You might want to read up on your Java Memory Management misconceptions. Java at no point specified that there wasn't going to be any memory management at all. Just that memory management for bad programmers was being handled automatically via garbage collection. In reality, Java Memory Management is quite complex and widely misunderstood. Instead of just 'flat memory space that we just keep malloc()ing until we use it up', the memory manager has tiers of usage, that are used for immediate, short term, and long term storage. Specific to your troll, though, is that in fact the programmer DOES NOT need to do memory management beyond the basics of "don't keep allocating resources and never release them" (specifically database and file handles). The JVM itself does all the management beyond that. This article and book refer to tuning the JVM and J2EE server, which run the programmers code. The programmer shouldn't give a fig how the container is tuned beyond common sense.

Need to get out more, bro. J2EE is enormously powerful for large scale applications, and is in use just about everywhere in industrial, government, and financial sectors. No, it's not applicable for the latest LAMP whack-site that folks crank out by the bjillions, but it has a very good place when designing extremely large scale multitiered interconnected apps. Oh, and btw, servlets are part of the J2EE spec, so you might want to take that into account as well. My big problem is that most folks don't really understand what J2EE is or how it's applicable. And I will freely admit that J2EE v1 and v2 were decent ideas implemented very badly. J2EE v3, with the removal of mounds of XML configuration, is quite a pleasure to work with, and provides a rich environment to build large scale clustered applications with the benefits of OOP design. No, it's not for everything and everyone. But everytime I see someone wank on about the latest Ruby wonder that makes communication between applications possible (Gasp!) I have to go "er, you mean JMS? the messaging / queue management tool that's been in J2EE since the beginning? Gosh, yeah, Ruby sure is pushing the frontier of design, oo baby."

Seconded and thirded. I use DCU as well - and even though the interface looks like it's from 1996, it does let me pay bills online, have my history going back years, and syncs up with Mint.com and other sites.

So if it's not even close to true, instead of standing on the mountain going "THIS ISN'T TRUE! YOU ALL ARE IDIOTS!" whu don't you provide some concrete information about WHY it's not true? I too am skeptical of the hysteria about the article, and I always look for collaborating information (more than everyone re-posting status updates "Facebook is at it again!") To quote an old friend of mine. "Don't flame, inform!" So? Where is your info?

Wow. Bitter much? The amount of misinformation, bad data, and just plain falsehoods in your post boggles the mind. Obviously you didn't do any research at all before posting. But I guess that's because you weren't in a classroom, the concept of 'learning on your own' has apparently escaped you.

Lets start from the basics here, and full disclosure. My son (10) is a student at Sudbury Valley School - that's one of those unschools that this entire article is about. He's been there 6 years. He has never had a math course, never had a social sciences course, has never sat through a lecture on American History.

He is a talented Python programmer, plays the guitar, and reads about a dozen books a week. Why does he do these things? Because he enjoys them. He's also socially adept, polite, communicative, and inquisitive. He gets along with kids outside his age group - older and younger - because he's exposed to all ages, every day, at his school

I have to point out this boggling statement by you:

Do you know what happens when you let children run around, be inquisitive, ask questions, appreciate concepts, and open doors of wonderment in every topic? You get Arts students. Arts and Humanities students who know how to appreciate everything and know how to do absolutely nothing. People who can master the art of appearing intelligent whilst remaining shockingly ignorant. People whose ideas and tastes and practices are simply imitations of something that was actually original.

What a nauseatingly narrow minded and petty person you must be. "know how to do absolutely nothing" - such as, oh, I don't know. Paint? Do music? Dance? Act? Free an arts student from having to sit through a Biology class (required in every public school), and you know what they'll pursue? Art.

Sudbury Valley has produces scientists, teachers, politicians, and engineers. When a student finds something they're interested in, around age 11-13, they start focusing in on it, learning at their own pace, reading and studying, perhaps taking courses on their own. If they want to go onto college, they prepare in their own way.

Forcing a student to take courses they have no interest in does nothing except disillusion the student on the learning process.

(oh, by the way. My 10 year old son who never took a math course? Loves doing math problems with me. We do them when driving, because he finds them fun. My son loves going to school, and hates when he's home sick or has other obligations. How many children in the public school system absolutely CANNOT WAIT until the first day of school?)

Learn. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.