That's partly because by somewhere in their 30s, a lot of the good programmers aren't working for someone else on salary any more. They're working freelance and picking their gigs, or they've founded their own business(es), or they've specialised and now do contract work with a combination of programming and industry-specific knowledge and skills.

In each case, they are probably earning at rates much higher than almost any salaried employee at almost any employer. Notice that in all of these scenarios the rates you can charge are based on real value generated, which doesn't have a glass ceiling the way wages usually do.

Good programmers who are still working for someone else as a full-time software developer at 40 probably have their own reasons for choosing that career path. Those reasons will often mean they aren't particularly looking to move either, and if they are, they're not going to do it by sending out numerous CVs to different employers the way a new grad does.

Who do you think is creating those modern programming languages, kid? :-)

Have you considered applying Occam's razor here? Maybe your hiring process sucks. Maybe the compensation and conditions you're offering simply aren't good enough to attract older developers who are any good. Are these theories more or less likely than entire generations of developers who presumably once had that enthusiasm and aptitude you seem to see in new grads mysteriously becoming incompetent and unmotivated a decade or three later?

You continue to make the same assumption but apparently still without any hard data to support it.

You asked how sites are able to choose not to use Google. I gave you several significant alternative sources of traffic, any one of which might generate more traffic for some sites than search engines.

Whether or not you choose to believe that some sites do in fact generate most of their traffic in those other ways and would continue to do so if Google disappeared tomorrow is obviously up to you. However, whatever assumptions you choose to make won't change the real situation for those sites or make them any more reliant on Google's preferences for their effectiveness.

Sorry but the EU still uses MPG using those old fashioned imperial gallons.

I can install the most recent Windows on Apple computers which Apple won't let you install fairly recent OSX versions on...

Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 on a 2006 Mac Pro, which Apple dropped support for years ago and infact blocks you from trying to install Mavericks on.

At least one can say XP was supported for far longer than the 2006 Mac Pro was.

You mean like all the people on Slashdot that are saying those that do like Snowden are old, out of touch, brainwashed, and clueless?

"That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare."
It is not just the elderly it is everyone that is not really young.

What it could be is older people tend to see more potential unintended results of actions. I have to say that your post is an almost prototypical propaganda tactic of making villains out of those that disagree with you.

And after I posted this, I came across this article from same day as this Slashdot item.

They're not really people anyway; they're just headcount.

That is totally not the answer I was expecting. That's awesome. Thanks.

Chicago? Why?

When I was in Ireland, I never bought another drink once people discovered I'd been to Boston. Which I though was odd, but it made a kind of sense given the large Irish population. It was like a kind of Irish promised land.

What's the Aussie connection to the Windy City?

In my experience (New York State) they tend to side with the employee at the first level of appeal. If the employer contests that decision it goes before an administrative law judge, where anything can happen, though even there they tend to favor the employee in this blue state.

I quit a job once upon a time and secured unemployment. The employer attempted to retroactively impose random drug testing, I asked for an opt-out since it wasn't part of the conditions of employment when I was hired, they said no. I cited the applicable case law with HR, they still said no, so I quit. Won that one at both levels of appeal, found a new job three weeks later, started it two weeks after that, using the interim to take a nice vacation to Finland on the ex-employer's dime. I may have sent them an unsigned post card from Helsinki saying thanks for 50% of the salary for 0% of the work.....

Focus is smaller than the Mazda 6 the 3 is closer and when you add in diesel that is not close to an apples to apples comparison. The Cruze diesel is closer and matches your Focus in MPG

my commute is all freeway with almost no stop and go.
Again this is for me personally.