The average iOS user buys far more apps than the average Android user.

Is that actually an important metric?

It is for people who want to sell apps.

Because the only way to support C in this supposed future where system frameworks will be written in Swift is that Objective-C will still need to be around.

That's not true. While it's possible to use Objective-C frameworks from C, in practice, nobody does this. People writing C for Apple platforms don't usually call out to Objective-C from C, they call into their C from Objective-C. Entirely replacing Objective-C with Swift won't change this - you can call into C from Swift just as you can call into C from Objective-C.

Now I think if there is ever a situation where Apple would drop support for Objective-C, I do think it's likely that they would drop support for C at the same time, but it's not because writing C for Apple platforms requires the presence of Objective-C.

The Flask debug toolbar was based on the Django debug toolbar, so I think the same functionality is available for Django. But for CLI stuff, you're probably better off just setting a breakpoint and using pdb.

More specifically: if PHP is installed on a server, it typically advertises itself in the Host: HTTP header for every outgoing request, regardless of whether it was used to serve that request or not. Most other languages do not, even if they were used to serve that request. The tools that perform these language surveys can't adequately control for this, so it leads to a phenomenally large overestimation of the usage statistics for PHP.

When you need low-cost web hosting, PHP is quite often the only choice other than Perl.

You can get a full VPS that will run any language you want for 5USD/mo these days. Low-cost hosting hasn't been an argument in favour of PHP for years (assuming standard developed nation privileges of course).

There are a lot of PHPisms I have grown accustomed to, that I would really like in [Python]. Namely, I want var_dump.

You can do far better than that. If you use a tool like the Flask debug toolbar, you can jump into an interactive debug session, running on the server, right from your browser.

the PHP code is harder to maintain long term, but it's amazing how fast you can build things that work.

Quick doesn't have to mean dirty. You can be extremely productive without creating unmaintainable crap in an ugly, badly-designed language. It's not a trade-off, you can have a better language and better productivity at the same time.

the target of wiretaps does not have to be linked to a foreign power or terrorism.

I thought the point of the NSA was that they were meant to protect domestic communications from external threats. If the target is not linked to external threats, how can it be justified?

Put the polls back where they always were. **HATE** this change. Hate. Hate!. HATE!!!

I swear, I'm -->this-- close to not coming back here anymore. It feels like I'm the proverbial frog in the pot of water, and this bath is finally getting a bit too warm.

I find it really ironic that Google, a company so used to being the new hotness upstart company, is so willfully ignoring usage patterns of a significant minority comprising "the youth" and people on the wrong side of the internet divide, and much of the third world, and anyone without a data plan outside of wifi range.

It's you that's out of touch. Kids don't use SMS like they used to, it's all about apps like Snapchat now. And most kids don't generally care about calendar reminders either.

As for people without data plans, Google are inventing record-breaking new technologies like Loon precisely to reach these people. They are about as far away from ignoring the problem as you can possibly get.

Personally, I use sms to ensure my kids get the notification no matter what

Nope, SMS doesn't achieve that, it needs a signal at the point at which the notification is received. Whereas an app that generates local notifications only needs to sync the event once. The app-based method is much more reliable.

Sounds good until you hit a latency spike. I'd hate to be getting sutured up and see the ping times climb to 2000 ms.

If general AI is made, there's no reason to think it will have a motivation structure that agrees with humans

Of course there is. If it didn't do what the developers want it to, then the software would be broken and development would continue until it did do what they wanted.

I decided to log in for this one.

OP asked a question. You obviously do not know the answer because you just made a stupid, insulting reply. Perhaps if you don't know the answer, don't reply. I don't know the answer either, but would be interested in knowing the answer as well and would have asked the question had the AC not already asked. But instead of an answer you just shit all over it and are apparently offended that it got asked. Get over yourself and realize that some people aren't afraid to ask questions when they are ignorant... you might want to try it.

I would expect that for most apps, it won't reduce power consumption.

Why would you expect that? What apps will be able to do will be extremely curtailed - e.g. they will probably follow the original iPhone model of halting the process whenever the user isn't using it. Aside from the display, the radio is probably the biggest power draw on the system, plus there won't be any length negotiation with the phone, so having non-background applications run directly on the device will probably help battery life, not harm it.

For a watch where a regular watches battery lasts years, a watch with a battery life of a single day at best is hilariously bad.

But nobody needs a watch battery to last years though - the comparison is meaningless. People don't use their watches while they sleep - charging every night in exchange for the extra functionality is a good deal for most people.