What Open Source projects are similar? It seems like data transformation tasks like this are a universal problem. I'd just do map/reduce, but that's the advantage that comes with being a developer. Great tools for non-developers to do limited programming tasks are incredibly useful.
It's a painful learning curve, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth it. I used to do all my apps in jQuery and was pretty adept at cross-component communication using events. Angular made me think about SPAs in a completely different way, and I'd never go back.
It's very popular to deride a framework or a language because it's too hard to learn. My experience is that I grow as a developer if I can think about problems from different perspectives. As an old professor used to remind us, "It's good for the soul."
As for speed, now that I'm fluent in Angular I can do a lot more in less code. Since Angular is opinionated on structure and there's been a strong community effort toward standardizing architecture and style, the tooling (seed projects and generators) has come a long way in the past couple of years.
You guys make it sound like Bluffdale, Utah is akin to the Mojave. Here along the Wasatch Front the weather's fairly pleasant most of the year. This July we got an abnormally large number of days in the 100s, but usually it's quite livable.
I'm sure it's possible, but there are several other large-ish data centers within a 15-mile radius that don't seem to have the same problems. Ebay just built one that's running off of natural gas fuel cells.
Source: I live about 5 miles away from all of this.
The school I teach at has recently found that women are actually more valued than their male counterparts by employers at the time of graduation. They've been averaging 4% higher job placement and about $2k higher starting salary; 95% and 62k, respectively, for women.
Great technology, but I think it's easy to underestimate the artistry involved in the demo. A great "story" with compelling visuals. Extraordinarily well done.
According to the author and in the context of your comment, what the investors are doing is engineering. Engineers apply known principles to new situations, and in fact the engineering analogy is very appropriate for people looking to invest in and build a company.
It might not be much safer than regular bikes, but electric bicycles are great for expanding the non-car commuting range of the average suburbanite. I ride a scooter-style ebike that has enough cargo room for a few bags of groceries and looks more like a Vespa scooter than a 10-speed. The headlights, tail lights, and turn signals make me feel safer than my mountain bike. Of course, cars don't pay much attention to mopeds or motorcycles either, so it's probably just a psychological safety net.
I'd recommend an intermediary step between free and subscription. Today I'll go there once to check it out and provide a review, but unless you sell me RIGHT NOW I'm gone as a customer.
Maybe it keeps track of my profile (height, weight, age, etc.), but doesn't keep a history of what I eat or what I do. That way I keep coming back to it, and it gets me hooked on using your site.
Or maybe you track my history, but doesn't let me see the reports. Until I'm invested it your site, it's Yet Another diet and exercise tracking tool. With a slick purple interface for setting up my profile.
The easy profile setup is a good way to introduce yourself. As others have pointed out, though, the food and exercise entry is the weak at best. That's the part people will be using daily, and until you have me sold on that feature I can't see myself signing up for a trial account, let committing to a subscription.
[edit] On a side note, at least have a cookie to save the user's profile for 20 minutes. I clicked on the bar graph icon to see what it does, and it promptly erased all the work I'd put in. You're not selling me on the security of my data! :-)
I live in Utah, and drive a scooter-style ebike to work. See (http://www.utahebikes.com) for an example. It's even one step further from a bike because you don't actually have to pedal to make it run.
Some would argue this is one step further down the chain of laziness. I contend that it opens up alternative transportation to a whole group of people who wouldn't otherwise consider it. It's not as "granola" as an old used bicycle that's already made up its carbon footprint, but it's a far cry better than driving.
Plus, the extra cargo space of the scooter style makes it a lot nicer for errands than a bicycle. I've ended up replacing 80% of my car trips with the ebike.
We software developers will have to actually start paying attention to code bloat and performance. We won't be able to count on beefier hardware to run our next round of sloppy hacks!