ward

I'm from Belgium, I don't know any house that doesn't use bricks/cement/other form of stone material. Maybe sometimes something softer on interior walls, but even there it's mostly stone.

I assume we don't go for the easier-to-rebuild because we don't have any strong types of nature force affecting us. There's no earthquakes, tropical storms, tornados etc here. Our summers are "cool" (going over 30C is pretty rare), our winters are "warm" (5 cm snow already feels like a lot to me). In short, we have a pretty moderate climate.

Edit: Pretty much the same as ugh[1] said in the other comment.

1: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3324587

I don't see a bunch of variable definitions on one line as an improvement, just reads less easily and only feels justified in the case of some low numbers like

    var x = 0, y = 1, z = 0;
    // Some looping or similar here

I do agree with your using of `english` variable to assign `currentLanguage`.

I could be wrong on this, but aren't a lot of houses in America made from softer material than stone bricks? Something like gyproc comes to mind.

I have to admit, the only reason I think this is because of seeing an episode of that awful house makeover show[1]. I believe the walls they used there were all wood/something similar.

1: Extreme makeover, house edition

As to the bank issue, I think they "fixed" that in Belgium. Logging in is still an annoyance, but I atleast feel pretty safe with it.

To log in on the site, you need to do the following steps:

* Load site and type in card number (this is mostly a pain, but if needed you can make your browser remember the number)

* The site provides you with a "challenge code", in the case of my bank an 8 digit number

* You take a little machine provided by your bank, it looks basically like a calculator of sorts

* Slide your card in the machine

* Enter challenge code and your pin in the machine when asked for

* Machine returns a number which you then input on the site

* Click login

This challenge code is different every time, the only (big) downside is always needing the machine when doing online banking. However, I feel that's a small price to pay given that once logged in you can make transactions, something I wouldn't trust much if there was only a password with silly restrictions.

Also note, you have to repeat the challenge->machine->reply action when signing transaction you enter online.

I too find that very distracting. After all, they use(d?) the yellow highlight for messages at the top of their screen (eg "Loading..." or something) so now I'm constantly thinking something important is happening above the text I'm reading.

I would assume that, as with most Google things, it gets rolled out in a 24-48 hour time span. Disclaimer: No source for this, but that's how it tends to go, if memory serves me right.

Edit: Maybe comments on the post by [+Eddie Kessler](https://plus.google.com/111742562190411471360/posts/eGL4JeDM...) will reveal more (they do not at the time of writing).

    [ward@hathor ~]$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Sep  5 00:45 /usr/bin/python -> python3

Arch default

Release Early, Release Often.

The day they released pages they mentioned multiple admins was planned. By releasing earlier they can also get some more user feedback as-they-go, I would imagine.

It isn't, not at the moment anyway.