Or you could use MIT's Scratch programming environment and not get yourself icky with MS.

There is an extreme element out there that I've talked to that doesn't seem to want to deal with this basic rule of nature. Skimpy outfits have been devised over a long period of time to have maximal sexual effect on men. They accentuate breasts, hips and buttocks. Very hind-brain stuff. The basic rule of the jungle applies everywhere and always will, we live in a convenient delusion that it doesn't because the biggest and baddest group is those that support the law. Nevertheless, if you walk down the wrong alley dressed in a sexually arousing way you are more likely to get raped than if you walk down that same alley dressed like a sack of potatoes. Any expectation otherwise is insanity.

Would you walk around downtown Compton with $100 bills flopping out of your pockets at the middle of the night? What about with a KKK outfit on? Maybe that would be asking for trouble? I would assume that the results of the actions of the person doing these things was their own fault.

That said, it's only tangentially related to the thread topic and not particularly relevant since a rapist is still a rapist. The fault ultimately is on the criminal; a jewel thief that snatches a jewel from an unprotected display case is just as liable for the crime as one that steals from a vault.

Modern ruby is the cleanest, most elegant, expressive and fastest of the big 4. It offers a bigger standard library (gems(40,000) vs cpan (25,000) vs pypi (1,022)), a wider selection of interpreters and platforms (IronRuby, JRuby, Rubinius,Cardinal, etc), not to mention much better documentation and educational resources.

Ruby is used by a wider group of people and in a wider area than it ever has been. Also, there's a lot of other really great languages out there you should consider before you idolize one language as perfect. Erlang and Haskell are amazing and certainly worth checking out. Not to mention node and the javascript revolutionaries (which some people abhor.) A lot of people get stuck on their first language I encourage you to branch out and try Ruby at least. You'll find a much different language than you seem to think.

Thank you sir, that was exactly what I was thinking.

I would say that Java is the worst though. I can't count the number of programmers and managers who have to deal with it's terminal bitchiness every day. You didn't even mention all the security vulnerabilities that have caused it to be disabled by default on so many of our corporate customer's machines these days.

Java == Unreliable insecure miserably unproductive busy work.

It's a question of chance and marketing that you picked python. You show your own ignorance that you lump Ruby in with Perl. Ruby is syntactically and culturally only as related to Perl as Python is, or less. Modern ruby is the cleanest, most elegant, expressive and fastest of the big 4. It offers a bigger standard library (gems(40,000) vs pypi (1,022)), a wider selection of interpreters and platforms, not to mention much better documentation and educational resources.

Ruby is used by a wider group of people and in a wider area than it ever has been. Also, there's a lot of other really great languages out there you should consider before you idolize one language as perfect. Erlang and Haskell are amazing and certainly worth checking out. Not to mention node and the javascript revolutionaries. A lot of people get stuck on their first language I encourage you to branch out and try Ruby at least. You'll find a much different language than you seem to think. I personally had the following progression in my love affairs with languages:

1. AMOS Basic
2. Lattice C
3. Perl
4. PHP
5. Python
6. Ruby
7. Erlang

I hate the Republicans as much as you appear to do, but honestly the Democrats are just as bad. Accusing the Republicans of being "crony capitalists" is a complete joke because the Democrats are just as much or more. Just look up Ener1, Beacon Power or Solyndra for Obama specific examples. (At least Obama's crony buddies are failing to make environmentally friendly gadgets, instead of freedom endangering voting machines like Cheny and Diebold, or TSA security scanners.) Both parties secure their power by buying support with the public treasury. The problem is pervasive and the literal people are the targets (as opposed to the theoretical "people" as a metaphor for the state.)

You've been downvoted into oblivion, but I figure I'll tell you why you're wrong. It's simply narcissism to assume that the average person is incapable of critical thinking. Any cursory glance at average IQ numbers shows you that the average person is perfectly capable of critical thinking. Maybe not as quickly as those with a higher intelligence, but certainly capable. Critical thinking is a process, not an organ. It can indeed be taught.

Historically, the people saying "the people are stupid and shouldn't be trusted" were the ones who were stupid and should not have been trusted. You are one of "the people", one of us, and chances are you're not very bright. But we'll let you live freely in our society anyway, and you can take responsibilities for your own actions. Which will be punishment enough.

Sorry, there have been to many invasions of my privacy by various governments and corporations in the past two years for me to even consider this. Put a bug in my vehicle? Why would I do that? Nope, this tin foil hat looks much better in a vehicle of a more classic mint. I would never have OnStar, it's expensive, unnecessary and a huge invasion of privacy.

Wow. As an American who's been trying to move to Canada that makes me sad. Is it not a bastion of sanity and forward-thinking? Let's see, no stupid wars, prostitution mostly legal, top freedom in all of Ontario, sane cannabis position, public health care.... sounds like a utopia to me. It's crushing to hear there may be down sides... really? All I've heard about is this French Canada place...

I think this is a mistake anon. We need widespread voting to prove that the system is corrupt. Look at what's happening in Russia for an example. The only hope is to vote them out and then make them officially depose the constitution and civil rights. Otherwise we're essentially allowing them to have their cake an eat it too. They can pretend we're a democracy while oppressing us.

Actually, I felt betrayed when I found out that Apple has this installed. But ummm, predominantly Android phones were being sold by asshole carriers with a rootkit installed and enabled - actively sending keystrokes and personal data. The same rootkit is on iOS but it's disabled by default. Why would Apple need to sell this as a feature? It IS a feature. At least it's not enabled by default.

I think you're just a little too emotionally invested in your hatred of Apple. Why waste your time? Besides being guaranteed to be modded up, I mean.

Someone please mod this up.

The xxx moniker originated as a marking indicating poison. It's origins are essentially rooted in being attached to something that is detrimental to a person. Some porn is healthy and good, I'm not linking any links but there's a huge push in the porn industry toward videotaping healthy people who love each other having fantastic sex. Not to mention all the studies showing that those who wank are happier people.

You have been manipulated by your compassion and love for your fellow people and that compassion has been turned by the 1% into energy causing you to fight to give them power. What makes you think our ridiculously corrupt government wouldn't do anything other than decide treatment policy based on what Pfizer says? Shit, the essential treatments would be illegal and Viagra would be MANDATORY. It doesn't take a libertarian to recognize that. As for me, I'm skeptical of anyone who wants to centralize power away from the choice of the actual people. And on that note, I quite working for The Man five years ago and I'm quite happy.

It seems like Google has been having problems communicating within its own departments lately. They're just doing too many things at once. It's like watching a sleep-deprived juggler get thrown a few extra chainsaws during their act - not a pretty sight.