"People are still harping about this? Get over it."
Yes, people are still harping about this, and they aren't likely to stop.
Making whitespace significant in a language is something that some people like and some do not. I am one of those who do not. And you aren't going to change my mind by saying that it's no big deal if you just use the right editor. (BTW... WHY should I have to use a special editor just for Python?) I have other objections to the practice as well.
"No one cares about ruby. It's a dying little niche language."
Hahahaha! That's the funniest thing I have read all day.
According to ">the TIOBE Index, Ruby moved up on the list again this month.
When compared to 2007, yes, Ruby did move down one spot on the list, from 9 to 10. But that's largely because Objective-C came out of nowhere and is now at the top of the A list. During the same period, Perl moved down 2 points, PHP moved down 2 points, Visual Basic moved down 4 points, etc.
Other similar sites show similar results. Statistically, what you say is just nonsense.
There has also just recently started a movement to establish Ruby as a more frequently used language in the sciences, because it lends itself to such applications quite well, and has among the richest set of code libraries (Gems, in Ruby) out there.
"(It didn't even get a step method to its range class until 1.8.7)"
Completely untrue. Here is documentation of someone complaining about a potential regression error in step for ranges when Ruby went to version 1.8.6. So obviously it existed even before then.
Fine. But Moose is not Perl. It's an add-on. Ruby is designed from the ground up to be OO.
"GUI stuff? There's Wx and Qt interfaces."
Which apply equally to Ruby. And for Ruby there are also Shoes, MacRuby, and many others.
"OK, embedding C looks much easier in python, but I've never needed that. "
And Ruby supports it natively as well.
"Javascript seems to be where all the web stuff is heading anyway. "
Nonsense. JavaScript is a cobbled-together language with atrocious syntax and terrible, overly-verbose OO support. Sure, browser makers have expended a lot of energy making JavaScript fast. But if the same amount of effort had been devoted to Ruby and Python, they'd be fast now, too.
"RubyGems is very expansive, but the quality of the modules that rubyists write is atrocious."
This is very definitely an over-generalization. Sure, there are a lot of crappy Gems (add-on code libraries) out there. But there are also a lot of them that are most excellently written and executed.
I would say that Sturgeon's Law applies: 90% of it is crap. But 90% of everything is crap.
Exactly. A friend of mine deleted his Instagram account today, and others probably did as well. He's just the only one I know of for sure. I had considered signing up, but no longer.
"Seriously though, it may well have been the case that they received a nice friendly National Security Letter that ordered them to halt payment processing."
National Security Letters have nothing to do with business transactions, and have no power to alter them.
"But I speak up here because I cannot determine whether I have been down rated by some freak Adobe astroturfer--- I am not even sure they exist--- or by some over-zealous defender of Blender as the True, Right, and Only Way. Maybe this post will trigger a response that helps clarify things."
Keep in mind that there are at least a few asshats here on Slashdot who will disagree with you in print, then login with another account or as AC and mod you down (or the other way around). I have been the victim of that more than once. That kind of sockpuppetry is disgusting, however, and on a couple of occasions I actually caught who was doing it.
"Unfortunately... the group serving the page is the one harmed in this, so they are the only ones with standing to seek a remedy. The consumer of the page has none."
Not true. Especially if the consumer is visiting a page or service for which they pay for access.
The consumer also likely has standing in a "breach of contract" suit, "failure to perform" (services paid for) suit, "contract interference" (between you and the paid-for service) suit, and possibly standing in a prosecution for violating Federal laws, which were specifically intended to protect the consumer from such things.
"Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that Google is requiring all new users to sign up for Google Plus.
Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that Microsoft built in that "Smart Screen" feature which allows them to spy on your downloads.
Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that EVEN FUCKING UBUNTU is going down the tubes in terms of giving two shits about being noncommercial and protecting users' privacy."
(1) The pissed-off people (and I personally know many) simply never signed up, or signed up and then ceased using it when they found out the policies. Pretty much by definition, the only users you will see there are those who ARE NOT pissed off!
(2) Do you see lots of knowledgeable people buying them? I don't.
(3) There have been some rather seriously raging rants about it all over the internet. You didn't notice?
I am rather curious about this too. As a contractor, I have been a victim of corporate dishonesty a couple of times, and both times I could prove it, because I keep records and they tend not to. The first time, they are very lucky I did not set the Feds on them for violating Federal law. I had plenty of proof in black and white. But all I wanted was my money, and eventually I got it. Almost all of it, anyway.
The second time, the firm was in another country, and I was not sure how to proceed. I have considered the "name and shame" route, because there is no NDA and I have proof in the form of emails and Skype conversations (backed up, even).
I have heard before that "name and shame" is unprofessional, but their treatment of me has provably been unprofessional. So why should that reflect on me, later? If other companies do not want to try to pull the same dishonest tricks, they really should not care if I call out someone who did.
"Well then, my comments are directed towards the Bad Astronomy blogger, who should know better because I regularly read his work."
Phil Plait ("Bad Astronomer") is a genuine scientist and astronomer, and has done much to foster an appreciation of science in young people particularly. He gets kudos for that.
Unfortunately, there is a bad side: Phil often displays a blatant tendency toward bias on certain subjects; his objectivity has been severely wanting.
"There used to be. Nowadays is the law is basically "You, pathetic peon citizen. Them, corporation. They win.""
Funny. But I don't think it's quite that bad in the U.S. yet. In fact, I have been beginning to see a popular trend in the opposite direction. The pendulum swings...
"I wish someone would make a companion 3d printer product that will recycle plastics into the plastic used to print things with some of these 3d printers."
That might be a good idea, but it probably would not be a cheap device (cheaper than the "printer", though).
In the meantime, commercial recyclers have sprung up that will buy your waste. Not at a wonderful price, but it's better than nothing.
"The university's are in a special position where they can able to apply for student visa's for their students."
That's all great (if we ignore mis-spellings) but the fact is that fingerprint scanning is a terrible way to enforce anything. They don't work worth a damn. They are easy to spoof. If you haven't read the reports, the watch the MythBusters segment that was dedicated to this. The technology has not advanced significantly since then.
... If it's non-trivial, that is. A lot of algebra (and to a lesser extent, trigonometry) don't need pencil and paper OR a calculator, for that matter.
"There is no place for a calculator in High School math. It adds nothing to the experience."
What do you consider "High School Math"? Where I went to high school (which was admittedly some time ago), if you were in an advanced group you could get as much as 2 semesters of calculus in before graduation.
Sorry, but if I'm working on calculus, and already know my algebra and trig, then I'll go ahead and use the calculator for said algebra and trig.
Try reading my post again, until you understand it.
A "right to privacy" is not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution, but that was because (according to the scholars) it was deemed to too ridiculously obvious to need spelling out. That (according to the U.S. Supreme Court) is also the reason that the RIGHT to interstate travel is also not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution. But it still exists.
Remember that our legal system is largely derived from English Common Law. We have a number of rights that are not necessarily spelled out explicitly in the Constitution. Among those, according to the Supreme Court, is a right to privacy.
"Also there exist a number of HP emulations but I don't know if there are any for TI."
There is a great HP emulator callled Emu48. It emulates the HP 48GX and, with the proper ROM file, the HP50G. Personally I recommend the 50G.
Of course, you will probably have to compile it for Linux. But if you have OS X you can get a ready-to-run app from the app store for less than $10. It uses the actual HP50G ROM (courtesy HP) and it works great. And you can use disk storage in place of a Micro SD card.
The 50G has RPN, algebraic, and "textbook" display and entry modes.
"Sorry, but I gotta say this: CALCULATORS MAY OBSTRUCT THE LEARNING OF MATH"
There. FTFY.
If you don't use the calculator for advanced functions until after you learn the theory, there will be no obstruction. IMO, calculators should come with parental lockout for advanced functions.
Slashdot Mirror
"People are still harping about this? Get over it."
Yes, people are still harping about this, and they aren't likely to stop.
Making whitespace significant in a language is something that some people like and some do not. I am one of those who do not. And you aren't going to change my mind by saying that it's no big deal if you just use the right editor. (BTW... WHY should I have to use a special editor just for Python?) I have other objections to the practice as well.
Correction. There was a typographical error in that first link. It should have been:
The TIOBE Index
"No one cares about ruby. It's a dying little niche language."
Hahahaha! That's the funniest thing I have read all day.
According to ">the TIOBE Index, Ruby moved up on the list again this month.
When compared to 2007, yes, Ruby did move down one spot on the list, from 9 to 10. But that's largely because Objective-C came out of nowhere and is now at the top of the A list. During the same period, Perl moved down 2 points, PHP moved down 2 points, Visual Basic moved down 4 points, etc.
Other similar sites show similar results. Statistically, what you say is just nonsense.
There has also just recently started a movement to establish Ruby as a more frequently used language in the sciences, because it lends itself to such applications quite well, and has among the richest set of code libraries (Gems, in Ruby) out there.
"(It didn't even get a step method to its range class until 1.8.7)"
Completely untrue. Here is documentation of someone complaining about a potential regression error in step for ranges when Ruby went to version 1.8.6. So obviously it existed even before then.
"Good, modern object system? Moose. "
Fine. But Moose is not Perl. It's an add-on. Ruby is designed from the ground up to be OO.
"GUI stuff? There's Wx and Qt interfaces."
Which apply equally to Ruby. And for Ruby there are also Shoes, MacRuby, and many others.
"OK, embedding C looks much easier in python, but I've never needed that. "
And Ruby supports it natively as well.
"Javascript seems to be where all the web stuff is heading anyway. "
Nonsense. JavaScript is a cobbled-together language with atrocious syntax and terrible, overly-verbose OO support. Sure, browser makers have expended a lot of energy making JavaScript fast. But if the same amount of effort had been devoted to Ruby and Python, they'd be fast now, too.
"RubyGems is very expansive, but the quality of the modules that rubyists write is atrocious."
This is very definitely an over-generalization. Sure, there are a lot of crappy Gems (add-on code libraries) out there. But there are also a lot of them that are most excellently written and executed.
I would say that Sturgeon's Law applies: 90% of it is crap. But 90% of everything is crap.
"So long, and thanks for all the pics!"
Exactly. A friend of mine deleted his Instagram account today, and others probably did as well. He's just the only one I know of for sure. I had considered signing up, but no longer.
"Seriously though, it may well have been the case that they received a nice friendly National Security Letter that ordered them to halt payment processing."
National Security Letters have nothing to do with business transactions, and have no power to alter them.
"I look forward to seeing Paypal get a taste of having to follow rules."
Yeah... like having to use ACTUAL monetary exchange rates when dealing internationally, rather than some inflated figure they made up.
"But I speak up here because I cannot determine whether I have been down rated by some freak Adobe astroturfer--- I am not even sure they exist--- or by some over-zealous defender of Blender as the True, Right, and Only Way. Maybe this post will trigger a response that helps clarify things."
Keep in mind that there are at least a few asshats here on Slashdot who will disagree with you in print, then login with another account or as AC and mod you down (or the other way around). I have been the victim of that more than once. That kind of sockpuppetry is disgusting, however, and on a couple of occasions I actually caught who was doing it.
TFA leads to another article, which says two companies are willing to SELL you your own old tweets.
That's not a "twitter service". It's just bullshit. Unless you are really keen to buy copies of stuff you wrote yourself.
"Unfortunately... the group serving the page is the one harmed in this, so they are the only ones with standing to seek a remedy. The consumer of the page has none."
Not true. Especially if the consumer is visiting a page or service for which they pay for access.
The consumer also likely has standing in a "breach of contract" suit, "failure to perform" (services paid for) suit, "contract interference" (between you and the paid-for service) suit, and possibly standing in a prosecution for violating Federal laws, which were specifically intended to protect the consumer from such things.
"Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that Google is requiring all new users to sign up for Google Plus. Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that Microsoft built in that "Smart Screen" feature which allows them to spy on your downloads. Nobody really getting particularly pissed off that EVEN FUCKING UBUNTU is going down the tubes in terms of giving two shits about being noncommercial and protecting users' privacy."
(1) The pissed-off people (and I personally know many) simply never signed up, or signed up and then ceased using it when they found out the policies. Pretty much by definition, the only users you will see there are those who ARE NOT pissed off!
(2) Do you see lots of knowledgeable people buying them? I don't.
(3) There have been some rather seriously raging rants about it all over the internet. You didn't notice?
"If it's true it can't well be libel or slander."
I am rather curious about this too. As a contractor, I have been a victim of corporate dishonesty a couple of times, and both times I could prove it, because I keep records and they tend not to. The first time, they are very lucky I did not set the Feds on them for violating Federal law. I had plenty of proof in black and white. But all I wanted was my money, and eventually I got it. Almost all of it, anyway.
The second time, the firm was in another country, and I was not sure how to proceed. I have considered the "name and shame" route, because there is no NDA and I have proof in the form of emails and Skype conversations (backed up, even).
I have heard before that "name and shame" is unprofessional, but their treatment of me has provably been unprofessional. So why should that reflect on me, later? If other companies do not want to try to pull the same dishonest tricks, they really should not care if I call out someone who did.
"Well then, my comments are directed towards the Bad Astronomy blogger, who should know better because I regularly read his work."
Phil Plait ("Bad Astronomer") is a genuine scientist and astronomer, and has done much to foster an appreciation of science in young people particularly. He gets kudos for that.
Unfortunately, there is a bad side: Phil often displays a blatant tendency toward bias on certain subjects; his objectivity has been severely wanting.
"There used to be. Nowadays is the law is basically "You, pathetic peon citizen. Them, corporation. They win.""
Funny. But I don't think it's quite that bad in the U.S. yet. In fact, I have been beginning to see a popular trend in the opposite direction. The pendulum swings...
"At least I've never seen it before. This is intrusive."
I'm not certain, but isn't there a law against messing with your packet stream, and inserting their own content?
It might depend on your user agreement, but I would never intentionally agree to a provision that would let my ISP alter my content.
"I wish someone would make a companion 3d printer product that will recycle plastics into the plastic used to print things with some of these 3d printers."
That might be a good idea, but it probably would not be a cheap device (cheaper than the "printer", though).
In the meantime, commercial recyclers have sprung up that will buy your waste. Not at a wonderful price, but it's better than nothing.
"The university's are in a special position where they can able to apply for student visa's for their students."
That's all great (if we ignore mis-spellings) but the fact is that fingerprint scanning is a terrible way to enforce anything. They don't work worth a damn. They are easy to spoof. If you haven't read the reports, the watch the MythBusters segment that was dedicated to this. The technology has not advanced significantly since then.
"I haven't looked at the statistics, but wouldn't having more rear-end collisions and fewer T-hits reduce the severity?"
If that were the only consequence, I would say yes. But it isn't. That was only the simplest example.
I wsn't claiming that it was necessary; only that it is convenient and CAN be used without compromising your education.
They might not often be properly used that way, but they can be.
... If it's non-trivial, that is. A lot of algebra (and to a lesser extent, trigonometry) don't need pencil and paper OR a calculator, for that matter.
"There is no place for a calculator in High School math. It adds nothing to the experience."
What do you consider "High School Math"? Where I went to high school (which was admittedly some time ago), if you were in an advanced group you could get as much as 2 semesters of calculus in before graduation.
Sorry, but if I'm working on calculus, and already know my algebra and trig, then I'll go ahead and use the calculator for said algebra and trig.
But thanks for your input.
"Is it?"
Try reading my post again, until you understand it.
A "right to privacy" is not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution, but that was because (according to the scholars) it was deemed to too ridiculously obvious to need spelling out. That (according to the U.S. Supreme Court) is also the reason that the RIGHT to interstate travel is also not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution. But it still exists.
Remember that our legal system is largely derived from English Common Law. We have a number of rights that are not necessarily spelled out explicitly in the Constitution. Among those, according to the Supreme Court, is a right to privacy.
"Tech has been steadily moving jobs overseas to lower costs."
Correction: you are behind the curve. The tech industry, overall, has been pulling jobs BACK from overseas for the last year or so.
A lot of the "cheap" overseas labor also turned out, in the long run, to be low-quality as well.
Go to any of the international job boards for tech positions. Count how many of them now say "North America or Western Europe ONLY."
"Also there exist a number of HP emulations but I don't know if there are any for TI."
There is a great HP emulator callled Emu48. It emulates the HP 48GX and, with the proper ROM file, the HP50G. Personally I recommend the 50G.
Of course, you will probably have to compile it for Linux. But if you have OS X you can get a ready-to-run app from the app store for less than $10. It uses the actual HP50G ROM (courtesy HP) and it works great. And you can use disk storage in place of a Micro SD card.
The 50G has RPN, algebraic, and "textbook" display and entry modes.
"Sorry, but I gotta say this: CALCULATORS MAY OBSTRUCT THE LEARNING OF MATH"
There. FTFY.
If you don't use the calculator for advanced functions until after you learn the theory, there will be no obstruction. IMO, calculators should come with parental lockout for advanced functions.