Well, the article itself is not discussing the merits of Kindle Voyage so the comment looked out of place for me. And certainly marketing via internet comments is a thing, even on HackerNews. I think it's called "integrated" marketing, or whatever the current newspeak for that one is. Regardless my comment was mostly made tongue-in-cheek
What is surprisingly here is that the reality conformed to reasonable expectations. For a country that has witness too many violations of the democratic process, this is huge.
The article mentions that the framework avoids creating python datastructure (e.g. A dictionary to read HTTP headers) to improve benchmark performance. It's a clever trick, but I am unconvinced that A less-than-simple application will demonstrate performance anywhere close to what was claimed in the article.
Scripting is rarely about syntax. It's about being able to load code dynamically, being able to create ad-hoc data structures, quick changes and distributing executables as source rather than binaries.
I've adopted a rule where I try to replace a sentence, thought, or expression with, "That's different from how we do things right now," and then try to see if it changes the meaning of what was actually said. Mostly, this is useful when the comment serves to justify shooting down another idea.
"We can't do things that way, because we do things a different way", is something that many people will automatically recognize as a bad argument if you put it that way. (It's in the same bucket as, "Well, nobody has ever complained before.") But anyone—even by accident—can end up using this argument while saying different words. The effect is that it comes in a different package that's more difficult to spot. In the end, though, it's the same invalid discussion killer.
Anyway, that's a lot of exposition. What I came here to say is that your comment is tripping the filter for me right now.
What's inappropriate about a fast development feedback cycle when doing embedded programming?
The answer is nothing is wrong. Some form of shell, stack or scripting language is a super useful tool in the prototyping stages. It might not meet timing requirements for a final system, but at the beginning of a project it's great.
All of these which are very appropriate for a company who wants to sell hobbyist kits to kids who already know JavaScript, so they can built IoT toys quickly.
I understand your point. These tools aren't appropriate for serious embedded systems, but they're also not meant for them. They're meant for people who want to have fun and want to play with things quickly.
Agreed that on-a-whole JS is not appropriate for embedded devices. However allowing scripting may be useful in particular pieces of the code, to allow easy extension / customization.
I recall that very much the same opinions were expressed about the JS and backend programming, until node.js appeared. Now the reality is different.
To be honest, we do not think that JS is a good language for embedded. Like any other existing popular scripting language. Perhaps scripted Go would be a better choice.
The point is that in many, many cases scripting brings a lot of benefits to the embedded environment. It all depends on a specific tasks - for some tasks, scripting will never be appropriate.
Relational databases are not simple systems as you say, but they do seem to me simpler to use - especially in the 95% case where a single, large enough machine hosting postgresql/mysql is entirely sufficient.
Key-value stores are "easy", but what I think isn't easy is to reduce your business domain to a simple key-value model without sacrificing promises and gaurantees offered by a good relational database system.
There is a hint of irony to this. Many Koreans (especially the younger crowd) views Samsung-like chaebols with disdain not unlike many have towards Wall Street, and yet getting an offer from one of these companies is a dream come true.
It is perhaps ironic, but not surprising. Familiar human nature shouldn't surprise anyone.
I'm a damn lib, but a year or so ago, a fellow graduate student left to become a VP at JP Morgan (he's a well connected fellow). I was damn well tempted to follow him but I eventually decided against it.
Is there a name for an exploit where a malicious client requests rarely-accessed contents that has been tucked/compressed away in order to overwork their server?
Most large web services today would die a horrible death if someone pulled off an effective cache pollution attack.
For example, if a piece of client side malware, for every Vimeo video a user views, loads in the background a random rarely viewed video, it would probably lead to days of downtime.
