I've heard a lot of 12 year olds make those exact statements. Well done

You mean, like, a carbon-based fossil that used water to survive like us? That would be pretty interesting!

It's currently projected that the Republicans will retain control of the House of Representatives, and the Democrats will retain control of the Senate.

So nothing has changed. Looking forward to the next four years of partisanship!

"I felt a great disturbance in the 'Craft, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were forced to come out of their parent's basement. I fear something productive has happend"

I think a distinction should be made between a programmer and a *good* programmer. My CS program had a number of *really* smart kids - 1600 SAT scores and the like - but many of them really struggled at the concepts and barely made it through the curriculum. I think a good programmer takes 1. Creativity to think about problems from different angles 2. Drive to hunker down and get through hard problems (be it starting a new language, that pesky compile error, starting a large project from scratch). 3. I'm sure fellow slashdotters can think of many more

... can't you fix it?!"
No Mom, they didn't teach Windows PC management in my CS curriculum.

my school, UIC, used aix unix with its own mail setup (no Exchange) when i was there. the admins never had problems like this (i know them personally).

There, fixed that for you.

I was in this same dilemma and I chose to stay for an M.S. in CS. I was near the top of my undergrad class but felt I could get a 'leg up' on even experienced people out there with the higher degree. What I found was that even with a little bump in pay the loss of 2 years of work experience was near detrimental and humbling.
The professional work environment is a much stricter and difficult place to fit in. Learning how the business works *besides* just knowing how to code means more.
I recommend he go into the workforce as soon as possible. If he has time after work to finish an MS then that could be an option. But don't discount real-work experience for a few more advanced classes and another 10k starting salary. It won't mean much when your peers have 2 years on you and already covered that 10k in bonuses and salary (and now real experience).

I'm sure the board of ed will love the cost of a Lego Mindstorms set for every student in the school.
Also, if you need Legos to teach programming then you're doing something wrong.

had to be said.

This one from a guy who left Bloomberg L.P. has been getting office attention for the better part of a year

Corporate Rapper Jerel Smith Quits Bloomberg, Cuts Down Enemies
http://www.blog.joelx.com/corporate-rapper-jerel-smith-quits/1033/

Lenovo charges for the downgrade as well. But they justify it by letting you 'upgrade' back to Vista after you've downgraded, if you should choose to upgrade at a later time. Them giving you that 'option' will cost you $70 a pop.

You should put your description on the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profile-guided_optimization .
The current one is kind of lacking

Mine too. It also has sFtp now. I've been using this for the better part of 8 years.

- full keybinding support
- easy syntax highlighting format
- easy user tools integration and command shell support
- full macro support
- advanced find/replace for open files and files in directory

It is shareware but never times out (at least not in the time i've used it)