The next probe will be Zombie 2.

The best "lone wolf" developers probably use something like Lisp and a high amount of math-like abstraction to crank out vast amounts of features in a short time.

However, a good team programmer knows how OTHER typical programmers think and read code, and writes code that is easy for them to navigate, digest, and change. Team programming is more like authoring a good technical manual, not clever gee-whiz tricks.

Indeed. My theory is that many of those mysterious gamma-ray bursts are civilizations earning a Galactic Darwin award.

"Hey look, we can create mini anti-black-holes in our la ~ ^ & [NO CARRIER]

No, it depends on the type and frequency of the changes. Some change patterns favor case lists and some favor sub-classing (in terms of fewest lines/blocks/modules that need to be changed). I don't believe one is inherently more common than another. Selecting the "best" solution requires knowledge and experience about the domain, and/or a good "horse sense" of domain analysis.

Predicting the future is never easy.

There are some other complexities to consider, such as if a set-oriented variation-on-a-theme becomes more appropriate than a hierarchy for modeling variation, but that's a long topic.

Your viewpoint is too idealistic in my opinion to result in a practical difference. You are fighting a personal war that nobody else is attending, tilting at windmills.

My two semi solutions are to put a ceiling on campaign contributions (which the current Supreme Court is against), and to have federal-level issue votes, not just representative votes.

Is it possible to use a big disk for both blocking light and for diffraction, per target object? That way both parties can be right. Win win. (Pardon me for sounding like a PHB there).

Will "AOL" be painted on the disk in huge letters?

Those damned Patriots under-inflated the snow machine!

The weather agency should state it as a percent similar to rain forecasts. Example: "There is a 70% estimated probability that snow will reach more than 2 feet deep in City X" kind of thing. It's then understood there's a 30% chance the snow will be a bust.

Unless a sufficient number of people vote for the 3rd party candidates, you are diminishing your selection power. At least voting for the top 2 gives a reasonable chance of making a small difference. (I think such stalemate is called the Nash equilibrium.)

And just because you are a third-party candidate does not mean you cannot be bribed.

In my opinion, those likely to be end users or power users mostly need to know about factoring (redundancy), set theory versus hierarchies; and associations, such as 1-to-many relationships versus many-to-many relationships.

Understanding loops and IF statements is good knowledge perhaps, but end users seem more lacking in practical knowledge about relationships of data objects (information) than they do relevant knowledge of loops and conditionals, and this leads them to poor decisions and confusion when working with developers and analysts.

In other words, focus first on enabling them to work better with IT rather than to potentially be or replace IT. And understanding factoring and relationships is good education for future programmers anyhow, if they go that route.

Roughly half the students will eventually be involved with IT design decisions, but only 1% or so will be developers. Thus, rather than try to improve or increase just that 1%, enable the 50% by making them better able to communicate with IT. It's a larger total benefit to society.

I see Comcast/TW's ads repeatedly, not NetFlix's counter-merger ads. Although granted, it's not a scientific sample.

Democracy doesn't mean we get the government we want, just the government we voted for. The people in congress were elected in free and fair elections.

Technically, perhaps. Effectively, no. Contrast our typical ballot:

[__] Bribed Politician A.
[__] Bribed Politician B.
[__] No-name who has no chance of winning such that you are throwing away your vote.

with a typical dictatorship ballot for representatives:

[__] Dictator-selected Candidate A.
[__] Dictator-selected Candidate B.
[__] Dictator-selected Candidate C.

This difference is relatively minor. The plutocrats are pretty much fulfilling the same role as the dictator(s).

Why doesn't NetFlix or smaller competitors chime in for the opposition? I suspect it's because they hope to merge one day also. Merging into oligopolies is a Get-Out-Of-Competition-For-Free card.

It's why Detroit became fat, dumb, and happy in the 1970's.

I see their pro-merger ads on TV and the web. Why are there no anti-merger ads? The public is only hearing one side.

It would be nice to crowd-fund some ads that describe how we need more competition and more competitors rather than huge bribe-heavy oligopolies. I'd donate $10 or so to such.