Precisely. Though I consider myself of average intelligence, superior wisdom allows me to avoid costly pitfalls and achieve where others don't.

Example: it takes very little intelligence to read /.; it takes wisdom to know when to use it in the workplace.

Yes! You've explained this better than I could have. I've found using Japanese kanji actually easier than remembering those English spellings. Stupid "i before e" rules with exceptions too long to list, when to use double or silent letters, or forget the e at the end of potato.

And who ever came up with the idea that English letters look like the sounds (outside of 'o')? Let me see, if I form my lips like a double arch and place my tongue vertically under the center, I should make the sound for 'm', right?

Anecdote: I've regularly switched between English (US) and Japanese on my computers at home and at work for nearly a decade (and doing so keeps getting easier). I started learning Japanese in 1999 and found playing with it on the computer helped by adding experience using the language as opposed to just memorizing for tests.

As a multi-language computer user, I've been careful about application design, which has come in very handy these last three years as we've grown to support our services in more countries. Three weeks ago, one of our salesmen forwarded a question from a potential client in Japan. My answer was this simple: "Yes, switch the regional setting to Japanese and restart the program."

The downside is I now get frustrated when I see an English sentence fail to get across some subtle meaning when Japanese has a direct word for it.

but not so high that coffee sloshes from my cup as waves roll by.

If fertilizer for a cherry tree isn't an option, then I want my body converted to oil and used to power a yacht.

I'm no longer working on engineering systems, I deal with more common users on business management software. I have to interact with clients and executives with no clue what a developer actually does.

Constantly, my thorough (that was a painful class) grounding in boolean logic helps me to write concise code.

Often, I use my discreet structures knowledge to split up a my work in to manageable chunks.

Sometimes, my understanding of graph theory to helps me explain concepts to non-programmers.

Rarely, I use concepts from vectors when designing code or describing a concept to another high-end programmer.

I haven't used any basic math above algebra (ex. trig or calculus) since 1990.

Since software updates have to be ready for accounting types on Jan 1, we've been crafting scripts and documentation with 2010 all over them for the past few weeks. It is more likely for me to write the future year in December than the past year in January.

And when they started putting not-quite-right GM parts in them, they destroyed their reliability. Or maybe it was an attempt to bring the traditional 250k mileage cars back down to a respectable 80k. A GM 6-cylinder engine in a Saab ... how rude!

I'm currently on my third Saab. A couple decades ago, I scattered my old Chevy Citation along a guardrail during a snowstorm (one of the few guardrails in these Colorado mountains). I decided to get a safe winter vehicle, and found a used '83 Saab. Quirky, yes; cold, yes; but great control with a crash-cage disguised as a passenger compartment. Turbo is great for getting around trucks in the mountains.

My current Saab 93 is much more comfortable to drive, though their great handling means feeling every bump in the road.

The most recent models (I've driven them as loaners when mine is in for service) have moved the dashboard away from the driver by a few centimeters; enough to make reaching many controls annoying to me. I already knew my next car would not be a Saab. Since I haven't driven anything other than Saabs (and my father's Subaru Forester) for all these years, I don't know what I'll get. Hopefully by the time this one costs too much to maintain, nothing current will be sold anymore.

Cowboy Neil options on /. polls than in 2009.

After spending 2 weeks in southern Egypt with my cousin, we returned to my Aunt's place in Cairo. She was still at work when we arrived, so we went to a European hole-in-the-wall a couple blocks away. The tomatoes and spices for toppings were pretty good, but it ranks best mostly because it was the first wheat-flour product I'd had in 15 days.