Wouldn't say `let` is so much better than `def setup` as a newcomer. `def setup` is simple and powerful enough and after a while you begin to wonder whether something like `let` exists.
When I learned Rails, I was also learning Ruby. (This was 6 months ago.) (As a matter of fact I was learning what programming really was...)
Learning MiniTest/Test::Unit first I would say is a much better approach because you get to focus on the language, which is at the end of the day, the reason Rails is so special.
I read somewhere that someone decided to teach Rspec because it had "less" metaprogramming than a Test::Unit definition.
But in retrospect, it may have been really easy to begin grokking metaprogramming if we had explained that naming something:
class UserTest < TestUnit::TestCase
would end up looking for the User class because of the way it was written. (I believe Rspec does something like this as well but because it deviates from Ruby...it's harder to explain.)
Aaron's high expectations for himself sure made it hard for him to live up to them and be satisfied with whatever he was doing but....
Nurture plays a role in suicide. In this case, the Feds were definitely trying to stop this beautiful flower from growing.
It was having trouble on his own.
What they should have done, the "appropriate" thing to do, as Larry put it was to cut the weeds nearby and any sick branches he may have had. JSTOR apparently death with it pretty well and tied to cut off the sick branches that Aaron had on him.
No one has gloried the suicide either. He will just truly be missed. AND it is especially sad that he was put in a situation that was blown out of proportion and tried to crush him. It could happen to you.
Say you're in Cancun and some people find you having sex in public and then throw some cocaine at you, trying to accuse you of drug smuggling but it just so happens you don't have the money or the connections to ward them off. (This is everyday life in Latin America)
I can imagine and believe that defending yourself against the US government is costly, what I don't understand is what the breakdown of all expenses would look like.
What services do you need to purchase/hire that you wouldn't get in a normal court case?
Is it because you spend a lot more time in court or in preparation?
Do you need to choose among lawyers with special certification? What type of paperwork do you need to produce?*
In the Latin America (where I am) I could easily see the biggest expenses being bribes and it is in general what I think of when you need a problem solved. (Not a good thing at all...)
P.S. Making an infographic about a case like this vs a regular court case would be an interesting project and could help us make the case for Aaron...anyone want to help by looking for data / making one on your own?
The type of lawyer(s) who can even competently take this case exist in small numbers and are the big law primadonnas that work for $500 an hour minimum. Just interacting with the government prosecutors to get a scope of the charge and starting to build a defense, before one word is said in court, is easily $200,000 (400 billable hours is nothing) in a trivial case and if you really want to win a 'difficult' case, then expect a lot more.
On top of it, your chances of winning are still pretty slim. Meanwhile your prosecutor has the practical equivalant of not only infinite wealth but the support of "terrorism" and "organized crime" legislation and powers that pretty much strip you of many rights and usually lead into freezing of your assets even if you have that kind of money.
While conservatives in America tend to be pretty wacky, from my perspective as a liberal, I do agree with them regarding federal law enforcement being out of control. Perhaps it was justifiable to have these powers when dealing with actual terrorists and mafioso's but they use these very same powers against computer nerds and potheads.
Obama could reform this if he chose to. I hope this story has legs. This is all quite insane.
I unfortuantley do not know how I would even start doing one, but some comments have data like "97% of all people plead guilty" we could see what the average number of time in Jail is, pull out some quotes.
I can imagine and believe that defending yourself against the US government is costly, what I don't understand is what the breakdown of all expenses would look like.
What services do you need to purchase/hire that you wouldn't get in a normal court case?
Is it because you spend a lot more time in court or in preparation?
Do you need to choose among lawyers with special certification? What type of paperwork do you need to produce?
In the Latin America (where I am) I could easily see the biggest expenses being bribes and it is in general what I think of when you need a problem solved. (Not a good thing at all...)
P.S. Making an infographic about a case like this vs a regular court case would be an interesting project and could help us make the case for Aaron...anyone want to help by looking for data / making one on your own?
It would be a lot less confusing if the text from the previous page dissapeared...or if that line that follows you worked not with pages but as a scroll....
Or if the dividing line was twenty times thicker. When pages are narrow, my brain tends to start reading the next line before it is finished reading the first line. Imagine how well this works out for me when the "next line" is not only from the previous page, but currently cut in half by the scroll line.
Yes! That was the 1st thing I thought as well. If you could make the previous text disappear or set it at 30% opacity it wouldn't even ned a divider. I like the way this reads. I'd like to see it as a feature for iBooks / e-readers.
I'm not in college you see. Even though I went for three years and was doing perfectly fine GPA wise, and was on track to a "dream career" with the admiration of everybody around me even though I knew I was not learning very much in school.
I decided to take that another path, where I actually try to measure what I learn beyond the grade inflation that was rampant at school and the mind-numbing pace at which things were offered and the lack of curiosity with which most things (not all) were perused.
I have not rejected my family though, nor their friends, nor any of my friends and everytime I get asked, at least once a week or so (or used to), "What are you studying?"
I tell them, "Nothing."
People don't believe it and usually I am being bullied into going back. (I wanted to say it was a discussion, but these people usually never listen to me.)
Sometimes I get the feeling that I should lie to them, but to do so would be to deny the legitmacy of what I am doing. I usually hope the mention of that comes off with little reaction and we can go on as if everything was ok.
That usually never happens and I have to risk the chance of getting bullied one more time, often by people whom I like and care about. To say something different however, that's out of the question.
A "let's talk about that later" is sometimes considered, but when you say that, the other person ALWAYS gets real curious and wants to ask you again. I'm in Latin America you see, and privacy here is not as respected...
I'm dealing with this all of the time, and I have a go-to solution for you (try it) – bury them in evidence. They aren't trying to argue YOU into something. They are trying to argue THEMSELVES into it, you just knocked their value-system over, after all; they want to KNOW they're STILL OK.
So, give them some more.
"I quit school, didn't seem that important. Oh, and I'm planning on trying the gay thing, seems people are more and more into it, maybe there's something there, my Imam said so himself. Do you have any plans for the summer? I need someone to help me build a base-jumping tower outside the town, and sell tickets."
As long as you're talking they are not. My life is weird enough for me to go on like that for hours, and all of it can be true, too.
