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bigjimslade

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I really wanted to like OCaml, still do. I gave it a good shot a couple of years ago, wrote a few basic programs and loved it.

But it to me seemed packaged like many languages in the days of yore, when a language shipped simply as a compiler, and nothing more. The way of the world today to me seems to be a compiler, together with a complete standard library and consistent packaging system.

My experience with OCaml was thwarted repeatedly by a byzantine exploration process of packages depending on other packages, which required other packaging systems. Once I reached that point where it felt like I was spending more time figuring out the complex ecosystem, rather than writing code, I rapidly lost interest.

And perhaps such a point comes in exploring any new language. But it came much too early for me in OCaml. I had so much more I wanted to learn, but couldn't. I am hopeful for the new release. Thank you for your efforts, OCaml team.

Government is not on your side. Remember that, for all countries, for all times, for all peoples. Government protects itself first, at your expense, by helping those who can help it accomplish that said goal. If you can't help it to that end, you're nothing, literally. It truly couldn't care less about you, your liberties, or even your very life. Government can and does completely destroy people's lives, regularly, for having committed no moral offense of any kind, having caused no harm whatsoever to anyone anywhere in any way, but instead for having violated nothing more than a statute granting random behavioral power over you to some overfunded, distant, and uninterested regulatory agency.

This explanation might aid those who're confused about why a community strengthening, environmentally positive, socially worthwhile website like Streetlend would shut down in response to this huge collection of laws that was sold to us as actually helping us.

Competition drives prices down? Bloated, protectionist government regulations drive prices up? Wow! Stop the presses!

This same story in umpteen other contexts has been written time and time and time again, throughout modern history.

Get government out of the way. Let people put themselves to work in ways they feel most capable, and watch innovation happen, cost effectively, and to the benefit of mankind! What's old is new again.

Speaking in the larger context, this stick you feel you've been given comes at a high price. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before the powers that be will fashion a stick with which to beat you, too.

Productivity 8 years ago

Isn't it possible to be proficient or even prophetic at a thing while being not so good at another?

I agree those comparisons to China border on wacky while I feel he is right on target about the fundamental, critical, beating-heart importance of free speech in all things. Maybe he also has valuable thoughts to share on productivity. Or maybe not!

Ok the linked article seems to be a short synopsis of a book, one which I did not read nor have intention to.

But dear Lord the article was so full of government fluff, obvious and trite blather of what has been tried and failed, over, and over, and over again.

It is nothing but why we need government to fix the very problems it created, and makes even worse with its choking regulations, legislation, and self-serving laws.

My very own grandfather broke into the roofing business around age 11, growing up in abject poverty. He didn't much care for sitting in a school house. He made a good living eventually, becoming one of the largest employers in town, a respected local businessman who would hire anyone willing to work, and give them a fair shot.

Today, though, his life would be completely unable to be lived, legally, anyway. Between the government's silly attempts at paperwork for immigration tracking, taxes, labor laws, minimum wage laws, the list goes on and on and on, it would be impossible. The barriers to entry for the poor but motivated ensure nothing more than the permanent existence of the poor.

The article is frankly disgusting in its puerile and obviously wrong insistence that what we need is more of the above.

While you are certainly correct that the military has provided the genesis of various valuable technologies, it doesn't have to continue to be that way. We could choose to expend our limited resources on more meaningful, and socially responsible, outlets. This move by Google employees is to me a welcome tug against the hopelessly chaotic military machine, and a push back against continued military involvement in SV affairs. I'm happy to see individuals taking this position.

If I were starting out today fresh from high school, and were interested in technology as a possible career, I would consider certain certifications from the likes of Cisco, Juniper, Oracle, any of the various code schools, etc., strongly consider them, against protracted, ghastly expensive college degrees, which are rapidly losing value in the marketplace.

IBM operates an internal company-wide storage system called GSA or Global Storage Architecture, which is GPFS on the servers, with various and sundry methods of access through automounted NFS, Samba, and a basic web interface. I wonder if such a system could be constructed with Lustre, one that wouldn't require a Lustre wizard with a Unix beard to keep it happy.