Real Job, Real Experience, Real Place, with fire and smoke and occasional explosions. You would recognize the initials. We received a touch screen device. Very cool. Very expensive (money was not a problem). I was trying to get my point across to the operator, so I pointed (OK. I POKED) at the object on the screen.

It was not a good day. No one was killed. No equipment was damaged. I don't even think we really lost any data or too much schedule. But the implications of what could have happened were obvious. It was an often repeated story, that resulted in an un-official but institutional ban on all touch screens in the facility for the next 20 years.

Today I love multitouch, especially on tablets, phones and on my laptops and desktops when used with a horizontal trackpad or mouse with a touch surface.

Not sure I'll ever feel good about touching a vertical screen though.

+1

"How does it make sense to claim software is free-as-in-freedom if it's designed with DRM or other anti-piracy measures? "
I think the pro "Tivoization" argument was that just because I'm obligated to share what I have done for free or nominal cost - possibly for educational value, I don't have to make "easy" for you to simply copy and use my work, and not put in your own blood sweat and tears. GPL 3 was intended to clear this up - I do have to make it easy and cheap for you to use my derivative - and legal - if I distribute my work. BTW Linus T. didn't agree with this change according to some articles I read. He was OK with Tivoization so long as he got to see the source code of the derivative.

"Can you even technically pirate GPLed software to begin with?"
Maybe. You aren't required by the GPL (either version) to distribute your derivative work. Only that you don't limit the rights of those you do distribute it to, - if they are outside your organization. Within your organization, for instance, Google or Amazon, you can have custom versions of GPL'd software that are trade secrets and could presumably use DRM to stop the distribution outside of your intended internal use, or to track who let it loose.

So getting a copy of a private version of a GPL'd derivative, intended for private use - could be considered piracy.

Just a thought - not dogmatic about the thought at all.

According to the wikipedia this was a provision added to GPL 3 to overcome a weakness of GPL 2. So if the code was derived from GPL 2 maybe not.

In explaining the changes:
"It also adds a provision that 'strips' DRM of its legal value, so people can break the DRM on GPL software without breaking laws like the DMCA.[27]"

Not agreeing with the developer - just saying he may have some legal ground to stand on. (I don't pretend to be a lawyer or even know when to hire one. )

Lesson 7 - Don't include my billing address, my shipping address, my credit card number and the card's expiration date on the packing slip - but if you do, don't tell me none of your other customers complained. It makes me worry about why I would select the same company those guys use.

Some people have commented you should try getting closer to the metal, meaning computer hardware. But take it to the extreme. Buy a small lathe, learn to use it and the jargon. Have some fun turning it into a CNC machine if you like. Spend time on the metal working forums. Then start talking to some small to midsize manufacturing companies about helping them compete by utilizing your programming skills. You'll get to pick the tools you use. But first you need a little bit of "real world" fabrication experience so you can at least carry on a conversation. Getting your hands literally dirty, lets the people who need you relate to you. Rub shoulders with some blue collar guys, listen to their ideas for making their company more competitive. The opportunity for software guys to be heros and rewarded, is out there, but frankly most of us are on another planet and separated from where we need to be to make it happen.

BTW. Yes, I'm taking my own advice, and having a blast. I can now do in an hour what a decent machinist can do in 15 minutes. :-)

Components Fail. Methods Fail. Programs Fail. Even Test Objectives Fail.
But the product of rocket testing is data. Only when you loose the data is the test a failure.
You might not like the answer or the cost of the test, or the inability to run more tests on the hardware, but if you have the data, you accomplished your mission.

Back in the day, I was the lead instrumentation engineer on one of NASA's test stands. Loosing the test article, and sometimes a portion of the test stand was just part of a day's work. But have a key instrument fail (and its back up) or have a recorder not work... well lets just say I don't remember those particular days fondly.
But one of my best memories was the day I was the first to hit the "pickle switch" as a rocket motor began to consume itself. I may have saved the facility. (Except several other people hit their's a fraction of a second later.) The owner of the rocket, on the other hand, wished for a few more seconds of data, rather than a more intact motor.

Or then again, maybe you are just casting a wide net. :) A counter intuitive example comes to mind of someone who moves around a lot (though not as much as you.) He is the best networker I know. My son is making a good living in the TV/Movie business, working his way up from skate videos to a steady job on a popular long running show. (Has also worked on a couple of feature films, and actually turned down a gig on the Academy Awards.) Sorry proud dad syndrome. You would think he built his network in LA, but actually only passed through a couple of times. It was the contacts he made in New Orleans, Denver, Jackson (MS) and now Northern CA, that helped his career. Not exactly the centers of the industry. Maybe being a colorful fish in one or a number of small ponds, beats staying in one place if there is lots of competition. (Sorry for the mixed metaphors.)

But I think in general I agree with you. I stayed in one place, and I'm definitely in a small pond, so maybe it takes a lot of the work or tension (if you are aware of it) out of networking.

I hope the missus appreciates you (for handling the invoices). I love delegating that worry.