Yes, I too was amazed how a generation of young people (along with a lot of older people who should know better), all catapulted a Chicago Machine politician with almost no business experience and who thinks like a college sophomore into the highest office in the Land, not realizing that his agenda was not some kind kind of cool "New Left" ideology made in the Apple I-Phone era, but rather, policy written back in the 1970s, and with the rubber stamp of approval from cynical unions and special interests (the teachers' unions, trial lawyers, etc.). I was truly shocked as someone who lived in Chicago, that people could be this damn naive and think that any Democrat from Chicago could possibly be uncorrupted by the "Machine".
Now to the book: I have not read the entire thing, but read a good part of it. The chapter on health care is very timely, now that Pelosi and Obama have rammed through their health care "agenda" using parliamentary tactics not seen in America since the robber barons of the 1880s (perhaps Hugo Chavez's Venezuela would be a better example). The author asks, "what would happen to your auto insurance if insurers were not allowed to charge anyone any more than anyone else, and had to accept everyone ? Well, of course, your policy would become much more expensive, and that is exactly what will happen with health care.
Mattera demolishes the "40 million uninsured" argument, showing that most of them have access to insurance, but just have not gotten around to applying for it. Solution: force them to !! Many of the uninsured are not even American, they are illegals from Mexico. And many make over $50,000 a year. Some just choose to buy a Blackberry instead of insurance. So the "solution" is going to be to force that 23-year old waitress to pay $ 2,500 a year for insurance, all so the 65-year old doesn't have to pay $ 7,000, but rather, $ 5,000. EXACTLY. It is a WEALTH TRANSFER FROM YOUNGER AND POORER PEOPLE TO OLDER, RICHER PEOPLE. Duh ! Meet the new Left !
All of this is just too predictable, but the author does a very good job of presenting good "talking points", all within a book structure that is fun to read (unless you are a lefty, of course), and humorous.
Just remember: Obama is from the "Machine", and nothing he is proposing was not already tired and worn out in 1977, from wind mills to bullet trains to "talking" with dictators, to underfunding our military. It is just that now that "Mr. Rock Star" is presenting it, the MTV generation has been duped into being zombies, that it will all work just like they drew it out on the whiteboard at Harvard.
is always difficult because the audience is varied. The readers will range from complete newbies who have never written a program before to experts in other technologies writing their first web pages, or perhaps even experts in other web technologies using these technologies for the first time.
, MySQL & JavaScript perhaps goes a bit fast for someone with no programming experience whatsoever, but does not assume expert programmer status. 
is in the genre of secret histories/societies, a hidden artifact, etc. Given that the genre has had so many entries in the past few years, I didn't expect much from this book, and thought I'd probably read a dozen or so pages and then toss it down.
might fit, as would any smaller, normal phone. The other thing I would like to see is a small outside pocket (w/ zipper and flap) on the back. The most used and opened pocket on the backpack is the top compartment between the two straps. However if you have the pack attached to your roller bag, you can't access that compartment very easily.
, this might have been a sore spot when trying to understand JAX-RS -- the Java specification that outlines an API for building REST apps using annotations.
, do provide fairly helpful user guides, the specification provides a wide-ranging set of capabilities and neither sufficiently conveyed the breadth of these, in my opinion. But now there is a new resource in the form of Bill Burke's RESTful Java with JAX-RS
from the ground up and includes a full workbook in the second section with complete examples. The examples are included with the download of RESTeasy
but also details how to add in custom handlers. While I don't know how much this will get used in practice given the ubiquity of JSON and XML, I suspect for those few who really need to supply their own data formats or who want to replace the built-in handlers will be more than happy to see it covered here.
for client and server applications that meet performance, scalability, reliability, and security goals, no matter what programming language and development framework you use. 
available.
offers practical steps for building rock-solid applications that remain effective even as you add features, functions, and users. You'll learn how to develop large web applications with the extreme precision required for other types of software. 
with Get Seen.
do things differently and eschew standard business practices. It works for them and it probably can work for others (but not for every business). The 90 short chapters struck me as similar in style and tone to the 81 gems of the Tao Te Ching. But like the pull of the Ying and the Yang, there are some contradictions in Rework. For example, they tell us that immediately starting work on a new great idea is a 'bad move'. Yet the final chapter tells us that 'if you want to do something, you got to do it now."
has lived up to expectations, based on my first few weeks of experience. I use it for jogging/walking and it appears consistent and accurate based on about 10 outings of 6 mile length.
2017: The Year of Golang
7 years ago
