So for a while now I’ve been talking about designing my own variant of C++ for videogames (in particular), but also for software development in general that targets heavy SIMD instruction use, is highly cache aware, and can be used to target specific processor architectures at compile time. The idea is to throw away some of the cruft from C++, and bring in some new features.

I started thinking about this in 2009 (the elements had all been there as far back as 2006, as I’d have long discussions with John Cuyle when we worked at Surreal about language design, and how C++ was basically hitting a wall unless it evolved – some of the features I wanted were really language features). I had a few discussions with Rebecca Heinemann, Adam Schaeffer, Kev Gee and David Tuft when we worked together in ATG about it, and Jason Weiler as well. And for a while I just let it simmer. About 5 years.

Some of this was spurred on by Jonathan Blow’s recent talk where he discussed some ideas that cross its path, and more still by Mike Acton’s recent CppCon talk. So I think it’s an idea whose time has come.

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So I just got a neato little survey in the mail asking me what I thought of Obamacare. It's from CatholicVote, a conservative political action group who are trying to repeal ObamaCare.

But get this - you have to pay $10 to fill in the survey and have your opinion count – even if you disagree with everything in it. And that $10 - as they plainly state on the back page - will be used for their campaign to dismantle ObamaCare.

This is a bit like a double-bind. If you believe strongly in what they're peddling - and this has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with right-wing conservatives trying to drum up their base - then you'll fill in the survey the way they want, and send them the $10.

If you DON'T think the way they want you to think, you immediately disqualify yourself - your opinion doesn't count, and they get to skew their polling.

This is disgraceful double-speak of the highest order. Apparently this survey will be going to Senator Patty Murray, @Senator Maria Cantwell andCongressman Jim McDermott. I hope they completely ignore it.

They're looking for six new senators to repeal ObamaCare. Such a Christian, Catholic devotion to helping others, and making sure they don't end up dying in the streets. Such an amazing ability to help out with healing the sick.

It features choice questions such as:

ObamaCare regulations now require all Americans - including Catholic and pro-Life Americans - to purchase healthcare insurance plans that include abortion-inducing drugs. In other words, under ObamaCare, pro-life Catholics are required to pay for abortions in violation of Catholic doctrine and moral teachings.

Totally factually incorrect, of course. No abortifacient drugs are included under ObamaCare.

As part of the ObamaCare law, even the most minimal restrictions on abortion are being overturned - including partial-birth abortion and prohibitions against taxpayer-funding of abortion. In addition, legal experts also believe that ObamaCare will ultimately require pro-life hospitals and doctors to perform abortions if they are to remain in their medical fields.

Question: Why do you think President Obama and many liberals want to use the power of government to force pro-life doctors and hospitals to perform abortions?

A) Because most doctors won't perform abortions, and the pro-abortion movement wants to maximize the number of abortions in America.
B) Because the pro-abortion movement is honestly concerned about protecting women.
C) Not Sure
D) Other _________________

... of course, this is complete bunk as well. It's completely illegal to perform partial-birth abortions under US law. And no-one is forcing pro-life hospitals and doctors to perform abortions. Right now, they're shutting down clinics which provide those services.

This survey goes on for another four pages of this claptrap. If anyone's really interested, I'll scan it in and OCR it for folks to see. But seriously, it's time to start fighting back against blatant - 1st amendment protected - lying on the part of politicians and their action groups.

It's time to shame them for misrepresenting the truth, and lying to potential voters.

It's time to show them that lying - like you learned as a child - is something that you are given a time-out for.

It's time to treat them like you'd treat any of your friends if they were blatantly lying to you. You show them the door.

Please share this, and please feel free to leave feedback on CatholicVote.org's website - http://www.catholicvote.org/ , or email your local representative and tell them that you won't support liars in politics, and where you stand on these issues.

Or the loudest liars will win.

So, in my opinion, it no longer makes sense to build your own PC (and five years ago, I was on the fence about it).

I've come to this conclusion after spending 10 hours trying to get a Foxconn AT-5570 nanoPC from NewEgg up and running with anything faster than 10MB/s HDD throughput. (From an SSD, no less).

Their download page is broken, so I can't download BIOS updates.

The stock drivers that come with it? Crash Windows 8 on boot.

I had to renew my subscription to DriverAgent to try to fix the mess, and after installing everything, it's still crawling accessing the HDD.

I've now been waiting over an hour for it to install PCMark so I can test it, and the WD Black^2 drive won't partition to unlock the extra 1TB of storage.

Verdict? Abject, utter failure.

Now to decide if I want to cut my losses, or hopefully find another nanoPC or similar which works with Windows 8 and has a 2.5" SATA bay.

People - do yourself a favor. Unless your time isn't important toyou, just buy off-the-shelf stuff. The manufacturers are lousier than ever at keeping your drivers up to date, so if you build your own, you're in for a world of hurt.

As some of you might know, my wife Darci is a Producer over at Camouflaj on the critically acclaimed iOS game Republique.

She's just done her first ever Podcast, so go check it out! It's episode 18. She shows up about 13 minutes in.

The whole idea of having a “fail-fast” philosophy for new projects is problematic in a lot of ways. Here’s the deal: “Fail Fast" is a strategy that only works for about half of the people out there who might be working on a project.

Imagine you were totally omniscient, and could split your developers into two teams based on their character traits and working styles.

Let's call these two teams  Team Burny-Ouchy and Team Cassandra.

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