Man, that is a painful criticism. I applaud those that created git, those that maintain it, and those that document it. I know you meant all of this in a good way to help them get their site in order, but even if the new site is unreadable, I'll drink a beer to git anyday. Cheers.
To be clear I was definitely left with a positive impression of the site and even a desire to return to it. I didn't go as far as bookmarking it, but I expect to return via web search to some of the great content (that I'm sure is there) that I didn't drill down into.
I'm just trying to document my thought processes as a website visitor accurately.
> After a series of embarassing public disasters involving OOP & mutable state, the world has finally realized the wisdom of John Hughes and switched to functional programming.
Which world do you speak of? Most of the jobs I'm aware of (for example, java, .net, php, etc.) are still a mix of OOP and procedural.
This blog's theme, unfortunately, makes the first paragraph, which is entirely a link, look like just another part of the header for the blog post. It blends in with the post title, date, and separator line. I only looked up and saw the "2016" introduction after I started reading about Apple requiring Haskell for apps and was confused.
There is nothing wrong with studying this approach and trying it out to see whether the interpretations are more helpful. However, insufficient data and insufficient technique are common when studying extremely complex systems; this Bayesian approach makes assumptions that may not be correct.
> However, insufficient data and insufficient technique are common when studying extremely complex systems;
A Bayesian approach is especially well-suited to small sample sizes, unlike a frequentist approach, which will give a nonsensical result for a sample size of 0,1, or 2.
As for improper technique, I can't help you there. 'Garbage in, garbage out', as they always say.
> I hate articles that make it seem like there is some magical cult of amazing engineers that have an untouchable and unattainable aura. I remember how intimidated I was after I graduated college and was coming into the workforce due to it.
I think that the point is that typically in startups, people revere the company founders, the MBAs, the VCs, etc. and not the quiet experienced engineers that just make things happen. You're right that it isn't a secret guild, however there is a range of experience and talent, and some are on the higher end of that. Not everyone can easily attain the level of experience and talent that some of these people have; it is a mix of education, natural ability, hard work, and luck. But, you are right that getting a lot closer to the level these people are at is not impossible.
I think that the point is that typically in startups, people revere the company founders, the MBAs, the VCs, etc. and not the quiet experienced engineers that just make things happen
I disagree. I think that engineers get a huge amount of attention, far more than they would in any other industry. But at a base level you need to be outgoing and sociable- it seems that proportionally fewer engineers are, when compared to MBAs, VCs and the like.
Ugh. This is so wrong, even though some of the arguments are valid criticisms.
Why is it wrong? Transactions and referential integrity. Without being able to guarantee transactions that update data in the database along with any other data, non-DB file-based or not, then you chance issues with referential integrity. Even if you have a transactional infrastructure that you would bet your life on, something could happen like a partial restore that restores the file system but not the database.
It isn't that it is impossible to have a working transactional infrastructure without storing these things in the database, it is that it is much easier to store it in the database, and sometimes making things easy can save your ass.
This is nothing. What I'm more concerned about for Google's sake is all of the people giving up their Android phones for iPhones. It isn't an immediately obvious trend but it will be within the next two years as people's contracts run out.
Google needs to refocus on search and advertising, and put more effort into R&D that might actually have world impact and significant ROI like perfecting and licensing driverless car technology.
If it isn't a K-cup, it probably isn't fresh enough. Also, the place I just left had awful coffee. It was so bad that once when a coworker cleaned the grime that built up in the coffee pot for the past few years of use, it made the coffee taste worse. When grime is the only thing making the coffee better, you need to get better coffee.
No, people will still complain. At Google, we have Stumptown, Intelligentsia, and Gorilla coffee. People complain that the coffee is not fresh enough (unused coffee is only thrown away every 14 days), that the blends purchased are not acceptable (blended coffee is evil, donchaknow), and that the full-auto single-serving coffee machines tend to retain dust from the past user and hence mix a tiny bit of Blend A with Blend B.
(I've personally complained about how some of the espresso tampers are not heavy enough, and how the Barista station closes at 3:55 instead of 4:00. If you give a moose a muffin...)
I have a lot of respect for Joel and Fog Creek, and those that work for them. Good job getting a position there. That said though, if I were working for Joel, I'd not be writing blog posts about getting a job, I'd be doing my job.
"What really sets Haiku apart, though, is its efficiency and speed. On my three-year-old desktop computer, Haiku boots up from a cold start in 10 to 15 seconds, and when running it uses only about 170 megabytes of RAM."
Sounds good to me, but 10-15 seconds running on what specs?
Also, looking at the video, it seems like this OS is stuck in the 1990s. That is fine as long as it runs a standards compliant browser, but it just seems lacking based on this video- has this changed?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixvppiSB7hc
Haiku has a native browser called WebPositive, using Webkit, but it's probably a year or more out of date. I understand that there are efforts underway to sync the browser with a more recent Webkit and get features like HTML5 audio/video in.
It'd be wonderful if someone more familiar with the issue would comment on the browser's status.
Yeah, just tried it. Web Positive has an HTML5 score of ~150/500 whereas Chrome on my Mac has a score of 400/500. As more and more applications are available as browser apps, if Haiku updates the browser it'll be a win. Haiku seems really snappy and responsive.
Sounds like you're saying this solely based on what the GUI looks like. Yes, it's extremely dated and doesn't have all the fancy glitz of modern desktop environments, but the underlying system itself is quite modern.
Valid points, but isn't it awful also to have a company that basically wastes people's time and keeps them from doing anything but consuming?
I think computers should be employed to do useful things like 1. help us colonize space, 2. stop world hunger, 3. stop poverty, 4. stop war, 5. help people to love each other, 6. help us understand and love God/a higher being (assuming you believe in God/a higher being).
If your work is for some SAAS app that doesn't work toward those things- it is contributing to the death of humans just like a military application- only in a different way.
