LordKano

I completely agree. In any field of sufficient complexity, 2 years isn't enough time to learn enough to have an informed opinion on reforming it.

Like many others here, I work in IT and that's the kind of thinking that led to every new project being "Ruby On Rails" about 12-15 years ago and every time a new underlying library gets updated, a bunch of code breaks. Meanwhile, C/C++, COBOL and FORTRAN programs from 30-50 years ago are still running the infrastructure of the world.

Newer doesn't always mean better.

Using such language is a guarantee that such an effort will not succeed.

Of course it's important and it's inevitable but calling it an "emergency" would by hyperbole and cause it to be taken less seriously.

When I was an intern, my boss insisted that I learn Perl. I had not yet been introduced to the ways of the monks but I learned quickly.

Perl is still my go-to language when I need to write something quickly.

I have so many purpose driven utilities that I have written in Perl, that it saves me several man-hours of work every month.

That's a fair call-out. I cannot link to any double-blind, peer reviewed studies. I'm referencing only my personal experience and gut.

I'm probably one of those people that you hold in contempt. There are more guns than there are fingers in my house.

I am unabashedly pro gun. I have testified at hearings on behalf of gun owners.

Still, the point I'm making here is that there is something especially troubling about those cops who see themselves as the protagonist from an 80s action movie.

In my opinion, there are 3 types of people who get into law enforcement. 1. People who legitimately want to serve and protect their communities. 2. People who want a steady government paycheck and benefits. 3. People who have a psychological need to be in control of other people.

I post pictures on Facebook of myself and my children shooting guns.

I had one high school classmate who wanted to become a cop. He was a runt who discovered weightlifting and steroids. The thing that kept him from becoming a cop was that he got caught stealing from vending machines when we were teenagers.

It's fantastic that he didn't get to carry a badge and gun.

Considering how many people go into law enforcement because they want to play with military toys without the burdens of military service, it's going to be hard to pull them away from that.

I think that manufacturers are too busy trying to be the Steve Jobs of cars.

They're thinking about making their vehicles look differently than everyone else's instead of thinking about what would work the best?

It's so bad that I'd rather just scan my ID and get a product that contains pseudoephedrine.

Someone that passionate can probably be mentored into the skill set necessary to do the job.

I spent a year at a TA at a University and in that time I had two students who were really stellar. They were outstanding programmers. They paid attention detail and wrote elegant but easy to read code that worked. I took the time to offer both of them my assistance if they needed any help after graduation.

I play video games with one of them. The other one got out of CS and changed her major to something art related.

My favorite Apple related What-If is What If Gassee hadn't been so greedy when Apple was interested in buying the BeOS?

My experience is anecdotal but I have observed that in Pittsburgh, the thing that was accomplished by adding bike lanes was to increase traffic congestion on roads that weren't ruined by the bike lanes.

We could decriminalize marijuana today and watch what happens.

That would free up over 80% of the DEA's budget to go after meth and heroin.

It's helping law enforcement maintain high budgets. The drug war fuels the violence of the drug trade and that violence requires the police be well equipped to handle it.