I like what I read. I'm always conflicted by my good experiences with untyped languages, compared to my good experiences with typed languages finding hard to find bugs. It's nice to see people looking at how they can be mixed. And I like they've added some stuff that Java lacks which is useful. (no such method) etc.

The trouble is: it looks too much like Java for it to be likely that anybody will bother. With all languages I usually end up thinking... is this as elegant as Scheme? No? So why bother. I think even CLOS type schemes can have the compiler do type checking, so what do we gain? Has anything ever surpassed Scheme plus whatever favorite libraries, or macro/ object collections you like? I don't think so. Scheme allows you to overlay pretty much anything onto its syntax. It always seemed like the final word to me.

Bull. You can't be sure your code will work next week, IBM or not. You think the IBM websphere code I'm working on now is guaranteed in 30 years time to work? Never.

OK, but... who the heck wants 20 boxes of paper reports?

Err.. what are you waffling on about? If every web site had its own IP address, we'd run out of IP addresses by dinner time. There is nothing wrong with sharing IP addresses, and you shouldn't be penalised for doing so. In fact, its darnright community minded to not take one for yourself.

No, we need a project to set up a dam in Greenland that can hold 40 km^3 water to counterbalance it, as a military response to this outrageous terrorist act.

Yeah, but nobody knows until its too late if a particular organisation is enlightened or not. Now that I think about it, responsible organisations should have a disclosure policy on their web sites. Something like "if you find a vulnerability in our systems, please report it, and there is a small reward" or something, so that people feel safe to report this stuff.

Yeah, why have "zero tolerance", but then no gun control laws whatsoever? Wouldn't it be a bit more rational to actually have a gun registry, and then rap this girl over the knuckles for making some smoke?

Actually, it's very decentralised. Anyone, including me could give them a domain. The trouble is, it wouldn't be quite as convenient as if they can get a top level domain. Hey, maybe slashdot could give them one, then they would be piratebay.slashdot.org. It's kind of hard for the studios to get blocks on every single domain owner from giving them a sub domain.

Good observation. I prefer Skype because its range of emoticons is better, and it works well while moving between devices. But you're right, Facebook is damned good, and has the web interface. Viber and WhatsApp drive me crazy because you MUST use them on your mobile, and can't just swap to your computer.

I highly doubt the entire rules of the machine are printed on the front. The behavior of these machines is just far too complicated to turn into prose and print on the front.

OK, but who is to say what the right behavior is in this case? It's not like people are provided with a software specification before they put their money in the slot. There are lots of scenarios where the right set of fruit or cards in the fruit machine results in some bonus or doubling or whatever complicated rules, that the typical slot player doesn't understand.

Reasonable question. But should all digital artefacts be the same? What if I have some really cool computer code that might be worth a lot of money to someone. Should I try and value it?

People haven't warmed to Chrome yet, but they have warmed to Android. Android is an easier mass-market sell.

What you do need is a much more idiot-proof experience to compensate for the unfamiliarity of being without Windows. This is what Linux didn't provide.

If you can't afford $10,000 I'm guessing you might have problems paying for VMWare, then paying for quite a few hours for an IT professional to migrate you and support the new setup. Then probably new hardware to support the setup, and some training to know how to use it. I'm guessing you'd rack up quite a few thousand dollars on such a project. Might as well just pay the damned $10,000.