So you can actually shoot them and hit? Sounds like a win-win!

This is subjective. But it certainly goes beyond "remembering whether to capitalize the first character of your methods and variables", at least if we're talking about idiomatic C# vs Java.

Granted, Java is catching up with lambdas and the associated library stuff in Java 8. But it is still hampered by type erasure, and libraries haven't picked up on their use yet, while in C# the patterns that only really make sense with lambdas have been idiomatic in libraries for a few years now.

This was true circa Java 1.4 / C# 1.0. Since then they've got rather different model for generics, lambdas, and a bunch of other stuff. C# has LINQ, dynamic and iterators on top of that. There are enough differences to matter.

Did you count the jobs that only listed C# or VB.NET in the .NET category?

Perf of JVM vs CLR is a complicated topic. Generally speaking, JVM (HotSpot, specifically) has an edge when it comes to optimizing code, but CLR has an edge in that some of the language semantics generate more efficient code to begin with. User-defined value types (structs) and non-type-erased generics thereof make a big difference there.

HotSpot is better at optimization because it can afford to be slower - it can interpret the bytecode for rare code paths, and only kick in the full-fledged optimizer after it figures out that something is worth optimizing. CLR doesn't have a bytecode interpreter at all, it always JIT-compiles on first call - which means that the compiler has to be fast enough, and that in turn means shedding slow but effective optimizations.

Of late, .NET Native is an interesting piece of tech that precompiles .NET apps using VC++ compiler backend. So you get all optimizations in your .NET code that C++ normally gets. Of course, it's still slower due to the more deterministic but less memory-friendly sequencing and memory model, and all the extra runtime checks, but it's still faster than JIT (and, I strongly suspect, HotSpot, though I don't think anyone has profiled them yet).

10 years ago .NET was at 1.1. Today it's at 4.5.

Enterprises usually don't start using a new tech extensively until it has been out for a while.

Did you have the same indignation about the similarly authoritarian and brutal but non-communist regime that was in place in Cuba before Castro?

You know, the one that was not only tolerated, but actively supported by US?

It will also set a nice precedent for anti-abortion states to force the neighboring lax abortion laws states to "clean up their act".

And it will set a nice precedent for states that ban gay marriage to force the neighboring states that have gay marriage to "clean up their act".

Careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

It's not a scam.

OK, lets take a specific example.

In the US, a new AAA game is generally $60 pre-tax... which is 48.6€ using current exchange rates.

With me so far? OK, so the US price is ready to list on Steam because US price listings don't include taxes. However, the EU version isn't, because EU requires that VAT be included in the price.

So... lets take Italy for example. VAT in Italy* is 22%. So... the same price that lists for $60 USD would list for... 59.292€. Suddenly the 1:1 ratio makes sense.

Now, here's the thing: VAT varies wildly across Europe... anywhere from 15% (Luxembourg) to 27% (Hungary). From what I've heard, there are only two mainland Europe pricing regions on Steam. Which means the prices are going to be affected by the VAT rates of the other countries in said pricing region.

* Italy was chosen for two reasons: 1. Most countries are in the 20-25% range... 22% is about in the middle; and 2. I know someone who lives in Italy.

Steam gems are gotten from the turning various cards you get from playing various games on Steam (it's based on the game and the amount of time played as opposed to achievements.

Those tokens are actually an auction, so unless you're the highest bidder, you get nothing.

Incidentally, said auction ends later today, to be immediately followed with the Steam Winter/Summer sale.

(I'm too lazy to see if /. support upside down text for Summer)

"times less" moves the x10 to the other side of the equation.

Such as $50=10x$5

Which is the same as $50/10=$5

Computer learns to pick out salient features to identify images. Then we are shocked that when trained with no supervision the salient features aren’t what we would have chosen.

I see this as a great ah-ha moment. Humans also have visual systems that can be tricked by optical illusions. The patterns presented while seemingly incomprehensible to us make sense to computers for the same reason our optical illusions do to us -- taking short cuts in visual processing that would fire on patterns not often or ever seen in the real world. Which BTW means even as is, this type of visual identification is still useful, since the random images generating false hits aren’t just any random images, but ones that have visual features similar to the targets identified, even if we humans can’t see the similarities or even if they look like white noise.

Now that we know what computers are picking out as salient features, we can modify the algorithms to add additional constraints on what additional salient features must or must not be in an object identified, such that it would correspond more closely to how humans would classify objects. Baseball’s must have curvature for instance not just zig-zag red lines on white.

That is the weak point of the plan. We haven't even managed to get everyone to do email encryption, even though the standards and the easy-to-use tools have been there for almost two decades now. What makes you think you can switch them to a P2P darknet?

I think that a more realistic scenario will be 1% doing what you describe, and 99% being utterly clueless.

Yup. But I still think that you're too much of an optimist. This train wreck can be stretched out for a long, long time.

Can you give an example of that from the past, say, 10 years?