By your metric, JavaScript is the most popular:

http://www.dodgycoder.net/2011/11/stackoverflows-programming-language.html

https://github.com/languages

And therein lies the rub in your argument. Many companies actually are web based. Many others are into mobile. And a shit ton of stuff is embedded or low level enough that .Net isn't even an option.

In my own industry (telco/finance), hardly anyone I'm aware of uses C# or VB.Net. It's almost all C for the low level stuff, Java for the enterprisy stuff, and java/Obj-C for mobile stuff. Oh, and there's some COBOL for legacy stuff, too.

In my brother's (automation/machine tools), it's mostly C for low level stuff, and C++ for higher level stuff.

In my sister's (public administration/archives), it's mostly web-based intranets.

And best I'm aware, games are mostly coded in C++ or (more recently) Obj-C++.

Admittedly, I haven't touched a Windows box in years, and my sample is too small to be noteworthy. In each case, though, note that .Net is nowhere in sight except on desktop apps such as Office. That's arguably where the volume dollars are at -- even though I'd suggest that volume dollars currently are in mobile.

At any rate, if TIOBE's metrics includes new lines of code produced per year, I for one am actually surprised that .Net came out on top last year.

Actually, you're incorrect -- things are not so simple.

Not. But fwiw, at his age, the brightest kids in a the class are frequently looking into what's coming next, as in what's taught a year or two later. On a more personal note, I never felt like an exception in doing so -- the brighter kids in some other classes did as much, and we had the nerdiest of conversations when we shared and discussed our findings. At any rate, at his age, many kids have a rather precise idea of what a vector is, or a matrix for matter. Some actually know enough of the latter to never need to ask about the former.

Also fwiw, and fyi, there actually are people out there who rederive a heck of a lot more than their teachers or peers wish they did. In particular in social sciences. But don't get me started.

He merely wrote code under the supervision of his daddy.

Sunds like you've no idea what he actually did. He got his name in an article for having written a couple of lines of code under the supervision of his daddy.

According to the French press (who actually interviewed the kid, rather than reported second hand information), he worked as an interm in his father's lab. His father assigned him stuff so as to give him the opportunity to learn how to code.

By the kid's own admittance in those interviews, his primary interest was to learn to code; and he actually puts forward that he did. It's only later that his father and the latter's colleagues highlighted the importance of his program's findings, and they put his name forward in their article (rightly so) for having programmed the tool needed to show their hunch.

Anyway, not discounting how bright the kid might be (because he seems to be, even though he admittedly found it necessary to ask his math teacher for information on vectors), but can we please keep a cool head with respect to what actually happened? As in, a kiddo got an internship through his father and coded stuff requested by his father, and landed his name in a scientific article courtesy of his father for having written said article?

I no longer use my laptop, except when I'm programming or writing reports. It's as simple as that...

Everything else I do, including replying to you in Slashdot, is done from an iPad. There's some sort of learning curve initially, but it's fairly quick to get over with, and it really only applies to JS-happy sites such as this one. There's also the Flash problem, but I honestly don't miss the ads, and my own usage was such that I didn't mind losing embedded news channel videos that much. For everything else, it just works.

Methinks you should have your mom try an iPad for a few weeks or months, and advise if she feels something is missing. I, for one, am pretty certain I wouldn't miss my own laptop if it weren't for my needing it to get any work done...

It looks like you forgot to tick the AC checkbox. Or if, consult a shrimp -- fast. :-)

This patent seems a bit pointless. The future lies in digital app stores.

Neither lying, nor (I hope) a complete idiot... In my case, exposing the fact outright to my lists and other sites were enough to retrieve the domain. I didn't even name the fucker who libeled me, from fear of getting a defamation suit on my end. I merely mentioned that a foul creep was out there to spew crap on me and that he ought to be ignored. At the same time I let him know I'd file complaints against him. And I contacted a (pricey, in retrospect) lawyer for advice. He ended up turning the couple of domains he owned, perhaps out of fear of being prosecuted, perhaps out of fear of seeing his name tied to a smear campaign. Whichever it is, I honestly don't care. The smear campaign stopped on the spot, retrieved the domains, and I never heard about him again.

Look at things this way: Americans are sleeping; the few that feel concerned about privacy are losing the war.

Inflight of that, I'd argue that anything that may shock people into reacting is fine.

I've been through this myself...

As a temporary action, get the word out -- literally. Build a site or two of your own on her if needed, e.g, her official site, then get in touch with her fans, list, the press, whatever, and serve them a sensationalist "writer gets libeled online by her ex" story... If they bite, the site with her name in the domain won't get to Google's first page of results with a little luck. Even if it does, the many results that mention the smear campaign on the same page will serve as a counterweight and douse it.

In my case, that was enough to get the domain. In case it's not enough for you to do the same, sue...

Sue the ex-husband for libel, defamation, whatever... but also -- and more importantly -- to recover the domain name. If it's a .com or any other US tld, it's under US jurisdiction and can be seized by a US court; period, end of story -- irrespective of where the ex-boyfriend might be based or hosted. If the MAFIAA can shut down .com domains that serve torrents, and big business can grab domains on grounds that they're too similar to their own, you can shut down or retrieve a domain. Her name is her de facto trademark. Don't just sue the ex-boyfriend, either. Also file complaints with the registrar, the hosting business, etc. They'll take pre-emptive action more often than not when contacted. Consult with an attorney specialized in this kind of stuff, and take action under his guidance.

Implying that whatever else we do in our postmodern society isn't? As in political campaigns? TV shows? Movies? Newspapers? Corporate governance? Marketing practices? Advertizing? Mating patterns? And, heck, of all things, education?

Have you been living in a cave? This has already been the case for at least a decade...