The defense tech example mentioned in the article is compelling, but I think the most exciting thing that will come from 3D printing is the ability to print non-organic materials to build materials in space, where transportation logistics are a little more complicated than shipping stuff across the Pacific.
There's many different ways to install Rails and those will always be available whether someone creates an installer or not as long as source code is available. However, there is a combination of Ruby, Rails, and the database choices that serve as its backend which are common for the "Make a new Rails app and ship to Heroku" workflow that should be easier for being so popular.
I'm really surprised Rails isn't just another component in the Heroku toolbelt. The default Ruby version in OS X is always outdated, the database preferred by Heroku (postgres) is also outdated in OS X, and getting the latest XCode or re-installing it to install brew to install postgres and changing the order of execution in the PATH to make sure it picks up the right version is a prescription for despair and angst. RVM only solves the Ruby and gem versioning problem.
I agree that its fast and efficient to use the search box, but its something I rarely see people doing outside circles of sysadmins and developers.
The existing UI can easily be saved by just knocking out the expandable panels completely and just putting all the apps on one panel delineated by category name.
I really want to love the MeeGo Netbook UX and ran it for a month on my Lenovo s10-3t but can't get over its filing-cabinet UI; I can't just get to an application outside of the 6 or so on the quick launch box. You have to click on a tab, then play category bingo to figure out or try to remember which category panel to expand and find it in--and only one can be expanded at a time.
Also, the glittery nonsense on the paint job is sort of horrible. I hate it on my Lenovo netbook too; This is supposed to be a Netbook, not a Twilight character.
The fewer form fields the better. Name, email address, message, and Fifth Element captcha are all I use on my personal website's contact form: http://davidhuerta.me/contact.php
I think "drives them relentlessly forward" is a part of the conversation we're missing out on. Useful feedback can come from anywhere, even an asshole. Waiting for insight from only expert communicators seems like a way to slow down one's progress.
You see it a lot between iOS and Android camps. I get flak from Android fanboys constantly and I don't even use an iPhone. If each system was so perfect, there wouldn't be a need for anyone to prove anything. We're pitted into camps of imperfect systems in which each side is perfectly aware of their side's flaws but avoid the geek-sin of admitting they use something less than perfect by only pointing out everything wrong with the "other side" rather than admitting that everything is broken and telling Google and Apple about it instead.
To offer a possibly way oversimplified theory: In a typical workplace, sexual harassment and random acts of male chauvinism are constrained by corporate culture, so at least from my experience, women can be somewhat comfortable being themselves as paid programmers.
From my experience in open source projects, the number of trolls trolling is quite a bit higher, especially when the primary channels for communication are mailing lists and IRC, which people have an easier time being trolls on due to anonymity and lack of face to face interaction. Not having a boss to yell at trolls for trolling or not having the possibility of getting cockpunched for saying something stupid might be another factor.
This looks like it was a pretty awesome time. Is this sort of thing open to anyone wanting to build something cool? Could I happen-to-be-in-New-York-City my way into the next Music Hack Day?
Its the users. Quora started out as an invite system, so as invites percolated outward from the founders, many Silicon Valley technologists and their friends came into the fold and sort of defined its current culture. Yahoo Answers, on the other hand is full of, well, Yahoo users, and its culture is literally a joke: http://www.epicfail.com/tag/yahoo-answers/
I lived in BFE, Idaho until college and didn't have access to a PC most of my time there, and unfortunately, I had access to zero programmers. My introduction to programming concepts was made through trying to figure out and modify crappy JavaScript snippets on websites in 1999 over a 33.6K connection.
When I entered college, I was surprised that most of my classmates have had broadband connections and better computers for years, but never bothered to do much more than receive email with them.
I sort of disagree. I agree that many kids will spend more time doing things that are immediately satisfying, but I think the values they absorb at an early age have a bigger influence; When I was really young my Mom would take me to museums and sciencey type things; Places established to celebrate achievements that take people entire lifetimes to complete. I suspect that this influenced me to later ignore her advice of playing outside/going to bed on time/finishing homework since I knew those weren't the sort of things that would turn into stories to tell grandkids. I instead spent late nights discovering PCs and the web and dove in and fine-honed my skills with the opposite of praise or recognition (building web apps in Idaho middle/high schools just gets you called a nerd). I am now employed building enterprise-level web apps.
They're not a "bunch," they're like, a dozen. A dozen people trying to make a site work for several millions of people at once. That's no short order for such a small team.