It's like pitching an entire city of of their houses because you suspect that there's criminal activity going on somewhere in that city.

Ie standard US policy

I have often wondered why it seems that most C++ is written by people who would appear to be less than half good.

Mod parent +1: over qualified

Except that the fact that [something] was only released 18 months ago indicates that the HR department has only a limited grasp of the concepts of numbers, dates and buzzwords.

Alternatively they want someone who will lie a lot about timescales, or is not easily bored.

You are partly right, but completely wrong. Older/more experienced people may have less confidence in their skills because they know that there is more to progamming than copying "hello world" rprograms from the text book, and expect a rather deeper knowledge of both language and application domain.

Of course they know, because they have done it and got the t-shirt, that you can learn the syntax of a new language by reading a couple of sides of A4. However, they also know it takes a few years to get familiar with the language gochas and the compiler bugs.

Dont expect a job optimising SQL from me! And stay away from my Cobol compiler.

I assume you know the use of a lawn by now,

I can't even imagine ruling out older candidates.

A lot of the problem is people (PHBs) who do not want to employ someone under them who is older than them, because they are embarassed about:

A) Giving instructions to an older person

B) Giving (probably stupid) instructions to someone who understands the issues.

No one is going to own up to these factors.

Sometimes there is a "good" reason to hire the inexperienced. The company maya ctually require people who have not got the experience to spot mass corruption, When the company collapses, it is often necessary to be able to claim "no one on the team saw it coming" despite the fact that anyone who had ever been in an IT project before knows that version control is not just a good idea. (etc)

If you see an empty barrel - look for pork bellies!

What would you watch on it?

Aljazeera news and Nollywood movies - so much better than Fox News and Hollywood.

Where would you get the power to run it?

From a Honda Generator.

You obviously have not been to Africa.

In Africa? Almost all broadcasts in West Africa are digital, requiring a specific STB from the broadcaster. The TV does not even need a tuner, let alone one for the supposed local standards.Can you repiar olnew TVs?

I live in the UK, and I am using a desktop 3 years old, the family PC is over five years old, and our laptops that are 5 year old Lenovo T61's because they are better than the newer models. We dont play games on PCs - we have Android phones for that. PCs are for LibreOffice and Firefox (and the occasional bit of PCB layout). I think our company (Sun) servers are also more than 4 years old. They work fine. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

More relevantly: West African transport operators want mechanically injected diesel lorries with no ECU's because if the ECU goes wrong, the lorry and its load are lost. This means buying old lorries. The Western "polution reduction" Euro 5 etc, is about lining pockets for "Add-blu" sales, not about saving the planet.

The snake in the Garden of Eden was a "one eyed trouser snake" and the term apple was used like "Nell Gynn's apples". You obviously dont watch enough porn.

It is an issue of the meaning of the word "god" in different languages and contexts. There are differences between being in a Church in Texas, and living under a tree in a rain forest. (In one of these situations, you have freedom. But there are probably other differences. I have never been in either situation, so I don't know).

It was true when the first Japanese cars came. However, I am guessing they read the reviews and created MITI. Meanwhile the American motor industry was telling the world "American cars are bigger, so they must be better" the real Ford Galaxy (500) was as big as an aircraft carrier, and at least twice as hard to steer (at least here in Europe it was). And with a 500 cubic inch (7 litre) engine it could almost outperform the average European 2 litre model on a strait road, Unfortunately we have not had strait roads in the UK since the Romans left in 530AD.

Yiou should go to Specsavers: You obviously missed the word franchised which is the crux of the matter. You can buy Kellogs products anywhere, not just from the "franchised Kellogs dealer" who withholds the supply of bowls, spoons and milk until you sign your soul to the devil.

You have been short-changed.

If its worth money:

Hve three copies, on three media types in three locations.

Not so sure about file systems. If you have proprietry backup software, then you will never get the data when you really need it. tar loves you!

Do device "owners" really want phones that "accept only applications approved by the company".

No, and if this feature were dropped, a lot of us would want Symbian phones even now. This is the "feature" that killed Symbian. However, it was mandated by the carriers. It took Google to kill it, and Android gets stick daily for not having this "feature".