Interesting article, but I'm no closer after reading it to understanding what a lens is or why I should care. The linked Stanford notes do a much better job of that.
The only reason I have had lately to get annoyed at Python is when one of the guys I'm working with on a project was using an editor where the tabspacing wasn't set correctly. That meant anything that he changed/added led to the script not working. Even though this was an easy change (=G in vim), it's still annoying to think that such a minor issue would completely kill the script.
Of course I prefer Ruby, but that's a whole other can of worms :)
I used git for keeping track of changes to my thesis. Since LaTeX is really just code, keeping track of the changes was pretty easy.
The slightly more novel thing was using it to keep my research articles synced. Lesson learned: downloading 30 or 40 journal articles in pdf form through git on a wireless connection can be very slow.
I actually keep my homework on github. :) And yes, depending on your pipe, downloading all the binaries can be slow. But the ability to have history and synchronization between machines (I probably use 4 or 5 computers on a regular basis) is super nice.
As far as subjective measurements go, it's night and day. Repainting is quicker, pages load faster, content (like images) streams in more quickly onto the screen, and the UI in general pauses less. It helps that they also overhauled the user interface so that it's easier to use, which makes it feel faster even if it actually isn't.
I always speculated that a lot of the random pauses/hangs in the Steam UI were caused by IE, and now I'm fairly certain as most of them are gone in the new one.
I tried using it earlier and it is a lot quicker. The only downside I've noticed is that an individual game sometimes takes up to 5 seconds to load, but I suspect it's my connection rather than the client itself.
You ought to give CyanogenMod a try; it's breathed new life into my G1. I installed it yesterday after my home screen's several-second rendering time pushed me over the tipping point.
It's easier to install than it seems, noticeably faster/smoother, and the Browser and Gallery apps both support multitouch.
