metaclasses, this is true. It won't let you subclass 'class'.

However it will let you subclass 'Module', which is the superclass of Class, and you can use this to achieve similar ends if not quite as elegantly.

The way class methods work wrt to inheritance is a bit different in ruby though, and gives you quite a lot of power to provide special behaviours to subclasses via class methods which can be called in the subclass class definition. The kind of "we provide a DSL for you to use in your class definitions to configure the subclass" tricks which (IIRC) tend to require metaclasses in python, don't require them in ruby.

There is also an 'inherited' class method callback on Class, which you can use to run code whenever a new class inherits from your class. And this can be used to achieve a lot of things that pythonistas might use metaclasses for.

On the whole I think anything possible in one language is possible in the other when it comes to metaprogramming, it's just a matter of how you go about it and how elegant it feels.
Yes, I do know where the parentheses belong. Like I said earlier, it isn't hard to read ruby like this once you get used to reading ruby.

> While any programmer who would write this deserves to be fired...

That's exactly my point. The only example you could come up with was a straw man.

> ...I can't come up with a good reason why it should be valid to write it in the first place.

Can you come up with a good reason it matters in practical, real world situations?
(where by 'one langauge' i obviously mean one of Ruby and Python)
And I am an Introvert!
66% of Americans have considered starting their own business
In essence,
CTO's Produce Technologies for the Nation.
CIO's Consume Technologies for the Nation.
If you find this article at all persuasive then please read some of the writings of Peter Kramer (just google Peter Kramer melancholy) and you will see the proper counterpoint to this fluff.
Planet haskell: not too much of a firehose, a few posts/day
" Funding the project with money earned from working on experimental PS3 Cell-processor gaming projects for IBM, Blow began coding Braid in December 2004." http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=194727

It seems like Braid is and still-is a high-demand game mercenary. Regardless of how it was funded, I think the fact he conceived and created a game mostly by himself in an industry where teams of creative individuals with multi-million dollar budgets struggle (death marches) to ship games is remarkable.

"The Art Of Braid: Creating A Visual Identity For An Unusual Game" by Braid artist David Hellman
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3753/the_art_of_braid_...
OK. Like so:

module SpecialBehavioursForClass
def extended(klass)
klass.class_eval { ...do anything you like to classes including these behaviours as though you're in their class definition block itself... }
end

def special_class_method
...
end

def give_this_class_an_attribute(x)
attr_accessor :x
end

end

then

Class MySpecialClass
extend SpecialBehavioursForClass

give_this_class_an_attribute :abc

end

(note how there's already a class method 'attr_accessor' which does this - but just to reinforce how you'd go about making something similar yourself)

then:
MySpecialClass.is_a?(SpecialBehavioursForClass)
returns true.

However, MySpecialClass.class == Class
it's not actually an instance of a metaclass as these don't exist in Ruby.

You can achieve the exact same things though, using Modules, class methods, and the .inherited / .included / .extended callbacks.
Opera 9.6 snapshot: Custom search engines and typed history in Opera Link, feed preview
How to Inject a Managed .net Assembly into Another Process
Sorry it bolloxed my formatting.
Note to these people: tell us how your code formatting works, somewhere near the goddamn input field
Gnu screen with split screen
It would and does, which happens to be the situation at the moment and is one of the reasons why food is becoming more expensive.

I should have stated that I only support the ammonia economy provided the increase in ammonia production was powered by nuclear or other non carbon sources.
"... I lived with Python for 4 years before I lost an argument at my own company and had my project moved to Ruby. I've since moved in with Ruby and haven't looked back. ..."

Where would we be without language wars?

Having said that the one thing that Ruby does have is current developer mindset. Important for language development and progression. Is Python to Ruby what Perl is to Php? Used a lot but not mentioned as much?
Vctips
Yeah whilst this does mean some computation expensive things can be pushed to the client more (without plugins) - I think you are right. Most real world disappointment with browser rendering performance is DOM related. Eg large grids in data intensive applications.
>Perhaps the pure JS stuff is getting more effort because it's more glamorous?

funny you mention that, but I think a lot of things are driving by glamour or fashion.

Although in this case its clearly an engineering achievement, so kudos, and its great to have 2 competing and excellent open source browsers.

But still... glamour...
Indian history
I think its already here for the bleeding edge. I have seen some (small) apps where they give up on IE purely for performance reasons (their users are happy for that compromise) - buts its ONLY for performance reasons.
True Scientists Celebrate Failures!
the thread's going viral, slowly

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6xkti/what_does...
How to optimize video for google search
> according to some blog I read, which I couldn't re-find

I think this is the blog post by Brendan Eich you are referring to:

So my default answer to questions such as the one I got
at last May's Ajax Experience, "When will you add
threads to JavaScript?" is: "over your dead body!"

There are better ways. Clueful hackers keep rediscovering
Erlang. Then there is STM. One retro stylist I know
points to an old language-based solution, Hermes.

A requirement for JS3 (along with hygienic macros) is
to do something along these more implicit lines of
concurrency support. In all the fast yet maintainable
MT systems I've built or worked on, the key idea (which
Will Clinger stated clearly to me over lunch last fall)
is to separate the mutable unshared data from the
immutable shared data. Do that well, with language and
VM support, and threads become what they should be:
not an abstraction violator from hell, but a scaling
device that can be composed with existing abstractions.

So here's a promise about threads, one that I will
keep or else buy someone a trip to New Zealand and
Australia (or should I say, a trip here for those over
there): JS3 will be ready for the multicore desktop
workload.

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2007/02/thre...

in essence, he plans to take advantage of multicore processors not with threads but with better
and/or more programmer friendly methods.
"... Ah memories! I consider myself very fortunate to have been one of Damian's students. ..."

Ahh those whacky CS students from Monash. I went to RMIT & Swinny and missed "The Damian". What kind of lectures did he run? I've heard some of his talks & they are pretty good ~ http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail880.html If your lucky you can still hear him talk for nics at Melbourne Perl Mongers.
.. for a /corporate/ position.
I can tell you how to get rich. Make more money than you spend. Think of ways to increase the amount of money coming in by investing the left-over money.

It accumulates. My new startup is going to help you do that (FIRST HINT :))
This is not my experience. Moving from FF2 to FF3 I saw noticeable improvements in the application responsiveness, especially in moving DOM objects around the window (ala draggable dialog boxes full of objects), mouse event handling, and in generation of new DOM children. While at the same time FF3 was using less memory.
He taught the first year intro to programming (C) with Ann Nicholson (AI researcher), and supervised a few post graduates. Ann also taught the Lisp course.

Damian was a fantastic lecturer with a rare ability to enthuse and engage his students while he delivered otherwise dry material. A true master of the story.
Hawaii sounds like a good idea. Mostly because a few rental companies own 100% of the cars. Be a good experiment.

But if you're trying to test run for the world, a resort island doesn't prove anything. Israel's just small enough to be feasible. But it's big enough & 'normal' enough to be applicable to most European Countries. It's also got a big advantage that a large number of cars are leased by employers as part of salary packages. Similar advantage to the rentals in Hawaii.
This is SEO spam
The MHz race wasn't a swindle, when MHz mattered it was a simpler world were you could compare processors without having to lookup meaningless product numbers like T850 or TL-60.

The only thing you needed to remember was the Celeron/P4 distinction (and the AMD equivalent)

Now each chip company spits out new products at higher and lower MHz which makes it even more confusing to consumers. Is a P4 4 GHz chip faster than a Core Duo 2.16 GHz, is a typical question I get from friends/family.
I wrote half of the answer and then decided that it was better just to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_rate
PlanHQ Wants to Make Achieving Business Plans Easier
The phone model isn't pretty. Making deals with governments, locking people into networks. But I suppose at this point, anything that works. But the end result may be ugly.
John Resig on TraceMonkey
"true size of the sector was hard to estimate - it could easily be twice as big"

Or half as big. The article and study aren't convincing.
The 11 worst ideas in security
http://techbuddha.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/the-11-worst-ideas-in-security/
Respectfully, that's advice on how to not be poor before it's advice on how to get rich. To be rich, you have to consider the way you make your money. Getting paid lots of money per hour is not going to make you rich on your own 99 times out of 100 (the other time being those people who make $1000 an hour or something), because as soon as you stop working, that income stream is gone. You can only also work so many hours in a day. Investing helps, for sure; and many people have gotten rich that way. However, investing on its own has a very slow velocity for someone getting started. The best way (from what I can tell) is to find a way to decouple the money you make from the amount of time you have invested in it. That means royalties or licensing fees for something you have created or own the rights to.
You can split the screen at every level of the display stack: tiling window manager, dvtm, screen, emacs, now it's a big problem to choose which level to split.
Here's the HTML code you need for that:

http://sprunge.us/KUEY?html
Heard of downsampling? There is a reason that HD video looks better on a standard television.
Microsoft vs Adobe in Web war
Internet researcher warns innovation lagging
I actually agree with Aaron, but I do think his experience is relevant. Yes, he's either right or wrong regardless of his track record, but the intended reader doesn't know whether he's right or wrong, and won't know it without trying it. If you don't have reasonable way to verify whether what somebody says is true, looking at their credentials is probably the best you can do.

In practice, we do that all the time. For example, you probably have an opinion on global warming, or whether smoking is bad for you, but did you read the relevant papers, or just take the word of the researchers you thought were most credible?
Still waiting for a reverse geocoding API from google... Please :)
You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months).

I take the $2100 and buy two medical devices, which I then sell in the 3rd world for $4000 a piece. I now have $8300 in excess money after 4 months. Notice that each business I did required roughly the same time, but the profits increase because I am able to buy more and more expensive things.

Now, with my $8300, I buy a second hand taxi and I lease it to a pakistani guy to drive around. He pays me $2000 a month. Now, each month my excess income is $2300. I repeat the process. I can quit my job after 4 months and still earn more money.

What we say does not disagree with each other. Every business you do has to not require much of your time.

But the basic philosophy is that you need excess income, and you need to keep investing and reinvesting this excess income in things that bring a percentage income. You then end the process by putting the money into something that guarantees an excess of income every month above what you started off with.

That's the REAL way of getting rich. The other ways are just playing lotto. Unfortunately, most people buy flatscreen TVs, Playstations and drinks with their excess $300.
John does a really job of discussion what implications this had as well as how it does it. Great article.
Yeah that was my concern, I'll just remove it entirely... Thanks!!
Absolutely agree with you. All of those ad spaces were taken into consideration but I will not send all 4 ads down the pipeline immediately...
I think you should re-read my last two sentences. This is exactly what I said to do.

I think perhaps the emphasis is different. You say that it's just "spend less than you make", and I say that it's primarily "don't sell your hours for a fixed price".
No, it's a different philosophy entirely. Making money in a way that does not require you to work is only half the picture. The MAIN and MOST IMPORTANT part of things is that you need to KEEP REINVESTING in things that keep bringing higher returns. Nothing you do keeps bringing in steady income without requiring time. It starts of good but just drifts downwards as time passes. It is imperative to keep changing your investments for higher returns, otherwise you cannot get rich.
The IRS Whistleblower Office? Did you all know about this?
"p.s. And if you need oop features why use ruby instead of java?"

Probably because he values his sanity.
Please leave the politics for another site.

May I suggest:

http://digg.com/

http://reddit.com/
There is a huge difference between desire and compulsion (see 'How To Get Rich' by Felix Denis').
Perhaps, as a recent college grad, I'm just not up with the times. On that note, does anyone have advice or book recommendations on how to file when you generate some income through the web, trading, poker etc. I'd like to report this stuff in the cheapest way possible. I was reading Robert Allen's "Multiple Streams of Income" (2001) - some of his advice seems as if it would get you into trouble.
The thing that I've idly wished would work in PyGTK and wxWidgets (the ones I've used and liked) has these features:

- takes full advantage of data-type literals like dictionaries and lists

- allows method chaining -- I think this implies mywgt.add(NewWidget(), callback, data) must return a new modified object, rather than modifying mywgt in-place and returning None.

So I can build an app the clean way (generated XML or Django-style models), and then if I need to whip up a simple dialog in straight Python, I can do it like this:

import gui
myframe = gui.Frame(
title="Password",
width=300,
modal=True,
).add(gui.Col([
gui.Label("""Enter the password to enable
this feature:"""),
gui.Password(),
gui.HRule(),
gui.Row([
gui.Button("OK", self.accept),
gui.Button("No!", self.cancel)])
]))
myframe[3][1] += gui.Image("images/hellno.png")

Not sure if it's possible to use dictionaries as part of the toolkit since ordering is lost, but you see the idea: let container widgets like HBox and VBox accept literals instead of requiring repeated foo.insert() calls; have different methods for in-place modification and returned values; implement container widget's magic attributes like __getitem__ to allow semi-obscure shorthand (since the inline Python form is mostly for simple throwaway/prototype code). There are probably a lot more shortcuts I'm missing; I haven't had my coffee yet and I'm no guru to begin with.
Botox treats not only wrinkle but also prostate
I was really fascinated when I read that Botox shots that I normally take for my wrinkles has other positive effects as well, though it is of no use to me, it would certainly help my husband. Yes, I am not kidding; Botox injections are reported to help prostate issues. It is really a difficult connection to make but a recent study seems to have its reasons for such a conclusion.
Practical Guide to GPL Compliance
All fun and games until someone loses an eye.
that had nothing at all to do with cloud computing
Twitter has replaced Google Reader for me.
There's a medium somewhere between "suck at everything" and $100m - he's one of those bombastic Brits like Christopher Hitchens. Good read, good content, but one man's experience. Buffett's got a better personality.

Is this the UK equivalent of Fitty Cent?
Denver's Best and Arguably Only Decent Piano Bars - Associated Content
Why don't you buy it from the bookstore you're already in?
Why it’s hard to make machines think original thoughts
Maybe more like an intersection: web apps contain software, but the software isn't usually what's being sold; the user community, collected data and marketing/branding of the original site are a bigger deal than in shrink-wrap or contract software.
How do you make viral link bait for a boring site?
Yes. We actually already provide the functionality to dedicate your earnings to a non profit.

The issue here is that you need to make a marketing push into non profits. That hasn't been where we've focused our resources.
Fat City aka Mr. Biggs, is a Super Fun Activity Mall in Denver - Associated Content
Ask HN: Why does no one use google docs for presentations?
Large meetings with lots of presentations get done two ways (in my experience):

You email your slides ahead of time (or bring them on a USB stick) and share a computer and pray to god that it works.

Or everyone brings a laptop and has to bring their DVI/VGA convertor (just in case) and pray that the resolution thing works right when you plug it in, etc, etc.

It occurred to me that the web should have solved this problem a long time ago. A browser gives us a trivial way to both upload our slides to a place and to preview them exactly as they will be seen on site. It cuts out so much of the praying.

Then I realized, google docs already has this. It even lets you upload ppt files for conversion. And no one uses it? Am I crazy to think that such a service would be a good idea? Or is something wrong with google docs?
"Pound for pound," screen might just be the most useful GNU utility there is. (That is, for such a small program, it has a ton of uses and makes so many other programs more useful!)
Jon Blow has been in the games industry for years. For a long time he wrote a regular column (called "Inner Product") in Game Developer magazine and has worked as a consultant on some pretty high-profile games.

"Indie" makes it sound like he came from nowhere in a sort of rags to riches explosion, but he has been around for a while and knows the industry well.
yet not a working programmer, but it surely is fun… specially when you do something challenging, solving programming problems gives the maximum thrill.
and by the way nice design! love it!
Install the update and do the image manipulation test. For best results, run the test before and after. The difference is astounding.
One of the most important things I think more and more "marketing gurus" are starting to miss is the simple fact that creating something, calling it viral, then slapping it on the web doesn't actually make it viral.

The minute you take control and steer something to work a certain way, and to produce certain numbers it's not a viral campaign. It's just another campaign, and I wished people would stop trying to force their way into social marketing.