And why the hell wouldn't they be just as obsessed? Are Indian astronauts worth less than American ones? You seem prejudiced.

Here is the documentation for GObject. This is just some of the stuff you have to read up on because c doesn't have classes like every other modern language. Good luck writing abstract classes and interfaces in GObject. It's doable but you need to really know all the arcane details about the type system before you get it right. You'll need about 150 lines of boilerplate in one .c and one .h file, maybe 100 if your code is compact. Stuff that isn't funny at all to write because you could accomplish the same thing with about 10 lines of Python or C#. It's ok if you think I'm an unskilled programmer and that is why it takes me longer to code c. That is beside the point. The point is that most programmers either don't want to program in c (like me) or can't. They are not going to contribute to gnome.

That's exactly what I meant. Vala is one of those things that could, not "save" Gnome, but at least make it much more fun to develop for. If one has taken the time to compare the huge amount of boilerplate you need to implement basic GObjects in C compared to the equivalent Vala code, the huge benefits become obvious. Vala is even binary compatible with plain C code, yet it is treated as the unwanted step child of the Gnome project. It's stuff like that that could make Gnome so much attractive to developers, yet if the idea doesn't originate from within Redhat, former Sun or Novell the probability of it suceeding is close to nil.

Is C. GNOME is still 98% built using C which is crazy in this day and age. And not modern, pretty nice c99, but ancient c89 because the latest GNOME has to compile on some 20 year old Solaris workstation otherwise Sun wont support the project. Now Sun is gone and Oracle doesn't give a shit. Novell has given up on using GNOME as a way to push Mono and only Redhat remains. Maybe stuff will change now because previously gnome has been incredibly resistant to change that is not initiated from within one of those three companies.

I want to see more changes in Gnome not less. And I want them to finally realize that they are spending 10x as much effort writing gui components in C as they would have in C#, Java or any other managed language.

I dont think the parent is talking about the same kind of "ego" as you. Unfortunately, it is not only the arrogant jerks that are seen as having an "overinflated sense of ego," even the most humble developer can have that accusation thrown at him or her in the wrong environment. You may be very good at something, you may also be aware of it and that most of your peers aren't as good at it. That's all it takes to have an overinflated ego because people will sense that you know it and will feel inferior. Doesn't matter if you are as friendly and humble as can be. And that is why people like us want to work at Google.

Undoing mod

Great list of steps. But I'd like to point out that even if you are following all those rules to the letter, you can still get called a creep. The threshold for what is acceptable is much higher the more social skills you got. To take a relation forward you have to cross the line some way or the other. Preferably in the safest manner possible, when you have assured that she is ready for a kiss attempt and you have controlled every variable you can think of. But there is still the possibility that she is married and you misread all her signals totally. Which is a risk that has to be taken. So if you are to scared of ever doing anything for fear of being called a creep, then you will not get any chicks.

Come on.. Do you really think it is so bad that they are asking for some compension for, in your own words, their "awesome" software? If you can't stomach the ads, the premium version retails for $24.95. Damn cheapskates.

That's not an argument in favor of legalizing drugs, but an argument for restricting the access of tobacco and alcohol. Such as only selling it to adults, in bars, outlawing attempts to market it to children and so on.

Let's assume all other drugs are no more dangerous or costly for society than alcohol. Then if the cost for alcohol is X, and alcohol + N other drugs are legal, the total cost becomes (X+1)*N which is clearly much larger than X. It is a really stupid argument to say that "well other drugs aren't any more bad than alcohol, so they should be legal too!" because alcohol is bad enough.

In my days those "fixers" were known as Fairlight and Razor 1911 among others. They were seen as living gods and provided thousands of "fixed" games. None of them got rich on it but did it for fun and fame. The readme files even encouraged you to buy the games they ripped if you liked them.

Disturbingly, there is a lot of truth to that statement. That's why formalized performance reviews are a good thing, otherwise height easily unconciously becomes the only factor taken into account. It also suggests that the best way for both men and women to improve their work performance is to wear high heeled shoes. The corporate world is a funny place. :)

Yes that is true. But if you are able to improve upon their bot filtering algorithm, I'm sure Google would love to have a talk with you. ;)

And if that plugin gets popular enough, they will request it to be taken down too! Google aren't stupid -- they are perfectly capable of protecting their content if their lawyers want it. For example, it is basically impossible to automate search queries because Google really hates it when you using their search engine but are not exposed to their sponsored results. They have very sophisticated means of determining when it is likey that a user is a bot and will then serve up an annoying captcha. They will do the same thing with youtube. The difference is that, while search engine results are "theirs" and copying them can be seen as plagiarizing, taking the audio of youtube videos cannot because the videos aren't Googles property, they are owned by the youtubers who created them.

According to the law it is probably alright for them to do what the hell they want with the content users uploads, but from a moral standpoint I think what they are doing is highly unethical. Google has gained enormously on everyone who uploads videos, whether it is original stuff, remixes of other material or dvd rips of popular tv shows. I think they should return the kindness and allow as unrestricted usage of the content on youtube as possible.

I'm the same. But the option is listening to music or hearing my coworkers constant chattering. I choose the former option.