...in that case, rejoice!

(not holding my breath...)

The distances are irrelevant truth be told, as long as the first and last legs of the trip are equal.

Ice is a legitimate part of the a surface of the Earth and the math works out.

How is that failure?

To be fair, Ice *is* a surface.

The answer is indeed the North Pole, and that brain teaser has been around for what, eons now?

I think I'd quickly answer it, then ask him one that I made up and tested long before that final interview.

As soon as he finishes the mod that turns all the prostitutes and cops with effigies of Bill Gates, we'll find out. ;)

Dude - I thought that was the primary reason for going to a LAN party back in the day...

I disagree, and one need look no further than Facebook. Most of the political distraction/messaging being passed around positively reeks of being astroturfed by competing mega-interests. Also, consider that the proletariat is too easily distracted, ignorant, and tribal, so getting them to ask the wrong questions means you never have to worry about the answers.

The control is still there and stronger than ever - just that they're now using new methods to do it.

Agreed.

I also find it interesting that they discount the growth of Pandora, Spotify, etc... and the fact that you can more easily pass around music via a digital version of sneakernet these days (long ago it was blank cassettes and hanging out at a buddy's house. Now it's "what's your dropbox addy? I can snag 'em that way." Then again, I know for fact that for quite awhile the smarter kids --and not just a few adults-- were passing around USB hard drives / geek-sticks full of music to each other as well...)

This is of course assuming that debt isn't being paid off at a slightly faster rate, savings aren't being accumulated in a rainy-day fund, college savings account or 401k, etc. Oh, and the businesses that raise costs in order to compensate for higher wages will probably hoover up the rest.

End state? little-to-no improvement, and everything remains more or less status quo... just with a bit of inflation kicked-in.

I suspect the revenue savings/increase is the difference between keeping you employed there and, say, renting Office 360 (and yes, they'll happily provide enterprise-scale mail for a corporation, for a price.) No real work required to come to that conclusion.

...and that's part of your problem, right there... Cali ain't cheap to live in.

Also, consider that the jobs you've listed (geek shop technician, web dev, small business IT, etc) are low-paying almost by design.

A bit of advice, and I promise it's being delivered kindly: Don't rely on your degree to get you anywhere. Instead, find out which jobs pay worth a damn, then get the skills and experience needed to pursue those positions.

Question: *when* and *where* was this?

I mean, my very first junior sysadmin job paid around $15/hr - but that was in Arkansas, during the early 1990's. The former was legendary for low cost-of-living/low-wages, and the latter accounts for inflation betwixt then and now.

Pretty sure that nowadays, in any decently tech-savvy city, you're not going to find a job in tech that pays less than $15/hr... well, unless you're an intern who got a shit assignment.

Kids certainly won't read them, and most wouldn't know what to do with them... c'mon, we're talking teenagers here.

Things have been changing for awhile: when I was in high school, we wrote code in C and FORTRAN, and even dabbled a bit with the old Hollerith code (think "punchcards"). On the plus side, we had Apple ][ e's and a very early version of (I think?) Word Perfect... it's was *all* CLI though, so it's not like we had much in the way of graphics.