I studied Software Engineering at polytech. Bringing the diciplins of engineering to sofware design. We lernt about SoC system, how computers actually work, right down at the silicon, electrical noise, programming theory, multiple languages, software design, documentation. However after three years, I graduated and still spent 2 years looking for work in the field. Ended up as Tech Support for a local PC builder. Ran their service desk until I got all my CNE and MCSE quals, then they went but and I got a better job 8)

t forget, someone who is self taught hasnt had some one say "You cant do that" to them. They just might have innovative and unusual approaches to try. Some will fly, some wont. Still worth having on the team.

Exacltly. The number of times I've seen good products with potential ruined by poor design and architecture!

Your application architects should be the ComSci grads. They sudy business systems, number crunhing, manipulating Big Data etc.
A Java coder would probably not have these skils. 8)

To continue the car analogy, the car design also keeps changing, aand my not even use the same fuel source in a couple of years. Will be smaller, faster, and maynot even look like a car. 8)
Hoewver, one of my interview questions for new hires, is asking what tech they have set up at home 8)

A degreee might just show an aptitude and an ability to learn. Most of what you know in IT is going to be obsolete in a couple of years anyway, only general principals are going to stay the sae. Any job that doesnt allow training or upskilling on new tech probably isnt worth it anyway.

Or you can lie.
Just like the personal security questions, I lie to them too.
Many services i use think I live at 1 Infinite Loop, including Apple 8)

Control the conditions accurately, and limit the variable to the amount of light, not the content.
Reading RSS feeds for 2 hours might keep you much more stimulated than watching a movie, or podcast, or reading an ebook.

f course, I've been reading with my iPad and iPhone in bed.
1 I find that the biggest problem of falling asleep with the iPad is that it hurts much more than my iPhone when you fall asleep and it hits you in the nose.
iBooks and Kindle also have a night mode 8) this stops the wife complaining of the LCD glow.
And I've started reading 2312. If this doesnt put you to sleep, nothing will.

Same thing happening to Kin Dotcom, but our NZ court has said, show us the evidence!

Now an interesting idea, but here in the world outside the USA it actually difficult to get the latest Android tabs. The phones are easy to get, but no so much on the tablets.
Want a legitimate source for DRM free content, shock, actually ONLY the iTunes store offers DRM free music here in NZ. I have bought quite a bit of music from Apple because of this. Movies and music videos however, are still DRM restricted. I havn't bought any of that.
But then my locked and chained devices can easily hook up to Amazon Kindle for books, as well as my own calibre library using, ready for it, iBooks for reading the ePub files. And other software for my graphic novels.
For videos, PLEX rules! Stream my 2TB ripped from my own DVDs collection from my own plex server to any device, android, iOS, android, or windows from anywhere on the planet with an Internet connection.
Yeah, there are shiny chains on my iPad, but unlike Androids, I can buy one here, and have been able to for over two years! The droids are only just getting as good now, but Apple have the retina displays which really do rock. My smaller iPhone (that I have had for nearly two years) is still better than the closest rival from Samsung in term of actual functionality.
However I really do hope Android continues to get better, because this also pushes Apple on to do more.

My guideline, never dress better than the boos, but do dress better than the cleaner.
However, as I work for many clients, it's best just to dress as they do. Currenly business's shirts, suit pants, and a waistcoat (too hot for a jacket, but doesn't feel formal enough to me without it) but I only wear a tie if in a management meeting.
If working after hours, then no ripped jeans and a t shirt. If they want me to work on my personal time, they can suck up whatever I'm wearing 8)

Nuke the drive, and do a secure erase. The IT department will probably do a rebuild anyway.

I get 60GB a month over a cable service, giving me 10Mb/s. This costs me NZ$80. I dont have the Telstra cable TV services. AS I have good bandwidth, I also have VoIP provider, 2000 minutes locally for NZ$16 / month. Compared to NZ$50 I was paying Telecom for similar functions (call waiting, voicemail, etc) VoIP also gives me two efective lines for simultaneous calls, and I can run my own PABX if I want to with dedicated extensions. I have Freeview (free to air HD digital) for basic broadcast TV services.
But Media services - there are no Legal movie streaming services in NZ, so there is a huge saving 8),
I pay Fatso NZ$15 for 4 movies a month on DVD (can upgrade any available to Blueray if I want, but I dont agree with the DRM placed on Bluerays) and will consider Quickster when they actually get some content worth watching. I also buy about one DVD a month, and rip it for my Media server (PLEX)
No Telstra Cable TV packages available without phone services, and the data caps start at 20GB, and would cost NZ$89.95/month. The Pay TV carried is Sky. The highest bandwidth package is NZ$65.95, but only carries 40GB of data, and the free to air channels for NZ$65.95.
UHF digital Sky 50 Channels of crap for NZ$46.12/month. Add sport for $35.15, Add Platinum Movies for $31.88.

I think I am saving a packet by only getting content I actually watch.

I'm still confused as to why we need this on phones in the first place.
My current credit card has a mag stripe, and a contact chip, and gives me access to my account through eftpos. How come this can't just be expanded to include an RFID? I've seen a solar powered credit card sized calculator, so surely they could build a card with the simple smarts to say ill only pay when you are touching the card here, or when swiped left and right at a certain velocity near a reader. It could even be powered by the reader itself, or maybe even have the card coated in smart dust.
If a phone HAS to be used, then how about the new Bluetooth spec, or add the function to the existing radios? Or include some security like location/time and bump detection before the transaction will complete? Or even just let me charge my card like a snapper card, but shrink it so it's part of the sim chip?
Put the smarts into the terminal, like email me the recipts, or store them in my bank website so I can look at them there. just decide on some WORLDWIDE standards for this already!

Yeah, I've been using social plugins with OUtlook at work, but I'm not facebook firends with many in my work mail account. I'd love it if there was similar plugins for Thunderbird, where I have all my personal mail and contacts where I do follow many in FB ot Twitter, or even G+ now.