acorkery

Bit of a cliché, but nothing is free. You are choosing to use technology provided by a for-profit company. Community Edition does not mean it's owned by the community. It's absolutely irritating to have to create an account and login when you just want to try something, but if you're invested in a technology and the company that provides it (at no direct monetary cost to you), I don't think it's worth getting stroppy about. Plenty of other more sinister and cynical things happening in tech right now to get riled about

That's interesting. I suppose the written word is just a visual representation that needs to be parsed, natural that there could be thought processes that overlap and conflict with that process. The only similar experience I have is when I'm learning a new tune on the piano - when following the sheet music my mind keeps jumping ahead and trying to work out where the song is going (and also analyzing how I'm playing), whereas working out the tune and playing "by ear" is much quicker for me and doesn't cause any concentration issues. It's a pretty mild and perfectly manageable thing for me though, I can generally force myself to comply, but it takes effort!

I think, when my mind wanders off while still reading that means I got "bored" with the text by already knowing what's going to happen and I switch to associative thoughts instead.

Notice any difference between how your brain "behaves" reading fiction and non-fiction/academic works - e.g. reading for enjoyment vs reading argumentative discourse. For fiction, do you also find yourself guessing at the content or wandering off?

I can relate with the reading issue. I've occasionally read 2 pages of a book while thinking of something else entirely, then realise I didn't absorb any of what I read. Not just tuning in and out - nothing..

I also can't skim text - need to almost pronounce all the phrases in my head, which is a pain when reading long books. I do read a lot, and have no literacy or comprehension issues - just seems like there's interference somewhere..

Ignorant and unnecessary.

The report of my death was an exaggeration.

Yeah, it doesn't work well for me either. However my 6-year old son uses the Google assistant on my phone a lot. "Lego Ninjago Kai video please", "Play". "Why do dogs have tails?" That kind of thing.

I think it works brilliantly for certain narrow domains - answering factual questions, directions, distances, top rated attractions etc. And is quicker than typing and scrolling. But I agree the AI behind it has yet to demonstrate any real broad understanding - assimilating various contrasting opinions from text, providing context etc.

I also personally don't want to sit on a train, couch or a dentist waiting room listening to people talking to their phones or watches.

If they say "Yes, why?", they're your friend.

If they say "Fine." then they don't trust you.

If they tell you "No, ..." they think you're a close friend

I'm guessing you're a programmer :)

It's surely all about getting them to talk and open up, regardless of their answers?

but if that is all you say, then it won't be clear how you do that, or how you're different from, say, a UI optimization tool which also improves end-user experience.

In this example, what if the company isn't any different? The marketer has to find a way to hide the fact that the company they've been hired to promote is not actually that innovative. An inferior product can still be a success if the right combination of hype, timing and smart promotion is combined.

The only way to reduce (you will never eliminate) such problems is to deal with the violators with certain, swift and harsh punishments (death). You put a lot of blame on the Catholic Church (not that you shouldn't) - but where has the Irish government stepped in and purged the violators?

If only Fine Gael had a Rodrigo Duterte on the back benches..

In the case of Russia, I was mostly thinking of it's treatment of disabled kids by the state. Up to 30% of russian disabled children are institutionalized - maybe orphanage is not the right word.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/09/15/abandoned-state/violen...

Not exactly the same, but there are kids suffering the same and worse conditions right now in orphanages throughout eastern Europe - Belarus, Romania, Russia.

Good points there. The autopilot thing - I don't see it like that at all. You can be doing a repetitive task and thinking at the same time. It can help you focus and relax. Also when you finish the menial task, you get a little smug satisfaction. "I've earned that beer". Autopilot for me is sitting on the couch asking your electronic friend if the fridge has cleaned itself yet.

Many favorite hobbies are repetitive and in theory could be outsourced. Some people enjoy knitting, raking the yard, organizing their record collection, finding Waldo etc..

Hey, it's all down to personal preference and where you get your kicks. I won't labour the point as I've gone on too much. Just putting forward another perspective.

Yeah, sorry the plant issue is a bit of a silly point. I just meant that you can tell by looking at the plant, feeling the soil that it needs watering or not. So many of the use cases I see for smart home devices seem contrived. "What can we do with this amazing technology?".

I agree voice-controlled devices are a great innovation - particularly for accessibility. But as a mass-market appeal, I've met a lot of people that love their smartphones, new technologies, but aren't sold on home automation. The big enduring technology successes in recent decades captured people's imaginations instantly. They didn't need much convincing beyond the initial idea.

A separate objection is that by not using your brain for daily routines, memory and organisational skills will suffer. Purely speculative, but I think people downplay the importance of menial tasks in giving people a daily rhythm and discipline. The argument I sometimes see is that it frees you up to do higher-order tasks. I think it's unlikely.

I think these are great examples of technological aids that people really do not want in their lives. Our brains evolved long ago to a point where we can do many simple things concurrently, and there is a power/meaning in interacting directly with your environment - not through some smart aid that tells you that your plant is dying.

Possibly, yes

Interviewers

It's hardly a full feature checkout..

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it just seems like a user-friendly form with client side validation. You still need to integrate it with a payment processor, hook it into your checkout process where you capture delivery, billing and order information.

I also think it's not worth $299, especially when each license is per-website only.

Was it debated whether this should be a tooling feature - thinking of an IDE plugin that parses and type-checks in the background rather than a dedicated service to watch text files on disk

I like the async/await additions. Seems very similar to the .NET implementation. Was this an inspiration?

I really enjoyed this article. I started out programming in C, then quickly on to Java.

I didn't appreciate the language at the time, but with hindsight, the fact that you need to worry about memory allocation and performance means you've a better understanding of what's happening on the underlying system.

It should never be taken off CS courses!

I hope the guy who wrote this is 15.

http://hownottohireadeveloper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/no-im-g...

sorry, but..who gives a shit?

not sure what the opposite of graceful degradation is, but that's pretty close! They're right not to support it though.