I have to disagree there. If you can follow a recipe, you can make cookies exactly as well as the person at the next station. If you can copy and paste, you can run a program exactly as well as the person at the next computer. But running an identical program is NOT programming, making identical cookies IS baking. If you can find me a job where they want the same program written every day for years, sign me up. I'll return the favor by finding you a place where they want the same burger cooked 1,000 times a day.

Running a program does not make you a programmer any more than making 3 identical trays of snicker-doodles makes you a chef.

I started going to college for my math, physics, and chem as a high-school sophomore mostly for that reason (plus if you're still in high school, most states will pay for college classes if they have no courses to offer you in the public schools). Anybody with sufficient motivation and intellect could go to public grade school, ask "you want me to just memorize this?" and then pass the final the next week (probably forgetting that useless garbage on their way out the door.) In college, even in state schools, you're limited more by professors than courses and seeking out and impressing yourself on worthy professors isn't a huge hurdle.

That said, if you just need enough math to make change, calculate tips, possibly book reservations, and work a register, there's a very large sociological niche for that too. And, if you're good at relating to people, you stand a good chance of excelling in that niche. Different strokes, you know?

How hard would it be for a competitor to come forward with a marketing campaign like, "This phone won't commit suicide if it falls off the bed"? It seems like that would draw a bigger customer base than "This phone will self-destruct."

I'm educated in Math FAR beyond the point that I think I'll ever need to be. In fact, far beyond the point that anyone outside academia needs to be. And I enjoyed very little of it, but was exceptionally good at it. As far as I'm concerned, studying it wasn't to gain knowledge or mathematical skills, it was more of an exercise in mental flexibility. And, despite what I thought at the time, I don't think that studying literature, history, or religious ed., were complete wastes either.

If you try to hide it from everyone, the only people able to access it are the people who want to exploit it and the few who are dedicated enough to stopping it to stray out of bounds to do so. Make it available to everyone who wants access and you'll also get the people who want to stop it without stepping out of bounds.

(I'm one of the lucky few who went WAY out of bounds and never got caught, but learned enough to make a career out of it.)

Smoking? Choice. Drinking? Choice. Eating crappy foods? Mostly choice. Genetics? You're pretty much stuck with what you have. Unless you're proposing some 'final solution', some people just have it rough.

"Next" policy update? This year my company-provided insurance demanded full physicals for me and my wife (not the kids) including 3 vials of blood. That goes for EVERYONE in the company (~3000 in our branch, millions world-wide).

That said, we are insured in spite of the fact that my (very blunt) doctors told me I would likely never leave the hospital. And, if I did, I wouldn't live more than 4 months without a $300k transplant - And it would take 6 months just to get me on the waiting list. That was a year ago last November and at this point they're saying a transplant would be unnecessarily dangerous compared to its benefits. Suffice it to say, the test results may have been accurate and properly interpreted, but the predictions indicated didn't play out as planned.

I never meant to imply that it was OK for somebody to object, just that it shouldn't come as a shock if some people do. This is new enough that people who are vaguely familiar with it are uncomfortable. And pulling out your cell phone to make a call looks pretty innocuous to a bystander. Wearing Google Glass and facing a person could be interpreted (for better or worse) like taking out your cell phone/camera and aiming it at somebody. Probably innocent, not illegal, but possibly awkward.

Imagine chatting with somebody about sports/weather/whatever when you notice a mic sticking out of the top of their shirt. "Wait, are you wearing a wire???" "Yeah, but it's off and I wear it all the time because it comes in handy and I think it's neat." It's OK, but a little weird. Google Glass is even beyond that - Instead of just a wire, it's like having a shoulder-mounted camera pointed at you. Still "fine", but even weirder.

If you're in a bar and you walk up to somebody and shove a camera in their face, even if you tell them it's off, expect some of them to object. In a bar, maybe even overreact.

My thought - Some hungover dude I knew in college and dropped by to sleep one off on my couch can not grant cops the authority to enter and search my home.

"Hi Mittens. My name is Officer Sausage-nose. Just 'meow' and sit there looking confused if it's OK if we come in and take a look around." "Meow?" "C'mon boys, the cat says we're fine."

Dag-nabbit. PITA is either Pain In The Ass or a type of bread. The "animals are people too" group (as opposed to the more rational, "people are animals too" group IMO) are PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Yeah... It does...

However I would submit that anyone using the phrase, "I see a bunch in this one place," would fail the litmus test regarding whether or not he's qualified to diagnose the health of a species.

That sounds like a great idea! Try to adopt out cute fuzzy puppies who are well-fed and well-cared for, maybe and maybe not. But if you start juggling the little buggers - Just watch how fast people run up to snatch them out of your hands!

553-2869. Or 867-5309. It's not like they call and verify before they give you the batteries.

Las Cruces (At least when I was there) had 2. One for RC cars, cell phones, etc. Another one for EE students to buy components that most RS customers would look at and think, "Why would somebody want a metal toothpick? Especially one that flimsy?"