randomhack

I dont see a "delete my account" button anywhere. If such an option does exist, shouldnt the link be more upfront? If it doesnt exist .. why not?

I know of 2 statically typed languages on the JVM : Java and Scala. Any other interesting languages on the JVM which are more or less stable enough to use? I already know a lot of dynamic laguages run on the JVM like Jython and JRuby but not too many nice statically typed languages around.

Something with optional static typing like Common Lisp will also do. (I know about ABCL but its GPL and I am not sure how well CLOS maps to JVM for example).

If you were to add some parallel language constructs to Python or Ruby or <insert your favourite language>, what would you add? Lets assume you are only allowed to add 1 or 2 constructs so you dont go changing the whole language upside-down. Also assume that you are not allowed to take something out of the language only add to it. Please describe in detail with actual examples if possible. Dont just say "I will add actors" at a very high level.

I am trying to survey programming languages which have optional static type declarations. I know about CL and Dylan. Kawa Scheme and Clojure also appear to be using optional static typing. Are there any others?

It has been frequently commented by people outside the news.yc community that news.yc is too pandering to PG. To test this, I propose the following experiment which requires PG's co-operation. I propose that PG also post comments / submissions etc under some other username and then compare the average upmods for posts under the "pg" username vs the random anonymous username. This can be started at an unspecified time in the future and run for lets say 1 month. Only PG will know what username he is using other than pg.

I also propose the same for nickb and other prominent users. It may turn out that people upmod stuff from more recognizable names when they might have left it at neutral if some other user had submitted the same content.

Well actually it may already be the case that they are posting under multiple names.

Might be an interesting social experiment.

edit : Or is it already underway? nickb is pg :P?

Have any of you used stringtemplate, velocity, freemarker or others for generating structured text of any kind? Any experiences or thoughts? Stringtemplate seems to be purely functional and claims to enforce strict model view separation. Is StringTemplate good in real world?

Before you remark that people need more than 640k, read this patiently. My parents run a 3-4 old year system on XP and it runs just fine. They are able to browse the web and run skype. Most of their meets are already met by web based apps. I see no reason why they would ever need a 64 core computer. On the other hand, they do have a real need for a portable machine. They would also benifit by better connectivity, easy to use user interfaces and reliable (no viruses please) software.

Is the same thing happening to the "normal user" the world over? Apart from servers and games, are there any real needs for much better CPU performance? Or is the focus shifting to "other things" ? Perhaps to cost, mobility, reliability and ease of use? If so what changes do you see happening in the computer industry?

Notice the big push of Atom processors by Intel. Notice the success of EEE Pc. Are big changes coming?

Please tell me what do you think people will do with 64 cores? On the technical side, keep the Amdahl's law in mind too. For applications with even 3-4 % serial component, you will be very hard pressed to double performance with doubling of cores. People talk about better programming languages. But have parallel algorithms matured to a point where we can indeed take advantage of 64 cores?

Does the emperor have no clothes? Will the multicore revolution be relevant for the populace at large?