Show me the PCs running anything but Windows
Show me a PC customer who wants anything but Windows or OSX on their desktop/laptop.
Microsoft never made it on merit..
Since Windows NT 3.51 Windows has been, by some margin, the best desktop operating system out there. Nobody else has come close. So, what lack of merit is this you are speaking of?
Most people are blind (and morons too, but that's another discussion). I'm not. Neither is anyone with a mild interest in photography or art. The fact that morons will buy snake oil, believe in astrology or Jesus and feel better when taking homeopathic medicines doesn't mean that peddling BS and charging for it is OK, nor does it mean that people that do not buy into BS like 42" UHD screens are snobs.
In reality there is a significant difference between up-scaled content and native HD. It's there, it is not only measurable, but it is easily visible. If the blind morons don't see it, they need to be educated. Same as with Jesus and astrology.
to untrained eye, a good upscaler will typically look almost as good or just as good as source material
No, it will not. That's not even theoretically possible. An upscaler simply can not add information that isn't there. I have worked with both real-time upscaling and non-real-time, which is significantly better since it can spend a lot of time analyzing and trying to add detail. I have never seen any upscaler able to come close to the original material. Not from SD to HD nor from HD to 4K.
Notably a lot of "native HD" content out there is in fact upscaled in production.
That depends. If the material is of recent production it is not, it is downscaled either from 4K or 8K. If the images were available in decent quality on film, it is probably scanned at 4K and downscaled to HD. To see the difference, get the Blue Planet series, watch the Seas of Life part. Most of the Blu-Ray is filmed on film, scanned at high quality and down-sampled to 1080p. Most of the under-water scenes are shot in SD. To me, the transitions from HD to up-scaled SD material is jarring. Very jarring. Others do not notice.
Get a modern DVD player with a good upscaler
I own several of the very, very best ones. They can not touch "native" HD material. Not even close. I also shoot quite a bit in 4K and down-sample that to 1080P. 4K down-sampled to 1080P blows material that is shot in 1080P out of the water. The quality difference is staggering. At 1080P.
I was in the same boat as Anonymous Coward GP. My company paid me the same as regular workers, the lawyers were working hard to get me a Green Card (and I did get one too) etc. The H1B scare on
Given the rate we are reproducing we will run out of resources as well as overpopulate ourselves into a corner well before we are done in by global warming
Seriously. You still believe the population explosion myth? You need to read a publication on the issue that is newer than about 1970.
Note that usage of "floor/story count" for buildings varies from place to place
Nope. The naming does, but the count doesn't. In my end of the world the first floor is the lowest you can get (unless there is a basement) but in the UK, the first floor is my second floor. We'd not disagree on the number of floors though.
Now your boss
First, I'd recommend (futile, I know) you RTFA. Or at least what was posted here. The "Now your boss" isn't particularly relevant to a high-school student.
wants you to get your program running on a Mac. Or a Unix box. Or a Linux box. Or anywhere that isn't Windows....
You haven't been paying attention.
I totally disagree with you. I strive to learn a new programming language at least once a year. I also re-visit an old "friend" at least once a year. I have no need to "ditch" anything to learn something new.
For my daily work I do Java, C# and JavaScript mostly, and just because I have done some pet projects in Ruby doesn't mean I had to "ditch" C#. I can fit more than one programming language into my brain, but I can not be an expert in too many, obviously. Since C# and Java are syntactically more alike than different, and Google has all the standard Framework questions, I consider those two a single language, so switching between them is basically a noop.
So, if I only program in Java/C#/JS, why learn Ruby, Python or D? Simple. Every time I do a project in Ruby, I become a better Java/C# developer. If I brand into F#, I become a better JavaScript/Java/C# developer.
If I am in the process of hiring someone, if they have programmed in a single language for an extended period of time and do not have enough information to talk more or less intelligently about at least two other programming languages, I will recommend against hiring them. To me that is a far, far, far more important test than having them solve some retarded made-up programming related problem that they could find the solution to on Google in less than 30 seconds.
What hath Bob wrought?