This makes it easier for the US to control European objectives [...]
The most politically and economically aligned with USA country in the EU is UK.
UK even used several times its veto right - in matters it even didn't participate initially at all - because the regulations had threatened USA's business in EU (not even related to UK!).
It might seem different in the UK, but outside the bubble everyone knows that UK is the willing whore of the USA. You have established the fact with many actions over the past decades.
The UK would be better to cut ties with the conquered and recognize who are not its friends.
I wonder if UK has any friends at all. USA?
Otherwise, I have started that thread precisely because I think that removing people like you from the EU would make it a better place.
Though part of the problem is that even if UK decides to leave the EU, it would still have to stay in the common market. It would give up the political power, while still forced - by market - to adhere to most regulations. At least if comments here have any truth to them.
'Reading the UK newspapers, the amount of arrogant BS about EU is astounding.'
You understand they just write dumb shit to sell newspapers, right? (I'm sure you're not excusing all the dumb shit -- for example the endemic racism -- in european newspapers).
The Sun and The Daily Mail I have excused a long time ago. But I have been reading them just for the cheap thrill of batshit crazy tabloid "news". Anyway, occasional overload of "nazi" jokes made sure that I will not read much of them anyway.
But then my "trusty" Financial Times also slowly turned sour. And when FT goes bad... I do not even want to think about it anymore.
Still its comforting (in a funny way) to note that people from the other EU countries are just as ignorant on the facts about the UK and its rather complicated (and often tiresome) relationship with the EU as a monetary union vs a general trading union.
Just as people from UK are ignorant of internal politics of other member states.
And that's one of the major reasons why I call for people of UK to vote for leaving the EU: you see EU as some monster across the channel. And it is not. It is a union of 28 countries - hopefully soon 26 - each with its own problems, interests and challenges.
UK is not special in EU. You are definitely in the top 10 members, but that's it. So why should you be treated specially? Why everybody should be involved in your politics, when you do not give a damn about the other's political state?
It makes no sense to me, unless you are planning to turn the "Brexit" into an annual scare exercise to blackmail the EU for kickbacks. I hope it would not work: but it just might, since there is still enough good will toward UK in the EU.
I agree with you. It is just that I have made up my mind already.
[...] but the UK is the only big player who pretends all this was not happening or actually the future.
UK is an island nation. Geographical isolation leads to a strong culture of isolation, where it is always us, the island, versus the world. IMO, UK doesn't pretend. They simply can't grasp that it is not just some monotone news on the TV. They simply can't grasp that they are part of it - because it happens outside the island.
It is very similar situation as with UK politically: EU is constantly used as a scapegoat to justify the crap they do internally. A point of time comes when population is simply way too alienated toward the EU.
IMO, Greece is long beyond the point and UK is just tipping over. Reading the UK newspapers, the amount of arrogant BS about EU is astounding. (I follow politics reluctantly, but even I know enough about EU organization to call BS literally 100% of what people say about EU in UK.) They are definitely on their way out of EU. It is not the question of "if" - it is the question of "when".
The EU itself has grown to a colossus of well-paid politicians striving for more power than they can get in their home countries.
That is inevitable. (Compare to Amis complaining about the Feds.)
But that's the price of making out of many different pieces something bigger and hopefully better.
So far, personally, I hadn't experienced anything EU did to affect negatively my life. That while there are some positives (like for example cheaper imports) which affect my daily positively.
Isn't Germany the only other country along with the UK that can hold up the economy of the EU? Will that burden be left fully on their(your?) shoulders be wise?
I want Germany to grow to be able to fill the role.
It might be at the moment strongest economy in EU, but it doesn't mean it is alone. Which is the whole point of having the EU.
I have complained that Java's standard library is dumb as fuck.
The point which you have missed completely. Probably because, I get the feeling, you have never used any other programming language and you simply can't imagine how it can be any different, least better.
You mean auto-complete in Eclipse can write programs for me? It would read my mind and output proper working Java code, with all the boilerplate, configuration and 3rd party libraries includes?? Would it also by chance deploy to customers too? and provide support and updates? What is the keyboard short-cut to all this magic?
The Eclipse seems have made an enormous leaps in functionality - and all that in the 6 hours since I left the office.;)
When you program in Python (the language I btw actively hate; Perl guy here) it actually feels like you programming in a high level language. It gives you the tools you need to accomplish the task. Not every tool, not for every task - but the tools cover a lot of ground.
When you program in Java, it sometimes feels like you are programming in assembler: the same level of attention to details, the same microscopic impact of every line you write. And you too need to write a lot of lines to accomplish the same, other languages allow you to do in one or two lines.
I have no idea what "Red Sox" are, but Java's verbosity (and its long/shot term consequences) are universally known among software developers. It's not like Java is the first language of the kind.
Verbosity wouldn't have been so much of a problem, if the standard library was at least OK. But it is not.
Sun (and now Oracle) pretty much openly stated that they do not want to expand standard library. Main reason I heard was the security updates. (As if shifting the responsibility to the 3rd party libraries anyhow alleviates the security concerns.) The end result that Java's standard library manages to be at the same time very bloated and very poor.
For example, there is still no usable String.split(). There is standard one with the regexps, but it is very slow. I work with Java rarely (at most a month per year) and I have already seen at least a dozen of hand-coded String.split() alternatives.
Java's core strength was that it was built to be a practical tool for getting work done.
If only.
I have abandoned Java shortly after Java 2 SDK release precisely because it was NOT anywhere near being a "practical tool for getting work done." Later encounters over the years only reinforced my opinion.
As one Java developer described it, comparing Java to Python at task of using the proverbial "wheel" in your program. In Python, if you need the "wheel", you just "import wheel" and use it. Java too provides you with everything necessary: "import map.ore.iron", "import tools.pickaxe", "import fire.matches", plus a 3rd party class "recipe.smelt" and a measly 1-2K LOC - and voila! you have the "class Wheel" in Java too!
I was so happy when I found that HTML5 player finally can auto-switch to high-def mode when going to full-screen.
Sadly, the happy moment was short, as I have realized that Google has "fixed" the caching issue: now part of the video which was loaded in SD mode (for smaller videos on fast connection - the whole video) stays in SD mode and switch to HD mode has no effect.
So yes, HD full-screen mode now works - but is useless.
The QA track record of the Google is as appalling as it ever was. Goes to reinforce the old wisdom that the "star" developers are useless when it comes to dealing with the mundane, real world problems.
In a way, the experience is a confirmation of the RTFA. When newhires come, everybody is in the awe of the Java part, and everybody is terrified of the C/C++ part. But the thing is, a year later most change their opinion. Java might look beautiful - but the beauty is skin deep. We have had clients changing project design and architecture because developers were throwing in a white flag: they simply couldn't fix something in the Java part, and the workaround had to be put somewhere else.
With the C/C++, the usual problems tend to keep the development down to the ground. While with the Java, developers very often succumb to the fancy of implementing all the fancy things people on the internet are so fancy about. Like for example the good design practices. No, no, no - only the best design practices! Because that's how it supposed to be!! End result are the huge monstrosities, which are more compliant with the programming books than with the customer requirements.
The saddest part is that good Java pros are acutely aware of the problem. But one can't just swim against the tide.
Author apparently hasn't seen the crazy monstrosity the Rust's preprocessor is.
Otherwise, IMO, Rust and this type of languages - "the perfect cage" - to me are dead end.
(A) I want an utilitarian language. I want language which provides me with strict and weak typing, static and dynamic binding, compiled/jitted/interpreted execution with eval() function. At the same time. Probably all that in different scopes - but the scopes should be able to inter-operate. Think Objective-C++ - but with something better than Objective C on the weak side of things, with bits of Perl-ness built-in.
I want a language which gives me choice. Not another language with dozen theoretical papers why I can't do something and I'm better off for it.
(B) For security, I would rather want an language which can be easily validated and proofed. Rust tries to create a perfect cage - for developers - while the main security vulnerability is the user input. Compilers still can't guess whether I have properly validated the input or not. The Rust went in a different direction: annihilating C/C++ bugs. The problem is that all other bugs programmers make - still remain.
People keep bringing up the Swift in context of system programming, but so far I haven't seen any concrete info about features of the language which make it even suitable for the system programming.
The thing is, even C++ was/is used for system programming, but its C++-ness is so castrated that it is hardly can be called C++ anymore.
I personally do not see any reason to replace C with another language, which I can't use to its fullest. On top of it, lots of C extensions are needed to make the system development efficient: code/data section assignment, untyped/unchecked memory access, memory/IO barriers, assembler intrinsic. None of that is part of C standard - all of it are vendor/compiler extensions. While Swift documentation is devoid of the similar features.
P.S. If Apple folks want to push the Swift into the embedded area... Good luck. Even C++ still struggles. Higher-end embedded system require proof of validity and literally all of the solver software is C-only. Most static/dynamic code analyzers - C-only too.
Slashdot Mirror
What I can tell you is that the UK is special in the EU since it is a net contributor.
One average contributor.
You are even behind Italy, which is telling.
This makes it easier for the US to control European objectives [...]
The most politically and economically aligned with USA country in the EU is UK.
UK even used several times its veto right - in matters it even didn't participate initially at all - because the regulations had threatened USA's business in EU (not even related to UK!).
It might seem different in the UK, but outside the bubble everyone knows that UK is the willing whore of the USA. You have established the fact with many actions over the past decades.
The UK would be better to cut ties with the conquered and recognize who are not its friends.
I wonder if UK has any friends at all. USA?
Otherwise, I have started that thread precisely because I think that removing people like you from the EU would make it a better place.
Thanks for the sane perspective.
Though part of the problem is that even if UK decides to leave the EU, it would still have to stay in the common market. It would give up the political power, while still forced - by market - to adhere to most regulations. At least if comments here have any truth to them.
Have you actually read past the headline?
Let me translate for you: about 40Bln€ of German tax payer's money didn't have to go into paying the interest on Germany's public debt.
IOW, Germany saved so much of tax payer's money over these years.
This are (in part) my money - not yours. Stop counting my money.
'Reading the UK newspapers, the amount of arrogant BS about EU is astounding.'
You understand they just write dumb shit to sell newspapers, right? (I'm sure you're not excusing all the dumb shit -- for example the endemic racism -- in european newspapers).
The Sun and The Daily Mail I have excused a long time ago. But I have been reading them just for the cheap thrill of batshit crazy tabloid "news". Anyway, occasional overload of "nazi" jokes made sure that I will not read much of them anyway.
But then my "trusty" Financial Times also slowly turned sour. And when FT goes bad... I do not even want to think about it anymore.
The only country that seems to benefit is Germany.
You do realize that Germany pays the biggest amount of money into the EU budget?
You do know that Germany gets very very little in return?
Please educate yourself before whining.
the whole point of having the EU.
Wrong WRONG wrong !
And how do you think one make a continent without wars?
...
Imagine what would happen to EU, when all of its members started acting like UK.
That's pretty much the recipe how you start a war. And that is why UK has to go, IMO.
P.S. Beginning of the EU.
Still its comforting (in a funny way) to note that people from the other EU countries are just as ignorant on the facts about the UK and its rather complicated (and often tiresome) relationship with the EU as a monetary union vs a general trading union.
Just as people from UK are ignorant of internal politics of other member states.
And that's one of the major reasons why I call for people of UK to vote for leaving the EU: you see EU as some monster across the channel. And it is not. It is a union of 28 countries - hopefully soon 26 - each with its own problems, interests and challenges.
UK is not special in EU. You are definitely in the top 10 members, but that's it. So why should you be treated specially? Why everybody should be involved in your politics, when you do not give a damn about the other's political state?
It makes no sense to me, unless you are planning to turn the "Brexit" into an annual scare exercise to blackmail the EU for kickbacks. I hope it would not work: but it just might, since there is still enough good will toward UK in the EU.
I also live in germany it is not this simple.
I agree with you. It is just that I have made up my mind already.
[...] but the UK is the only big player who pretends all this was not happening or actually the future.
UK is an island nation. Geographical isolation leads to a strong culture of isolation, where it is always us, the island, versus the world. IMO, UK doesn't pretend. They simply can't grasp that it is not just some monotone news on the TV. They simply can't grasp that they are part of it - because it happens outside the island.
Start with kicking out Greece. It's a money pit.
I also favor Greece exit.
It is very similar situation as with UK politically: EU is constantly used as a scapegoat to justify the crap they do internally. A point of time comes when population is simply way too alienated toward the EU.
IMO, Greece is long beyond the point and UK is just tipping over. Reading the UK newspapers, the amount of arrogant BS about EU is astounding. (I follow politics reluctantly, but even I know enough about EU organization to call BS literally 100% of what people say about EU in UK.) They are definitely on their way out of EU. It is not the question of "if" - it is the question of "when".
The EU itself has grown to a colossus of well-paid politicians striving for more power than they can get in their home countries.
That is inevitable. (Compare to Amis complaining about the Feds.)
But that's the price of making out of many different pieces something bigger and hopefully better.
So far, personally, I hadn't experienced anything EU did to affect negatively my life. That while there are some positives (like for example cheaper imports) which affect my daily positively.
Isn't Germany the only other country along with the UK that can hold up the economy of the EU? Will that burden be left fully on their(your?) shoulders be wise?
I want Germany to grow to be able to fill the role.
It might be at the moment strongest economy in EU, but it doesn't mean it is alone. Which is the whole point of having the EU.
I want EU to be strong.
UK is pretty arrogant toward EU and showed so far no desire to integrate fully in long-term.
Them waving often their veto right (even if they are not part of some negotiations) also doesn't instill much trust.
I do not see the point in a larger but weaker union.
I think UK should leave EU completely. Sooner better.
P.S. I live in Germany.
[...] you complained about imports.
I haven't complained about imports.
I have complained that Java's standard library is dumb as fuck.
The point which you have missed completely. Probably because, I get the feeling, you have never used any other programming language and you simply can't imagine how it can be any different, least better.
You mean auto-complete in Eclipse can write programs for me? It would read my mind and output proper working Java code, with all the boilerplate, configuration and 3rd party libraries includes?? Would it also by chance deploy to customers too? and provide support and updates? What is the keyboard short-cut to all this magic?
The Eclipse seems have made an enormous leaps in functionality - and all that in the 6 hours since I left the office. ;)
You have completely missed the point.
When you program in Python (the language I btw actively hate; Perl guy here) it actually feels like you programming in a high level language. It gives you the tools you need to accomplish the task. Not every tool, not for every task - but the tools cover a lot of ground.
When you program in Java, it sometimes feels like you are programming in assembler: the same level of attention to details, the same microscopic impact of every line you write. And you too need to write a lot of lines to accomplish the same, other languages allow you to do in one or two lines.
I have no idea what "Red Sox" are, but Java's verbosity (and its long/shot term consequences) are universally known among software developers. It's not like Java is the first language of the kind.
Verbosity wouldn't have been so much of a problem, if the standard library was at least OK. But it is not.
Sun (and now Oracle) pretty much openly stated that they do not want to expand standard library. Main reason I heard was the security updates. (As if shifting the responsibility to the 3rd party libraries anyhow alleviates the security concerns.) The end result that Java's standard library manages to be at the same time very bloated and very poor.
For example, there is still no usable String.split(). There is standard one with the regexps, but it is very slow. I work with Java rarely (at most a month per year) and I have already seen at least a dozen of hand-coded String.split() alternatives.
Java's core strength was that it was built to be a practical tool for getting work done.
If only.
I have abandoned Java shortly after Java 2 SDK release precisely because it was NOT anywhere near being a "practical tool for getting work done." Later encounters over the years only reinforced my opinion.
As one Java developer described it, comparing Java to Python at task of using the proverbial "wheel" in your program. In Python, if you need the "wheel", you just "import wheel" and use it. Java too provides you with everything necessary: "import map.ore.iron", "import tools.pickaxe", "import fire.matches", plus a 3rd party class "recipe.smelt" and a measly 1-2K LOC - and voila! you have the "class Wheel" in Java too!
Weird. Works like that 100% of time in Chrome on Win7/x64.
(Which is basically why I keep IE around: the Flash player is by far the least buggy player. I also get least video tearing with the IE.)
Are you sure you can tell the difference between SD and HD video?
I was so happy when I found that HTML5 player finally can auto-switch to high-def mode when going to full-screen.
Sadly, the happy moment was short, as I have realized that Google has "fixed" the caching issue: now part of the video which was loaded in SD mode (for smaller videos on fast connection - the whole video) stays in SD mode and switch to HD mode has no effect.
So yes, HD full-screen mode now works - but is useless.
The QA track record of the Google is as appalling as it ever was. Goes to reinforce the old wisdom that the "star" developers are useless when it comes to dealing with the mundane, real world problems.
Each statement does so little [...]
Also true for the assemblers.
[...] that it is very easy to step through code in a debugger and pinpoint the place that something has gone wrong.
Except that it might take days or weeks to step through all of it.
Except that it theoretically might take even months, if you need to debug problem related to some framework.
[...] Java is exceptionally easy to debug.
It's not. Unless it is relatively small and independent application. But in that case, literally every language is easy to debug. Even C.
Yes. Billing systems.
In a way, the experience is a confirmation of the RTFA. When newhires come, everybody is in the awe of the Java part, and everybody is terrified of the C/C++ part. But the thing is, a year later most change their opinion. Java might look beautiful - but the beauty is skin deep. We have had clients changing project design and architecture because developers were throwing in a white flag: they simply couldn't fix something in the Java part, and the workaround had to be put somewhere else.
With the C/C++, the usual problems tend to keep the development down to the ground. While with the Java, developers very often succumb to the fancy of implementing all the fancy things people on the internet are so fancy about. Like for example the good design practices. No, no, no - only the best design practices! Because that's how it supposed to be!! End result are the huge monstrosities, which are more compliant with the programming books than with the customer requirements.
The saddest part is that good Java pros are acutely aware of the problem. But one can't just swim against the tide.
It is pretty easy to read Java code and figure out what it means.
Many who deal with the "enterprise" software would simply laugh at the statement.
But hey, the same argument was often made about the BASIC. And I always said that Java and BASIC users are very similar.
Intel is lucky that Apple appears to have a barely concealed desire to kill the mac mini, and bootcamp.
Many Intel NUCs also require hacks to install on them anything non-Windows (for example Linux).
My point being: Intel NUCs are also not very friendly to the alternative OSs.
Rust is walking the path of simplification.
Really?
Author apparently hasn't seen the crazy monstrosity the Rust's preprocessor is.
Otherwise, IMO, Rust and this type of languages - "the perfect cage" - to me are dead end.
(A) I want an utilitarian language. I want language which provides me with strict and weak typing, static and dynamic binding, compiled/jitted/interpreted execution with eval() function. At the same time. Probably all that in different scopes - but the scopes should be able to inter-operate. Think Objective-C++ - but with something better than Objective C on the weak side of things, with bits of Perl-ness built-in.
I want a language which gives me choice. Not another language with dozen theoretical papers why I can't do something and I'm better off for it.
(B) For security, I would rather want an language which can be easily validated and proofed. Rust tries to create a perfect cage - for developers - while the main security vulnerability is the user input. Compilers still can't guess whether I have properly validated the input or not. The Rust went in a different direction: annihilating C/C++ bugs. The problem is that all other bugs programmers make - still remain.
People keep bringing up the Swift in context of system programming, but so far I haven't seen any concrete info about features of the language which make it even suitable for the system programming.
The thing is, even C++ was/is used for system programming, but its C++-ness is so castrated that it is hardly can be called C++ anymore.
I personally do not see any reason to replace C with another language, which I can't use to its fullest. On top of it, lots of C extensions are needed to make the system development efficient: code/data section assignment, untyped/unchecked memory access, memory/IO barriers, assembler intrinsic. None of that is part of C standard - all of it are vendor/compiler extensions. While Swift documentation is devoid of the similar features.
P.S. If Apple folks want to push the Swift into the embedded area... Good luck. Even C++ still struggles. Higher-end embedded system require proof of validity and literally all of the solver software is C-only. Most static/dynamic code analyzers - C-only too.