"They're not terribly difficult, and I dare say they're easier than many of the code reviews I've been through."

So, please, tell me at a glance what did change in the spreadsheet (both contents and formulae) and why since yesterday.

After that, please, tell me how can commonalities be extracted from a spreadsheet (say, a worthnoting formula or workflow) so it can be applied to another dozen spreadsheets I happen to have over there, both past and future.

"The question is whether having the logic squirreled away in code or a DB would have made it more correct"

Then the answer is "it doesn't really matter". Of course the code can be as wrong as the spreadsheet but the point is that code is much easily auditable so, if you are using it for something important, you can *effectively* through more resources at it, which is basically impossible to be done on a spreadsheet.

"jumping from a C background into Java is not a huge leap, but in the end it's all just syntax"

Going from procedural to object-oriented is NOT all just syntax.

Of course you can implement some OO concepts in C but then, you need to know about them before hand since C doesn't naturally lead to it.

If you were just spouting procedural code on Java syntax (I've seen that before) then, well, it's only just syntax but you sorely missed the point.

"What would you consider a "non faulty OS, Linux?"

Straw man alert, Will Robbins, straw man alert!

"MS did everyone a service supporting XP as long as they did"

So MS did a service to anyone exactly how? By delivering such a faulty OS that after 15 years providing monthly patches still has critical security flaws that need to be patched?

"Problem is 100 billion flies simply CANT BE WRONG!!1 So eat that shit up."

100 billion flies are NOT wrong. It is the one thinking that what's good for a fly is good for people the one being wrong.

"Now, every 0day that hits, and Microsoft DOESN'T patch XP, after product end-of-life?"

In my opinion, end-of-life should mean no new features added to the system. But flaws? They've been there since the begining. How long should a company repair their faulty products? For as long as they remain faulty.

"What is the technical term for an expert who has not received formal training?"

Autodidact?

"I don't see a problem with automated essay graders in principle."

I don't see a problem with automated essay creators then.

"Who wants to read multitudes of mediocre essays."

Nobody. That's why they attach a paycheck by the end of the week to that activity. If you think that's not fair, you can forego your paycheck at any time.

"If the computer graders show a more consistent performance than the humans (i.e. are the outlier less frequently), then the computer grader is better."

ON AVERAGE. It happens that it is the outstanders the ones that have more potential and you are just conciously throwing all them by the bathtub. Humans can detect outstanders, computers do not.

"As someone who graded hundreds of essays while serving as a teaching assistant for a senior-level engineering ethics course, I have to say that I find your lack of integrity rather appalling. Your moral obligation to write the essay yourself is independent of the method they use for grading it."

No, it isn't.

Once you failed on your end of the contract (in this case, that you will do a serious attempt to grade my intimate knowledge on the issue by using experts to review my work) you shouldn't hold any assumption on my end -Kant's categorical imperative and all that.

Given that we are talking about gradings here, since the grading is obviously not to show my knowledge, by myself and in comparation to my group, all that rests is the grade itself, so whatever that jumps up it the highest in the most effective way is the proper way to go.

In other words: you impose a tiranny but then you talk about the citizenship's moral obligation not to rebel? bollocks!

"Rote memorization != intelligence [...] Someone with terrible grammar can be far more intelligent than some worthless rote memorization monkey."

"...For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it."

René Descartes "A Discourse on Method"

"Rote memorization" is what fills your mind with useful items to play with, without them, you well may possess a "vigorous mind" but you won't be able to rightly apply it.

"In the fantasy land of OSS evangelists, thousands of highly skilled coders are constantly auditing big OSS projects."

Do you know what a strawman argument is, right?

But now, for a reality check: this bug, while serious, affected maybe a few thousands out of millions of users and once discovered it was fully disclosed, audited, peer reviewed and patched *because* it was on an open source environment.

Now, please, tell me you can say the same about other closed source products.

the salesman warned me that natural granite is a bit "porous and tends to get stained irreversibly"

The salesman wanted to sell you a composite. First you need to know that in the market, any kind of counter top stone will be called granite in the business. Then, while it's true that ligth-coloured mostly quarz and feldspar are somehow porous (but less than, say, marble, and you'll find, even white marble, covering floors) and can be stained, then try just "standard" Spain Grain or Swedish Absolute Black and let me know if you manage to, while technically porous, stain it at all even without any caresness.

"A $30 aeropress coffee maker is as good as a $5000 espresso machine"

Haven't tested a $5000 one so I can't say. I tested espresso machines at any bar at, say, Venetia, and I can attest that no, your $30 aeropress coffe maker is no challenge for them.

"A double edge safety shaver that uses 20 cent blades is far superior to any expensive disposable shaver system, even the ones with 5 blades."

I use them and I agree.

"A $150 Formica counter top fulfills all the duties of a $3000 granite counter top."

The $150 Formica counter top at my rented flat and my mother's 30-year-old granite one beg to differ.

"And yet we are constantly told by marketing and advertising that better equals more expensive."

Yes, marketing (publishing, to better say) is quite clever in using bad rationals to push sells.

Better equals more expensive and that's right more times than not. The point is that more expensive doesn't equate better (see? even you fall on bad rationale).

"DevOps people don't necessarily have good understanding of the underlying issues of the production environment."

You should train them better, then.

Because the point of "devops" is exactly so they understand the underlying issues of the production environment.