michaelneale

Well on the software side I saw it as the difference between software as a product, versus bespoke development (although it can get fuzzy with enterprise sales, I am sure) - but the principle is the same. Many consumers == no wasting time (and no need) bargaining, vs 1 consumer: you have no choice.

Interesting - I have heard other people use the "have you stopped beating your wife?" question as their false-dichotomy example, but didn't realise it was in wide enough use that Andrew could use it with many people realising what he was meaning. But very clever...

It would be an odd move in terms of the market though? ie how many windows machines/networks are there which are hooked up to PLCs (well, there are a lot, but many orders of magnitude less than consumer uses of windows and pcs).

Having said that - it could be VERY lucrative for them - just not in volume. Very much high end expensive product sales (which may be a direction they want to go in - now that MS and others are rolling out built in virus protection with the OS?).

Perhaps - in that article it read to me like that was being as a bit of an excuse to move to android (of course it makes sense for many reasons). It certainly sounds better than "we stuffed up - going to android" - sell the upside !

Nowadays not so much on the computation side (even handshaking is fast), but for mass virtual hosting it is very annoying/difficult without SNI (need so resort to multiple ips or having wildcard certificates and running under subdomains). In a SNI enabled world it wil be much cheaper.

Is there a similar thing for Sydney?

Thankfully that bit is fine on a mac. And really - that is 90% of it there - the rest is a distraction.

Their icons are, well, tasteless is the best way to describe them.

I know people don't often talk about usability and developer tools - but it really really matters. You spend a LOT of time on it - may as well fuss over it and make it right. IDEA gets so much right.... and this is also a good example of when user experience can be great, but design (graphic) not so great.

IDEA (IntelliJ IDE) is a diamond - but not visually. In terms of editing (and this applies to scala, ruby, javascript as well as java) the experience is amazing - it really understands what you are doing.

But it is the ugliest thing... just horrible, but if you can get past that, it is a great tool.

OS-X users are a big paying contingent for Jetbrains - so I expect they will find a way, one way or another, to make it run well.

I am surprised how well it runs considering it is a VM in a VM.

I used Antares plugin back in 2000 - and usually would do it by hand for a final take. Occasionally I would use it in automatic mode but with limited parameters to not make it sound un-natural.

It is surprising that this stuff is only recently (ish) in mainstream attention - the technology has been around for a long time and was used to good effect occasionally.

So here in Australia we use plain old paper and pencil ballots (it is the same in every state - it's Federal). How does electronic security compare to pencil on (anonymous) paper ? I am sure paper fraud happens - as would manual counting (it is manual but overseen of course). Is it perhaps that with electronic both the scale can be increased and the chance of detection decreased?

There is also http://www.pollenizer.com/pollenizer-investing-in-web-startu... (Sydney based, AFAIK) - they are nice folk too.

Great to see !

I think I agree. Perhaps if it was titled "Thread versus Evented single core servers" it would make much more sense. Having said that, there are ways to scale out to fill the cores for event based, and in some cases (ie nothing needs to be shared, would suit event based as IO bound) works just fine. There was an interesting article which I to me looked like it was uncovering that: http://dosync.posterous.com/clojure-nodejs-and-why-messaging...

well it is still 2-3 od MB of weight. I guess you could strip it down easy enough, and package it. But if you are delivering a library - then it has to play nice with other libraries that may also want to use scala - if you really wanted you could jarjar it into its own namespace (!) but that would be pretty extreme.

If you write your app in scala, and unless you are deploying to a phone, it is rarely an issue (it doesn't bother me at all) - but Mirah as a drop in replacement for a java compiler, that is very compelling and something to watch.

Also - the fact that I use the scala libraries heavily means I need very few other deps myself - so for me it is a net win.

For me a HUGE feature is:

"Mirah code has no runtime dependency other than libraries accessed directly from Mirah code."

Wow - Charles has done an amazing job sticking true to that. In fact so much I thought it was a core aim.

I love scala, clojure - but there is significant runtime libraries to include. for most people this isn't an issue (and it isnt' for me most of the time) but Mirah doing what it does without runtime deps, is a refreshing alternative.

Well said.

I read somewhere (wish I could remember where, bizarrely I think it was on paper) that the very definition of a framework over a library is that inversion of control - ie your application runs inside the framework - you are beholden to its lifecycles and view of the world.

When on the JVM, I use scala - and I have found very little utility for frameworks. Libraries - oh yes, very much so.

Ok more and more HN is reedit. Yes I flag, no I shouldn't comment but enough please !

Yes i probably should have. But I am annoyed that I have broken enough electronics that rectifiers weren't always part of it (but that is unrelated to batteries).

Fwiw in the apple magic mouse you can only mechanically out them in one way.

Would this just be a full wave bridge rectifier?

I used to do that (4 diodes) for batteries AND powersupplies when I built my own guitar effects board power source. I was tired of either putting things in the wrong way and either a) not working or b) frying some electrolytic capacitor (if was a high current supply).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_bridge

Seriously - is it just that or did they find a way to make it have low enough resistance to put in every device ?

In Australian buildings this is already very very common. In the recent drought many urinals were converted (temporarily) but some are now back to water.

When maintained it is ok, but it does smell more. Generally not popular.

Yes that lept out at me. Isn't that first year physics? I mean I remember it from years back, my first fond memory of university physics (and from which point I knew I would love it). It was really a 1 short lecture task to derive special relativity (which covers this) from a few basic postulates? (or course was a huge crazy leap to postulate in the first place).

I think he means that HTML5 is a hedge against the coming collapse in the number and quality of native iOS apps from 3rd parties.

Very well put. If you find your self with a few spare million, I would think it is good stewardship to apply that advice to selecting charities, with as much care as you would investments. It also helps with the "purpose" aspect paul mentions.

It would be pretty frustrating if you quickly did a sizeable donation (sizable compared to the norm for that charity) and find out a month later about some scandal, or how only a small portion of what you thought was a donation really was a donation etc... you would just get on with life, but it would innoculate you against further causes in future which is a loss for everyone.

So good advice, think of it as an investment (in terms of dilligence, time etc).

That and giving stupendous tips and totally making someones day, that must be a whole lot of fun.

IDEA, emacs (various types), vim, vi if on a server.

I can totally relate to that - well not the smoking bit. but yeah - a nice scotch and you can turn it off. Otherwise I find I will say "ok, I am finishing this.." go off and start talking to family/friends, and suddenly pause, stare into the distance, and then run to the nearest device of mine to try/make a note of some problem whose solution just popped apparently completely formed into my head.

but hey, we love this, lets not kid ourselves. Its great - so many people really hate their jobs, this is a wonderful business.

The scene graph? I think that is what they call it - but that is probably about all (that and the tools that go with it)

Probably worth noting that in clojure you can have actors if you like (either in clojure, or using some library - even akkasource.org) - likewise, there is STM in scala (see same link) as a library. It isn't one or the other.

I really love clojure, but as I have said to others, have given up hope that a new type of lisp will catch on for more than a very small group. I would LOVE to be wrong about that.

Hold on a minute - that isn't fair. I am an Elec Eng who works in CS. Had to go back and learn stuff (who doesn't). And I can't blame the king for executing a CS for bad inheritance based OO design.

Well obviously not "OK I give up" but it could (and often end up) as an out of court settlement before anything happens.

Yes I actually felt a bit sad as I read that "last blog post" - remembering back to when I first came across the essays. I also enjoy the podcast, I hope that continues on in some form.

But I agree with and appreciate the need to do something different - good on you Joel - and thanks for everything. And don't let the VC's eat your soul (unless for a very good price - puppies can get expensive quickly).