Unfortunately, C# suffers from a sort of fragmentation where every year there's something new and fresh with it. Even though you and I, as developers in the wild, understand that this "fragmentation" is a bunch of hype and circumstance where the underlying base and syntax hasn't necessarily changed much over the past 3 years, the technologies around it have changed significantly.

To give an example, just today we ported an in-house app that is a tool to help with debugging that was updated at the very end of 2013 and ran on Server 2008 no problem to a new environment running Server 2012. Just about 2 weeks over a year after its last rewrite, it took about 20 minutes to install "legacy" packages on the server where it could be shoehorned in as Network Service .NET 2.0. Our other option was to take another 2 weeks (minimum) to completely rewrite (average 2 days writing and testing) and implement (the remaining time satisfying the red tape of the business) the application where it could run as Network Service .NET 4.0. Not something economical for what is essentially an R&D prototype system at this step.

Other examples are abound... Such as our desire to update several of our apps to take advantage of new features in MVC 6... but other features that we relied on in MVC 4 and MVC 5 broke, so there's a heavy need to develop work arounds or find "the new way to do it" (tm). Also, management wants us to implement Entity Framework 6 for our new database connections rather than use LINQ as we had been...and as we have time, update some of our older and more critical applications to make use of these new frameworks as well. And just wait for the next round of "Oooh Shiny" that we are going to want to make use of this year.

The technologies packed around C# and .NET in general are targets that move so fast that if you're out of the game for 2 years, even though you could probably pick up and run with the new stuff within a week or less, you're likely going to be competing with hundreds of applicants that are fresh and in the game with the current tech already and will (in theory) be off and running on the first day at their desk.

If you want to have a language background where you can take 2-5 year hiatuses from it and still maintain a decent demand with it, learn straight C/C++ and COBOL. Where I work I command among the highest programmer salaries in my department not because I'm good with the current tech and keeping up with it (my perf reviews have always indicated this to be true), but because I save my team from having to submit a WorkRequest to the Mainframe Developers for quick batches. My team can tell me what they need and I can submit my time bid and process to the Datacenter Operators in half the time with only one sheet of paper used for signoffs and approvals(instead of 5)... just because I can actually write COBOL (apparently hard to find in anyone younger than 40 these days, and our last COBOL Programmer is slated to retire in 2018).

Did Terry Goodkind take Astronomy?

Your handle fits you.

Here's how the real world works instead of your bubble of entitlement: If I want to fill my pool using 50 Gallons/second flow instead of the 10 Gallons/minute flow that comes out of my regular tap, I'm going to be calling my Fire Department to schedule a time for them to come out and fill my pool from the Fire Hydrant(service not available in all municipalities YMMV) ...WHILE PAYING A PREMIUM PRICE!

If I want to serve up Gourmet Russian Caviar coated Sushi instead of pigs in blankets at my next party, I will be PAYING A PREMIUM PRICE!

To your scenario... if I want just enough bandwidth to check email and surf a few pages, 1.5 megs is more than plenty and I'll pay for that basic service (btw, the minimum package my ISP even offers is 6 megs down for $50/mo which already blows away this whole hypothetical situation anyway). If I decide that I want to watch Netflix, then I have to weigh the added costs of the subscription plus the added bandwidth and determine if it's worth it. If it is, then I have to PAY THE PREMIUM! If not, then I don't need Netflix anyway. Because I use my Internet for occasional telecommuting when I'm on call, Gaming services for 3 people, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime subscriptions, as well as significant downloads for various projects I work on, I pay for the second highest tier that my ISP offers. Because I consume more, I PAY MORE! I'm lucky in that my ISP (Cox Cable) locally does not throttle, holds a very high soft cap (they will not cut off or throttle my connection just because I went over, but they will give me a notification that usage was a bit heavy... and instead of cutting service for continuous excessive usage, they add an additional amount to my bill for the overages (unless I opt for them cutting service at a hard limit. My choice)), and lets me manage my network in the way I want and run whatever services from home on whatever ports I want to use without a fuss, even providing me with a public IP plus the option to PAY for additional IP addresses if I wanted to have several computers fully DMZ'd.

The point of all of this is one simple fact: If you want something, you are going to have to pay for it. That's it. You Want, You Pay, or You No Get. Expecting a company to pay you for the privilege of connecting to their services is a laughable notion if I've ever heard of one and is the mentality of those who wind up on the wrong side of the law very often...and never learn. Lose the entitled attitude, jackass

I'll give you a hint: In Linux, everything is a file that can be read from with the right permissions... Including an incoming ssh session tunnel coming from servers set up behind a NAT. Scripts can be built that automate connections and the tunnel can be used as the encrypted pipeline for your web apps to funnel needed backend data through.

Who's running a web server at home? Granted my ISP provides me with full incoming and outgoing capability without blocking ports, provided I don't break my bandwidth limits... my bones are not running web servers; 2 are running as NAS serving through ssh and one is a MaraDB server with port forwarding handled by the Cisco Router provided by Cox. The bone running MaraDB also checks the public IP twice a day and will forward an email to me if it changes so I can go into Centarra (who's also running my DNS zone) and update the A record that points home. Centarra also provides APIs where I could set this up to be completely automated, but I haven't had the time to implement it (compared to the rest of the set-up, this would be relatively trivial). The web server is on my Centarra Instance out in the cloud, and it's making the direct calls to the home network that run the apps that grab the data/files and sends it back to the web server that provides the transmission of the file back to the client. If I ever required faster speed / more traffic, it would be nothing for me to fire up a couple more instances for a total of $30/mo, but I'm not even close to pinging the radar with my current setup. I do admit, to set this up securely and efficiently an in-depth knowledge of Networking, System Administration, and Programming are highly recommended. As with most things in life the following statement applies: Cheap, Secure, Easy; pick 2.

Add insult to injury, why don't ya?

Sonofa.... Where's Admiral Ackbar when you need him?

Depends on how big your initial budget is. If you're running PHP web apps that are so lightly hit that you can't warrant provisioning a dedicated server instance or PC for them, use a Pi or BeagleBone or similar low powered/cheap option. If you're getting more traffic than 2 or three BB's in a cluster can handle, maybe you should look into a cheap VPS. There are some that provide more than enough power to run a site for less than $10/mo per instance. For my own low end hobby needs a basic VPS at Centarra for the front end and a cluster of 3 BeagleBone Blacks with a self-modified version of CentOS running the back end at my house has served me well for as much time as I have to put into it (mostly used for OwnCloud file storage so I can get around anti-thumbdrive policies when I'm out and about). All total runs me about $8/mo for the instance, $19/yr for the domain, and I don't count the Bones because they're paid for and the power and bandwidth requirements are both miniscule as well as incidental (need the electricity and internet at the house anyway).

An attacker is already going to be performing an illegal operation by generating a DDoS attack... what makes you think that they're going to use or write an already decidedly malicious program that follows the strongly worded but otherwise non-enforced conventions of a Request For Comment document? Hell, they could write it to set the flag to 0 on ALL packets going out of a system. This RFC would only work if the programmer is willing to follow it. Welcome to the honor system among the world's most cowardly.

I've seen 1 1/2 videos of hers and they put me off just on her attitude and the way she carries herself. Granted, the first video I saw was a teardown of her Bayonetta review(turn on Annotations to see the teardown). As for "well researched", I think you and I have two very different opinions on what constitutes research. If Bayonetta was an example of her "research" it apparently doesn't require her to even crack open the actual object and delve into the story as it's actually presented in the game. Granted, neither have I, though I've looked up more secondary sources in my own research to if it were even a game I'd want to play (No. I get bored with run&gun as a general rule...and the Sarkeesian teardown was actually stumbled upon as part of that research). I've known too many people who were full of shit that would try to pass themselves off as an authority without having done their homework. Just from what little I've seen of Sarkeesian's work she blew her first impression with me as being a vocally opinionated dumbass and already she's taken up a whole hell of a lot more time from me than she deserves. No. She does not deserve to be on this list, either.

And if you start going on about objectifying women in games I shall come forth with the following evidence to show that it's not just women getting objectified: God of War, Castlevania Series (especially later ones), Devil May Cry, Far Cry, Gears of War... I could go on. and on. and on.

You know, the overboard notions in your third statement indicate that you are intending a sarcastic tone for this; however, figuratively speaking...this statement is not far off from the truth. Let me change the sentence to make it more like how it really has become (with spelling corrections):

Yep, feminist internet video bloggers have a reputation for lynching nerds in online forums, then getting off Scot free in the court of public opinion by a jury of like minded feminist internet bloggers.

Even here on /. it's difficult to make a statement to showcase just how over the top the feminist voice has become without facing ad hominem rebuttals or getting modded down into oblivion.

The feminazis have made statements that they want a discussion about sexism in gaming, but whenever someone brings up a valid point on the opposing view the feminazis return with ad hominem attacks and such great stereotyping like the stupid ass "#YesAllMen" hashtag crap.

No.

I'm sorry, that's not a discussion.

That's a War.

The feminazis don't want discussion. They have drawn a line in the sand and the voices are either for them, or they're against them. Well, I am a feminist moderate looking for true equality between men and women (which Video Games have, on the great scale, equally objectified Men and Women)... and I stand firmly against them.

Bring the Rain.

If I had an antenna tall enough, I think I'd be able to get channel 2. To my knowledge CNN isn't OTA. And neither is Fox News, normally. I did some digging locally and we're a special case where the local Fox Affiliate bought rights to broadcast Fox News OTA over one of their digital segments... along with the rights to carry ABC after what was the local ABC Affiliate lost the franchise with Disney. So we have the extra special scary case where one local broadcast station has the rights to carry Fox, Fox News, and ABC.

Tell me. Does it get it's own little theme song performed by AC/DC too?? That would just complete the marketing circle!