I have used Cuda\C\C++ for simple pattern matching on fairly large data sets. Keep in mind that there are some performance limitations when using Cuda due to the time required to marshal data to and from GPU memory and when the algorithm requires multiple synchronizations but still the performance is impressive. Keep in mind that Cuda is not the solution for all problems; clever algorithm implemented on CPU only can match or even outperform GPU code in some scenarios. It is fun to play with good old C and different memory types of GPU. Debugging is more challenging and separate compilation that requires two compilers (NVCC and C/C++) is sometimes creating unexpected issues. Finding help on the web is more difficult than with more established technologies. I am using Visual Studio to do all of that on Windows.

All the "comprehensive" libraries in other languages derive from c/c++ if not being just a wrapper around it. They do not offer anything beyond what c/c++ offers and sometimes offer less. The appeal of those languages stems from IDE that takes care of project management and often offer direct access to UI functionality. The problem arises if one needs platform/GPU computing access, anything more complex requiring native code or just plain control over code execution and memory management. In those instances native c/c++ shines.

Look for rising prices.Less competition is never good.

Visual Basic is back

I have Win 7, 8, xp, Ubuntu, Fedora installed but no Win 10. I have checked 10. It is just 8 with new skin. Win 8 comes with emulators for GPU programming and is more useful in this regard. Win 10 has more background services running, uses my storage, bandwidth and CPU to conduct Microsoft business on unpredictable schedule. Therefore it is not even free. It is becoming more of an TV/advertisement box than computing workhorse. Because of that is not my preferred OS now. When they will provide solid, predictable OS then why not.

I am multi OS user/programmer with the exception of Apple products (well I had iPhone at some point if it counts). I was using preview Win10 for testing and did not notice any advantages of this OS. Latest Win OS in use is Win 8(1) (desktop mode only) and I probably stop there unless Microsoft will come back to earth from the cloud. Besides, latest erratic moves from Microsoft are an open invitation for competition to come up with good consumer oriented OS. Let's wait for long overdue change.

I am ok because I have no intention of using it because it is marketing tool and not serious OS anymore.

Fixed, I am not going to use it

Windows is becoming closed development platform and service based platform instead of one time licensing fee. Proceed with caution and look for alternatives if you want be in control over your own computing environment.

Most agree C# is good but times are changing again. First it comes with the overhead of the framework, undeterministic memory management with garbage collectors. Devices are getting smaller and competition on the server side is cutting into profits. Simply put in terms of performance per $ it cannot win on the server side and as mobile app with C++. We are slowly moving to true massive parallelism using GPU computing and it is doable with managed code going through some extra steps to bridge native and managed but why doing it? Modern languages tend to be more verbose. C++ code is terse, impressively logic and amazingly modern and relevant despite old age. C# facilities are nothing more than iteration of STL or Boost. The only advantage is UI but with Web front this is no longer main consideration in choosing the language. C# is evolving and there is nothing wrong with it (I am using .Net extensively) but looking forward, surprisingly, for many applications C# may not be the best choice.

Html5/JS or one of the frameworks that make it easier to develop browser based UI. Aside from cross platform cross device advantage current Microsoft UI solutions can have limited support in the future or be deprecated since Microsoft is in transition now with no clear future direction for old UI stack. You may also check other DB solutions more modern than SQL if they are more suited to solve your problem (along the lines of document DB (Mongo, Hadoop etc.) and not relational DB).

like using Linux kernel with custom UI based on HTML ans JS?

Would Rcpp or RInside help in this situation?

R is scripting language but mostly it is open source library of statistical tests with charting capabilities.It is easy to learn and use. Few lines of "code" (mostly calling library functions) will produce desired answer from simple descriptive stats to complex machine learning tests, signal processing etc. There are more than 4000 packages developed by individuals or universities with documentation. R is easiest to start. Python is slightly more complex and has extensive libraries as well. As with all statistics what really counts is to know which test applies to given problem and what to do with the test results. Both R and Python have lots of free information on the web and extensive literature in bookstores (Amazon).

Does it mean that Oracle wants to discourage programmers using it? Begining of the end of Java?

There are no good uniform standards for commenting code (no intelliSense either) and despite best efforts issues with code comments are missed even by best reviewers. One of the more practical approach is using asserts and exceptions instead of comments. When meaningful comments are necessary I also add time stamp showing comment/code updates.

The problem with comments is that they are often not changed in sync with code updates. Another one is that meaningful comment today is often meaningless tomorrow. I am trying my best creating meaningful comments and this is an art and continuous learning. Similarly I like important declarations at the top but I declare "utility" variables at the point of use.

Try downloading SP3 and installing it. If this does not work there should be a fix for Windows Update on MS site.

It still works after a year so this is not helpful to you. HDDs fail and this is a norm. So far I had few failures over the years with WD (those were suppose to be "industrial strength" etc. but failed). I do not remember if Seagate failed on me but I was once warned about those two.

One sealed box with limited capabilities per customer, one scaled down operating system is the future that MS and other two want to impose on us for many reasons. They will own computer centers and internet backbone and push the content in the form of interactive TV. If the other 5% of users want real computer with real operating system then they have to pay a lot for it. And this is happening when for a price of a tablet I have supercomputer now (CPU + GPU). Why ideas of centralized computing are happening now?