True. However multiple processes is simply one form of concurrency where the OS handles your isolation. If you can divide into separate processes then you can also do it multi-threaded with minimal if any "interlocks needed to make it work."

Further, multiple threads has less overhead than multiple processes (especially on one particular prominent platform) and may be preferable. Or if the problem does easily lend itself to multiple processes, that may be good enough or sometimes even better (e.g. python with the GIL).

So the problem really could be the guy has a problem with concurrent code of any variety.

How come I never have mod points when I need them? Absolutely, positively, yes. If you are the guy's manager, he needs to hear feedback from you on his skills, job performance, and future relevance. If you are not his manager, in your next 1-on-1 with your manager, you need to express your concerns with concrete examples (specific defects, specific commits causing the mess in revision control, etc).

And now, perhaps it is your time to shine -- figure out how to become a trusted resource so the problem employee will value your assistance and feedback. Then help, not by doing his work, but by being willing and able to teach when the opportunity presents. Not just the "how to do" but the "why it is better for you if you do" until the "how do I" question comes.

We have a phantom space station now?

Or was it a space station phantom leak?

I wonder where/why Discovery came up with "phantom" ? Really poor editing, Discovery!

Always love your country -- but never trust your government! ... A government that can give you everything can take everything away.
    --Robert Novak, the Prince of Darkness, 1931-2009

You cannot eat just one.

I believe most judges are smart enough to realize that the lack of a bill from lawyer to client does not mean no costs have been incurred.

I've given some thought to mitigating that issue as you can see by my proposal which while imposing costs on the losing plaintiff, would provide a firm limit to that cost under the control of the plaintiff. If you have a better solution to the problem of nuisance lawsuits, or to improve my idea, I'm probably not the only one who'd like to hear your idea.

I am completely sick of threatened and nuisance lawsuits with no purpose other than to intimidate or force others to make some arbitrary change in their socially acceptable behavior.

Filing a law suit should at an absolute minimum require the plaintiff to pay some costs to the defendant (perhaps the smaller of the legal costs incurred by either side) should the plaintiff lose. This will help to minimize the number of frivolous lawsuits and so minimize the quelling impact of such lawsuits on society.

Threatening a law suit in a public forum instead of contacting the defendant privately or simply filing said suit is nothing more than creating a spectacle trying to achieve the same quelling without even paying the cost to file. As such it should be punishable via a simple civil action with a default judgment (e.g. similar to junk fax) with the fine to be split equally between the wronged party and whomever pursues action to completion.

While we are at it, anyone who threatens or actually does file a suit against an inanimate object should face the same penalty as does one threatening a suit. The penalty should be faced both by the individual and additionally the organization (if any) who sponsors their lawsuit activity and by all their superiors within that organization.

The only correct answer is "it depends."

What is changing?

Is it a UI/UX redesign? Then users and UI/UX experts.

Not user visible? Then the engineers building it.

New feature? Users and marketers but the engineers need input into the schedule/impact.

Managers if any, allocating resources and schedules are always involved.

Just IMAP it all.

I went IMAP in 1997 and have never looked back.

I've also used IMAP as a temporary conversion measure for people switching e-mail clients so even if you aren't sure, it makes a good first step.

I don't understand the concern about too many e-mails. I can access my email back to 1992. With multiple folders it shouldn't be a problem and with modern indexing a search shouldn't be an issue.

Actually that's the point. Opinions are very suitable for academic study, and discovering opinions is the primary purpose of polling.

You wouldn't do a poll to discover facts of physics or any other natural law. You poll to discover what people think, i.e. their opinions.

I agree with your conclusion. But the lottery comparison is slightly broken.

"expected value" includes probability so there is no need to buy every ticket, just a statistically valid sample. Plus it is even worse than you predicted (at least for the big name lotteries) because it varies with the current prize payout (e.g. typically the jackpot amount is not fixed).

And to add some concrete detail, currently since Powerball was just won the expected value is $0.50 on a $2.00 ticket, where $0.36 is from the fixed prizes and $0.14 is because of the current jackpot value ($40M). It reached at least $1.28 before the win, which is of course still going to lose you money on a $2 play. MegaMillions was also won recently, so its expected value is $0.29 on a cost of $1.00 ($0.18 + $0.11 on the jackpot).

And that is why it is so profitable to run a lottery. Even if every drawing produced a winner, at least 2/3 of every ticket does NOT go to prizes. For every drawing that does not produce a winner, less than 1/5 goes to the consolation prizes.

So don't play the lottery based on expected value unless 1) that expected value is positive, and 2) you are buying a statistically significant number of tickets.

And if you are going to play the lottery, it's best to be house.

Bitcoin on the other hand... Research the fallacy of capital expenditure in a competitive environment before investing as a bitcoin miner.

I'm one of the complainers.

I complained about getting the spam, not that I paid and did not receive.

But I'll still settle for just my gift card.

People with only a Keynesian understanding of monetary theory tend to believe, as did Keynes, that all deflation is as bad as the deflation caused by the bursting of a credit bubble. You can point out all the real world examples of good deflation you like, but they still don't believe deflation can be OK, much less beneficial.