The pundits have weighed in with their disdain for uninformed millennials - but don't seem to grasp the basic question their generation is confronted with - how does unbounded inequality lead to equality of opportunity? - a central paradox at the heart of Capitalism.

The reward/optimisation function in capitalism is greed - why act surprised when the end-game is inevitably an oligopoly? All this yada yada about crony capitalism is just a facile rationalisation from people who are unable to provide a clear-cut answer to this simple paradox inherent in a capitalist system. Millennials are seeing through this - and they are seeing through the fact that most ideologically driven systems that fail to take real-world evidence into account, inevitably lead to injustice.

PV and HVM are not mutually exclusive. The basic idea of having a modified, "virtualization-aware" guest-os (a.k.a PV) is a good one and results in better performance. Hardware Virtualization often simplifies the implementation of both the hypervisor and PV on the guest, but does not obviate the need for PV. Using both in tandem can result in even greater performance gains. http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/PV_on...

I don't disagree. Static typing shines for the tasks you mentioned, and I have felt its absence in Python on several occasions. I have wondered about Python's scalability in larger projects - but I think the lower cognitive burden in Python counteracts any losses incurred from the lack of static typing. Plus, test cases can take care of that to a great degree too.

In Python, people rarely use code generators. It's hardly ever needed. I think that says something too. There's often a lot less boilerplate.

WRT to your comment on the two examples - yes, the boilerplate could have been reduced. Yet, it hasn't been - why is kind of my point. If you work with Python libraries for an extended period of time, you will see this simplicity recurring again and again and wonder why the Java equivalent is almost always more complex. In fact, I would be happy to throw down the gauntlet and say that for any given piece of Java code, the equivalent Python code would often be easier to grok. (One way to test this would be to compare equivalent code using the standard libs)

Exactly. Having used Java in an enterprise setting for many years, and having had the good fortune to move to Python, I couldn't be happier. I realised how much more verbose Java was than its Python equivalent. Even if you overlook that - there's an inherent structural complexity that Java engenders to its code - one only need look at the Python equivalent to see why. For example, take a look at a basic Hadoop WordCount example here: http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/... Now compare a rough Python equivalent here: http://mrjob.readthedocs.org/e...

It's not just stuff like the lack of lambdas (it looks like Java 8 has fixed this), or the static typing that contributes to this complexity. I suspect that the culture that has sprung up around Java favours over-architecting and over-engineering, which is exacerbated by its statically typed nature. The Java language itself is simple enough.

In contrast, there is a cult of simplicity around Python, and the language itself has a high-level of expressivity, allowing for a clearer exposition of one's intent - instead of burying it in layer upon layer of abstraction built to please the language and its type system. C# is a language that fares much better than Java in this regard - it's a lot cleaner. For starters - no type erasure!

I'd recommend a mechanical keyboard. Mechanical keyboards often tend to be solidly built, have a reassuring clickety-clack (you can choose switch types with different characteristics btw) and just plain feel good to type on.

Your primary tasks when selecting one will be to choose the switch type (mx-brown, mx-blue etc), any additional features you need (shortcut keys, n-key rollover) and decide on the manufacturer itself.

I have a Ducky Shine 2 and it's an absolutely fantastic keyboard. I'd recommend something of a similar nature - solidly built and has all the features I need. For example, one of the features I specifically looked for were shortcuts to a calculator, and other programmable option keys. A lot of mechanical keyboards tend to be minimalist in nature, and fortunately, the Ducky was an exception.

The model I have has the ability to turn off the backlighting, which is great, because I don't need a christmas tree on my desk. I noticed that some of the newer Ducky models are starting to look a bit silly though, with all sort of logos and stuff which are undesirable. I can vouch for the model I have without reservation however, having used it for a couple of years.

The big corps would now have us believe that a special breed of troll called a "patent troll" is the only problem with the system, and they, like every entrepreneur, are merely victims. This is all just the same manipulative BS. The patent troll exists only because the patent system is broken. Fix the problem at its root and patent trolls will be irrelevant.

The tone of this post is insane. It makes it sound like Americans are the only people on this planet with a right to privacy. What about the rest of the world? So the NSA's only crime is that it spied on US citizens? Is it perfectly ok to undermine those same rights for other human beings?

Agree, that's the problem :-) If there's a proper understanding of the philosophy behind science, that can't happen.

What is the point in a test that measures scientific literacy, if that test does not measure a person's commitment to the philosophy of science? A key indicator of an understanding of science is one's commitment to the scientific method. Evolution is a direct result of that commitment. When one eschews that commitment, what kind of literacy are we left with?

No, I agree that the Java language itself is not over-engineered. I said that the frameworks and community that have grown around it, have a tendency to over-engineer (especially in the enterprise). That is not to say there are no efforts within the community to overcome that, but having shifted from enterprise Java to C/Python and also having worked a fair bit with C#, I do have some experience with the general ethos in each of the communities.

RE: "Which factory e.g. did annoy you in particular, and why?" Joel explains it better: http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?joel.3.219431.12

Java's problem isn't verbosity IMHO. It's the general mindset and community that has grown around the language. Instead of simplicity, they've gone into massive over-engineering, with factory factory factories and the like. A combination of pattern mania, and "enterprise" java, has resulted in turning an otherwise simple language into a veritable nightmare. Contrast this with the python community for example. Language wise, compare Java with C#. C# has done things a lot better in general. It may help that newer versions of Java will achieve some degree of feature parity with it but in the long run, I think it also has to be accompanied by a shift in the general notion of what's "normal" design in the Java world.

Picture in your mind for a moment, that someone actually typed this shit up, had lawyers obfuscate the inanity within and filed this application in the name of em.... "innovation". 'nuff said?

Well, you did ask for the fastest route.

Well, that didn't take long!

Agree with what you say a 100%. To me, and correct me if I'm wrong, tests are mainly about a means to automate testing I might otherwise have had to do manually. Beyond that, I see the law of diminishing returns hitting back too hard - and the overhead of maintaining test code more onerous than maintaining the original code itself.