paul nisset

Thanks Randy.
Your point about the hyper scale companies is interesting.

Hi,
After reading a description of Apache Thrift , I am wondering when it would be used ?
In terms of web services ,it seems like it is covering existing ground.

Is it primarily to convert non web service applications into web services ? Reading the description, makes me think of technologies like CORBA .

thanks,
Paul

Thanks David.
The book sounds interesting.

Hi,
I was wondering does Python lend itself to solutions of certain types of problems better than other languages?
ie. best tool for the job ....

thanks,
Paul

There are plenty of good articles that discuss the environmental impacts of BItcoin

Hi Kalle,

I'll check out the articles you posted . I agree traditional metal mining does an incredible amount of environmental damage.
Your points about Bitcoin solving some problems like runaway inflation are good. That is also the rationale behind gold mining. The value of any type of monetary instrument is very subjective. It's worth something if enough people agree its worth something .

cheers,
Paul

Joining a mining pool definitely makes senses.It's an interesting idea .
Whether it's a good use of natural resources/vast amounts of energy to produce a concept of money is another thing.
Thanks .

Hi,

I've read that it is no longer profitable for individuals to mine Bitcoin.
What are your thoughts on individuals getting involved in Bitcoin mining ?
Does the cost outweigh the reward?

thanks,
Paul

Thanks Roberto .  You confirmed my impression that Ethereum is the way to go for general purpose blockchain applications (at least for now).
The platform sounds really cool. I appreciate your clarification of what a smart contract is.
Good luck with the book.

Hi,
I noticed your example App in the book is a voting application .
Is Etherium the only Blockchain platform that is currently mature enough to have an API like Smart Contracts that can be applied to multiple uses other than monetary?
I've always been curious how Bitcoin repositories managed their blockchain .  
thanks,
Paul

Thanks Cole.
I don't think Python would/should be an issue .I just haven't gotten into it yet.
It looks like an interesting book.

Hi,
I was looking at the table of contents of your book .It seems like a pretty accessible book .
I was wondering if knowing Python was a prerequisite for getting the most out of it ?
Is Python the most common language for NLP ?

thanks,
Paul

Thanks Slobodan and Tim.

I sort of get it. I'll check the first chapter of the book.

If AWS Lambda is an example ,it seems like a serverless app is basically a series of functions with independent authentication or accept tokens as a parameter but they don't store session variables in the way that Tomcat might  .

Your application would then be whatever collection of AWS Lambda functions your phone app calls.
-Paul

Hi,
I have been trying to get my head around why a Node website is considered a Serverless application  .
I don't know that much about it but it seems like it ties together resources and directs web traffic ,which is what Apache does.
I worked through a book that used Node, Mongo, Express, and Angular. It seemed that Node served the role of a server in the overall application.
It is software that is running on a physical machine much the way that Apache is software running on a physical machine and both seem to tie together other resources .

Can you explain the difference?

thanks,
Paul

Thanks Cay .
That's useful info.

Hi,

I work on a legacy app and haven't been following the latest iterations of Java.
In your opinion,what has been the biggest time saver in Java from versions  9 to 11?

Has anything fundamentally changed or have the changes just been additive?
For me ,an example of a big change was the introduction of Generics and how that improved reliability and removing the need for casting everything .

thanks,
Paul