It boils down to specifics in every situation. Everyone's experience is likely different because many factors come into play when it comes to evaluating a postdoc outcome (i.e. - specific discipline / employer / demographic, economies, etc.).

You are very welcome, my child.

Carper bombing? Is that a form of weaponized carp?

It really depends on the respective persons being viewed.

...or... Maybe it's just another issue of someone using a tool they weren't qualified in using?

You could be right about the libraries, etc. that Java et al provide out-of-the-box... But here's the thing: nobody on Earth begins a web design project thinking to themselves, "Hey, let's make a website and put ourselves through the wonderful nightmare of being forced to learn some of the most Kafkaesque Java concepts we can find and completely disregard what we originally set out to do due to the poorly-written, overly complex, impossible system requirements that languages like Java et al bring with them." It never enjoys the accommodation of maintaining private criticisms due to how accessible it is anymore by everyone who owns a blog, but whenever I need something up and running--without spending countless hours just trying to create a simple web page--I'll always be turning to PHP. It's no frills, open-source, and yes, if you mind your Ps and Qs, is secure and efficient.

Depends on what the measurements are. How do you show how is better or worse than ? By the number of servers that use a given language? By the developers who have written code using the given language? By the volume of resources it takes to run something written in the language by developers who have at least and approximately 10+ years of proven experience? Generally-speaking, it's easy to assume that PHP developers outnumber the developers of other languages by a substantial amount. I'm not sure what the amount would be because I know there's a good number of Java guys out there as well as Perl. But here's the thing: PHP is ACCESSIBLE. You don't have to muck around with much to get it going--and working--for whatever requirements you may have. You don't have to mess with compiler scripts, libraries, etc. It's all just there, waiting to be used. What this means is that the ratio of seasoned programmers to inexperienced programmers as it pertains to PHP is likely to be unbalanced. This is unfortunate because there's nothing wrong with the language itself, at least, not when comparing it's shortcomings to the issues other languages did have at one point or another. The main point here is that the criticisms revolving around PHP's "accidents" are constantly made mainstream due to the sheer numbers of people who use PHP. This is both good and bad. It's bad for PHP in that it never makes it look any better, but it's good in how it shows just how many systems rely on it. Anyway, it's just like every other language out there: if you don't like it or have no use for it, then that's okay... Just don't use it. But spare us all the drivel where you go around spouting a bunch of immature *noise*. The internet has enough of this as-is.

The ratio of PHP developers to those in other languages are likely every bit 10-to-1. This means many things... First, it likely means that the accessibility to the use of the language is much more prone to being handled by people still new to the language, so yes, inappropriate use is likely to happen. Secondly, it means that the resulting issues surrounding security exploits, etc. will be much more mainstreamed than those that occur in other languages. All of this in mind, PHP is a fantastic language to use. It's no frills, accessible means provides everyone with a product that can do something and do something right there and then. You don't have to spend countless hours configuring compiler scripts, setting up a bunch of libraries, etc., etc. This goes without saying that yes, PHP has flaws but every language has flaws. So stop puckering your two year-old lip and go play with a language you prefer. Don't like PHP? Then don't use it. It's that simple. Stop letting your insecurities drive you to clamor about things other people love using. It makes you look immature.

Depending on what exactly this mod does, it could yield some interesting outcomes when used against creepers from within my dirt house...

It's unreasonable to expect everyone to drop what they're doing to go scurry off to wherever they can go to research Kafkaesque concepts pertaining to political minutia. People have too much going on in order to do this, but even if they didn't, an outcome of research (like that which you elude to) would require hours upon hours of thorough filtering through vague and often downright untrue literature just to get to the pieces that both A.) make sense and B.) are true. Long story short, I agree with you in thinking that people need to do better research to determine who they should vote for despite it being an unreasonable request approximately 90% of the time, but what's the point really when both candidates are worthless and never for the people 100% of the time!? The political system in this country is broken. The only thing we can do now is hold on for dear life and hope that our "leaders" either don't send us to the poor house or get us into a war. They're all worthless.

I'm perfectly okay with my own culture, thank you. I'm happy with my world. I don't need some person's belief system or everyday methodologies because I don't have any desire to know anything about them and I don't care about understanding someone else simply because I don't have to. And just because I want nothing to do with their values, beliefs, etc. doesn't mean I'm Satan or hoping they die. I just want to be left the hell alone by idiots that seem to believe that you need to have a boner for every damn person's way of life anymore. I am perfectly fine living in the reality I've created for myself and if someone has a problem with that, then they need to get over their narcissistic belligerence and realize that they can't push themselves or other peoples' existences onto others the way they think they can.

My hat is tipped, my friend.

I know nothing about your education just as you know nothing about mine. Our classes, our instructors, our schools' resources... Taking it a step further, one could even argue about access to such things (which is another discussion).

But at some point, I suppose all this--the instruction, the books that were read, the quizzes and tests, research papers, finals--boils down to being interpreted as "experience." Where's the line between experience and education then? Is education only "knowing and theory" whereas experience equates to "application and practice?" Do you have to create only 1 fully-functional, database-transacting application that can be served across the internet to NOT be considered a newbie or does one need to somehow find a way to measure functional proportions (in which case, my original argument still stands)? Probably not, right? I mean, someone must surely create 2, 10, 50 applications... RIGHT? Or does this exact number only matter to whatever circles we're having this circle jerk with?

How many people does one have to work with before being seen as a non-newbie (because surely social interactions play a part, right?) How many languages must one know (and to come up with this number, you have to know what defines a language)? How many uses of this language (or languages) does one need to exhibit before being labeled as non-newb? Do they need to know how to write and compile a "what-the-fuck-ever" routine or sub-program before being considered "seasoned" or do they have to create their own entire operating system? Again, circles...But how many degrees does someone need to have or, since "...a programming course..." basically equates to anything, should it be more about WHERE the education comes from?

I guess you get the point.

Can you have experience without knowledge? And if this IS the case--which it is NOT--how the fucking hell can ANYONE belittle someone else for not knowing how to do something someone else DOES know how to do?

It's synonymous with harassing children trying to learn how to read and it's bullshit.

But all this aside, all I was originally blabbing about was how immature and disrespectful our ilk are to each other. We should be our best allies and most notable advocates. We should be the people holding the invisible keys to the city... And yet, the internet is an indicator of the inverse because we're always name calling, forming gangs and cliques, raising people with God complexes, undercutting each other, etc. It's a fucking joke. Yeah, it's wonderful that someone knows how to program a whatever with a whatever like everyone cares, but seriously, do you (me, or anyone else for that matter) really tend to believe that there's not going to be someone tomorrow who does the same thing a thousand times over? And if so, do you think they'll not eventually have the same discussion? If so, then we're not doing something write in all this, which is incredibly ironic for programmers--the supposed masters of efficiency.

Any tutorials or articles, etc. that start out referring to someone as "newbie", "newb", etc. should be automatically labeled as worthless. Every team of programmers--it doesn't matter if it's a team of 2, 10, 50...--always has someone that can be called a "weak link" simply because you're always going to have someone who just isn't as fast or efficient as everyone else. And if programming is more of an art form (which I personally believe it is due to having millions of ways to skin cats), then it's apt to claim that nobody can be as good as everybody. Everything depends on what exactly is being done, what technologies are being used, frameworks, functions, who's involved, what business logic is required, what data is being worked with, etc., etc., etc. I've seen people who sucked at back-end stuff rock it out with front-end and others, vice-versa. I've seen people excel with certain technologies turn around and completely blow with others but one reason some of these supposed GODS suddenly sucked has nothing to do with their understanding or capabilities but instead almost always had to do with how their resources were being used... There is no such thing as a newbie. It's an epiphany brought about by someone's nerby boner culture. Constantly using the phrase "newbie" and all that other juvenile bullshit is old news and something someone does when they're bored and looking to put people down just to make themselves feel better about their world. Stop referring to people like this because some of the most seasoned people could be painted with that brush depending on how you view things...

Thank GOD they fixed the misspelling... I was up all night last night worrying about it.