effbott

This doesn't make the target object read-only - it just returns a reference to it.

  data = {one: "one"}
  ref = makeRef(data)
  ref().two = "two"
  
  data
  => Object {one: "one", two: "two"}

Just delete the modal from the DOM and you'll have full access to the article.

5 year ban for parking violations? That seems extreme.

Wow.. this is amazing. I'm kind of blown away by how cheap it is. Is this your permanent residence or a vacation home? Does it feel weird to not have neighbors?

Most automated phone systems will connect you to an operator if you press 0 repeatedly (as in 10 to 20 times in a row). There's almost always a way to get around automated phone systems.

It's simple. People who have more experience generally demand higher salaries. The company in question is probably seeking someone who's fairly experienced but doesn't have the budget to afford a superstar.

Regardless, I think the author's point was more that there's nothing "special" about getters and setters in Ruby. They're just plain ol' methods.

Ah, that's a good point. That seems to be a more accurate interpretation of what the author was trying to express.

Ruby really is a great language. The author just posted a poor example that is frankly NOT idiomatic Ruby. The proper way to create a getter and setter method on an instance variable is like so:

  class Person
    attr_accessor :sanity

    def initialize
      @sanity = 50
    end
  end

And by "automatic classification content filter" they mean "someone manually added the Guardian to a blacklist".

How far do you take this? Kickstarter is a business and needs to make money.

Should it be acceptable for people to Kickstart escort businesses, "legal high" websites, or Amway pyramid schemes? All of those things are legal but are seen by the public as being slimy and taboo. Why would Kickstarter want to associate with these people?

Kickstarter is a business and has no obligation to uphold free speech. They need to curate their projects to protect their reputation. What if they allowed filmakers to Kickstart porn movies? You could call it free speech and make no judgments about the act itself, but at the end of the day people would start to see Kickstarter as a slimy business that's willing to host any project as long as they get a cut of it.

Something like that already exists: http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/one-click-selling/

True, but the risk of dying at the hands of these people is extremely slim. According to tabular data found here[1], which chronicles US terrorist incidents and assassinations dating back to 1865, only 5031 people have been killed by terrorists in the last 148 years. That comes out to approximately 34 deaths per year!

That number is trivial compared to other causes of death. Here's a sampling of some death statistics from the year 2006 [2]:

  Fireworks discharge:                           8
  Fall on and from stairs and steps:         1,818
  Bitten or struck by dog:                      32
  Contact with venomous snakes and lizards:      8
  Accidental drowning and submersion:        3,579
  Exposure to electric transmission lines:      93
  Transport accidents:                      48,412
  Contact with hot tap-water:                   32
  Terrorism:                                     0

[1](http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/wrjp255a.html)

[2](http://www.nsc.org/news_resources/injury_and_death_statistic...)

Thanks for making it! Computer security is a fascinating field that I've only begun to dive into recently.

The password is sent in plaintext in the POST body.

I'm confused by that as well. The POST data sends a nonce value but the message itself is in plaintext... not even Base64..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

You have to know the right people. I have a non-CS degree from a pretty average state school but I somehow fell into the world of HFT algo development. I suppose luck played a large role in my case since I wasn't actively seeking that type of job. One of my clients (who had founded a small "prop" shop) liked my work and wanted to give me a shot at developing algorithms, even though I had no prior experience and scant knowledge of financial markets. Fortunately it turned out to be a great fit and I ended up automating nearly every aspect of his operation.

Wall Street banks aren't the only ones doing HFT. The technology to develop and deploy algorithms has become much more accessible in recent years. It's still not cheap - collocated servers, real time data streams, and Bloomberg terminals can rack up tens thousands per month - but you don't need a Wall St. budget to get started.

There are lots of small proprietary trading shops (prop shops) scattered throughout the major financial hubs (NYC, London, Chicago, etc.). These shops typically have 20 employees or less. In my case we had two traders, one programmer (me), and one IT guy. These shops are more likely to care about your skills as a programmer than where you went to school.

Nested if statements? I'd be interested to see how that looks.

You only need one if statement, and you only have to involve a single guard.

'guard' is just a placeholder. Try typing

    key = @xzoor.askKey(@door)

Yeah, it was really meant as more of a dark joke than a serious point. But it does make you wonder what people consider "serious enough" to warrant a trip to the hospital, given that medical costs are so high.

Only in America would somebody think twice about seeing doctor after being struck by lightning.

>One of the healthy side effects is that you'll rarely end up with the "can you just quickly add x" requests

Up until now I've always billed by the hour, but this sentence alone has convinced me to switch over to daily. Those "10 minute" requests drive me absolutely insane. Even though that time is billable it takes a large toll on my mental well-being.

Thanks for the response. I'll have to give it a try. And I need to stop working for stingy clients...

That sounds good from my end (as the freelancer), but won't the client be upset if they pay a day rate for what might end up being a half day's work? I guess the client would have no way of knowing this, but it still makes me feel uneasy.

>don't bill hourly

I hear this a lot, but I'm not sure how to implement it. Some people have suggested that freelancers ought to bill for the entire project, but in doing so you run the risk of losing money by underestimating the amount of work and time involved. Some have also suggested billing daily instead of hourly, but if the client expects a "day" to mean "8 hours", how is that any different than just billing an hourly rate?

How do you handle your billing?

Looks really nice but I can't see myself using it. I use Sinatra when I want to throw together a quick "scetch" of an app and Rails when I want to make something that involves a database, controllers, multiple views, etc. I've never felt the need for a middle ground between the two.

What are the main advantages over Sinatra?

Eloquent Ruby is an excellent book for beginners.

http://www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Ruby-Addison-Wesley-Professio...

If you just want to learn some basics of Ruby without diving into an entire book, check out Ruby Monk. All of the tutorials are interactive:

http://rubymonk.com/

I disagree. Technology is advancing at an extremely rapid pace and in the future it will require more knowledge and training to keep up, thus raising the bar to enter. Look at the medical field, for example. 200 years ago it didn't take much education or experience to be considered a doctor. Nowadays you have spend nearly half your life in preparation to become one.

Our industry is definitely becoming more popular but that doesn't mean that the demand is dying down.

>More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs ... were well-educated: 95.1 percent of those surveyed had earned bachelor's degrees, and 47 percent had more advanced degrees.

That really surprised me. Maybe it's just a tech entrepreneur thing but I thought the "college drop-out turned founder" narrative was more common.