Can't we hate both?

A political cut-throat job like this probably attracts all the bad eggs. The fact that the system encourages this behavior doesn't absolve the individual, just as the fact that an individual commits the act doesn't absolve the system from encouraging it.
So fire his ass, burn down his office, and salt the land afterwards. And then build something that works. Without the need to drive our best and brightest to suicide.

Because we can recognize a pattern.

Seconded. To hell with phones. We're living in the future, get with the times.

That guy who comes by and lingers around my cube making idle chit-chat because he's bored out of this gourd and/or simply doesn't want to work. So he drags me down into that narfarious pit of unproductivity by making smalltalk about.... FOOTBALL... of all things.

Don't get me wrong. He's a nice guy. Friendly. Smart. But he's gregarious, while I want nothing more than to retreat to my cube and get back to work. The guy just can't take a hint that the conversation is over and it's time to leave. Show any amount of interest and he reves up into another 5 minute one-sided discussion. Ugh.

Oh, well in that case you're a bad and evil person and I detest everything about you. Your outlook on life, and probably your actions are detremental to society. You want to keep the masses ignorant and stupid simply because it would be easier to write some programs for them and makes you more "powerful" than they. And at the same time you despise the average user because they don't have the same capabilites as you do. The is a positive feedback loop, a vicious cycle. I imagine if you were the sole IT sysadmin somewhere there would be a horrible rift between IT and the users with a very antagonistic and posionous relationship. Posionous in that they would hate all IT workers (ie, me) via association with their association with you.

So, please fuck off into a fire, and die.

No mention yet of programming games? Most of them are all self-contained, so you just have to run the program, type some things in, and hit run. C++ Robots on the other hand is simply a C API, so you get to use all the tools that real programmers use. (And all the joy that comes with that). These give a task to perform, maybe not a super-useful task, but it's at least a goal. Usually it's open-ended though, so there really isn't a sense of accomplishment. Most of them need better documentation. And most of them are old, so getting them running is a bit of a task.

A nice list.
AT-Robots What introduced me to programming.

(Good to know Logo/turtle was mentioned prior)

Standard interfaces.

Yeah, but he knows how to use regex, and he doesn't know what sort of crazy home-brew implementation you cooked up. When it comes time for him to fix your code, or extend it, he's going to have to dive into it's guts rather than tweak some regex. A lot of effort has been put into debugging the libraries that everyone uses. How long did you test and debug your implementation?

If he was arguing for speed or size issues, sure, you have a perfectly valid point. But compatibility, useability, and hell, even conformity are more important than how fast your code runs. Usually.

Also, it wasn't quite clear what you're getting at with the first two bullet points. Are you REALLY suggesting that educating the users is a bad thing?

Dear mom,
We're out of milk.

for(x=0; x!=100; x++)
if(cell(x,1) == 5)
cell(x,2).value = "good";


What? Do you think programming or writing are some sort of high art that the plebs can't comprehend? Doesn't my letter serve a simple purpose? Doesn't it convey a thought? Doesn't the for loop perform a function?
No, most people will never be professional programmers, or write "moderately complex" software. Because they don't have to.

No true scotsman fallacy. Get off your high horse.

That's because you have an EXTREMELY jaded and cynical outlook on humanity. Go talk to some people.

Either the author is bitter about women not giving him a chance because they can easily go out and find someone better, or he's a businessman crying that he can't make money by matchmaking.

The problem with thinking that people have superficial views and don't really know what they want is that you start treating them not as customers, but as products to mold into what you want. You start to try to control them rather than providing a service to them. Bad mojo.

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire

Well we did it in the 90's. Remember Clinton?

I believe it's ludicrously hot compared to the cold dead corpse that would have resulted had we "let the market decide" in 2008. The problem is that the burner doesn't go up any more. You want the pot to simmer, but not boil. But if someone just dumped an iceblock in the pot, and all you have is a candle, it ain't going to boil over.

The inflation caused by printing money balances out the deflation caused by all that wealth we thought we had simply disappearing. Completely agree that the low rates will stop when inflation goes over a point. And when that point hits is when people stop hoarding their oh-shit funds, borrow money, invest, yadayada economy happens and wealth is created. They turn down the burner when it starts to boil over.

These bankers? Deserve to live?
Yes. In prison.

I dislike Hatta for his unreasonable outbursts and appeal to emotion.
But for fucks sake will someone put these motherfuckers against a wall!?

Obama hasn't invaded any nations. ...so far.
If Bush hadn't finally become unpopular in '06, or if we had elected McCain, we might have invaded Iran. Sure, it seems like ludicrously bad idea, but then again, so was invading Iraq.

Maybe the anonymous coward's spindly little arms can't lift a laptop after years of subsisting on nothing but mountain dew and cheezypoofs?