It's not all THAT difficult to find the quarterly results is it? (for example, Yahoo has enough links for getting basic info)
Anyways, Red Hat CFO sees Q4 adjusted income of 1 cent/shr is in line with Q3 results; my understanding was that it was "break even" more than profit, but... it's not all difficult to spin it to announce either profit or losses (minor ones in both cases).
Well, I must admit I haven't seen Shrek, but I remember lots of critics disliking it as well, mostly because of its "trying too hard to be cool", with intellectual-wannabe jokes etc.
Perhaps it's just more aimed at younger viewers than Toy Story or Bug's life?
I did like Toy Story (and even its sequel), mostly because it had both decent plot and good (voice) actors. Even the jokes were actually funny. I didn't really like Bug's life; although its plot was ok, I hated whiny voice acting of the main char, plus the animation wasn't all that good. The latter was probably because they tried to use lots of 'close ups', and where CG still pretty much sucks is animating faces and facial expressions. In Toy Story clever thing was that being toys, their facial expressions are supposed to be plastick-y (or whatever material they were made of); contrast to 'humans' was remarkable... (ie. animated Andy sucked worse than anything else in the movies IMO).
Well, even the article stated the obvious: Apple has zero interest in doing this. Their money comes from hardware, and they don't do x86 hardware. Dominating desktop OS marketplace is useless if it doesn't bring in money.
Well, I kind of guessed you were probably more irritated in the general "Windows is so crap no one can use, unlike Linux" than anything else.:-)
I dislike Linux-zealots as much as any other 'my-platform-only' folks... and yes, there are
things open source people should learn from
Microsoft (unlike most people seem to think their
QA and usability folks seem pretty skilled and do
good work... considering all the requirements
MS has for all backwards compatibility etc)
One thing I have noticed myself though is that
whatever platform you begin with, usually feels
superior at first; when you continue using other
systems you learn more about them, and _usually_ get more balanced view. For me this happened with MacOS; I have used AmigaOS, Windows and Linux; suddenly I had to start using Mac at work (developing a bi-platform shrink-wrap app that runs on Windows and MacOS; MacOS having been the "primary" platform). At first I just simply hated Mac OS 9... thanks to its somewhat flakiness (esp. during development), co-operative multitasking that means that 'bad' apps can just stop all other activity, networking stack apparently also misbehaving etc. etc. But as time went by, I learnt enough short-cuts, work-arounds, new features missing from other platforms etc... and as is, I'm quite ok with using Macs. Would even be nice to use Mac OS X extensively for a while (I'm not working for the company in question any more, now I'm using Solaris at work... similar learning curve, even compared to Linux).
It doesn't matter how many excuses you guys give... but Linux is NOT as good as windows
on the Desktop.
<sarcasm>
Oh! Doh... Ok I'll give up, our "excuses" (like, 'for me linux is a better desktop than Windows, and thats why I use it at home') can't compete with your "facts" ('face it windows is better on desktop').</sarcasm>
I had no huge probs with NT stability when I had to use it at work. I have no stability probs at home with red hat (but do on windows ME, only use it for some gaming). Not a big deal. X-windows _never_ crashes on me. Period. Still, stability is
not number one reason for using linux. I just consider it a better server AND desktop for my needs. But I have no need to 'convert others to our cause'. That people have different needs is
a fact; only foolish zealots think one size fits all.
Tolkien was fascinated by the study of languages (in particular Old English) and
indeed the tales of Middle Earth were built around the languages dreamed up by
Tolkien.
Yes... I think Tolkien also was one of anglo-saxon romanticists (or whatever proper term is... there was such a movement on early 20th century), hoping to get some of the already forgotten anglo-saxon words to be 'resurrected' (major reason for 'downfall of anglo-saxon language' was William the Conqueror et al conquering England, french becoming the "civilized language"... and as a result, tons of new words were imported from latin via french, often replacing 'native' words, sometimes just adding... in some cases there still exists 3 varieties of words, like 'regal', 'royal', 'kingly', from latin - french - anglo-saxon... and supposedly going from most formal/prestigious downwards).
In addition, Tolkien was interested in
quite a few other (european) languages. I think
I read somewhere that finnish was actually a
big influence in elvish (whatever the language was
called...). Thus, it might be that yet another
book that may have been influencing some of Tolkien's books would be 'Kalevala', which is
based in finnish (fenno-ugrian, actually) folklores, and was compiled in late 19th century by a finnish scholar. There is an english translation available (which seems kind of decent, too, although translating mythical epic books is always difficult), I read it a year ago.
Because of the vastness of Tolkien's production,
it's not surprising that there are parallels
(and of course even Kalevala draws heavily from
bible, christian legends mixing with existing
folklores in medieval times). Wonder if someone
has already studied these similarities. Hmmh, got to check Google for that.:-)
I know that analogies often blur things more than help seeing the real similarities, but I'd still like to compare Internet to other areas of life. So, let's see:
Driving car is very dangerous, and you get to
read stories of accidents, plus rage road incidents. Is this the end of car transportation? (this can be expanded to other modes of transportation easily... left as an exercise to readers)
Living in many cities (especially in some neighbourhoods) is pretty dangerous, and you'll
see news about people getting mugged, raped,
killed, stolen from etc. every day. In fact
for 90-something percent of population, crimes
are every day thing, even if it's only because
of wide media coverage. So do people move to
remote places in countryside, to try to avoid
living in cities?
I don't think Internet problems have really gotten
much worse lately. Problems are publicized regularly, but I'm not sure actual incident occurance has rised as significantly. Also, for
the most part, the problems are really more
"nuisances" if you compare them to accidents and
crimes, "real life problems" (I know; losing
contents of your hard life isn't necessarily
just a nuisance... yet no one loses their life
or health or loved one because of that).
People also get more aware of problems (although because of huge inflow of novice users, average
level of knowledge may have gone down) and as
a result, learn how to deal with them (prevent,
avoid, work-around).
Thus, I think people are coping with the problems, much as they do in other areas of life. As time goes on, old problems are solved (or work-arounds are found etc)... and new ones emerge.
Another point to consider is that improtance and
usefulness of the Internet has grown by leaps
and bounds. For many people it is now as essential
thing to have as, say, phone line and TV, and the
trend is likely to continue. The more important
a thing is, more people are willing to take
to be able to have/use it. Thus, even if there were more problems, it probably would still be
worth the hassle.
Which all goes to say that "doomsday for Internet" doesn't sound any more valid now than it did when mr. Metcalfe was prophecying it.
where they cannot think to get Microsoft to put in all the control and
monitoring functions that the Chinese Government would like to have
Why do you think that's true? Given enough money,
Microsoft (like, it seems, all big corporations nowadays), would probably be more than happy to
sell a "security enhanced" version of Chinadows XP. Make no mistake, when money talks bullshit walks; if it was profitable, and Chinese gov't paid the bill, there's no reason why Bill & co would NOT do it. Same goes for Apple, IBM, probably also for a few (if not all) linux distro makers.
Similar things have been going on for all kinds of hardware/system exports; especially projects in rich oil countries have had all kinds of weird 'customizations' done, related to various local regulations or customs (women can't use systems,
or are the only ones allowed to use, depending
on where the system is installed).
I'm not saying it's good that companies do that, or that it's even unpreventable (companies are regulated, export regulations could, in theory, include restrictions on exporting eavesdropping stuff, ie. prevent including that in OS), but it is a fact that these things are done.
Remember the stories about virus detection software makers kissing US gov't butt (as a result of 9/11 attacks), announcing they have absolutely nothing against looking the other way when FBI virus creeps in? See the parallels here?
Perhaps their weathermap was just pruned for space... or does the network not have connections to NORDUNET (the backbone network that connects universities of nordic countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland... and to other backbones like NSFnet or whatever it's called now)? Seems kind of weird if that is the case; the most connected countries in Europe not connected to this one?!
Yes, pathchar seems to be one of those invaluable cool tools that too few people know about. Used it succesfully back in '99... Too bad it was never officially 'finished' was it?
Also, the presentation that explains how it works (which is reasonably straight-forward in theory, yet implementation seems quite sophisticated with some filtering done to remove noise from results) is worth reading. And for real "hard-core" network measurement stuff you can read the doctorate thesis Vern Paxson wrote, I think it's available from same download site... Good read if you really are interested about TCP performance analysis. The tool was (AFAIK) written for the thesis.
How about things like work experience (if any),
actual interviews to get impression on skills (and possible experience) the person has. GPA (etc) in itself is about useless compared to 'real' indicators, even more so as it's just flat average, not weighed by importance of different courses. And even checking out grades from more relevant courses (depending on job in question) doesn't tell too much about actual knowledge and skills.
Basicall; GPA is a generic indicator of
your skill level in studying; not indicator of your actual work skills. Although ability to learn things is useful, it's usually not #1 for 'real' jobs.
Interesting. That's what I actually did a week ago (for my bulk Nvidia TNT2 card), and it seemed to help a bit. However, at that point I wasn't actively playing Civ 3, and couldn't really verify if it did help (ie. remove the prob).
Hopefully it was the solution, thanks for your comment!
I certainly agree in that there are varying levels of (technical) expertise. Saying all programmers are highly skilled craftsmen is as wrong as saying they are all just disposable code serfs.
Writing code _should_ be a monkey job, given a decent design and a proper
understanding of the language.
Well, this is an age old argument about "what is coding"... But I still disagree with notion of good non-coding design eliminating (or even seriously lessening) need for good code-level
architecture and design.
I don't believe in having a few barely literate programmers writing out stupid code based on
smart design. If that is possible, then the
design work has already been programming, to
large degree. And if so, programmers have all
but entered the source code to computer.
The only stupid component required here is
the compiler (compiler plus other tools that
help people do their job, that is).
In large projects, huge amounts of time are spent
on requirements and design phases (I should know,
working for a largish company). Most of that stuff
is required, yet it doesn't even touch implementation. Business requirements, business logics, some high-level architectural questions, all are necessary prerequisites... After which implementation phase starts, consisting of more low-level design etc, including actual 'physical' implementation, programming.
Well... See, my problem is that I only use Windows for (few) games. When I bought my PC, I foolishly thought I need a copy of Windows. I had to pay for that (I'm not a thief), and thus there weren't all that many good options, of which ME seemed the least painful. I mistakenly expected it to be at least slightly stabler than 98.
(incidentally, at work I had been using NT, and was reasonably content with it... but the sly sales-geek sold me Windows ME!)
... Damn it I knew I was too cheap when I didn't choose Win2K.:-) (which was something like 2x as expensive)
Well... with the amount of money any decent programmer is making, I think serf-analogy isn't much better than the coder-as-a-baron - analogy you laugh at. Also... usually people who claim writing code is monkey job wouldn't themselves be able to code their way out of a wet paper bag. It's pretty much impossible to "just write code" without design, architecture etc.
Certainly, managers, leaders, executives earn even more money... But really, compare "code serf"'s income to that of general population, and see if it looks all that bad.
About "programming in and of itself is useless"; I agree. Same can be said about practically any single activity known to humankind. Earning money is pretty much useless, in and of itself; using money makes earning much more interesting.
I know it's just matter of taste, but I thought Civ 3 was bit of a disappointment (or at least mixed bag). I loved Civ, Civ II, and have been happily playing CivCTP (since I bought a copy on Linux back when it first arrived... with enough patches it's even stable.:-)), but Civ 3 I bought few weeks ago is now collecting dust. It wasn't totally horribly bad, just not quite what I hoped for. Perhaps Sid is getting old or something.:-) (or perhaps I am)
The biggest problems were its instability (dunno why, perhaps it's not completely Civ3's fault, but Win ME kept on locking up all the time when running Civ 3), crappy gfx (I absolutely hate them compared to, say, Civ 2), non-usable UI (compared to what CivCTP or Civ 2 had... hey, let's make it more user-friendly by removing all "complexity", like menus...), and the fact that there didn't seem to be all that many interesting new features.
On plus side, it wasn't total rip-off (a la Settlers 3); sphere of influence (or whatever it was called) is a nice idea, movement restrictions are more varied (and interesting) now, diplomacy seems to have been improved, special resources are a nice addition... and perhaps there are more goodies if I do spend more time with it.
Hmmh. Perhaps I'll need to give Civ 3 a new chance during xmas break, after all.:-)
Well, ADB was neat for its time, but wasn't it severely bandwidth limited? Google found articles that said it was 10kbps (thus making it possible to have 2400bps ABD modem... neat hack), meaning
that it is/was usually only useful for keyboards and mice. Of course that's what it was designed
for. However, saying USB is but a lousy ripoff sounds bit like an overstatement.:-)
And, it supports encrypted email
(PGP/MIME) better than all other email software,
I've been using KMail for exactly this reason (ie. it integrates with GPG like a mail agent should). Outlook (which I had to use at my previous job) also had a free (gratis) PGP plugin, which did its job decently from what I could tell. So, what are features that set Evolution apart, ie. what is especially good in its PGP (or MIME for that matter) handling? Of course if there are other goodies (esp. compared to KMail), would be nice to hear about those too?
Well, for what it's worth, I DO want more easily accessible music download, I DO want reasonable prices, I AM willing to pay the fees, and I am NOT just whining to be able to do illegal copies without paying.
Problem is, I, like everyone and their dog (including whine snot-nosed freeloaders who are after free stuff... but not only them) are ready
to point out, industry's cut'n paste answer is pretty much "NO CAN DO". They have never even tried making things more accessible, or reducing overhead handling costs (using net downloads etc), which should lead to lower prices. No. Industry really only wants business as usual; and if they are not Mafia, they are at least the guys with eyepatches.
Perhaps you are just a whining "pirate" who wants
everything for free, but don't go generalizing
that to everyone around. Why is it that issues like this always eventually get to this boring black-and-white polarization thing?
One thing about 'lightness' of a language is that people often forget the division between the (core) language and libraries. For example, Java as a language is still reasonably simple (and was even more so before 1.1 added new class contstructs for anonymous inner classes etc). However, its class libraries are... um... obese.:-)
Of 'real' languages, I think JavaScript is reasonably light-weight (keeping in mind that DOM is not really part of language) yet complete enough, although often overlooked as a toy language. That has more to do with usage of JS, than with the core language itself. It is kind of interesting doing OO stuff in JavaScript... bit like doing OO things in C (although JS does have more support for objects, so its easier to fake stuff as classes and inheritance through prototypes) or in Perl. Sadly, most JS books all but skip over the features that make usage of language more bearable to 'real' programmers.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyways, Red Hat CFO sees Q4 adjusted income of 1 cent/shr is in line with Q3 results; my understanding was that it was "break even" more than profit, but... it's not all difficult to spin it to announce either profit or losses (minor ones in both cases).
I did like Toy Story (and even its sequel), mostly because it had both decent plot and good (voice) actors. Even the jokes were actually funny. I didn't really like Bug's life; although its plot was ok, I hated whiny voice acting of the main char, plus the animation wasn't all that good. The latter was probably because they tried to use lots of 'close ups', and where CG still pretty much sucks is animating faces and facial expressions. In Toy Story clever thing was that being toys, their facial expressions are supposed to be plastick-y (or whatever material they were made of); contrast to 'humans' was remarkable... (ie. animated Andy sucked worse than anything else in the movies IMO).
Well, even the article stated the obvious: Apple has zero interest in doing this. Their money comes from hardware, and they don't do x86 hardware. Dominating desktop OS marketplace is useless if it doesn't bring in money.
I dislike Linux-zealots as much as any other 'my-platform-only' folks... and yes, there are things open source people should learn from Microsoft (unlike most people seem to think their QA and usability folks seem pretty skilled and do good work... considering all the requirements MS has for all backwards compatibility etc)
One thing I have noticed myself though is that whatever platform you begin with, usually feels superior at first; when you continue using other systems you learn more about them, and _usually_ get more balanced view. For me this happened with MacOS; I have used AmigaOS, Windows and Linux; suddenly I had to start using Mac at work (developing a bi-platform shrink-wrap app that runs on Windows and MacOS; MacOS having been the "primary" platform). At first I just simply hated Mac OS 9... thanks to its somewhat flakiness (esp. during development), co-operative multitasking that means that 'bad' apps can just stop all other activity, networking stack apparently also misbehaving etc. etc. But as time went by, I learnt enough short-cuts, work-arounds, new features missing from other platforms etc... and as is, I'm quite ok with using Macs. Would even be nice to use Mac OS X extensively for a while (I'm not working for the company in question any more, now I'm using Solaris at work... similar learning curve, even compared to Linux).
<sarcasm> Oh! Doh... Ok I'll give up, our "excuses" (like, 'for me linux is a better desktop than Windows, and thats why I use it at home') can't compete with your "facts" ('face it windows is better on desktop').</sarcasm>
I had no huge probs with NT stability when I had to use it at work. I have no stability probs at home with red hat (but do on windows ME, only use it for some gaming). Not a big deal. X-windows _never_ crashes on me. Period. Still, stability is not number one reason for using linux. I just consider it a better server AND desktop for my needs. But I have no need to 'convert others to our cause'. That people have different needs is a fact; only foolish zealots think one size fits all.
Yes... I think Tolkien also was one of anglo-saxon romanticists (or whatever proper term is... there was such a movement on early 20th century), hoping to get some of the already forgotten anglo-saxon words to be 'resurrected' (major reason for 'downfall of anglo-saxon language' was William the Conqueror et al conquering England, french becoming the "civilized language"... and as a result, tons of new words were imported from latin via french, often replacing 'native' words, sometimes just adding... in some cases there still exists 3 varieties of words, like 'regal', 'royal', 'kingly', from latin - french - anglo-saxon... and supposedly going from most formal/prestigious downwards).
In addition, Tolkien was interested in quite a few other (european) languages. I think I read somewhere that finnish was actually a big influence in elvish (whatever the language was called...). Thus, it might be that yet another book that may have been influencing some of Tolkien's books would be 'Kalevala', which is based in finnish (fenno-ugrian, actually) folklores, and was compiled in late 19th century by a finnish scholar. There is an english translation available (which seems kind of decent, too, although translating mythical epic books is always difficult), I read it a year ago. Because of the vastness of Tolkien's production, it's not surprising that there are parallels (and of course even Kalevala draws heavily from bible, christian legends mixing with existing folklores in medieval times). Wonder if someone has already studied these similarities. Hmmh, got to check Google for that. :-)
I don't think Internet problems have really gotten much worse lately. Problems are publicized regularly, but I'm not sure actual incident occurance has rised as significantly. Also, for the most part, the problems are really more "nuisances" if you compare them to accidents and crimes, "real life problems" (I know; losing contents of your hard life isn't necessarily just a nuisance... yet no one loses their life or health or loved one because of that).
People also get more aware of problems (although because of huge inflow of novice users, average level of knowledge may have gone down) and as a result, learn how to deal with them (prevent, avoid, work-around). Thus, I think people are coping with the problems, much as they do in other areas of life. As time goes on, old problems are solved (or work-arounds are found etc)... and new ones emerge.
Another point to consider is that improtance and usefulness of the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds. For many people it is now as essential thing to have as, say, phone line and TV, and the trend is likely to continue. The more important a thing is, more people are willing to take to be able to have/use it. Thus, even if there were more problems, it probably would still be worth the hassle.
Which all goes to say that "doomsday for Internet" doesn't sound any more valid now than it did when mr. Metcalfe was prophecying it.
Anyone else getting tired of this urban legend doing rounds ad infinitum?
On the other hand, it's nice that dwarves and midgets do have at least some legal protection in this cruel world.
Why do you think that's true? Given enough money, Microsoft (like, it seems, all big corporations nowadays), would probably be more than happy to sell a "security enhanced" version of Chinadows XP. Make no mistake, when money talks bullshit walks; if it was profitable, and Chinese gov't paid the bill, there's no reason why Bill & co would NOT do it. Same goes for Apple, IBM, probably also for a few (if not all) linux distro makers.
Similar things have been going on for all kinds of hardware/system exports; especially projects in rich oil countries have had all kinds of weird 'customizations' done, related to various local regulations or customs (women can't use systems, or are the only ones allowed to use, depending on where the system is installed).
I'm not saying it's good that companies do that, or that it's even unpreventable (companies are regulated, export regulations could, in theory, include restrictions on exporting eavesdropping stuff, ie. prevent including that in OS), but it is a fact that these things are done.
Remember the stories about virus detection software makers kissing US gov't butt (as a result of 9/11 attacks), announcing they have absolutely nothing against looking the other way when FBI virus creeps in? See the parallels here?
(yeah yeah, bad Karma to reply to my own post...) :-)
Thanks for all the replies. Glad to know it was the first option, not the second.
Perhaps their weathermap was just pruned for space... or does the network not have connections to NORDUNET (the backbone network that connects universities of nordic countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland... and to other backbones like NSFnet or whatever it's called now)? Seems kind of weird if that is the case; the most connected countries in Europe not connected to this one?!
Also, the presentation that explains how it works (which is reasonably straight-forward in theory, yet implementation seems quite sophisticated with some filtering done to remove noise from results) is worth reading. And for real "hard-core" network measurement stuff you can read the doctorate thesis Vern Paxson wrote, I think it's available from same download site... Good read if you really are interested about TCP performance analysis. The tool was (AFAIK) written for the thesis.
many of the best
musicians like Ray Hubbard
Hate to nitpick, but wasn't the wiz named Rob Hubbard, not Ray?
How about things like work experience (if any),
actual interviews to get impression on skills (and possible experience) the person has. GPA (etc) in itself is about useless compared to 'real' indicators, even more so as it's just flat average, not weighed by importance of different courses. And even checking out grades from more relevant courses (depending on job in question) doesn't tell too much about actual knowledge and skills.
Basicall; GPA is a generic indicator of
your skill level in studying; not indicator of your actual work skills. Although ability to learn things is useful, it's usually not #1 for 'real' jobs.
Hopefully it was the solution, thanks for your comment!
I certainly agree in that there are varying levels of (technical) expertise. Saying all programmers are highly skilled craftsmen is as wrong as saying they are all just disposable code serfs.
Well, this is an age old argument about "what is coding"... But I still disagree with notion of good non-coding design eliminating (or even seriously lessening) need for good code-level architecture and design.
I don't believe in having a few barely literate programmers writing out stupid code based on smart design. If that is possible, then the design work has already been programming, to large degree. And if so, programmers have all but entered the source code to computer. The only stupid component required here is the compiler (compiler plus other tools that help people do their job, that is).
In large projects, huge amounts of time are spent on requirements and design phases (I should know, working for a largish company). Most of that stuff is required, yet it doesn't even touch implementation. Business requirements, business logics, some high-level architectural questions, all are necessary prerequisites... After which implementation phase starts, consisting of more low-level design etc, including actual 'physical' implementation, programming.
Certainly, managers, leaders, executives earn even more money... But really, compare "code serf"'s income to that of general population, and see if it looks all that bad. About "programming in and of itself is useless"; I agree. Same can be said about practically any single activity known to humankind. Earning money is pretty much useless, in and of itself; using money makes earning much more interesting.
The biggest problems were its instability (dunno why, perhaps it's not completely Civ3's fault, but Win ME kept on locking up all the time when running Civ 3), crappy gfx (I absolutely hate them compared to, say, Civ 2), non-usable UI (compared to what CivCTP or Civ 2 had... hey, let's make it more user-friendly by removing all "complexity", like menus...), and the fact that there didn't seem to be all that many interesting new features.
On plus side, it wasn't total rip-off (a la Settlers 3); sphere of influence (or whatever it was called) is a nice idea, movement restrictions are more varied (and interesting) now, diplomacy seems to have been improved, special resources are a nice addition... and perhaps there are more goodies if I do spend more time with it.
Hmmh. Perhaps I'll need to give Civ 3 a new chance during xmas break, after all. :-)
Well, ADB was neat for its time, but wasn't it severely bandwidth limited? Google found articles that said it was 10kbps (thus making it possible to have 2400bps ABD modem... neat hack), meaning that it is/was usually only useful for keyboards and mice. Of course that's what it was designed for. However, saying USB is but a lousy ripoff sounds bit like an overstatement. :-)
I've been using KMail for exactly this reason (ie. it integrates with GPG like a mail agent should). Outlook (which I had to use at my previous job) also had a free (gratis) PGP plugin, which did its job decently from what I could tell. So, what are features that set Evolution apart, ie. what is especially good in its PGP (or MIME for that matter) handling? Of course if there are other goodies (esp. compared to KMail), would be nice to hear about those too?
Problem is, I, like everyone and their dog (including whine snot-nosed freeloaders who are after free stuff... but not only them) are ready to point out, industry's cut'n paste answer is pretty much "NO CAN DO". They have never even tried making things more accessible, or reducing overhead handling costs (using net downloads etc), which should lead to lower prices. No. Industry really only wants business as usual; and if they are not Mafia, they are at least the guys with eyepatches.
Perhaps you are just a whining "pirate" who wants everything for free, but don't go generalizing that to everyone around. Why is it that issues like this always eventually get to this boring black-and-white polarization thing?
Of 'real' languages, I think JavaScript is reasonably light-weight (keeping in mind that DOM is not really part of language) yet complete enough, although often overlooked as a toy language. That has more to do with usage of JS, than with the core language itself. It is kind of interesting doing OO stuff in JavaScript... bit like doing OO things in C (although JS does have more support for objects, so its easier to fake stuff as classes and inheritance through prototypes) or in Perl. Sadly, most JS books all but skip over the features that make usage of language more bearable to 'real' programmers.