I agree that it's at least a majority of the person producing it, but I wouldn't say 99%. Good language design, in the right and appropriate circumstances, do indeed help. For example, Java (which you mention as bad) actually makes it MUCH harder for software to crash. For example, I lead a mobile team with Objective C (iOS) and Java (Android). The number of users experiencing crashes on the iOS app is around 2.5%, while the Android app is a perfect 0%. I don't think the Android devs are any better than the iOS devs - I am certain it's the language.

For the record, I have nothing good to say about C++ :)

Is that some tribal instinct in you invoking emotion instead of logic? English is by far and away the standard international language. Pilots from Russia landing in Taiwan speak English to the radio towers. Travellers between Spain and France in Barcelona (3 languages there) speak English to communicate.

Just because there are more native speakers of Mandarin does not make it the standard international language. And btw, native speakers is a piss poor statistic for a standard international language.

HA!

There are something like 80,000 H1B visa applications per year. That's microscopic compared to other forms of immigration (legal and illegal).

I'd rather be H1B-ified from intelligent and capable and needed immigrants than the rest.

Just curious, how exactly would you do that? A democracy? An oligarchy? Even if you had 24/7 monitoring, how exactly would you give such an entity the ability to protect yourself from bad guys and also defend the rights of Muslims and gays equally without bias?

This is not a troll question, this is actually a question that comes up a bunch when drinking with my buddies.

Oh why do you post anonymously? Great argument.

Well, the issue that so many Slashdotters are up in arms about is a very relevant issue to the tech industry in America. You say that there is no legitimate reason to tax, but what everyone is arguing is that the business IS done here, but accounting witchcraft makes it seem like it's not.

Now, there are plenty of legitimate arguments about certain topics such as the iPhone which is manufactured elsewhere, but the reality is is that there are a lot of American corporations who pay little to no taxes while making tons of money while benefiting from the American government. Many shades of gray? Yes. Feds wanting to tax something that they don't have a legitimate reason tax? Actually not so gray; there are legitimate problems with the tax system that the feds feel like they need to clamp down on.

Now, don't take what I say to be an approval for high taxes or in fact taxes at all; what I'm saying is that you are dismissing the argument of tax loopholes as invalid when in fact there are serious problems that could be solved and simplified for the greater benefit of both American corporations and the American society.

Ever read the Diamond Age by (Neal Stephenson I think)? It has a very realistic proposal of a future in which the collapse of governments happens due to the inability for governments to collect taxes based on hypothetical Bitcoin technologies. In fact, in this realistic future, people still do continue to exist, and (some of them) do indeed have individual freedoms. The governments of said future are actually akin to collective corporations. The problem is that it's like Atlas Shrugged; it's fiction. In fact, we have proof of the reality of a lack of government: the first 100,000 years of humanity.

Have you ever been to Southern Mexico? You'll see just how well the absence of a federal government, a functioning Mafia, and private cartels do for a society.

God bless you, sir.

Although I admit this is a subjective statement you just made, I still think it's complete bullshit. Not having your earnings taxed has never been an "essential liberty", and I am aware of no major society on this planet that doesn't tax.

Although I presume your'e trolling, you should realize from the article and all of the comments that all of us are actually considering the money that is actually made in America but not taxed (hidden by the double Irish scheme for example).

That's not a weird American government view. All governments everywhere have taxes, it's not a unique thing to the American federal government.

Seems like a perfectly cromulent report to me.

We are sufficiently more intelligent than microbial life, but would shit a brick if we found some.

Memory management and pointers are some of the core fundamental concepts of some languages such as C. They are not fundamental to "programming".