Yeah, I'm not sure why Mini was released for Android. I want Opera Mobile. It was vastly superior than any other available browser on my Windows Mobile phone, and I loved it then. Not that I really miss it on my Droid since the built in browser is nice, but I think Opera Mobile will be nicer if they release it.

Well, it speaks volumes that you believe that human beings, who are the most generalized species in the world, should sit down, shut up, and do a narrow-minded--regardless of how brain-intensive your job--set of tasks for something like 8-12 hours per day consecutively. If you have a job where you're required to use that stuff between your ears, it's better to take breaks, stop focusing, and think about other things in life once in a short while.

Why should I have to compartmentalize my entire personal life and shove it in a corner? Who says that work is priority #1? That's an unhealthy viewpoint, and one that's likely to turn you into a scrooge.

Leaving your personal issues at the door is about as ridiculous as saying you're not going to be thinking about work over the weekend or on your drive home. Clearly there's overlap in all sorts of areas in your life.

You're too extreme the other way.

It really does depend on what you're using Ajax for, like you sort of said. Google Suggest was the "first" very noticeable public demo of what Ajax was, and it's a very good application. However, a lot of developers found their proverbial hammer and decided that Ajax to refresh most or all of the page is somehow better, where in fact there's the additional steps of variable evaluation and DOM insertion before you even get to a browser render.

This really depends on what's happening behind the scenes. Small requests would be completed quicker, so more could be done in parallel, which of course decreases queueing and potential locking problems. Also, if you implement some sort of donut hole caching for your Ajax scheme, those small requests could come from memory instead of doing heavy processing on the back end. If you do it right, and you have a server with multiple cores (hopefully you do), you'll end up ahead with Ajax in this case.

This is just blatantly not true unless the developer is a talentless hack that's recursively attaching nodes to the DOM at the outset of an Ajax response, rather than when the dynamic node tree is fully built. During a full page load, the browser is going to be rehashing the parse/render routine over and over as more data downloads, while an Ajax call is going to batch it together through a single parse (hopefully a strict XML parse) and render once the DOM branch is attached to the renderable tree.

If the site's developer is refreshing too much of the page, then what you're saying could be true. Most of the time, heavy Ajax is used on web apps that make more sense with a desktop sort of feel to them. Nothing's more annoying than full page refreshes every time I click a button in a web app.

That's ok, nobody feels smart implementing a Java interface

Mod +5, Troll

What I'm saying is that C++ and .NET (for example), as language and development environments, are too overarchitected and require way more setup than 1st year students need in order to get started with programming. In my opinion, they should be learning programming concepts first, not fighting with setup. It's far easier to teach a student Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, or even Lua to get their feet wet writing code and exploring Object Oriented language. They can learn how to use more complex tools and architectures like those required for .NET and C++ in the 3rd and 4th year.

I'm not disagreeing that they should at some point learn these tools, I just think it's a disservice to start a brand new student out with them.

If you're looking for somebody with lower level experience, than yes, you would look for someone with C, C++, even ASM experience. But that's not what a college student needs in order to learn fundamentals of programming. They should start high, and work their way back to the lower level once they know how to use a text editor and a compiler. Have you seen college students when they see C++ for the first time? It's always the same: scribble or type everything down madly, then all of the sudden they hit their first WTF with a C++ idiosyncracy, and their eyes glaze over for the rest of the lecture. Or best case, they try to figure out what went wrong. C++ has its uses, and it can be powerful, but C++ on your first day is like learning to drive in the Batmobile minus the fun.

The sad part is that the author of that ACM article complaining about bad developers is also the inventor of C++, the impending doom of students who need to learn how to program through problem solving, not fiddle with language-specific configs and compiler BS. Why is it that CS professors feel like C++ should be the very first language students should dive into? Are they trying to destroy their passion?

And no, I'm not recommending VB as a replacement.

Back when that kernel was first written, it was done by a bunch of young coders that learned kernel development by developing the kernel. They didn't have some huge insight right off the bat, they learned from experience, like the rest of us. As the kernel became mature, coding maturity and experience became more of a requirement (in theory) as well.

There are plenty of young coders with a lot of passion, intelligence, and problem solving abilities that haven't been spoiled by the admittedly poor quality formal education system. Are they developing a Linux kernel? No, but they're in the garage tinkering with their language of choice, becoming smarter.

As the field of software development has opened up, there are a lot more dummies that joined the ranks that need their hands held, but that certainly doesn't preclude very smart developers from joining in.

P.S. I've met a lot of really stupid old coders twice my age that can't answer basic problem solving and programming questions during interviews.

That's nothing. I beat Ganon with the wooden sword on the CD-i version.

There's a difference between officially supporting every possible browser version and combination known to man, and supporting several of the popular ones but allowing anything you want. I've grown used to not having official support for Opera in any of our internal applications, but that's OK: we support IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, so Opera always works anyway.

It's basically just fear-mongering that says "oh gee whiz there are so many different types of X program". Any IT person will be able to spend a few minutes figuring out software specific problems 99% of the time, or they can just leave the user to figure it out for themselves if they are using something non-standard.

Do you really think so? The Royale theme looks extraordinarily bland and outdated to me, although it's an improvement over the default.

The patents are known and have been brought up in the basic filing. About half of them are patents for previously created technology, or basic software processes that have been common for decades.

Yes, I telecommute 1500 miles to work, because I prefer to live somewhere of my own choosing, near family and friends, and in an area of the country that I like. Obviously not everyone gets this option, but it sure seems logical to me that more people should have the option.

Unless your folder structure constantly changes, the seed value you use would be the same, which means it's then (relatively) predictable. Will anyone actually crack it? Not likely, but basically you want a non-deterministic function, and if you have a file server with no new files or changes on it, you would have a deterministic seed.

A guy I work with used to work with a lady who wouldn't call him Mexican, because "that would make her sound racist". He's from Mexico.

Why are people so sensitive to this stuff, when it's just not a big deal? Most people don't care if you point out their race, or even use a minor slur (i.e. those damn Mexicans!). It's when you're degrading their character or their race in a way that implies serious inherent inferiority that people can and should get pissed.