> Also, what does the "structured" in "structured web programming" mean?
I would guess it's a reference to the optional static typing. There's a growing movement behind static typing and functional programming that resembles the movements behind dynamic typing and OOP of a decade ago...
I'd guess it's also a lot about class-based vs. prototype-based. The latter often leads to messy architectures. It might be an intrinsic characteristic of prototype-based design, or because 99% of people learn OOP with a class-based language, I don't know.
There's an interesting extension of this line of thought. My sister-in-law works in Istanbul for a Greek company. She says that most of the actual profit-generating work done for this company is done in Romania or Turkey. The Greek offices, from what she describes, are more or less completely dysfunctional.
Now, take that insight of conditions on the ground along with a chart of the growth of the Greek vs Turkish economies over the last decade, and then ask yourself: why is Greece a full EU member and included in the Eurozone, while Turkey's membership negotiations have completely stalled (and will probably conclude with Turkey not joining the EU)?
Can you imagine a world where Greece is allowed to leave the Euro, massively devalue its debt (and take the decade or more of restructuring/rebuilding its economy that would come with that), and Turkey with its strong manufacturing sector and youthful, growing middle class is brought in in Greece's place? The EU and the Euro would be in a far stronger position...but it will never happen. Unfortunately, European cultural prejudices are still to ever-present and will result in Greece continuing to be dragged along while Turkey gets shunned.
Human rights are a factor, plus there's the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country, though many in the EU won't admit that. But even that could probably be overlooked if not for the fact that Turkey is a huge country. With a population of 73 million people (and a growing population, whereas many European states are stagnant in this regard), Turkey would immediately become the second-largest EU state, which means more members of the EU parliament than France or the UK and more voting power in those institutions where countries vote by weighted population.
If Turkey were a Muslim country with a European toehold and a history of dodgy human rights abuses but a general trendline towards democracy and it had a population of about 10 million, the EU would be falling all over itself to admit it and show how enlightened it was.
Some Turks joke that the Turkish army has the largest gay porn collection in the world.
According to a Turkish friend of mine, yours is not an accurate characterization of Turkey. There are still huge problems with democracy, power of the army, corruption, media controlled by people in power, torture, Cyprus, and more. According to him many of these things are worsening -- he is afraid that Turkey is going to go further in the direction of Syria instead of the EU. Telling is the 6 month compulsory military service for all men, except gay men, who are barred from military service and are considered to have a disease in need of treatment by the minister of family affairs. Those who follow the rules (and choose safety over the risk of rape and violence) and disclose that they're gay are asked to supply photographic evidence of enjoyment of being penetrated as proof (being exclusively the active sexual partner is not considered gay). The less lucky have to undergo a rectal medical exam. Additionally on the point of censorship: gay organisations' web sites are being blocked by the government.
Despite improvements in the economy Turkey is not yet fit for joining the EU. Sadly "stuff like the acceptance of evolution" (see below) is one of the least of the concerns.
I am not at all trying to minimize Turkey's real problems. But many of the Eastern European EU states also have some of the same or similar problems (particularly Romania and Bulgaria). In their cases much of the reason given for admitting them to the EU was that membership would bring them closer to European norms. (Indeed, this is an incentive held out by those in Europe who favor Turkish EU membership.)
My point is that all these problems would be easier to ignore or fix if Turkey had 10 million people. At 70 million, they'd have such a strong voice in EU institutions that they'd be as likely to change the EU as vice versa.
I agree the population size is a huge part of the problem, though I think it has more to do with immigration worries than voting-in-EU-institutions worries. There was already a bunch of nationalist ire over the proverbial "Polish plumbers" flooding western Europe and undercutting local labor, once they were fully admitted to the EU with free movement of labor. The prospect of 70 million Turks having the right to move to any city in Europe is much more unpopular than that (and good fodder for anti-immigrant populist parties), because there's more of them, they're poorer, and they're perceived as more foreign. If it were 10 million Turks, there might be more of a chance of getting people to agree.
yep, what GP called "European cultural prejudices" is just a thousand year of direct experience and knowledge that the gradient of how wild and barbaric things become grows when one moves from inside the Europe through East/South Europe toward Russia/Turkey (i need to hand it to Turkey though - "photographic evidence of enjoyment of being penetrated as proof (being exclusively the active sexual partner is not considered gay)" beats a lot of what i could say about my old country :)
IMHO the answer is to show Turkey what they're missing. Open our borders (Canadian specifically, but all ideally) to their mistreated (and those from everywhere else) and let them live happy productive lives.
Accelerate the brain-drain until nothing but the dictator is left, then go back and take over.
The cynic in me sometimes wonders if this argument is used as a red herring, and that there are other issues that need sorting out (involving money and control).
Of course there are control issues as well, turkey has 73 million population and so would instantly be the 2nd largest voting bloc, very likely to become the biggest due to demographics in the future.
It would make sense to have a much stricter standard for accepting large than tiny countries as new members.
Turkey has grown strongly lately, but GDP/Capita is still 1/3 of Greece and 1/5 of Germany. I wish them all the best, but they are still a quite poor country. (and if you look at stuff like the acceptance of evolution (extremely low), an argument could be made that they are quite backwards too)
Related: Are you considering remote employees? There seems to be a trend of the top Rubyists working remotely (that's if you want a top Rubyist, I'm pretty sure you can find a competent Rubyist if you keep looking).
Turkey has a lot of potential Software Engineering talent going to waste...shame there aren't more entrepreneurs looking to harness that unrealized potential.
But there is no mystery! All successful business people have the one same trick. Warren Buffet put it best:
Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.
I mean, can it be said any more clearly? The problem is, much like putting chocolate cake in front of a fat man on a diet, telling a CEO that they shouldn't take the quick buck because staying the course will yield greater returns in the long term...well, I guess you can imagine how well that works.
Thanks for your reply. But I don't feel that has any real bearing on my point. Investing and building a product are two different things. Steve Jobs took a class in calligraphy. He has said that is why the Mac has beautiful typography and that Microsoft basically copied what Apple was doing, so had he not done that, it's likely no computer would have good typography. I imagine that would have been a significant problem and would have seriously hindered the computer industry. It's a "touchy feely" kind of thing -- I mean it's about aesthetics (or more generally what has personal appeal to humans), which often get dismissed as icing on the cake but, in reality, design of that sort has significant value in terms of legibility and therefore ease of use.
So I think it is pretty widely acknowledged that his influence goes far beyond figuring out how to make money. It goes far beyond merely building Apple. Microsoft copied what he did. His value judgment about what was important (with regards to typography) has thus basically influenced 'all' computers. What I don't think I have ever seen anyone explicitly say is that without his insistence on good typography, it's possible computers would have never been popularized to the degree they have been. That's the kind of thing that mere self discipline doesn't fully explain. I think that's the kind of thing which falls in the "mystique" category.
I understand what you are saying...that Steve has the taste and design sense to guide Apple's development process. While I agree that this is true, I don't think this is why Apple has been successful. It's Steve's obsession with perfection that has driven the company; his unwillingness to ship just anything that will sell and make money.
Steve doesn't do it all himself. Even much of the original Macintosh design is probably better attributed to Jeff Raskin, Woz, and Bill Atkinson. Steve is a good showman, and good showmen know to never introduce the stage-hands, but Steve has had plenty.
Now, you might argue that if Steve had zero taste, then he also would not have had the sense to demand design perfection. That may be true. But if you are a CEO of a company today and you are hoping to replicate Apple's success, you would be much better served by cutting your product line in 1/4 and demanding absolute perfection from the remaining products, than by going off to find a guru, take Caligraphy classes, and stare at van Gogh all day...
I understand what you are saying...that Steve has the taste and design sense to guide Apple's development process.
No, that's not really what I'm saying. I'm saying that "celebrities" become celebrated in part because whatever it is they do is to some degree baffling to most people and yet wonderful. That which is baffling is more commonly offensive to people. Baffling but wonderful leads to a sense of mystique. If what Steve did could be replicated by just studying his track record, I don't think Apple would have brought him back. That's a rather unusual turn of events. Firing the Big Boss most often leads to deep wounds of a sort that won't close unless hell freezes over.
I will note I am not suggesting anyone run off and find a guru. I'm a big believer in "if you meet the buddha on the road, kill him". People have to learn to think for themselves. That's where the magic of life happens. That's what leads to the best decisions.
Thanks for your reply. Pleasant conversation is always a good thing.
City's have advantages independent of a location to work. For example, do you know where the individuals with the lowest carbon footprint in the entire USA live?
Clarke was right, about the technology. He was, unfortunately but rather predictably, so very wrong about people's willingness to adopt the technology. Currently, I'm looking to move from one very large city to another, even larger, city and all I want is a job that is willing to let me work remote from my new home. Unfortunately, because the new city is not one of the "blessed" cities where people expect software developers to work, I'm having an extraordinarily difficult time finding a good opportunity.
Even when there is no financial reason, no technological reason, people are still, inherently, unfortunately wary about people working from "just anywhere"...
Thank you for doing the digging for me! I've been hearing all this controversy about overriding 'cd', but when I open a shell (with RVM installed), I still see the following:
I would guess it's a reference to the optional static typing. There's a growing movement behind static typing and functional programming that resembles the movements behind dynamic typing and OOP of a decade ago...