"And if you're writing threaded code you can't really use the stl anyway"

      Oh noooz... I must recall the thousands of lines of multhreaded code I wrote for various server appliances using all sorts of std library containers and algorithms (running on 100's of customer sites) right away. Why didn't you warn us about this menace before.

  Seriously why would you so confidently spread blatant FUD ? Care to explain why "threaded code" (I presume you mean multithreaded programs) can't use the c++ standard library (yes... what used to be called STL is now almost completely subsumed in the standard library).

"I know, someone's going to mention proprietary versions of the stl that support finer-grained locking primitives, but even that's not anywhere near optimal"

    So many questions about that statement:
1) what is "optimal" ?
2) why do you assume that "finer grained locking" would be more optimal (by whatever your definition of "optimal" is.
3) and finally, what benchamarks or data do you have to support your general dismissal of standard library containers in multithreaded code and your more specific claim 2 ?
 

Where are my mod points when I need them. Someone please mod parent Funny (or Hilarious if that's an option).

...with frickin laser beams on their heads.

... welcome our radioactive, unicellular overlords.

And more often than not, highly qualified bosoms.

It's not just your writing that sucks. Going by your response, your reading comprehension is not so hot either. I like your rant (which, your probably did get proofread ironically) but it was about *THE WRONG THING*. I'd leave it at that. Maybe you should spend some time on reflection rather than defending the indefensible.

If I have to pick one industry dominated by blood-sucking parasites of the lowest order, it'll have to be the big cell phone providers in the US. Someone on my family plan sends me an sms, it costs us 2 X 20c. Once for sending and once for recieving. The minimum "unlimited sms plan" is way more than what I would spend on sms normally so it's not worth it for me to buy that. I can not believe this form of highway robbery is being allowed to go on so rampantly in a purportedly civilized society.

Does your extensive post-collegiage learning include constructing a multi-clause sentence in the English language (..and I wouldn't even mention the spelling error) ? Ordinarily I wouldn't be an asshole about this except you screwed up the exact sentence where you're bragging about your amazing skills, acquired over a long professional career. And whatever that career might be, writing a readable sentence in your main language is a basic skill (and I know you're an American from your other posts).

Could it really be someone who's teaching programming at a major US university doesn't know about source control systems ??

... wind powered ships. Maybe we could plant a huge wind turbine on the ship's deck and use the electricity thus generated to power the motors. I mean... there's lots of wind over the oceans. Somebody should definitely look at using wind to propel the ships.

Shouldn't have checked his email from Mexico.

(sorry for being prissy and didactic but I can honestly say you started it)

look here:

http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=mediocre

1. of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate.
2. rather poor or inferior.

Also look here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mediocre

  "of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ordinary, so-so "

    Despite the etymology involving the root "med", the generally accepted usage of the word "mediocre" in fact tends towards "inferior" rather than "mean" or "average".

I still have to explain what web browsers are to people, and some of them still don't understand it, because they just don't have a place in their mind labeled "web browser" the way we do, and having it explained to them once won't change that

Dude... Have you considered that you might be living among the illiterate and the dumb ? That your sample is skewed towards mediocrity?

.... you know the rest....

Great job moderator. It's an attempt to make a reasonable point with the help of a deliberately over-the-top analogy. You maynot agree with the point I'm trying to make (that much is obvious), or you may not agree with the applicability of my analogy (which, I humbly submit, is pretty close). That doesn't make it trolling.