bokglobule

Arguably the Rust language is a replacement candidate for 'C' (and C++).

Amen. IMO the root of all evil is compiler "optimization" of code. If you really, really need the wee bit of extra performance through optimization, hire an expert at ass'y language and optimize the bit that matters. Rarely is this the case, especially with business apps.

I've seen my fair share of bugs from the compiler incorrectly hoisting variables from loops, mis-using registers, etc. I prefer to turn off compiler optimization as one of the first steps in a new project, but that's me.

Ah, maybe not. Watch the film "A Good American". It's out on Netflix.

People are people. Govt employees can have agendas that are bad for the rest of us just like contractors.

Agree. Some of the complaints get back to not really understanding the ES6-7 feature set that was created to allow JS to become more compact yet expressive in doing common tasks (like creating an object from an existing object, yet changing a few parts).

For the Redux issue, the light bulb went off for me at one point on how best to use it to solve specific issues. React is focused on component based development of the UX; everything in the small library is there to help with this including "state" (that is, the internal logic state of the component). Since React went with the simpler one-way flow of data updates (vs. Angular's two-way), Redux came along to help bridge the divide between clusters of components that share some data.

So when designing React apps, I almost always use React state. 80-90% of the time it's fine, works well and is easy to understand since everything about the component is there (along with the "props" or arguments to the component).

I use Redux when I occasionally need to do the following: 1) Share data between otherwise unrelated components 2) I need to setup "global" state that exists between page transitions, etc. 3) A child component needs to notify a parent of some event. This can also be done with a simple callback provided as a prop to avoid Redux in this situation.

So think of this in two levels - local component state within a nest of related components, and shared state within a set of unrelated components; the latter is where Redux can help.

I much prefer (and find simpler to understand) that state is local and changes one-way. It's similar to the issue whether a language supports reference types as parameters or sticks to value types. Reference types make it easy to pass along side effects to the caller, but it can also introduce hard to understand side effects.

The tech industry keeps repeating the same business mistakes. This period strikes me more and more of the 1998-99 era when there was so much euphoria that there was no way but up. Then March 2000 came, the first Internet high flyers started to fail, and very quickly the whole thing unraveled. We're on the same road again...

The latest stats I've seen for us here in the DC metro area are that we have 7 of the 10 richest counties in the U.S. That tells you a lot about the density of opportunity here. The downtown areas have gentrified amazingly in the last several years. Nice place to be if you want to be close to things.

I was in Seattle recently and it's a truly beautiful city with a stunning landscape. But seemed kinda sleepy compared to DC. I was in Silicon Valley also recently and came away scratching my head why anyone would wish to live there now - miles upon miles of industrial parks, seemed kinda run down even in Cupertino. But just my 2 cents.

What people really mean here is that when you consume real fruit, you get fiber, vitamins, other micro nutrients and, yes, fructose. But the quantity of fructose you get is relatively small. When people drink fruit juice, basically all they are getting is the fructose (with water). And you're getting many apples worth at one time. This overloads the liver which starts turning the fructose into fat.

So eating an apple or an orange is fine. Drinking fruit juice is not. Hope this helps

Frankly I think people are insane to use any of these password manager products, whether SaaS or local. You're trusting a 3rd party to exercise control over your most sensitive digital information. Since the majority of people on HN are developer-types, you'd think "we" would write a little code, if necessary, for ourselves to make it easier to remember passwords. Basically a little DIY.

IMO, this will end badly.

It's precisely the fact that Coconut oil is 100% plant-based, saturated fat that it IS healthy. The notion that saturated fat causes heart disease has been thoroughly debunked as sham science. It's the inflammation in the arteries stimulated by excess sugar consumption (refined carbs, table sugar, soda, etc) that causes the problem. The body sends cholesterol to the scene to patch the damage.

Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-...

Best analogy I've heard is "Gee whiz, everytime I see a fire, I see firemen. I guess firemen cause fires". Cholesterol does not cause heart disease all by itself.

You'd think scientists and the media, by this time, would have stopped relying on Dr. Ansel Keyes for their rationale for what causes heart disease. His 1950's "Seven Countries" study was an example of cherry-picked data to support a pre-determined outcome that was desired.

Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-co...

Finally, I can show you cultures, such as the Inuit, who's diet is almost exclusively saturated fat and protein and which are healthy (as long as they stick to their native diet). I challenge anyone to show me a culture who's diet is primarily sugar-based which has comparable health.

Reference: http://www.theiflife.com/the-inuit-paradox-high-fat-lower-he...

Actually I think this self-learning approach is a great example of what it takes to be a great developer regardless of background (or formal training).

http://signaltower.co/jennifer-dewalt/

She built one project each day for 180 days learning a bit more each day. She chronicled her mistakes and successes. HN had a post on it at the time and the majority of developers that responded were very supportive.

I think the behavior of today's media is perfectly understandable if you substitute some terms. For example-

Instead of "stories" think of "memes"

Instead of "reporters" think of "salespeople"

Instead of "readers" think of "customers"

Instead of "publishers" think of "businesses"

With that map in mind, it's not hard to understand why many, not all, but clearly many do the shoddy reporting that they do. Like so many things in today's world, it's no longer about pride in your craft, but instead it's about making money. The result is it's increasingly difficult for the average person to tell the real news from the fake because the traditional sources of real news have abandoned this in favor of sensationalism. But on the upside, the Internet may yet save us by providing smaller outlets a chance to provide better reporting. I was very much intrigued by the WH using Skype to pull in reporters from smaller cities and areas that don't normally get a chance to participate.

<rant> During the recent Trump news conference, another aspect of what's going on jumped out at me. At one point in the news conference, the camera pulled back to show the room of reporters. What I found jarring was the age of the reporters; to my eye they looked like they were high schoolers. I was hoping to hear well thought out questions but instead most of them asked the same robotic questions on Russia. I don't think the media organizations are doing the American people (and the world) a great service when they send the least experienced staff members to events like this. </rant>

With respect to the OP, I think remote work is the wave of the future. We've been doing it in my large company (financial software co) in a large US city for over a decade. As communication technology has improved (video chat, SaaS apps like Slack, Github) distance has become no barrier... with some caveats.

We've found it works best when:

Near timezone- Remote people are in the same or near timezone as the home office. This makes it easy to align the work day, schedule meetings, etc.

Remote shared location- making sure a group of people who work remotely have access to a shared location where they can work together has worked far better than people working from home, coffee shop, etc.

Culture- as I write this I'm in a large open floor plan style office. All of the lead devs are chatting away with their team members located in Canada and S.America. We love the ability to pull people in easily and work as though we are all here. Frankly, we talk to the "remote" people in video chats more often than many of the people in other departments. When the day's over we head home to families, sports, etc.

It doesn't work if..

-Your culture stresses in-person interactions during and after work.

-You don't have a culture of trust.

-Your company won't pay for great communication apps & technology including lots of monitors.

-Your team works at home and is distracted by kids, spouses, etc, etc.

Frankly as tech gets better I think that one day the idea of moving to a large city like SF, Austin, NYC, etc for work purposes will be seen as ridiculous, outdated and needlessly costly. Likely there will be shared office hubs in small-to-medium sized cities around the world where people can work with other people in similar remote hubs.

Always insightful..