I don't see what all the fuss is. A good craftsman could build a house no matter what hammer he chooses. Don't be such a snob about insisting that hammers must have heads to drive nails, just because all the hammers you've used before happened to have them.
Interesting angle, I've never seen someone come at it from the POV of the shareholder. If you're unhappy as a shareholder with HBO's strategy, I can understand that. Do whatever shareholders do in that scenario, I guess. (Vote? Sell?)
From the consumer side though, HBO has no obligation to do what a bunch of people on the internet who think they understand HBO's business better than HBO does think they should do.
I know. I don't make any bones about this HDCP stuff being bullshit. They are screwing their own, paying customers. That's terrible.
It's just that I really have no time for this entitled attitude that content owners are obligated to sell their wares to us when we want, how we want, at the price point we want.
I don't find it to be good for much besides keeping track of podcasts. I never saw the appeal of "syndicated content" (blech), I'd rather read websites. Very few people use it when rolled into the browser, it's better off implemented in extensions and standalone apps.
But anyway, just to clarify, I mention that these apps exist because it could completely throw off the numbers as to how many "Kindles" (or "Nooks") there are in a given city. What if SF has tons of people reading Kindle books on their iPads? These devices can't be considered pure competitors to the Kindle (or the Nook), and their numbers are way, way too big to simply disgregard.
iOS and Android have a Kindle app, which means every iPhone, iPad, and Android device can also be a Kindle. This fact is conspicuously missing in the analysis.
Oh, stop. I'm tired of hearing about "smug" being the worst thing ever. Too easy to toss this insult around.
Instead, personally my issue with functional programming is the aversion to side effects. It seems to cause a lot of weird contortions, when the whole reason we make software in the first place is for the side effects. Programming in a functional style brings with it a lot of wonderful, powerful ideas. But that one has always struck me as unfortunate.
Your worldview differs from that of others. This happens a lot, no need to get all upset about it. "501 Developer" means absolutely nothing outside a very small group of people -- try not to sweat its significance.