OS X isn't flat. There is still shading and drop shadows. They just turned down the gloss from 11 to something less overbearing. When the UI gets chromed to the hilt like iOS6 or older OS X versions, it becomes a distraction from the app/content.
Stackoverflow has of a lot of terrible answers that get voted up by people who aren't equipped to evaluate them properly, and closed threads when anyone starts actual substantive discussions. It also suffers from lack of decent rewards for contribution. That's not what I would consider a good community.
I've heard a few people suggest that with single core performance stagnating we may see more ASICs. I admit I'm skeptical, but this line of development does seem worth exploring.
In your example, I don't know SET BAR = 1 isn't the end until I read the next line.