darthgoogle

We simply don't know what happened and we should heed the warnings from missing flight MH370 where all kinds of media reports and intelligence turned out to be worthless.

Sadly too many parties have an incentive to shape the narrative and they will use anonymous "tips" to push the frenzied media in different directions. Unless there is independent, corroborated and conclusive evidence, we may never know what happened to this flight.

Agreed.

What I really find distasteful is that the Ukrainian nationalists immediately announce their theories to the press, with no evidence, whilst the wreckage and the bodies are still smouldering.

It smacks of sick political opportunism at a time when all sides should be trying to figure out what happened. The separatists have at least offered a ceasefire for a few days so investigators can come in and bodies can be recovered.

We simply don't know what happened and we should heed the warnings from missing flight MH370 where all kinds of media reports and intelligence turned out to be worthless.

Sadly many parties have an incentive to shape the narrative and they will use anonymous "tips" to push the frenzied media in different directions. Unless there is independent, corroborated and conclusive evidence, we may never know what happened to this flight.

Or not?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/malaysia-airlines....

>“The plane was shot down by the Ukrainian side,” said Serhiy Kavtaradze, a member of the rebels’ security council, according to the Russia’s Interfax news agency. “We simply do not have such air defense systems.” He said rebels’ shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles “have a firing range of only 3,000 to 4,000 meters” and that passenger jets fly at much higher altitudes. ... He denied that the rebels possess the SA-17 Buk air-defense as Kiev alleges."

The rebels respond:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/malaysia-airlines...

>“The plane was shot down by the Ukrainian side,” said Serhiy Kavtaradze, a member of the rebels’ security council, according to the Russia’s Interfax news agency. “We simply do not have such air defense systems.” He said rebels’ shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles “have a firing range of only 3,000 to 4,000 meters” and that passenger jets fly at much higher altitudes.

He denied that the rebels possess the SA-17 Buk air-defense as Kiev alleges."

Do you dispute the facts contained in the post?

Or are you just going to shoot the messenger?

1. The legitimate government of Ukraine was overthrown in a violent coup. It was not legal. http://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/2849/was-the-cha...

2. Subsequently, people in the already autonomous region of Crimea, ethnically/culturally/historically Russian, had a referendum to break-away from Ukraine and then join Russia - especially after the new coup leaders decided to ban use of the Russian language.

Check your facts, dude.

So do you consider the coup leaders who violently overthrew the legitimate government of Ukraine as traitors and terrorists too?

And in case you're wondering, no, they didn't impeach the President or follow the constitution when seizing power.

http://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/2849/was-the-cha...

An independent investigation needs to look at this tragedy and figure out what happened. I think everyone would agree on that.

I just think it's ridiculous that minutes after the event, some Ukranian officials start finger-pointing and people want to believe them because they have been conditioned to associate Russia with bad things.

Up until yesterday, 99% of the people reading this thread had probably never even heard of a Buk, yet suddenly everybody's an expert. Might as well accept neo-nazis could have done it, after all, look what Brevik did to those kids in Norway and his reasoning.

Yes, this tragedy may be due to the separatists but it could also easily have been a mistake by the Ukrainians. In fact, a British major was just on TV saying that they could have accidentally shot down the plane because their air defence is "slack".

At the end of the day, look at this thread and see how quickly people are to blame Russia. It must be a Pavlovian response of some sort.

Just who exactly are the "terrorists" you talk about?

Do you mean the Swedish neo-nazi snipers fighting there? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28329329

Or are you referring to people who have taken up arms because they no longer want to be part of the Ukraine. Why not simply call these people "rebels" or "separatists"?

Why so quick to blame the Russians?

Would you not put it past the Ukraine backed neo-nazis, which even the state-funded BBC now admit exist, trying to widen the conflict and drag third parties into the fight?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28329329

What media isn't state controlled, whether overtly or covertly?

When was the last time you read anything positive about Russia in the Western press?

Maybe since the day you were born you've been conditioned to have a Pavlovian reaction to Russia?

Would be great to link up with sites that offer pre-configured builds for specific purposes.

For example, about some Hackintosh friendly builds?

Is there any research on this topic to support what this psychologist claims?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/claim-gender-jo...

AN ACADEMIC has said schools should "give up" trying to attract more girls into traditionally male subjects such as physics, computing and engineering.

Dr Gijsbert Stoet said there was little point trying to bridge the gender divide in education as differences between boys and girls meant they would always be drawn to different subjects.

The academic, who is based at Glasgow University's Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, said: "We probably need to give up on the idea that we will get many female engineers or male nurses."

He added that initiatives to reduce gender divides "completely deny human biology and nature".

Interesting thread. Not buying Chris's (with his Apple hat on) answer though.

The idea that you spend a few years to create a new language and have not even had a discussion yet about whether or not it will be open source is simply not credible.

Unless Swift was rushed to release because companies like Apportable were making too much progress and they wanted to herd developers back into the pens with new proprietary languages and APIs e.g. Metal.

Looks like advocates of identity politics aren't going to stop until they bring back discrimination based on race and not merit:

March 2014

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230380210...

"In 1996, California voters approved Prop. 209 to block public institutions, notably state universities, from discriminating by race. Asian-American freshman enrollment at the University of California's 10-flagship universities has since climbed to 40.2% from 36.6% and to 47% from 39.7% at Berkeley."

Prop. 209's ban on racial preferences has helped Asian Americans by forcing admissions officers to focus on such academic qualifications as high-school grades and test scores.

Liberals argue that race-based admissions are necessary to increase black and Hispanic representation, but minority enrollment has increased since 1996 at the University of California. Hispanics now make up 28.1% of the UC system's freshman class, up from 13.8% in 1996, while black enrollment has ticked up to 4% from 3.8%."

...the U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on Michigan's Prop. 2, which is based on Prop. 209, and liberals hope this will provide grounds for a new lawsuit to overturn California's ban on racial preferences.

...Democratic Attorney General Kamala Harris and Governor Jerry Brown have both argued for its repeal."

Well, let's just wait and see, because frankly, I'm tired of reading marketing fluff like "We can’t wait to see what you build!".

After years in the making (which means plenty of time to think of an answer), one of the most important questions still hasn't been answered, and not even mentioned on the blog.

Namely, will Swift be open-source and submitted to standards bodies? Will key libraries also be released?

If I make an investment to learn Swift, what are the chances that I can take this knowledge and use it outside of the Apple ecosystem? Or is Swift destined to follow the fate of Objective-C and be completely useless outside of Mac/iOS apps?

Some commentators like Thomas Sowell, who is himself black, believe that "affirmative action" is in fact bigoted because it basically says that a certain group of people are not capable of getting a job or an education unless they are given special help.

The problem is that social activists have discovered computing. Now they are trying to force their world view into the tech domain because they have failed to impart change in the real world.

Hence the faux moral outrage over gendered words.

Hence the hounding of Brendan Eich for his personal views which had no bearing on his technical competency.

Hence the Gnome foundation running out of money because they diverted all their funds to a women's outreach program instead of focusing on software development.

Right now, in the real world, scantily-clad women in bikins are draped across magazine covers, sporting events segregate the sexes, and in many Islamic countries women are treated like slaves... yet somehow “The tech industry may have a problem with women"?

Sorry, you're being sligtly misleading.

https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/CurrentBudgetFAQ

"The GNOME Foundation had a temporary lack of reserves due to processing the funds for the Outreach Program for Women (OPW). Due to a very fast and generous response from the Free software community, the foundation now has over three months of operating costs, which is more than enough time for the pending invoices to be paid."

In plain English: They ran out of money because they used money which people had donated for software development to pay for the women's outreach program. Instead of waiting for the corporate downations to arrive, they prioritised the women's outreach program over everything else.

As for the GNOME charter, "The GNOME Foundation will work to further the goal of the GNOME project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software."

Nowhere does it say that the GNOME foundation is going into the business of diversity outreach. So why should people donating to the GNOME foundation, who expect the money to be spent on building the GNOME platform/desktop, instead see it goto an outreach program?

What a ridiculous self-righteous rant.

Brendan Eich did not harass any of his colleagues yet he was forced out of his position because of his personal beliefs.

Maybe you should "get the fuck out of our industry" and focus on your fight for social justice. "People like you" are ruining the software industry.

I think its appropriate for somebody to figure out if a potential employer is likely to fire them because of personal donations or political beliefs.

Given what happened with Brendab Eich its clear some organisations are more activist and polticial than tech. The recent history of npm's founder (and those at Joyent) suggests he will discriminate if he doesn't like your politics.

So why bother wasting time and effort trying to interview and get a job at such a politically charged environment?

"We care deeply about making tech a more inclusive and diverse place."

If we assume that other companies listed here will abide by employment law i.e. non-discrimination in hiring, what is your selling point? That you care more than other companies do? That you engage in diversity outreach programs?

Or are you sending a subtle message that white heterosexual male programmers who like watching sports need not apply?

Given that the Gnome foundation ran out of money because they diverted donations to women's outreach, rather than focusing on the core mission of programming, I think it's fair to ask especially as your founder was embroiled in a controversy over gender neutral pronouns, if you intend npm to be a pure technology company or some kind of activist organization?