barnaby

Interesting prediction about history repeating with Apple innovating then MS copying and simply setting up more manufacturers.

Though, totally wrong, Android rocks! customers love it! But everyone already has mental associations of what Windows phones look/feel like, and it's not pretty. They have a lot of expensive customer re-education to do. I don't see it taking off as well.

Good contrast with the other reviews that were posted, he talks about things they didn't. He has an interesting opinion about how Ubuntu releases can't be as groundbreaking now that "normal people" are using it. Not sure what to think of that yet, I'll have to chew on it.

Thanks for posting :-D

It felt that way for me too... then on further reflection I think system-wide multi-touch support is a BIG deal. There may not be any applications taking advantage of it now, but I predict that in a few months this will give iPads and android tablets a run for the money.

I wish I had a tool like that. No I just had an intuition to check this time. I've probably been guilty of downvoting newbies myself without checking.

There was a huge chart of the history of programming languages at my university. It showed which ones influenced others, and I'd look at it often. Oddly enough I didn't pay much attention to Python at the time focusing on all the lines coming into and out of Java. I've since discovered Python and really wish I could see that chart again. While this is very different it gave me a piece of that magic again. Thank you for posting this. :-)

:-) yay, he's up to ten! I should point out that when I wrote this, the poor guys post was at negative 4.

Guys don't downvote somebody on their FIRST POST on HN. This guy may legitimately want to know how to do this, that's one hell of a good reason to be on HN.

Jastis, to answer your question, you do it one step at a time, because if you try to do too many things (or too big of a thing) at once then nothing gets done. Bite off one small thing a day and you'll be amazed how much gets done in half a year.

Upvote! I had the same moment of panic, like: "aaaahhhhh shiii...wait a second. LOL"

Javascript is a great, powerful and awesome language.

Python is a great, powerful and awesome language.

Birds of a feather flock together. I hope EVERY rendering engine gets Python support.

That sounds like a good book. Anybody else read it? Would you recommend it?

I doubt that even the best quality fork can compete with Oracles sales machine, no matter how badly they ruin Java. Even if all the great and passionate Java developers leave to become Python programmers, Java will still be the most common language out there.

The map database also has some really well thought out licensing behind it to prevent vendors from taking the data, adding one or two gps points, and then keeping things proprietary. I believe OSM had the license custom-made because source code licenses didn't translate to databases, so you may need to do some extra reading.

While I don't know much about retargeting, I've met Arjun, the founder of Retargeter, and he's one hard working dude. Really believes in what he offers so I'd be comfortable recommending doing business with him.

I too used to think like you do. But I've been using Ubuntu at work, and now when I go on a Mac I actually miss the usability features of Ubuntu.

Just a tiny example: hitting alt and clicking anywhere on a window to move it instead of going to that top bar. Or the multiple different ways to switch between apps. etc. etc. There's probably 100 small things that I now can't live without. So I would say the statement "Mac Os X is not as usable as Ubuntu" is actually true. Surprisingly.

Wait, that makes no sense. Why compare a language like PHP with a framework like Rails or Django. Shouldn't you compare CakePHP, Symfony, or Zend, instead of PHP? Or compare PHP against Python and Ruby?

"Real world" is an odd concept in college. Python is used A LOT in the real world, including NASA and many fortune 500 companies.

Just because there is still more COBOL code running in the "real world" than there is C# code doesn't mean C# is 'radical'.

Plus HackerNews readers are likely to be less concerned with what people used 5 years ago when they started the projects that are big today (e.g. Java etc.) they're more interested in what people are using _NOW_ to make the projects that will be big tomorrow (e.g. Python)

Wow that's a really well thought out answer, I totally agree.

I am always amazed when I find that Python has a library for _X_ whenever I need it... and not just some project on github, a stable project that's in a mature release, and flexable enough to be used in any setting/framework/etc.

Read. a lot

Also, I picked up a musical instrument, I find my playing to be very relaxing, my girlfriend does not. :-p

Sounds like they're addressing some of the growing pains in Django's ever increasing popularity. Good problems to have I suppose.

I rarely get outraged by political news anymore because I'm so jaded, but THIS story makes my blood boil!!!! GGGRRR

If we outlaw encryption then only criminals will be able to talk covertly, while good citizens will be abused. EPIC FAIL!

Totally Awesome!

Would the downvoters explain this one? Do you think anyone sincerely cares about your best interest the way this guy claims in his email? Because this sounds incredibly charitable.

Sounds too good to be true.

If you're moving to San Francisco or Silicon Valley for a tech job then this isn't even a question. There is so much talent out here that a company would be insane to pay the extra costs of looking outside the local talent pool.

"Consistency is the authors best friend"

That's something my Dad (a writer himself) told me when I wanted to write a book when I was young. And it's true for business as well! When I wrote just a little bit regularly (a page or two a day) I got a _lot_ done in a month, but then I started just writing in batches, marathon sessions here and there, and nothing really got done plus I lost wind pretty quickly.

Now I'm working a day job and writing code for another startup idea and regularity helps me, this time I plan to stick with the consistency, rather than degrade into spurts, so that I finish this (unlike the book).

I work with groovy in my day job, and I have to say that it is the NBL on the JVM. It has:

* ease of adoption from existing Java developers because it's a superset of the java langauge

* the enterprise capability (which the author mistakenly dismissed it for) thanks to groovy++

* finally, if you were to change Java the way the author suggested for Java 8 and 9, then it would end up looking like Groovy anyway. So DRY and just adopt Groovy as the NBL and leave Java to be backwards compatible.

Every generation has been lazier than the last since the days of Plato, and we've not degenerated into sloths yet. Skyrocketing tuition rates in an oversaturated educational-services market are a new problem, one that will cause an economic bubble in academia.

I wouldn't worry about listless youth, I would worry instead on the absolutely horrible investments they're making in education.

I'm a big fan of Rifkin. His book "The end of work" really made me think about what the future of employing people will look like.

Will the fork still be licensed under CDDL or is there a way to switch it to GPL?

So I've not done business in Warsaw myself (as I said I'm in the Bay Area), I've been there and I know of quite a lot of activity going on. Internet is ubiquitous, everyone I met there had Internet, and it seems most cafe's did too.

I'm not brave enough to drive a car in Warsaw, public transit is "European class" (which is to say, there is more of an expectation that public transit works, and that it will get you anywhere... anywhere... even remote areas of the country. I cannot say that of the Bay Area where I can't even get to most of Marin, or Napa).

English is pretty ubiquitous as well. How ubiquitous you may ask... well, even the strippers spoke English. ;-)