Having been in the same situation far too many times -- both the engineer and the engineering manager -- nightgeometry is has it pretty right on; we're in this together. There's two more things as "boss" that I would have to do. 1) Send my people home if I saw they were getting burnt out or spinning wheels; you can get a lot more accomplished refreshed. 2) Most of my bosses didn't understand jacksh-t about the work we were doing so I was needed to run interference if they decided to drop in as well.

What should be taught is the ability to look at and analyze a problem to find the best available tools (in this case computer language) to accomplish the solution of the problems, not how to use a tool or tools directly. It needs to be taught how to decide whether to use a screw or a nail, then which tool is better (a screwdriver for a screw and a hammer for a nail), and finally how to use that tool in a practical way. Schools should be teaching computer languages as after thoughts and as a means to problem solve, not as an end in themselves.

Learning and using most all higher level programming languages is a no-brainer for someone that has been trained in problem analysis, compilers/interpretors are self-teaching tools. Has C++ brought us better solutions (more efficient, easier to maintain, less complexity, ...?) over C? over Ruby? over Cobol? over fortran?

Students and staff need a safe and secure place to backup their work. Too many uSoft induced problems among PC users requires a separate backups and their really should be data copies stored off-site. Any student that does not use the computer labs backup system and loses stuff should be pure out of luck -- real-world training.

Guess from what I've been reading on slashdot -- and not from we readers -- I'm not going to be slashdotting anymore. To stick the word "staggering" in the headline belies a belief in truth and becomes propaganda. Too bad, you used to be good slashdot, but you became corporate media.

You obviously are unaware of the different Verizon DSL access on the two coasts. I think, on the East Coast and most of the country Verizon uses PPoE which requires a login/password. On the West Coast (at least here in Oregon) Verizon uses straight DHCP which does not require a password or login name. It's no wonder that the lay person is so confused about computers -- no matter what the O/S -- bad advice from well-meaning people. Always check your facts; what is true for you may not be true for everybody.

My first, and only question is: If I replace XP/SP3 on my machine with Windows 7 nee Vista will my hardware and applications perform any better? The only improvement I've ever seen in a usoft upgrade was SP3 for XP which did have a small performance increase under certain conditions.

Actually, I would want it to test in a virtual machine to see if it's worth upgrading/buying it to replace my XP and or Vista boxes. I would never use it illegally. Than again, given a choice I would never us Vista legally either.