kree10

Try loading any Meteor-based site (such as the linked story, or http://www.meteor.com/ itself) with cookies disabled on Chrome or Firefox and watch them break.

(Meteor doesn't appear to trap exceptions when using localStorage/sessionStorage, and even something as simple as "if (window.sessionStorage) ..." may throw an exception.)

But seriously: if you sell the CD, should you delete your MP3s?

Mentioning CDs reminds me that the price of physical CDs on Amazon in some cases has dipped below $0. For some CDs, Amazon throws in the MP3 download (with the usual cloud storage) for "free". The funny thing is, the price of the CD+MP3 is sometimes less than the MP3 alone, even with shipping. Check the Velvet Underground's back catalog for some examples.

Also, this will turn on vi-style line editing in programs using GNU readline (things like mysql, psql, sqlite3):

    echo "set editing-mode vi" > ~/.inputrc

For programs linked against libedit instead (as on OS X):

    echo "bind -v" > ~/.editrc

Take a look at bcvi if your preferred local editor is vim: http://sshmenu.sourceforge.net/articles/bcvi/

I remember reading that longboxes were a way to prop up the LP jacket manufacturers, since the materials and process were similar, but... "citation needed".

I'd take that further. Is there any good reason for anyone to run an FTP server (public or otherwise) in 2012?

This made me smile, but I think Perl is more like Robert Pollard/Guided by Voices. Both seem like kind of a mess to the uninitiated (and even the initiated). Both hit their stride in the mid-90s. And both are still around, remain influential, and are just as productive today, even if they have a lower profile.

That's the thing. Once you have "fixed" PHP, you're left with a brand new language that few people know, won't run your existing code, isn't included in Linux distributions or hosting packages, have no books about it and no answers on StackOverflow.

Of course these things will all happen in time if the fixed version takes hold. But if you're willing to throw out PHP and start anew, you can have all of the above right now by learning Node, Rails, Django, etc.

I think the comment above about needing a Jeremy Ashkenas (that is, a CoffeeScript for PHP) is the only realistic way for a "fixed" PHP to succeed. There needs to be a smooth transition, and a FixedPHP-to-PHP5 compiler could provide it.

I think some organizations see this kind of implementation leakage as a feature, not a bug.

I remember when http://microsoft.com/ began doing external redirects to "default.asp" circa 1997. If you were a "webmaster" (do these exist anymore?), this was a dog whistle. They were not using static .html (or .htm) but not any of the common dynamic methods like .cgi or .shtml either. And using "default" rather than "index" indicated a break from NCSA/Apache convention. They were using a different web server. Those 11 extra characters said a lot.

While seeing "index.html" (or "index.ANYTHING") makes me cringe, I have some sympathy for the developers who do this.

Let's say I have an old-school, all-static site with pages at http://example.com/x/index.html and http://example.com/x/about.html. I would like to make a link to the "index" page from the "about" page. What are my choices?

<a href="/x/"> will work, but will break when someone decides to move "/x" to "/y".

<a href="."> will work from the server, which does an internal redirect, but not on the static version on my local drive I'm going to demo to my boss. (I also have a hunch a significant number of developers aren't aware of "." and don't know this is an option.)

So we end up with <a href="index.html"> for better or worse.

How did we end up with OK/Cancel in the first place?

When I run into an OK/Cancel box (usually on a web page using the generic built-in confirm()), it often feels to me like the meaning would be far more clear if the options were "yes" or "no", no matter which order they're displayed.

Is there a UI 'best practice' reason OK/cancel "won" over yes/no?

It's not just simplified, but more secure. Your version doesn't write to predictable filenames in /tmp like the original does.

I think that reason is mostly inertia.

Also, because it's GNU. Just as IE is the Microsoft browser, bash is the GNU shell, and most Linux distributions are built around GNU userland.

But that's just Linux. The BSDs don't see bash as the best default, where it tends to only be available as an optional package.

So you could say bash is the Internet Explorer of shells. It's the default, it's what most people use, and it's good enough.

I just went through the iTunes "forgot my password" process and had a different experience. According to that box to the side, my new password passed all their requirements, yet on submit it kept rejecting it. I finally got it to accept a password when I stopped trying to use spaces. Are there other characters their back end rejects that the front end allows?

They do solo projects, but I don't think that's analogous. Would Radiohead have been allowed to self-release albums while they were under their major label contract?

This is good for sanity checking the right side of the '@' but detectable things go wrong on the left side sometimes, too. One phenomenon I've been seeing for years is the erroneous "www." prefix, often tacked on to @aol.com and @yahoo.com addresses. I don't think I've seen one of these that hasn't bounced.

Take a look at rsync's "--inplace" option. I think this does what you want.

I think you're underestimating child-related expenses. Since we're talking about both parents working full-time, just take the cost of child care: http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/CA.pdf says this California family with 2 kids could be spending over $2000/mo on this alone, depending on how young they are.

I'm not saying they won't necessarily have anything left, but $12k/mo still may not leave them much.

Not that I'd like to encourage it, but there could be a sudo in FTP, along the lines of WU-FTPd's infamous support for a "SITE EXEC" command.

Also don't forget that rsync does not overwrite a remote file until it's completely uploaded.

Compare to ftp, sftp and scp, which overwrite the file from the start, possibly breaking your site during the transfer (or definitely breaking your site if the transfer dies part-way through).

Text-only Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6jeyroO...

I don't know; this hypothetical family of 4 making $200k would have about $12k/month in take-home pay. After rent, utilities (including cell phone bills with data plans for 4), food and clothing, 2 cars (loan payments/gas/insurance/maintenance), college tuition (paying it or saving for it), orthodontics, etc., it could be near "living paycheck-to-paycheck" territory.

DarwinPorts/MacPorts, Fink, and Homebrew all require the OS X developer tools, so "you have to download a DVD just to be able to compile stuff from source" still applies.

What does Netflix use for their iOS app? That's not based on Silverlight is it?

I don't understand using red to mean something other than "stop" or "cancel" either.

It reminds me of the first time I tried to use a cell phone: I didn't own one and had borrowed one for a trip. I could not figure out how to turn it on. I kept pressing the green "TALK" button and nothing happened. I assumed the battery had died. Turns out I was supposed to press the red button labeled "END" which is the last button I would think to press.

I got it working on Chrome by executing webvi_init() on s.onload():

  javascript:(function(){var d=document;var t=d.getElementsByTagName('textarea');for(var i in t){if(typeof t[i]=='object') t[i].setAttribute('class','webvi');} var s=d.createElement('script');s.setAttribute('src','http://webvi.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/lib/webvi.js');d.body.appendChild(s);s.onload=function(){webvi_init();};})();

One of my favorite time-wasters is to think of a word or phrase, tack on ".blogspot.com" and see what's there. I rarely find active blogs this way.

Just now I tried http://chainsaw.blogspot.com/ and found a quintessential blogger blog with a single decade-old entry. I'd love to read a followup post but I know it will never happen.

Very occasionally I'll run into something like http://grasses.blogspot.com/ - abandoned, and perfect that way.

There can be a kind of weird beauty in those forgotten blogs.

Yes, though I think this plays into the poster's point about respect/prestige.

Right or wrong, a popular perception in the USA is that a lawyer wears nice clothes to work, and likes to unwind with a round of golf, fine scotch, and a cigar. Whereas a programmer is an overgrown teenager, wearing ripped jeans, playing video games, and drinking Red Bull. Of course the lawyer should earn more than that guy.