HN user
Sometimes classified leaks onto unclassified networks via human mistake, coincidence, or ignorance. I've literally seen classified PowerPoint slides marked unclassified due to ignorance. This situation requires security to confiscate all machines the data may have leaked to.
Low employment combined with high inflation is forcing the fed to raise interest rates to induce lower demand with the side affect being higher unemployment. This is how they killed inflation in the 80's. They are trying to thread the needle of inflation and recession. The likely outcome is eventually a recession.
Conversely, the government could raise taxes across the board to control demand and trickle that money back to individuals over time, but it is political suicide.
The if-statements are not unnecessary if you want to handle errors in place and make the code highly readable. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong.
It seems kind of obvious, but build the system you are interested in learning how to build. If you want to do it professionally, use common tools. If you want to do it to start your own company, use tools that you are most comfortable in now. Set a goal and once you start walking towards that goal, the path presents itself.
I'm one of the project owners on the GoClipse project. I do a lot of polyglot development (Java, Javascript, C, Go, & a little Python). I've used and liked vim, Sublime w/ GoSublime, and GoClipse. All with gocode. I have a hard time escaping Eclipse, in general, because of my skill profile. It kind of unifies the experience.
http://code.google.com/p/goclipse/ https://github.com/nsf/gocode