s/it's own/its own/

*hangs head in shame*

I still can't edit posts on Slashdot?

*shambles off grumbling*

We already have most of that stuff in our phones, why would we want it built into the car too? Maybe it used to make sense back in the 1990s when the tech was big and bulky and being able to keep it in a vehicle was convenient. But that's no longer the case at all. When this stuff is available as an option, it's a very expensive option, way out of line with the functionality provided -- it's just a profit center. When it's "standard", it's used to justify the increased price of the "luxury" model.

A dedicated GPS unit in the car just seems dumb at this point. And unless the car has a network connection, that road data isn't getting updated and you don't have realtime traffic. My phone already has a network connection, and is thus infinitely better than the one that's built into the car. Same for everything else, including music players, concierge services (haha!). At this point, the only thing that should be built-into the car are technologies directly related to driving. Everything else could be handled by "dumb terminals" driven by a smartphone. For the luddites who refuse to get a smartphone, the car manufacturers could provide a shim device.

I don't really want my car to have it's own cellular network connection until I can stop having to pay for every device's bandwidth individually.

> so, while you are spending^Hwasting time learning a new language, the rest of us are busy making real things with tools that we have spent years mastering.

Well, unlike some people, I'm capable of doing more than one thing in a day.

I'm also capable of making abstractions and applying things learned in one context to another context.

I'm not claiming these skills are useful to everyone, but they've certainly helped me hone my craft, and made me a more flexible programmer in whatever language my current project is using.

Thanks for your judgements though. They'll be filed as appropriate.

Please stop, this is getting really tiresome. Python has multi-line strings without special escaping:

http://stackoverflow.com/quest...

You just look like an ignorant idiot with an axe to grind with this obsession over a non-existent problem.

Speaking of obsessions, Python programmers don't obsess over forced indentation. It's the people who violently dislike Python who keep harping on it.

Python has multi-line strings. I know that fact won't change your mind, but it might help you look less ignorant.

I wouldn't claim to be a master, but I've been writing code for a while and like to think that I have a good grasp of the craft. I appreciate that you call it a craft, actually, because that word describes an intersection of pragmatism and art that I think well describes the activity.

In any case, I enjoy learning new programming languages. I've written Conway's Life in more languages than I can count off the top of my head, just because it's a fun way to try to express well-known algorithms in new forms and contexts.

I agree that no language will turn someone without the skill or inclination into a good programmer. But some languages are more fun than others, some are faster, some have better run-time validation. Like all tools, different ones have different strengths. Learning about each one is an interesting experience, even if I don't end up liking them.

And then there are languages that I enjoy but nobody else seems willing to give a chance. Nobody on my team is willing to look at Clojure, for example, despite it's advantages over traditional Java syntax. "All those parenthesis, it's confusing!" (Never mind that Clojure code might have fewer delimiters than Java code that does the same thing). It's like the people who hate on Python for the forced indentation, they miss the forest for the trees.

Being willing to learn new languages can open you up to new approaches to problems that you might not have thought of. It's also fun. So bring on the new languages!

The second for loop should be indented. I have trouble believing that you really think the non-indented version is more readable, or conveys the algorithmic intent well. If you were applying for a job with my team and you made this argument, I would find it very difficult to hire you.

Alternate interpretation: nicely trolled. I bit.

Singapore is not an Islamic nation. There is no official state religion in Singapore. The majority avow Buddhism, second-highest is non-religious, and Islam is third at just 14.7% (as of 2010, according to Wikipedia). Singaporeans in general are much more interested in "profits" than "prophets".

Malaysia is an Islamic nation. My relatives who live there are quite concerned about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, though historically it has generally functioned as a mostly secular nation.

Singapore is not a Muslim nation. Not even close. The majority religion is Buddhism, and as of 2010 (according to Wikipedia, I did not follow up by going to the primary sources), Islam was only 14.7%. I lived in Singapore until the late 1980s, and go back now and then to visit family... I would say that Singapore is actually quite secular, with most people way more interested in "profit" than "prophet".

When a web site can teach the hacker nature, then I'll start worrying.

I don't understand how you kids can play Nethack on a phone.

This old nerd needs all the keys.

Most liberals I know are against the war on drugs. It's really more of a conservative cause. Championed by Ronnie Reagan and his handler^U wife, supported by the for-profit prison industry (not run by liberals, I'm pretty sure), and so forth.

I'm not disputing your definition of political correctness, which I think is technically correct (the best kind of correct!). Just your example.

Valid comparisons: PS 3 to Xbox 360; PS 2 to Xbox; BMW 3 Series to Mercedes C Class
Invalid comparisons: PS 2 to Xbox 360; BMW 3 Series to Porsche 911

The popular success of iOS and other closed systems doesn't mean there aren't choices out there. I have an easily-unlocked and rooted Android phone, and I love it. Would my wife appreciate the command-line access and Python scripting facilities? Probably not -- she didn't even want a feature phone -- even an iPhone would be overkill for her use cases.

HTC just announced that going forward, all their phones will have unlocked bootloaders. Not everything is going closed.

In the case of Java, it's both.

Java: All the restrictions of a compiled language, plus the inconveniences of an interpreted one!

Oracle is welcome to contact me, my services as a slogan-writer are available and quite reasonably priced (by Oracle standards).