Yeah, but everybody's experienced the SQL query which, when re-written to say the same thing a different way (i.e. replacing a sub-query with a join) runs 10 times faster than before. The trick to get good at SQL is just to remember these cases and avoid them... the fact that the SQL parser/engine can't do this optimization on its own doesn't speak well for SQL's design.

It also doesn't help that when extensions are made to SQL (like T-SQL), the very first thing they add are procedural looping operators.

That's not to say the *concept* of SQL is flawed, just that the language itself is, IMO.

About 15 years ago I sat in a very interesting seminar where one of the lead scientists on the fusion front admitted that the "easy" part of fusion was the physics (try that for "easy"), and that the really hard part of the engineering was yet to come.

Looks like back then they already knew they were going to be in for a ride, but they simply didn't know how hard it would be. So I am not surprised.

If you climb up the high board and only then find that it is all cracked and creaky: yes, your Olympic dive may just have become harder.

Since the beginning of (internet) time sending an email has been like sending a postcard. Everybody along the way handling your message can read it if they so choose. You know it, they know it. If you expect privacy, then you cannot be helped. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is not much worth here ...

I'd rather have people make sure that the NSA is not listening to my phone calls - and you know that this is happening too, at least when you have communications going beyond the borders of the US.

Got my new MacBook Pro last week. Aah, that wonderful smell of a pristine laptop ... but it's already going away :- b ... I guess running full tilt all the time burns the good stuff off too quickly.

But seriously, that's a surprise?? I would be shocked if you could find a (new) computer that does *not* give of toxic fumes.