What alien race wouldn't want to get in touch with a species that likes to blow up stars?

Never mind just 'today'. I vaguely recall someone publishing a proof that beyond a certain disappointingly small radius, any RF signal originating from earth is mathematically impossible to distinguish from background noise.

I don't know about gas tight, but without flowing water or ice, and without plate tectonics, the Martian surface doesn't move around much.

Code and forget for 3-4 decades? No, 30 year old mainframes are no longer of any use to anyone, and code than hasn't been touched in 30 years probably won't work anymore. The idea that there are still dinosaur mainframes and cobol code from the 70s chugging along somewhere is a complete myth. IBM still regularly releases new models of mainframes, and old ones are deprecated. You regularly get new releases of OS/360 or whatever it is called this decade, and if you're too many releases behind, you lose support. Cobol applications are still being maintained, developed, and upgraded regularly, and new projects are still made in cobol. You may not like it, and it may make you a little sick, perhaps like the idea that your parents are still having sex, but that's the way it is.

I can also tell you from experience that any non trivial Java code not touched since the 90's probably won't work today.

You didn't read the article. No one did. According to the article, a custom built windows PC with equivalent parts costs about 10% more than the mac pro.

He probably didn't get the best deals, but the days of a 100% surcharge just for the apple logo are long past. Equivalent Android and iOS devices seem to cost about the same, and ultra books seem to cost more than the equivalent MacBooks.

I'd be very interested to hear about a billions upon billions of transactions per second system based on any technology :)

We make a SaaS application. Every major release comes with a change log. Not the raw, unedited and complete change log TFA talks about, but a human readable, edited one of the form
- feature we promised
- change you asked for
- other change you asked for
- new surprise feature
- UI improvement foo

and finally....
- numerous bug fixes

Bugfix releases don't have a separate published change log. Instead, customers who reported a bug are notified directly when it has been fixed.

This way it is useful for the customer. What the customer really wants to know is that they're not paying you for drinking coffee. They don't want information overload. A complete change log would only make sense to people who work with the code.

IT job ads are very specific because the kind of job makes it possible.

When a recruiter is looking for candidates for a hi-school music teacher, exactly what specific skills and certifications could they list? Must have at least 3 years of experience playing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor on a August Forster UP 114 piano?

This sounds like good advice, but really isn't

If you apply for a visa to the US for a visit that doesn't require one, you are acting suspiciously! The request will likely be denied for the simple fact that it is suspicious, and here's the kicker: if you have been denied a visa once, it becomes very difficult to enter the US. You can never make use of the visa waiver program again, and having previously been denied a visa may be grounds for rejection the next time you apply for a visa.

A better advice: just do exactly what is required.

The paraplegia was the result of one of her suicide attempts

Chess grandmasters typically in their late teens when they achieve grandaster status, peak in their mid twenties, and retire before their 40th. Their job requires experience, but it is a kind of experience that they start accumulating in early childhood. An 18 year old grandmaster typically has over 10 years of experience. The returns on experience diminish very sharply.

Doctors typically keep improving with experience and peak much closer to the end of their career. You learn the tricks of the trade in college and by doing it at work. Doctors typically start gaining experience in their mid to late 20s. Though they do have to stay up to date with new developments, their experience and knowledge typically do not become obsolete, so it accumulates. The returns on experience diminish very slowly.

My hunch is that Techies, especially programmers, are more like Chess players than like Doctors. Our 22 year old intern has over 12 years of coding experience. I started coding around the same age as he did, but almost everything I learned in the first 20 years is obsolete now, except for the basic principles - which our intern learned in college. The returns on experience diminish very sharply.

Something built today isn't necessarily still going to be prime real estate 100 years from now. Another spot, further inland may be more important then.

Running around screaming "help we're about to drown" because the spot you're standing in today may be under water 100 years later, which is essentially what the OP was doing, doesn't make sense unless you're a tree. 100 years is ample time to adapt to very big changes.

My point is, 10k years ago, at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, these same methane hydrates and vast permafrost areas existed several thousand km closer to the equator, after having had 100k years to build up. They were exposed, mostly melted (though there is still some fossil permafrost left deep under ground), so the events you describe are not unique. Over the past 2.5 million years, they must have happened, first every 40k years, then every 120k years.

There is no evidence that the earth ever had an ammonia and methane atmosphere, or even a reducing atmosphere, and you're comparing the recent geologic past with a period some 800-650 million years ago! Snowball earth having been caused by microbial activity is a theory I've only seen mentioned on slashdot.

You don't know anything about my world view, presumptuous little man. Re: your other insightful post - I have never eaten a big mac or driven an SUV. How about you?

You're outer category delusional.

The projected sea level rise is up to about a meter by the year 2100. Not in the form of a sudden tidal wave arriving next tuesday, but a few milimeters per decade.
Think of the world 100 years ago. Think how different agriculture was then, how different cities were. A century is a very long time on the scale of a human life and culture.

You're harming your cause with such extreme and patently ridiculous alarmism. Did you know that up to the start of the Pleistocene, there were no permanent ice caps on either pole? Was the earth in the Pliocene an uninhabitable wasteland? We are living in the Holocene interglacial stage of an ice age today. Today's climate isn't the norm, it isn't the only climate in which life is possible. In fact, every species alive today, except for perhaps a handful of human domesticated crops, already existed during the last ice age, and lived through the transition. Before you bring up the standard response about the rate of climate change being completely unique in the history of the earth, this too is false. The transition from the last glacial to the Holocene interglacial was just as sudden. Vast subarctic tundras, built up over a period of 100,000 years (the duration of the last glaciation) thawed and became exposed (in fact, some of it is still frozen deep under the surface in central Europe!).

The environment is facing a number of terrible human induced crises - primarily habitat loss, over-fishing, and pollution. Yes, many species will disappear by the end of the century, even if the climate stops changing today, even if the climate goes back to the way it was before the industrial revolution. If you live long enough, you will find that a slight increase in temperature will have been a minor influence compared to these things.

Or you could stop complaining and adapt to a slightly warmer world.