world

Quora: if programming languages were countries …

“If programming languages were countries, which country would each language represent?” over Quora is hilarious! Here are a few bits to get you started:

C – Russia. Everything has to be done in a backwards way, but everything is possible, and there’s a lot of legacy.

C++ – USA. Powerful, but more and more complicated, unreadable, error-prone. Tends to dominate and influence everything.

Haskell – Monaco. Not many people, but very rich, so they don’t have to consider lower classes’ problems.

Java – Sweden. Comfortable, but has its own king and currency.

JavaScript – China. Developing really fast and can do lots of surprising stuff. A lot of users.

PHP – Bangladesh. Poor, but numerous, and it’s found all over the web.

Pascal – Germany. Strict rules, good performance. And there are many people who just don’t like the language.

Bash – Switzerland. Not very big in itself, but pulls the strings of the others.

Awk: North Korea. Stubbornly resists change, and its users appear to be unnaturally fond of it for reasons we can only speculate on.

How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades

“How 37 Banks Became 4 In Just 2 Decades“:

If you were wondering how banks got “too big to fail,” here’s a good place to start. This chart shows us how, over the last couple of decades, 37 banks have became just 4 mega-banks. These same 4 mega-banks have, thus far, been immune to the consequences of any and all of their terrible decisions that places the entire world economy in jeopardy.

Interesting!

How the Internet works

Ars Technica runs a nice overview article “How the Internet works: Submarine fiber, brains in jars, and coaxial cables“. It features plenty of cool images, statistics, and details of the Internet wiring from under the sea to the last mile to the last 100 meters. It’s mostly focused on UK, but it provides a good understanding of what’s involved in the modern day connectivity.

P.S.: On a less serious note, here’s The IT Crowd take on how the Internet works. Thanks to Maxym Balabaev for a reminder.

Global Internet Map 2012

I came across “Global Internet Map 2012” – an interactive map by TeleGeography, via this article (in Russian). If you read the language, check the article for more maps and resources on the subject. Also check my previous posts here and here.

Apart from the absolute visual awesomeness, one thing that struck me in particular is how weird the world looks if you just rotate the map a bit.

Smartphone shipment is flat for the first time

Slashdot runs these two stories, a day apart:

Nobody is dying (yet), but it’s an interesting change in trends. Read Slashdot comments for more insight.