Not just an urban legend, it's fucking stupid. Teachers wouldn't know who was connected? Please.

Every year or so you read about all of these brilliant researchers working on fascinating projects for them. The rest of the time, it's just one mediocre release of Windows and Office after another.

It's like a Michael Crichton book: Some guy brings dinosaurs back and all he can think to do with it is open an amusement park.

Bat-Mite? Surely you mean "Rabid Cousin Oliver."

An adjustable seat also adds weight, which increases fuel costs.

And those are just the Yankee fans from Queens.

to get the Zune tattoo while you're at it.

Soiled and devalued?
On fire to light your cigar?
New and plastic?
Given to street musicians and the homeless?

You're a node in a network of douches. It's nothing personal.

It's not just the ebook conversion. Book publishers and packagers have been cutting down on editors and the whole revision for the last couple of decades. "Fuck it," they say, "nobody will notice. And even if they do, they already bought the book. What are they gonna do, buy the next 'Shades of Gray' from another publisher next time?"

Good point. That makes sense for explosives, but I was thinking about currency. It's not like you want to destroy money or bearer bonds to determine whether they're genuine.

The idea is interesting, but once the particle has been melted, I assume that it can't be verified again. If that's the case then no matter how many of these tagging particles are added to a given object, it can only be verified a finite number of times.

Forget code names, they did it with an actual software title with AppleWorks for the Mac and AppleWorks for the Apple ][. Somehow, we survived.

Absolutely. A little blu-tack and a kid's drawing or take-out menu and it would be a perfectly fine fridge.

On the other hand, if the ads required me to interact with them periodically or else the frig/freezer would stop keeping things cool, then no.

As programmers get older they simply get less excited about the idea of pulling all nighters and doing "code sprints" because they have spouses and families they enjoy, responsibilities to others outside of work, and they know that this isn't a good process for long-term success. All nighters are fun and adventurous when you're in college or just out of school, but after a few decades in the working world you're seen it all before and simply refuse to get caught up in another "emergency" caused by poor planning, unrealistic expectations, and marketing promises.

I'm not saying that programming is a young person's game--far from it. However, inexperienced workers are not only cheaper, but also far more likely to put up with bullshit and bad management.

Similar story here. I signed up to be able to truthfully claim that I was familiar with Twitter for a job application. I looked at the user interface and I knew enough to talk about it if asked. Never posted, never followed, never went back.