Yes it is, but "wget &" in a loop is more what they're going for... except they modify wget so that it does not also kill your machine...

There are many other "choices" (to be idiots too) that have been taken away proactively. (Like the smiley key! Surely you bemoan the loss of that one too?)

Nay, I say good riddance... people still have the choice to type in all uppercase... it's called "holding in the SHIFT key" (see what I did there?) :) -- smiley typed with ':' and ')' keys...

Or are they like 18 years old?

Work is work, .NET is just a word. It's not religion or a way of life. I hardly notice the difference between all the languages I flit between anymore.

But I guess you can choose what you want and try and find work in that. I just don't think that question is worthy of a topic here. Sounds like such a prima donna type attitude. I guess that's why I don't have trouble finding work.

I've just finished a few years of C++/C#.NET work and doing Objective C and ABAP now.

Languages are just a tool. It's like asking what genre novels to learn to write as long as you don't have to write it with a Logitech keyboard.

Frankly I only ever *used* X11 to run terminals.

Good riddance to X and Gnome... never liked either. They are the reason most people using Linux/etc. think GUIs are crap (they've never learned to use a proper GUI).

I love the command-line, but I can really get by pretty well navigating and working on either Windows or OS X GUIs. The closest I've had to a good consistent experience on Linux was KDE.

Linux has always been a very good server environment for me, and never, ever a great client. Ubuntu has come a long way to try and change that and I applaud any (albeit questionable) changes they make.

Nothing here is fact, only my personal experience as well as my experience trying to help several non-tech savvy family use Linux, Windows and OS X. For them I recommend OS X, whereas I use OS X and Windows clients.

About the family account; I thought about this and passing along all my books to my daughter one day, and I thought perhaps I shall open a Amazon account owned by my family trust. And just pass the trust on to my child one day.

Do you think one can do this?

Heh, actually I'm not even American. I was just making an observation. Seems like I hit a nerve... the same is possibly true for the masses of the opposition. Fortunately you just helped me make my real point.

Agreed! It's like taking the opinions of Glen Beck's collective multitude of followers as fact. #massstupidity

Also see Gary Kasparov vs. the world... (although it was still unfair that Gary could also read the opponent discussions)

would have been funnier if the joke was not already made in the article heading.

"from the citation-needed dept."

Yes, so it's higher than the eye can see, but that does not mean it's useless...

For one thing it may lead to advances in 3D displays without using 3D glasses. For this application it may be useful to be double the resolution, or even higher.

Either create a TrueCrypt or Encrypted DMG on a DropBox shared volume.

Free for up to 2Gb. (should be plenty)

Wikipedia hosting the image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Seal

Or the FBI doing it themselves:
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/financial/fcs_report052005/fcs_report052005.htm

both will have the same effect... remove one, you have to remove both.

But then again, if all images are removed, how are anyone to know how the 'real' seal looks?

Some of the things you say are insightful, I too am an 'older' programmer, but I'm constantly keeping up... not because I have to, but because I still find the work interesting. Since I got my first C64 as an adolescent I've always felt an adrenalin rush as I got back to my computer to try and program.

I started out on basic, pascal, 68000 assembly. But have moved on to perl, python, C#, C++.

I'm a slow learner, but have deep understanding... it took me ages to get my degree... in the meantime I watched many (although not all) undeserving MS and PHD students pass me by.

But as long as I have work developing, I am happy. I'm not just an average developer tho, I really have a deep understanding of OO design, multi-threading and distributed systems development.

But things are not that simple (perhaps for me at least). I lost my job because our whole division got axed... and I too (like you) had many headhunters look for me while I was working, only for them to disappear when I called on them. Most of those headhunters are tasked with accumulating resumes of people they have no intention of hiring just so that some company can fill a quota and get the person they want anyway (in most cases this is a foreign visa candidate)

For finding work my best results have been craigslist strangely.

Yet another blown out of proportion Slashdot headline which panders to the crazies.

Nothing to see here, please move along.

PS: I would be first to condemn Facebook. I don't like their management and lack of customer focus. But this headline is probably the reason I'll delete my Slashdot account just like I've deleted my Facebook account.

I disagree. But then I have to add, I deleted my Facebook profile. My problem is my family and friends are ALL in other countries, and most are in timezones where I cannot call them easily. When we want to send personal messages, e-mail sure is what we use. But Facebook is perfect for posting updates and photos of our 1 year old daughter for family (and some friends) back home to see.

Also I do appreciate (even the impersonal) updates... makes me feel like I'm still home.

I've blanked-blocked almost all applications a long long time ago anyway, so I've never seen these "Farmville" updates people speak of.

My wife will keep her profile and do these updates, but I personally don't like Facebook's policies.

Next they will seek a permanent injunction against "The Internet" since you will always be able to host torrent seeds anywhere... even in comments on forums etc.