... is the word 'qualified'. I've never interviewed so many stupid smart people ever in my life the last 10 years. People who just got out of college and expect to pull down 6 figure salaries for work they've never done before and have no proof of how good they could be. And people that think they are much better than they really are, but couldn't code their way out of a paper bag. My prior job hired a self-described 'Java programmer' that wrote some of the most horrid code I've ever seen, it didn't even come close to working. Yet he sold himself as a Java expert to the company owner (who had no IT skills), and somehow convinced him to hire him. The only thing it appeared he knew how to do was talk a good talk and use SSIS. Shortly after I left, he managed to completely obliterate a very important production database. That they had to contract with me to recover.

I now work with some really good developers because the company is choosy about who they hire. But time and time again, they lament about a shortage out there of really good developers. They get plenty of resumes, just no one worth hiring.

And attitudes ... such a bunch of spoiled babies. It's not just skills either, it's a good work ethic. Sorry .. we do have a dress code where we work. If someone can't manage to wear clean clothes that include long pants and a collared shirt every day because it's a little too restraining, they can't work here. We pay enough, I know they can afford it If someone can't manage to understand that we have standards and security requirements and they can't just write whatever they want and shove it into production, they can't work here.

So I guess if someone wants mediocrity or less, there is plenty to choose from.

I use this thing on my Android called 'folders'. It allows me to arrange apps by category (i.e. Internet, Social, Shopping, Finance, Games) and only have to look at 4-16 icons. I then arrange the icons in the folder based on their frequency of use so that the one I use the most is in the upper left. And I still have room left for a couple of really heavily used apps that I don't want in folders.

Then there are multiple pages, I use only two. I use one for folders and the other for miscellaneous, like weather, shortcuts to call and text my wife, and my music.

So I have access to 52 apps and four widgets with no more than a swipe, tap, and tap .. depending on which page I need to go to. Things I use the most are just one tap.

The problem isn't the proliferation of apps, it's people being too lazy to manage them. My wife used to drive me crazy with the tablet because she insisted on letting every new app install it's icon on the screen, and she wouldn't delete apps she didn't like. So now she has her own.

My phone never tells me an app needs to update, I've turned that notification off. And turned on auto-update. For those apps that don't auto-update due to permissions, or those people that are paranoid and don't want auto-update, only do it once a week or month. I've found that most apps work just fine if even they aren't updated.

And most mobile web sites have a 'full site' link at the bottom. Click it. Sorry it took you an extra click to get somewhere. I think people need to google the word 'patience' and stop demanding everything NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! What do folks need the extra 3 seconds for, play more angry birds??? (Oh wait .. that's old school. What is it now, flappy bird??? Oh wait , wasn't that pulled??? I can't keep up with this crap.)

'Easier' rarely makes a 'better' product. I've seen all the 'next big things' come and go, and all the problems 'easier' has always prompted. Which is why one should start with the basics and learn them first. I use IDEs, but I've also been programming for over 30 years. I learned the dirty little details about assembler and COBOL and FORTRAN and C and C++ and perl and Java and who knows how many others by using text editors.

Now .. I don't think we need to go all the way back to assembler (although it would be nice of Java programs understood memory utilization a bit better and stopped writing code that stored a bunch of useless information in memory just because it's easier .. but I digress).

Because of that experience, when something doesn't work in Java the way I expect, I can read the generated code and understand it. I can take that code, modify it, and make it work the way I want it to instead of having to accept the way the IDE does it. I understand the consequences of misplaced parenthesis and braces, writing 'if' statements without an else, or 'try .. catch' blocks without a finally. I know when it's OK and when it's not.

Because I've made mistakes and had to fix them instead of some machine making my code perfect every time.

I can evaluate Groovy not just based on a reduction in the amount of written code, but because I understand why those things that make Java a little bit wordy exist and decide whether or not it's a good thing. And when I do use it, what I have to watch out for because a bunch of code is now missing.

Go ahead, depend on your IDE. And other things that make programming easier.

And when you can't figure something out behind the scenes, call someone who learned how to not depend on them.

I guess when you get to be so good people are willing to pay you that much, you will politely refuse it. But you will still put in 7 day work weeks, never get an uninterrupted vacation and be willing to away from your family for long periods because you are just such a nice guy.

Or is it because you will never get to be that good at anything, you feel that you have some right to tell other people how to spend their money.

That 'compensation package worth 88mil' isn't all cash, so dropping it to 50mil doesn't translate into necessarily being able to hire more workers. If the company tanks, all of the stock options in the package are worthless. Their compensation is very much tied to the company's success.

I suppose you are also in favor of getting rid of multi-million dollar sports player salaries and high-priced actors also, especially since they don't really earn it. For that matter, how about we limit the ability of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to make billions also. Let's just put a cap of 50mil/year max for everyone.

That should make it much better for companies .. they won't have to pay as much and can lower their prices. They'll still lay off people, since NOT SELLING ENOUGH STUFF IS USUALLY THE REASON PEOPLE GET LAID OFF YOU IDIOT!

My daughter and son-in-law are both graduating this year, at the age of 28, with zero debt except for a $500/month house payment. They also have a 1 year old child, and they own a house. He will receive his PhD in engineering, she will receive a BA in molecular biology. Both already have job prospects. Well paying job prospects. They will be able to go to just about any part of the US to work that they want to because their skills are in demand. But, to be fair, they don't need high paying jobs because they don't have any debt and already own part of a home. It's amazing how little money one needs when one doesn't have car payments, credit card payments, expensive internet bills, and a host of other luxury items.

No .. their parents aren't rich, although family members did contribute when they could. They did this thing called 'saving' and used things called 'scholarships'. They went to a state school instead of spending money they didn't have to go out of state. Then they did this thing called 'living with their parents' before they got married, and waited until they could afford a house to get married. During this time, they did this thing called 'only going to school when I have the money to go to school, even if it's part time'. They also did this thing called 'work', my daughter worked part-time at PetSmart for a year until she got into their dog grooming programing where THEY trained her in exchange for 2 years of work. She made pretty good money and continued grooming part-time on her own after she left there. All while going to college part time.

The problem isn't with finding funding for school. The problem is with a society that has brain-washed us into thinking that one has to go to college right out of high school, one has to live on campus for the 'experience', and one has to go full time. Sorry .. that's all just bull shit. My ex works as an RN (2 year vocational training) and only has to work 4 days a week because her home is paid off, I am a systems engineer with a 6 figure salary and never took more than a handful of post-high school classes, My wife is a book keeper with only one semester under her belt. Yet all of us seem to make a pretty darn good living. I'm not jetting off to Europe every summer, but we manage to enjoy our lives and not live paycheck to paycheck.

My daughter was convinced she wanted to be a vet. Fortunately, because she was working at PetSmart, she got a chance to see what all that was like and changed to something more to her liking.

I'm not against college, colleges are one source of knowledge. Some people can't learn without someone standing in front of them making them do homework and study for tests. I'm not against spending large sums of money to go to a private college if one can afford it. I am against going into debt for things that aren't worth it (i.e. living on campus) or because some self-righteous high school councilor is convinced that people can't possible succeed in life unless they go to college right out of high school.

If someone wants to go to college, they should be smart enough to figure out how to do it without going into debt. Or figure out if they go into debt, how they are going to pay for it. If they can't figure either of those things out, maybe they just aren't smart enough to go to college.

And one thing I've noticed is the smarter and more self-motivated someone is, the less they need a college education to succeed.

As far as I'm aware, people can still go to Sochi and watch it.

Spend your own money or shut the fuck up.

And of course there is the driving in heat/cold problem that sucks down the juice far faster than normal. Let's see them do the same Phoenix/LA trip in July, when temps hit 110 and most people will want the A/C running. Or how about from Fort Kent Maine to NY one day with the temps hovering close to zero, in a snow storm where you have to run BOTH the A/C and heater (A/C takes moisture out of the air and makes it easier to keep the inside of the car frost-free).

I don't want a car that I can drive most days, most places where there are roads. I want one like the one i have now, that will take me just the same places I go now whenever I want to. And if there aren't enough gas stations along the way, I can toss a couple of jerry cans in the back to get a few more miles.

I'm not against electric cars, but I can afford to drive my truck when it's hot or raining, and my motorcycle every other day. I have no desire to restrict my driving habits just to save a few dollars. People want to earn more and more money so they can enjoy more things in life, not fewer.

And I'm not getting a third car, there isn't enough room in our garage for the vehicles we have now and any gas savings will need to be used to pay for the higher insurance of a newer car compared to my 13 year old truck and 25 year old motorcycle.

And then came Barack Obama, whose only achievement in life was giving a few speeches and being a (mostly absent) senator.

Now they give it so someone who has caused strained relations between countries and, if anything, has made the world just a bit less safe.

The Nobel Peace Prize is simply a tool for socialist liberals to reward their heroes .. it means nothing anymore.

He copied classified information, regardless of the ability of the data to address the concerns he had, and arranged to have them made public. And admitted to it.

He then fled the country to escape prosecution.

He has already admitted his involvement in the breaking of several laws. There is no question he did those things.

The only question is whether or not his reason for doing so was enough to justify his actions.

So far, I don't see any valid legal reason to not find him guilty and toss him in jail for the rest of his life. On multiple charges.

The only reason I would agree to is if he had a specific person whose life was in danger that he was trying to save. And that person was a US citizen whose life was in danger because of the actions of the NSA. And that specific person wasn't someone trying to do harm to the United States. (Whether the NSA is doing harm or intending to do harm is an opinion, not a fact.)

Maybe if the people around you had a good work ethic and worked it wouldn't be so noisy.

Maybe you need to tell them to shut the fuck up and get back to work. Or suggest to their manager they need additional work.

The company I work for pays me to work, not discuss politics while in their building. If I have to discuss something with someone in person, we have these things called 'conference rooms' with doors that close and keep the noise in the room. We also have this think called a 'network' so I can pick up my laptop, go to a conference room, and still have everything on my screen. I try to limit my talk about what I did this weekend to when I'm in the break room or walking down the hallways.

I have a 'U' shaped cubicle that is probably 10x8 feet. The desk area has two standard filing cabinets and one long one. It also has two book shelves. All I really need is space for my two monitors, keyboard, laptop, mouse, phone, and a place for drinks. I haven't cracked a physical book in probably 5 years, both bookshelves are empty. I could probably get by easily with half that space.

Had an office a couple of times. Didn't really care. Don't notice much of a difference between the quality or quantity of work I did then and now, except I've gotten better over the years and work a bit faster/smarter. None of that had anything to do with being in an office.

1. Android devices still outnumber Apple in the phone/tablet world
2. Windows still outnumbers Apple in the desktop/laptop world.
3. Apple doesn't even really do business computing anymore.
4. Apple is still an over-priced piece of proprietary hardware/software that is anti-competitive (i.e. iOS only licensed to run on Apple hardware when any PC could run it and hundreds of hardware manufacturers could be making different types of phones) that has no distinct advantage over anything else except some people think it's cool. There is absolutely nothing about it that makes it 'special' other than it looks pretty.
5. Both my wife and daughter have left the Apple cult and never want to go back. I know several other people who feel the same way. People are wising up to Apple's deceit.

Apple products are decent products. They work and do what they are supposed to do. Someone that elevates them to anything more than just another device is simply trying to justify why they spent too much money on something.

This has happened to me when I've talked in a 'stream of consciousness' about something I didn't know, but was guessing, and had people ask me questions later about the subject matter. When we sort things out that I'm not the expert they think, I've been told that I sounded very confident about what I was saying, which is why they thought I knew what I was talking about. I've since learned to interject comments like "I'm not sure" or "it might be something like this" to make sure people don't take things I say as facts when I'm only guessing.

I'm just an old, overweight white guy so it can't be an Asian thing for me.

I don't know where I heard it, but it seems to apply far too often: An expert is just someone who you think knows more than you do about something.

... is far more dangerous than GMO.

Why??? Snowden did far more harm than good. Nothing has been done about anything he revealed, courts have been ruling it's legal. Our allies have gotten pissed at us for doing something they already do, and have done for decades, just no one reports.

All he did was confirm what everyone already knew, that the NSA was spying on everything.

Stay in exile you spineless criminal, living in fear the black helicopters will come. Stay in exile in a country with far more privacy issues than the US will ever have, and far more intrusions into your personal liberties.

It's exactly what you deserve.

So sad that a criminal is listed as an influential person. Especially one so cowardly and spineless as to flee instead of actually staying and working towards what he believed in. I hope he lives to a ripe old age and has to spend his life constantly hiding in the shadows in fear. In countries with worse personal liberties and freedoms than the one he fled from.