I hesitate to add to the proliferation of “considered harmful” essays, but this is an important point, and it needs a URL, if only to cut down on the amount of typing I have to do.
The Problem
Try the following code on an empty page, one without any JavaScript libraries added:
var associative_array = new Array();
associative_array["one"] = …
The fact that the Earth has never been a sandwich is probably why things are so fucked up.
— Ze Frank
The recent stream of political items may or may not be coincidental; I honestly can’t tell. But if you’re as tired of hearing about Diebold as I am, please consider a one-time or monthly donation to the Open Voting Consortium. I can think of no better example of a system that would necessitate community-owned software.
Brendan Eich: JavaScript 2 and the Future of the Web. In a nutshell: a bunch of new syntax, optional type annotation, more keywords borrowed from Java, and a huge lurch in the direction of Python. “Standard global properties (Date, String, etc.) immutable” is listed on the “Bug Fixes” slide; if that means what I think it means, I’m gonna be angry.
The technical details don’t even matter here. A company that doesn’t believe anyone would ever try to steal an election shouldn’t be in the voting machine business.
Our country doesn’t depend on the heroism of every citizen. But all of us should be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf. We have to love our freedom, not just for the private opportunities it provides, but for the goodness it makes possible. We have to love it as much, even if not as heroically, as the brave Americans who defend us at the risk and often the cost of their lives. We must love it enough to argue about it, and to serve it, in whatever way our abilities permit and our conscience requires, whether it calls us to arms or to altruism or to politics.
Would anyone be interested in starting a movement to change the standard American telephone greeting from “Hello?” to “The NSA can go fuck itself. Hello?”
Will the truth not be lost in a contrived and deceptive climate? Again, if the truth is allowed to be lost, how can that be reconciled with the earlier mentioned [Christian] values? Is the truth known to the Almighty lost as well?
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