The reason that NoSQL is necessary is that ACID is not the only thing that developers need to think about. RDBMS was an innovative solution to the limitations of mainframe hierarchical databases circa 1970. Since then it has been the only game in town (At least for most enterprise software. Some of us do other things occasionally.)

It turns out that there are reasons to do things other ways, and having other options allows you to consider trade-offs. For many applications eventually consistent data scales just fine. For some applications, both big and small, an enterprise RDBMS is overkill. Why not just persist objects to a document store? Or even the file system?

The research is interesting, although I agree that we already knew we could scale the ACID paradigm. The conclusion is ridiculous. NoSQL has nothing to do with ACID, and it brings a richness to the conversation that has been missing for far too long. Like the Perl folks say, TMTOWTDI.

Right, because if history has taught us one thing it's that 600,000+ soldiers sitting around with nothing to do are entirely harmless. LOL

First we invented the cross-browser compatibility problem. Then we worked hard and spent millions of dollars to make sure it persisted for more than a decade. Now we have the ultimate solution!!!

Working on OSS won't pay for a MacBook either. You just have to devote a small amount of time to paid freelancing. Then you can write off the entire cost of the MacBook and still have plenty of time to use it for OSS development.

Sales tax in NYC is 8.375%, I believe. I would be happy to pay that same percentage on free software.

Nuts.

Here is the about page from the site you linked to. Essentially they publish anything from anyone.

The cause of Parkinson's is unknown. Furthermore, several of the details about Mr. Ali's brain anatomy described in the article could only be determined by dissection. AFAIK, an autopsy has never been performed on the *still living* former boxer.

Wikipedia has a list of famous Parkinson's sufferers here. You'll note that Mohammed Ail is not only the only boxer on the list but one of the few athletes. Most of the famous sufferers are artists, scientists, or politicians.

Muhammad Ali has Parkinson's which is rather a different thing from being "punch drunk" and is not related to boxing. His tremors make it difficult for him to speak in public. This is no reflection of his intelligence, his memory, or anything else related to higher mental function.

The interesting thing to me is that they avoided oversight even though they didn't need to. No one can cite a case where the NSA asked the FISA court to let it do something and was rejected. No one can cite it because it never happened. The Bush Administration didn't circumvent this oversight because they had to, they did it because they actually believed that the laws shouldn't apply to them.

Insects are certainly one of the oldest "foods" known to man. Many primates consume them, including our closest modern relative, the chimpanzee, for whom they constitute about 5-6% of the diet.

With your C++ background you should find java syntax intuitive. Your biggest challenge will be learning the standard library (Java SE SDK or simply JDK in Java parlance.) It is big, considerably bigger than the C++ STL, but it is also fairly powerful.

My advice, as someone who has walked a similar path (I have been programming professionally for about ten years, and using java for the last six):

1) Download Eclipse. It is the most popular IDE, and it is free. If you are going to look for a job you are going to want to know how to work with it.

2) Go on Amazon or Safari and look for a good core java book. You need to find one that suits your style of learning. I don't know what that is so I am not going to recommend a specific one.

3) Focus on core java. Don't worry about Java EE yet. You want a good foundation in the core language and common APIs. Don't spend a lot of time on IO or Swing for the same reason.

4) Read the job boards. When you find a position that looks interesting lookup the specific buzzwords they mention. Look at documentation, sample code, and API docs.