Thanks.
Huxley is much more relevant than Orwell, today. 1984 is a masterpiece but describes a stalinian totalitarism, which probably belongs to the past. Today, the threat is more diffuse and hides in mass entertainment, consumerism, etc. The danger we face is the lose of our ability to think (not because of thinking would become forbidden, but because it would become unnecessary)
That's wrong. Monoprix has indeed succeeded in its transformation by setting up in more wealthy areas (often under the "Monop'" name), but there is always a lot of stores, less trendy, in popular areas like Belleville and in small and modest provincial cities.
Prices are adjusted according to location.
He says he used wifi, TV, telephone, and asked for a better room. If he didn't ask for this, I think he wouldn't have pay anything.
The French hospitals offer a lot of paid bonuses. I think it's a good thing, it allows to make the basic needs free.
Before, React projects evolved because they have to. They became too complex, to clumsy, etc. But now ? React is stable, the way to develop apps is well known, etc.
As a primarly backend dev, I'm very comfortable with React and I don't particularly want to switch to Vue.js. React says me : learn the HTML basics and then deal with abstractions (proof: React Native !). Vue.js says me : deal with HTML templates, everytime, everywhere.
Although we even end to deal with HTML in React, I think it's easier for a backend dev with no front experience at all to grasp it. I showed React to a old java dev and he said that React reminded him some java web frameworks like Wicket or JSF. I guess Vue.js would have scared him.
New React projects are today much simpler, thanks to new libraries to manage state like Mobx, or efficient starter kits.
So without denying the benefits you encounter with the migration to Vue.js, I think that a full rewrite of you React app in "modern React" would have been a good thing too.
I believed the same thing until I try a tiling manager on Linux (i3). And today, Mac and Windows annoying. I have the feeling to lose my time each time I perform a simple task.
I also dream of a mobile OS as smooth and fast as i3. Android is anti-productive for me, and, as strange as this may sound, the mobile OS ergonomically closest to my i3 experience is Windows Phone.
I work full-time on my website since 6 months, after two years of development and growth when I was an employee.
At first, it was only a little side-project so I haven't done anything to prepare my exit to entrepreneurship. I've quit my job when my partner and I we have felt a real potential for our website. I guess it's less stressful in France than in other countries, because we have in France the possibility to terminate the employment like a resignation, and then receive comfortable unemployment benefits during two years. There is no need to save money, and no pressure at the beginning of the startup.
Everyone has its own way to work on a side project. Personaly, I worked every mornings, before work. Why ? Because my brain was fresher, my spirit less crowded by external thoughts. I could go to work without frustration, with the satisfaction of having worked on my own website. And at evening, I could hang out with my girlfriend or friends without feeling guilty.
Mobx is a blessing ! I work on React only since a few months, I have a ton of subjects to learn, a ton of libraries to learn to how to use them. I really don't have time to learn a complex library like Redux. I tried, and learned its principles, but I soon saw that it would totally transform my existent codebase into a large cream cake with some boilerplate code everywhere. I come from Java world, which is often mocked (especially by the JS community ...) for its abstract-factory-factory, but Redux is not irreproachable for that !
Compared to Redux, MobX is a breath of air. It's very simple, very efficient, and contrary to Redux, not opiniated. It's easy to integrate it in an existing app. At the beginning, I only used MobX in a complex part of my app. I added a store, some instructions, and voilà. Then I added it everywhere, part by part, incrementally. Everything works, my code is simple, anybody, even a beginner, can understand it.
MobX seems to be directly integrated in React.js, linked to the React core.
I read the same thing after the Paris attacks.
Attacks caused 137 deaths and 368 injuries. This is low compared to the Paris population (2 million in the city, 10 million in the urban area). But personally, several friends were seriously injured in the Bataclan, and many of my colleagues knew victims too. You don't have to be a direct victim to suffer from an attack. Nearly every young parisian is linked to a victim.
So, no, it's not a "totally irrational" fear.
"the language had a profound impact on me as a developer."
I think Clojure will remain in the developer culture for that. Clojure will be recognized for its action in LISP resurrection and functional programming renaissance.
It's often said that "The Velvet Underground's first album only sold a few thousand copies, but everyone who bought one formed a band.". It's the same for Clojure: there will be never a lot of apps, but I'm pretty sure that all the developers who learned Clojure became better developers, developed good libraries in other languages, started a blog, etc.
I also dropped Clojure/ClojureScript, even though it was my favorite language between 2012 and 2014/2015.
The main reason for me is the progression of Java and JavaScript during these years, which make ClojureScript less useful. ES6 has completely transformed the JavaScript development. I finally enjoy to code in JavaScript - this wasn't the case before. On the contrary, coding in ClojureScript became painful. It's difficult to follow the recent trends, to integrate new libraries without hassle. Currently I work on a project that use DraftJS. I don't want to know how to integrate it in ClojureScript ! It's a waste of time, and again the "joy of Clojure" still exists but is now less superior to the "joy of Javascript".
On the Clojure/JVM side, Java 8 is far from perfect but the lambdas expressions have made the language a bit less boring. I think many developer feel less the urge to leave Java for an alternative language. And if they really want it, there is Scala, still the best strong statically typed language on the JVM, and so, for me, still the best language for backend development.
In short, Clojure/ClojureScript was for me the best language for rapid prototyping and for front development. I've never really considered it for "serious" backend applications based on a complex data models, because of its dynamic typing. However, JavaScript development became much more pleasant, making ClojureScript less attractive, less differentiating. I believe that today, you have to be a true Clojure fan to code in ClojureScript.
What do you think about the "Palais Chaillot", on the Trocadéro, in front of the Eiffel Tower ?
Maybe it's timeless, but it's also charmless ... It has no soul, it's a classic/greek/renaissance pastiche like a lot of fascist buildings from the same period. I prefer the brutalist buildings, because they are the witnesses of their times.
But I agree that sometimes, neo classicism is more suited to our way of life.
A small city near Paris, Le Plessis Robinson, has switched in less than 15 years from the typical "banlieue", with hideous towers, to a fake typical old french city (fake old church, fake old market, fake old city hall, etc).
http://www.plessis-robinson.com/uploads/media/DSC_8867.jpg
I think it's a beautiful pastiche. Quality of life is now very appreciated here.
This.
Sim City 4 is maybe the only 3D management/strategy game I have loved. Unlike most 3D sequels of 2D games (like Rollercoaster Tycoon III, much more profound than the II, but vulgar, unattractive, charmless), Sim City kept all its charm typical of the 2D era. The modern games have lost the cuteness so present in the old strategy/management games like Transport Tycoon, Theme Hospital, etc. This cuteness was important to me because it allowed to play in a satirical way, or in a non-realistic way.
To be honest, I don't know if I would have loved this new game when I was a child, I remember being first attracted by the colorful graphics and the funny councilmen. My cities were like a full world, closed and unique, not like Paris or London but like Springfield or Duckburg. Sim City (or Caesar III, Pharaoh) allowed me to learn how to manage a city, but also to imagine stories.
I started to learn Emacs with its native commands and shortcuts. But I switched to evil when I noticed than I was unable to memorize the shortcuts for some basic actions like "add a character to the end of each line".
Today I use evil-mode for all tasks and to be honest I don't think I'm missing something.
The Emacs shortcuts are not mandatory to benefit of the power of Emacs, which resides essentially into its modularity and plugins.
Yes !
I highly recommand this plugin to those who are not familiar with the strange Emacs shortcuts ... but also to those who are not familiar with vim. evil-mode allows to learn Emacs and Vim at the same time, it's perfect for a beginner.
A city like Lille (or Strasbourg, Nantes, etc.) offers a much better quality of life but looks like to a small village regarding tech, in comparison to Paris. The business activity outside Paris in very weak. Few startups, few engineers, few meetups ... I don't regret my former "provincial" life, even if I live now in a small apartment in a decrepit building in a noisy neighborhood.
You should try Luminus, which concentrates all the basic libraries for web development.
Not as rich as Play! or Django but sufficient for doing a lot of things. It's also a great way to learn Clojure smoothly, it's far more accessible than Pedestal for a beginner.
I'm working every mornings (it's very hard at the beginning to sleep earlier, but after some time, it's so delightful to recover this natural rythm), and I use the pomodoro technique, but with days instead of minute.
4 days of work, one day of total laziness. These moments of laziness are very important to me, they help me to regenerate but also to find new ideas and to question myself. I think that we should not overlook the virtues of boredom ... and sometimes, procrastination. Everything is a matter of proportions. Procrastination is not that bad.
Wonderful ! The sites like yours remind me why I love Streetview, which is like a gift for me.
I take this opportunity to share one of my favorites blogs, "Dreamlands - Virtual Tour". It's a photograph blog, like every photograph blogs, except that all pictures are made with Streetview ! You don't have to speak french to enjoy it. Some places are incredible.
http://dreamlands-virtual-tour.blogspot.fr/