@lucky760 -
I still think Judge is actually presenting the situation pretty accurately. If you look up online forum posts about tabs vs spaces, the file size thing is brought up as a pro for tabs very regularly.

While it is technically true, you're right that it doesn't make much sense because the difference is *tiny*, so conforming to the standard of wherever you are working is vastly more important.

BUT, that doesn't stop individual programmers from being (irrationally) passionate in their preferences.

Another dynamic that is (correctly) displayed in the show in my opinion is the difference between a big corporate environment, working as an individual in a large team of programmers as compared with having a project that starts out as a the brainchild of one person and grows into a small team.

The show is about the latter. In that scenario, a programmer / software engineer ends up trying to also be a manager of a team, in spite of the fact that he isn't really built for it. In a big corporate environment, they are well aware that style issue conflicts can turn into big time wasters unless they set out guidelines clearly at the outset. But that sort of micro-managing is NOT what a pure engineer type is comfortable doing.

Basically, I think that tabs vs spaces is completely a personal preference issue if you're working alone OR on a small team that don't interact with each other's code much. And even on a large team, either choice is fine BUT it becomes important to conform to the standards of the team as a whole.

The "Friendship is Magic" series is really well done. It's the brainchild of Lauren Faust, who was a writer and co-developer (with her husband) of the popular "Powerpuff Girls" series. The show manages to provide lots of moral lessons (like how to constructively deal with major disappointments, self-esteem issues, conflict with friends, etc.) that are directly relevant to young girls without ever becoming preachy. It's one of those shows that occasionally contains pop-culture references that may fly over the head of your child but will make you as a parent chuckle. My 4-year old daughter loves it--she specifically requested a Rainbow Dash plush for Christmas and we were happy to give it to her because we really appreciate the care that goes into the cartoon to help young girls develop positive self-images.

Frankly, there's lots of good quality animations for kids these days that are enjoyable for adults to watch as well. We love to watch Peppa Pig, Octonauts, Paw Patrol, Doc McStuffins--even Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse (which contains a surprising number of Star Wars references).

This isn't an exercise in engineering so much as marketing.

The pneumatic motor is limited by the extreme lack of energy stored in compressed air. All inneficiencies in translating that stored energy into motion are failures in the system. The goal is to carefully remove all unnecessary sources of energy loss from the motor.

So there's an interesting engineering challenge in making this work 'at all' using Legos. There are design compromises that must be made, given the restrictions on form imposed by available parts; as well as the stress limitations of the material. It's like someone giving you a pile of reeds and asking you to build a Manhattan 5-Story Walkup. Can it be done? Is there enough stress resistance in the material for something of that scale? A fun challenge with no practical implications. Manhattan low-rises have been built before, you're not innovating architecture and you're definitely not contributing anything to the future of construction.

The question is, does it require a "technology genius" to accomplish? Someone tell me what a "technology genius" is first. Whatever it is...I suspect you don't need one on your team in order to search the internet for pneumatic piston motor schematics and copy/paste a parallel series of 256.

This exercise is inspiring and fun...until you add the marketing entrepreneur, casting hyperbole around and spending other people's money. It is unsettling to think that the new generation of capitalists are chasing the specter of Elon Musk; self promoting egotists who create nothing and take credit for everything. As a longtime member of the internet in good standing, I reject every stealth intrusion of marketing and entrepreneurship into my sandbox.

Hooray for Raul Oaida, engineering buff and hobbyist. Down with Steve Sammartino, marketer, entrepreneur, "brainchild" originator, keeper of secrete locations, crowd funder, project contact and fathead.

Actually, this is a stolen bit.

http://youtu.be/8pZUiAEw5eQ?t=3m53s <- Original by Bruce Bruce
(Linking isn't working for some reason.)

This was him on stage at Just For Laughs in 2005, and I'm sure he'd been using the bit earlier then that. I just haven't seen his 2003 special.

Even then, the bit may not originate from Bruce Bruce.. but It's definitely not a brainchild of Carell.

Corporations and 'market forces' are how we got here. I know that by admitting that, you'd have to tear down your entire belief system and start over from scratch, and that's a lot to ask of anyone. I've got no problems attempting to treat the numerous symptoms, but this kind of shit is going to continue as long as big business is in the drivers seat.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Who said anything about them being the "brainchild" of Obama? You're stuck in that fallacious bipartisan thinking. Just because I've got a beef with Obama doesn't mean I an absolving Bush of his atrocities. But he's not "in charge" anymore, so to insinuate that these porno-scanners are in place now because of Bush's Administration is a fallacious and disingenuous argument. Let's go over the finer points:

First, the TSA today is under the purview of the Obama Administration, so anything it does is the fault of that administration. Period. The chain of command works like this: TSA > Department of Homeland Security (DHS) > Janet Napolitano > Obama. When Obama is no longer the president, then the TSA will be the responsibility of the new Administration... and so on.

Second, more porno-scanners are being added under Obama.

Third, the "enhanced security procedures" are being added under Obama. This includes touching of groins and the added frequency of the porno-scanners.

Fourth, Obama even admits the buck stops with him.

Lastly, Obama ran on a platform of "change". That change was meant to "correct" the ills of the previous administration, including the Bush Doctrine, FISA, the Patriot Act, and domestically the DHS. It hasn't been corrected. It's gotten worse.

Who said anything about them being the "brainchild" of Obama? You're stuck in that fallacious bipartisan thinking. Just because I've got a beef with Obama doesn't mean I an absolving Bush of his atrocities. But he's not "in charge" anymore, so to insinuate that these porno-scanners are in place now because of Bush's Administration is a fallacious and disingenuous argument. Let's go over the finer points:

First, the TSA today is under the purview of the Obama Administration, so anything it does is the fault of that administration. Period. The chain of command works like this: TSA > Department of Homeland Security (DHS) > Janet Napolitano > Obama. When Obama is no longer the president, then the TSA will be the responsibility of the new Administration... and so on.

Second, more porno-scanners are being added under Obama.

Third, the "enhanced security procedures" are being added under Obama. This includes touching of groins and the added frequency of the porno-scanners.

Fourth, Obama even admits the buck stops with him.

Lastly, Obama ran on a platform of "change". That change was meant to "correct" the ills of the previous administration, including the Bush Doctrine, FISA, the Patriot Act, and domestically the DHS. It hasn't been corrected. It's gotten worse.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

^I think it's better when you do. Leave the insults and bullshit behind, and deal in facts.
These machines were not the brainchild of Obama, and for you to imply they were is dishonest. If you want to talk about corruption, and Obama getting cozy with scanner CEO's, I'm down with that. My big problem with you is that you are either unwilling or unable to see these same corrupting market forces in your own ideology. Over the last few decades of deregulation and increased market influence over our politics, things have gotten drastically worse. Markets have proven that they are neither efficient or just, and they have zero to do with liberty.


I have been dealing in facts. In no way did I mean to imply these scanners were his brainchild. I'm not even sure that's relevant to anything. My point is simple: currently, the TSA is under the Obama Administration, and these pat down procedures and recent additions of more porno-scanners has happened under his rule.

Therefore. He. is. Responsible.

Pointing out anything Bush has done is disingenuous because Obama ran on a platform of "change", so shouldn't he be "changing" the Bush policies instead of worsening them? Or are you okay with his lies as long as people like me aren't here to rub your nose in it?

These things were not the brainchild of Obama, and for you to imply they were is dishonest. If you want to talk about corruption, and Obama getting cozy with scanner CEO's, I'm down with that. My big problem with you is that you are either unwilling or unable to see these same corrupting market forces in your own ideology. Over the last few decades of deregulation and increased market influence over our politics, things have only gotten worse. Markets have proven that they are neither efficient or just, and they have zero to do with liberty.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Wut up, playa? Yo dawg, just wantin' to know wut up wit yo ass? You be tryin' to throw this tsa shiz back on Bush 100%, which I ain't defendin' that punk muthafucka, but dawg you do be knowin' that Obama got that Napolitano pussy on lock down.

Them dick slaps you be gettin' at the gate ain't muthafuckin' Bush, y'all. They be fucking Napolitano's shit up on your Bush, if you feel me. Shit. If she feels me. Know what I'm saying, dawg?

And you know that bitch ain't getting rid of them muthafuckin' nudy scans of your white ass, cracka muthafucka.

^I think it's better when you do. Leave the insults and bullshit behind, and deal in facts.

These machines were not the brainchild of Obama, and for you to imply they were is dishonest. If you want to talk about corruption, and Obama getting cozy with scanner CEO's, I'm down with that. My big problem with you is that you are either unwilling or unable to see these same corrupting market forces in your own ideology. Over the last few decades of deregulation and increased market influence over our politics, things have gotten drastically worse. Markets have proven that they are neither efficient or just, and they have zero to do with liberty.

I believe actually that this was the brainchild of basil marceaux

Fantastic work, folks! Every change here is for the better, in my opinion.

Campionidelmondo: The new UI looks beautiful!

Lucky760: I cannot imagine how many long nights of coding you have invested, and my brain hurts just from trying. Rest assured that they were well spent.

And Dag: It must be a fantastic feeling to see your brainchild evolve like this into the best community on the web. Know that we appreciate all your hard work.

Much more interesting than TYT, the realnews, and other such divertimento....Who's brainchild/death sentence is this????

Hopefully this fervor and enthusiasm will have an effect, and the same amount of energy will be directed towards national protests of the U.S. political system......this election year is about as fucking contrived and illusory and as effective at achieving unilateral results as Hubbard's brainchild.....

Why you people sip on your capaccinos and think how great it would be for these poor kids to get a laptop, oh what wonderful things we could accomplish in this world, I am thinking realistically. Maybe its just my corporate business sense kicking in. So chastise me for having an opinion that differs. Farhad seems to be on the right track.

I thought surely someone has more insight than myself into this so I did a quick google search and found this among other things:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2227850,00.asp

"This machine, which is the brainchild of onetime MIT media lab honcho Nick Negroponte, will save the world. His vision is to supply every child with what amounts to an advertising delivery mechanism. Hence the boys at Google are big investors.

Before you cheer for the good guys, ponder a few of these facts taken from a world hunger Web site. In the Asian, African, and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty." Every year, 15 million children die of hunger. For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for five years. Throughout the decade, more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well fed, one-third is underfed, and one-third is starving. Since you've entered this site, at least 200 people have died of starvation. One in 12 people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. Nearly one in four people, or 1.3 billion—a majority of humanity—live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. Let's include Negroponte and the Google billionaires.

So what to do? Let's give these kids these little green computers. That will do it! That will solve the poverty problem and everything else, for that matter. Does anyone but me see this as an insulting "let them eat cake" sort of message to the world's poor?

"Sir, our village has no water!" "Jenkins, get these people some glassware!"

But, wait. Think of how cool it would be! Think of how many families will get to experience the friendly spam-ridden Information Super Ad-way laced with Nigerian scams, hoaxes, porn, blogs, wikis, spam, urban folklore, misinformation, sites selling junk from China, bomb-making instructions, jihad initiatives, communist propaganda, Nazi propaganda, exhortations, movie clips of cats playing the piano, advertising, advertising, and more advertising. Do you now feel better about the world's problems, knowing that some poor tribesman's child has a laptop? What African kid doesn't want access to Slashdot?

Of course, it might be a problem if there is no classroom and he can't read. The literacy rate in Niger is 13 percent, for example. Hey, give them a computer! And even if someone can read, how many Web sites and wikis are written in SiSwati or isiZulu? Feh. These are just details to ignore."

I say, lose the comment voting-I only care what folks think, when folks who think, care to defend a particular point, or otherwise express themselves, -another's reaction or retort, is enough-the thread will reveal this.
You can't stop an asshole, we're all potentials...and if you can't recognize, that everyone has the same, for a dynamic range, including thoughtful, sympathetic, true, false, meaningless, etc., if a letter is needed, scarlet or otherwise, to show the world, well....Live in fear of an anonymous group of bloggers, throwing a wrench into the brainchild???-It's fear that kills.

Think of how effective, the thumbs up or down is on youtube.....it's simply, another doo-dad to ignore-look at the comment threads on Neatorama-they stay rather civil, while musing about, the goofy and strange-Politics, religion??? You will always have a range, when these topics are put forth.