Seriously, there's a lot that's broken about Windows 8 right now, but I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt long term. I'm certainly not going to upgrade until they've fixed a lot of their poor UX decisions, but I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out by the next version. Microsoft "Window" is a very apt analogy at the moment, but I'm putting my money on this being a success long term.

... or have slashdot headlines been turning into total crap since they got bought out? Am I just being biased here?

I was a "Senior Software Engineer" before I got a promotion, now I'm a "Lead Developer". Aside from providing guidance to other engineers I still do the same job. Personally, I wanted my new title to be "Mr. Manager" instead, but no one seemed to like that idea :(. Seriously, I've worked in states where it's illegal to give someone without an engineering degree the title "Engineer", but I've worked with engineers who didn't finish college and found them every bit as good (sometimes much better) than the ones who didn't.

Our highschool here runs the small schools program, and my son is enrolled in the liberal arts school. It's his freshman year, and IMO our tech curriculum is pretty kick-ass. Not only did he cover the basics of computers, technology, and programming in middle school already - but for the next four years he's able to take game development classes focusing on Unity. Way, way better than what we were rocking in the PC Jr. days when my gym teacher and my computer teacher had about the same technical skill set.

So is this from the new influence of dice.com? Our tech stories will now be non-sequitor political bullshit? CNN and FOX can deliver crap like this, I expect much much more from slashdot.

I honestly don't have a problem with Dice, they seem like a fine company. It's just that slashdot is the last place on the internet I still go for nerd news that isn't mostly crap. I wish it still had real humans behind it instead of a faceless corporation. *sigh*

What this really boils down to is the fact that a lot of software development is a craft, and not a science. Schools don't teach the craft of programming, hell with a four year degree you barely touch on the basics. Figuring that out is something we're left to do on our own and it's largely up to experience to make that happen. So the reason self-taught developers seem preferable is because there's a certain comfort in knowing that we do this stuff for fun - but that never has been or ever will be mutually exclusive to the self taught. I've known awful self taught programmers, and I've known incredible programmers with a doctorate. It's all down to circumstance, common sense, individual strengths, and interests. There's a lot of reasons people get computer science degrees, not all of which are "because I fucking love it!", which is why it's not all that useful when picking out a candidate.

If Torque wasn't kind of a crappy game engine... I mean, I've worked in Torque, and it was pretty rinky dink by comparable standards.

As a person with severe ADHD heads first is actually an excellent tool for learning about programming, but some of those abstract concepts take time to sink in and become salient in your mind. If you want to try your hand at making games but with a slightly lower net than plain old C# offers then I would recommend something like Construct2 (http://www.scirra.com/construct2), Stencyl (http://www.stencyl.com/), or even Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) - these are a great way to get familiar with some of the programming concepts again in a visual way. This way you can make some progress without the net seeming quite so high, and have results you can feel pretty good about.

After you've done that for a while you might want to try the heads first C# book again and see if some of those abstract concepts seem to be making new connections. C# is actually a pretty elegant language and once you get familiar with programming again you'll find that it's pretty fun to work with. If none of that seems to be sticking - maybe try something completely different like functional programming? It's possible that it'll use a different part of your brain that has an easier time forming those memory pathways. Best of luck!!

So, I used to write server software for one of these companies, and I'd say the biggest concern is the corners they're cutting in order to get a product to market. Having an internet aware electricity grid is a terrible, terrible idea, especially when the leaders of these organizations are businessmen/women that don't understand the underpinnings of technology. It isn't a matter of if hackers will eventually be able to monitor, track, and use this information against customers (e.g. Hitting homes that have significant drops in usage while they're out of town) it's when. Furthermore, several of these meters have a remote IP enabled shutoff - can you image the havoc that could be wreaked when the encryption and authentication software in these meters is outstripped by new technologies? This is all worst case scenario stuff, and it isn't like these companies aren't always doing their due diligence; it's just that I feel social engineering and/or actual hacking makes this seem like an inevitable outcome.

They're not morally corrupt, they're morally bankrupt :).

So what happens at funeral homes to people is somehow better than this? (E.g. Squishing our interal organs like mashed potatoes to prevent bloat, replacing all our fluids with toxic preservatives, and then burying us under 6 feet of clay and dirt). Respect is subjective, I would totally dig the idea of being turned into a helicopter after I die.

This is way, way cooler than being buried in the ground or cremated. I totally want this to happen to me when I'm dead. Sure, it's a little tacky, but having an afterlife as a helicopter sounds awesome! (and way cooler than being embalmed so I can sit under six feet of dirt in a fancy box)

Is cat-copter adorable, or disturbing?

is bumming me out... I mean, really? Only 15%? Come on people!