skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The relative ubiquity of the internet is an important consideration here. In previous swings of the pendulum, computing (and/or the internet) was concentrated among a much smaller base of users, many of whom had strongly vested interests in the side to which the pendulum was swinging.

These days, the internet is certainly ubiquitous, and "smart" mobile devices are basically ubiquitous, if not yet entirely so. And the vast majority of today's users don't seem to care about privacy, open vs. closed ecosystems, etc. The sheer volume of users who either don't know, or don't care, about these things shifts a LOT of power into the hands of the current power players in the status quo. Hackers and power users are still major forces for change, and always will be. And, in time, they may prevail by offering better solutions to the masses. But the weight of the masses is heavier than it ever has been.

I submit that the fulcrum on which the hackers will tilt the masses isn't security, privacy, or anything of that nature. It's openness, and by proxy, IP management. It's the free transmission (or lack thereof) of ideas, information, and content. It's the interoperability (or lack thereof) of all of these things between devices and systems, outside the restrictions or central control of one or two major parties.

But the force currently arrayed against the growth of openness is a powerful one. It's convenience. And convenience is, arguably, THE most powerful driver in human psychology. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, telecoms, and other players in the content space are making plays to become total-solution providers. And the appeal of a one-stop, total solution (the Walmart Effect, if you will) is quite powerful to the masses. To overcome this appeal, the next great disruption will need to equate openness with convenience. Open must = easy. More precisely, open must be more highly correlated with ease than walled gardens are correlated with ease.

An historical side note:

AOL's monopoly in the ISP game, which lasted for so many years, came about because AOL offered the easiest, most idiot-proof, and most convenient internet experience. It was a walled garden, but beyond the wall, the typical user just saw a massive, untamed jungle full of complex systems, wonky communities, and seemingly insurmountable technical difficulties. AOL fell when people figured out how to make the world outside the wall more ordered, more appealing, and more uniformly approachable. Open standards had a lot to do with this. So did the appearance of portals, which represented a less daunting half-step between the Great Untamed Wild and the AOL garden. And search engines continued this evolution, making the point of entry into most users' internet experience very centralized, orderly, and convenient without walling everything up. Search engines created the subconscious appearance of a walled garden without actually erecting walls.
This lack of contributors would not have been as a serious problem without the insistence to break backwards compatibility and fork efforts for five (and counting) years: it sounds like the work got done, it is just for the "wrong version" (the one few people can use) of Python.
I wonder how long this will last though. I agree the average user here is not the target market and people just want something that works, but surely services like Spotify are making inroads here.
I don't think the main issue from OP is that WinRT support is not ready yet: windows 8 is not even out yet. The fact that he will have to migrate to python 3 to get there seems to be the main issue.
Facebook rolls out its Offers deals and discounts globally
How Apple’s Obsession with Google Is Hurting Apple
+1 for running. It can do wonders for you. Before I started exercising regularly, I used to get stressed out just trying to get through my office work everyday. But since I started running, I don't feel any mental stress anymore. I now have a lot of free time available, in spite of spending an hour or so exercising everyday, and I have managed to design and develop a few iOS apps in my 'spare' time.
Been through the same too, it was about your age at the time too - wonder if that's a common theme.

I fixed it with a change of direction. I'd been tackling a bunch of stuff that my heart wasn't in, figured out what i did still like (turns out i wasnt doing any of it day to day), engineered a change of circumstances at work and popped out the other end feeling happy again.

End to end about 4 months. Did involve a fair amount of persuasion - what i wanted to do didn't fit with the organisation at the time.
This should make it easier to make a pure js NES emulator. We have sprites/canvas/webgl, and this level of audio fits perfectly.
Historical wargames!
The problem is that nutrition is a highly political topic, even though it may not seem like it from a distance, and often times these studies are financed by someone who is looking for data that jives with their results.

Overwhelmingly, the research that I have seen has recommended consuming carbohydrates only in the form of fruits and vegetables, and ignoring grains almost entirely, as well as limiting the consumption of red meat and consuming much greater quantities of fish and seafood.
"So you can actually just write code like this:
do val1 <- someValue
val2 <- someFunction val1
val3 <- someFunction val2
someFunction val3
then, if any of the values return an error, it gets propagated to the end of the code."

I have seen this (the error monad) mentioned before as a "nice" way of handling errors, even with explicit error returns. I beg to differ - the error messages produced by such a program will be obscure, as all the context is lost - if the first call to someFunction fails, for example, there's not necessarily any indication that the error came from that call rather than the one after it.

Go's explicit error handling means that it's easy to add meaningful context wherever relevant - the error messages printed by such a program are likely to be considerably more useful.

In the end, adding error checks is doing useful work. Each error case should be considered individually, and I've often found it to be the case that it's useful to treat errors as regular values (for example by collecting a bunch of errors, or returning the most important error only).

I can understand the control flow of a Go function by inspecting it on the page (without a glance at the documentation). That's a huge plus.
It's PR. If it isn't blatantly superlative then it isn't worth pushing. Ever notice how every episode of every tv show is "The best episode yet" or "The most exciting season finale ever" or "The most suspenseful reveal you've ever seen?"

The past is the past, you are now, and you are the best most amazing super duper thing ever conceived by person kind for the benefit of the universe and our personal profit. dattebayo.
I think the article misses one of the fundamental reasons that mobile is a closed environment: fear. It seems we treat things we can put in our pocket as more personal and much different than the twilight zone we expect out of computers.

I am sure, at some point, a program uploaded the Outlook address book of some Fortune 500 sales manager to the internet without telling him/her. Any problem or security breach in the PC world is a 1-day story.

The same thing happens on a mobile platform (iPhone) and C-level executives are dragged in front of Congress. I gotta tell you, if its a choice between programmer's rights and being dragged in front of Congress because some startup didn't use proper hashing, I would, as a CEO, limit programmers. Pure, simple, and a smart decision for 99.9% of my customers. I will bet if Google has more executives "requested" at Congressional Hearings then side-loading will disappear.

The post-PC devices are going to be locked down in the name of security. There is no downside to executives. Some developers will put up with it because of the money just like they did in the pre-iPhone days of mobile deployment.

I hate this because I know if I'd been born 20 years later, I would not be a developer. High Schools are not teaching programming anymore and the computers I learned to program on (Atari 400, C64, TI 99/4A) have no modern replacements (sub $200 with development tools included / available cheap).

Someone wants to change all this? Then build a modern day Atari 800 / C64. Not OLPC, because you cannot just buy one of those. Something I can hook to the internet and an old TV (since now most families have bought the 2nd generation of HDMI devices). Something that lets me program it.
> Meanwhile, many illiterate cultures appear to have healthy diets (implying thousands of years of trial and error, admittedly a form of science, works).

Hit the nail on the head. America is too young of a country and culture, we don't really have a national cuisine. Perhaps burgers and fries, but those are nothing more than the product of our early adoption of industrialized food production.

National cuisines from other cultures have sort of "symbiotic" properties which increase their nutritional properties. I'd have to re-read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma to find specific examples, but I remember things along the lines of soy sauce or rice vinegar enhancing the nutritional value of rice as an example.

This is one of the reasons America is plagued with fad-diets like Atkinsons, etc. that have no real proven benefits. American's grasp at straws asking "What am I supposed to eat?!" while other cultures don't have to wonder.
Good point. I think we are moving in that direction. The reason being the OS vendor does not own most of the "Share" ecosystem.
You're entirely right, but I think you're missing the point. This thread is about how to we change the current situation, i.e. how to effect which way the needle swings. There is enough of an acorn in the number of authors and publishers that do sell direct online (and stores that don't support DRM) that it is something we can build on by supporting them. The question asked is what can we do, not what has already been done.

[Edit] Also, to clarify, the number of authors selling direct (or via new style lean publishers) is more than a rounding error. The number of popular authors probably isn't. But WHO the popular authors are is not static, and my gut feeling is you will see that rapidly change if the needle swings the way we hope it does. And remember than, bestsellers aside, there is a very long tail in publishing (particularly e-publishing).
Having worked in software engineering for 17+ years, I've learned a few things (and gone through at least two-bouts of serious burnout). One was at the end of the first dot-com boom when getting engineering jobs was nearly impossible, so it was a forced long-term vacation. I went to Europe for a bit.

1) In my 20s, I worked all the time. Didn't live a very balanced life, this lead to burnout, especially if you're working in a startup environment where you think you'll retire at 30.

2) I quit engineering twice (but after 6+ months off, new developments in technology that stimulated my imagination eventually brought me back)

3) I've learned to manage not working the burn-out dream, that likely in the long run, your 80 hours weeks aren't going to pay out. It's proven to me that there's plenty of successful people and companies who work realistic hours.

4) Hobbies. I prefer those where I get excercise (like cylcing). Gives me time to clear my mind and keep my body fit and invigorated. I also enjoy gourmet cooking.

5) Managing workload, prioritizing things that are important and recognizing things that you think are work but really procrastinating.

6) Learn other professional skills than typing text into your favorite editor/ide. Speaking at conferences/local user groups, managing project budget, managing teams, managing bigger teams. Doing these other things makes you appreciate the few hours of coding you have left in the week.
is he a bot - not quite the same printf each time but its triggered by amazon searchable names in the title afaics
I don't think there's any objective way to define "most advanced" -- it just means "best." Their marketers claim the new OS they made is the best OS. If there is some aspect of the OS that is considered the best by someone, they're not wrong. If there is some aspect of some other OS that is considered the best by someone, they're not right. From your BBB link, see "puffery."

As other examples: they say the demand for the new phone is "incredible," they've been working "hard," the phone is "completely" redesigned and "blazing" fast, Macs are "the best" personal computers in the world, and that Apple "leads" the digital music "revolution".

If you feel the need to define quantifiable standards for some or all of those words, please do so -- it's the same motivation that drives people to get philosophy PhDs. But understand that you will be neither right nor wrong because those terms are subjective (and, word to the wise, if you get a philosophy PhD your options for professional employment will be limited).
Professional Analysts haven't been able to reliably predict iphone or ipad sales for the past 5 years. Even Gartner looks like they are just throwing darts, so why should we give credence to their predictions?
Grad school is a popular choice, and many would favor candidates with 3-5 years of work/project experience. The application process also helps you reflect on what your goals are, why you did what you previously did, and so forth. Taking an exam like the GRE/GMAT/LSAT/etc can also be good mental exercise and give you something mindless to do in between introspection for essays/apps.

Alternatively, it can also be cathartic to do some volunteer work. It certainly would put a smile on someone's face and perhaps provide some different perspective on life.
Persuasive Games: From Aberrance to Aesthetics
It's very difficult to take much from these numbers - you can't strip out factors such as an increase or decrease in the number of people going for pre-orders (potentially a big factor given how much Apple push the whole announcement/pre-order thing)

I think first month sales are going to be a much better indicator of initial demand, and it's going to take about 3 months before we get a clear picture.
Disagree.

MS was the incumbent 800 lb gorilla, and was proposing locking up identity and payment for the great new space of internet--blocking all new comers. Whereas Apple's actions were framed as underdog & come-from-behind. Today, MS is still characterized as a villan, but now with a bumbling "Home Alone" veneer.

Never mind that Apple, Google and FB have long overstepped MS's original passport plans with more even more ("friendly!") lock in, or that that FF & Chrome overturned consumer protections like ("hard to set!") P3P advertising policy headers so more info could flow back via adwords everywhere.

So if the future belongs to Android, remember that platform is first a giant magnet to collect and funnel info to GOOG, and secondly a phone.
And Aussies years behind xx. No point saying that 'mate'.
All of Rich Hickey's talks great, but they're not really about learning how to learn. "Hammock Driven Development" is probably the closest, and is about approaching problem solving generally.

Both "Simple made easy" and "Are we there yet" are pretty general, not necessarily Clojure-specific talks, although they do point to Clojure and more broadly FP as a possible solution to the problems presented.

http://blip.tv/clojure/hammock-driven-development-4475586

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Are-We-There-Yet-Rich-Hic...
Websockets 101
This rules. The other weekend I was feeling curious and started a little project to see what it takes to get up and running doing basic audio synthesis: https://github.com/nicolasmiller/bleeper. I got distracted with some other stuff, but the goal is to compile examples in as many languages/environments as possible.
In my early twenties I got tired of programming and started studying history at the university instead. I lasted about two years, at which time I had so much freelance programming work that I couldn't focus on the studies enough to pass tests. So I dropped out and got back into programming.

Not only did I regain my passion for programming, but I actually like to believe that the skills I learned there made me a better programmer to boot.

TLDR; You're young - Try something different for a while.
These toys are amazing.
Marissa Mayer's Plan To Save Yahoo
Right but we haven't really learned anything by saying that. It's like saying that Germany didn't invade Poland in 1939 but rather a collection of humans carrying guns and some driving tanks wandered into what was called in some parts "Poland". We have not really advanced the argument or our understanding by breaking it down like that.
This is where I'm really not clear. What makes Python harder to compile than Smalltalk (which had some native compilers - Smalltalk/X) or Objective-C?
I think Ubuntu moved away from "polish for Linux distributions" some versions ago. This was the time they've started making their own user interface with Unity, they're own shop with I-don't-know-what-it's-called (App center ?) and their own online storage with Ubuntu one.

They make decisions you may like or may not like (moving the window controls to the left..) - but at least for me it was time to go - and I don't look back.
That's exactly the kind of thinking that the original article is arguing against! It doesn't matter what shape or size or gender or even the number of pins a connector has!

The biggest restriction on getting Thunderbolt on an iOS device is not going to be the connector or cable. It will be the controller chips necessary to support such a fast protocol. And fast enough flash chips to provide the data quickly enough.

Lightning can act as both a USB controller or peripheral. It can already provide or receive power. The active elements inside Thunderbolt won't be the limitation.
Bringing Predictability With Timers –Traffic Signals and Youtube
It's very good that you understand how to write exception-safe code (although makeAMess() should typically be OUTSIDE the try {} block), but he's clearly comparing the NAIVE cases, i.e., people not paying attention to errors in either idiom.
> Most likely my dilemma is that I seem not to be able to decide where to specialize and programming alone has become quite boring. I kinda want to do everything and can not decide which is the most fun of games, web, mobile, desktop or security.

This sounds familiar, I experience the same thing whenever I sit down to do anything (not just coding stuff) that's supposed to be 'for fun' only, and has no clear utility value. There's simply too many things I want to do, which paradoxically has a paralyzing effect on me. There's at least 20 things I still want to develop, at least 20 books I still want to read, 20 video games I'd like to finish, 20 things I want to improve around the house, I have a car disassembled to pieces I still want to put back together, I want to learn to play the guitar, I want to pick up sports again (tennis, so I'd have to join a club), I want to travel and spend weekends outdoors hiking and such, etc.

The net result is that every time I sit down to do something, in a strange way I feel guilty not doing any of the other stuff that's in the back of my head. This in turn distracts me from what I was planning to do. In the end, nothing gets done.

One thing that has helped me a little is to try and do one thing of each activity at a time. In other words: work on only one code project at a time, not multiple. Read one book at a time, not multiple. Play one video game completely through, or drop it completely if it gets boring. Pick one thing you want to improve around the house and finish it completely before starting something new.

This works for some things, but not all. Travelling more or picking up sports requires a different kind of discipline, but I'm not sure how to get myself to actually get moving. It's a character weakness I think.
RedHat charges for RHEL support, not for the software, they give that for free (see CentOS). Canonical also charges for Ubuntu support.
Happy 4th Birthday, Android , do you remember the first G1?
I started Scuba diving, now I got two passions..
Young developers taken seriously?
Hello. So i am currently 18 years and been doing programming for about a year and a half. Recently i moved to a bigger city where i found several programmer meetups. I am a little nervous going to these meetups as i can only see people in the range of 30-50 going to them, and i got a feeling i wont be taken seriously as a developer. What would you think if you saw a young developer (lets say 15-18) enter a meetup/presentation?
Weight training - currently doing 5/3/1
Fly fishing for trout. I find this the best for stress-relief. Beautiful countryside, gorgeous fish.
Used to box as well, but haven't for a few years.
True, which is why I made a point of saying general-purpose language. If python is being displaced by lua in an area for which lua is specialized, I don't see that as a problem (or at least, it's unavoidable). If python is being displaced by another general-purpose language that's more cause for concern.
As a person doing data analysis for several research departments of a large North American hospital, I 100% agree with this.
Do Web Developers Ever Learn?
They really are. You don't even need glue to put them together (though some parts will fall off easily if not). But in terms of reward for effort they can't really be beat.
A Simple Idea | Bizcovering
I take ~2 grams of metamucil, in tablet form, once a day. It's ~1/4th the recommended dosage for people who are using it as a suppliment, however it is inexpensive and helps me make sure I get at least some fiber (I eat on a very erratic schedule).

However, IIRC two stalks of Celery will give you more fiber.
No, it's not. "Bold" is the malapropism, not bald, which is the original term.
>Js is clearly doing a fine job at client side programming, should we not be happy with that?

I'm not happy with that. Lots of people want to say that the Web will one day replace native apps and this is precisely one of the reasons I hope that never happens: with a native App I can do the whole thing in one language. With the web I have to deal with HTML, CSS, <server side language > and Javascript for the client side. At the very least I'd like to be able to use <server side language> on the client as well. Why must we all be forced to use Javascript? It's not even a particularly nice language IMO.

>That sounds like hell to a front-end developer. Its bad enough learning coffeescript or other dialects if a company uses them, but other languages too?

What? Right now all languages either use a VM or they compile to assembly. Has that been so bad? If you read server side code you might be required to learn literally any language. Why should the client be different?

My hope is that someone will come out with a VM browser plug in that lets me write in any language I want, compile to to a binary that runs on that VM, and this plug in eventually replaces Javascript as the defacto web language.

Stop holding the browser client side programming environment hostage!