What others are saying matches what I think... (programmers do it for fun, and never stop coming up with programming ideas... even scripting for games)

What I think is missing from the discussion is what was the programming you were doing before IT took over your life? Did you ever really get going on a project?

I can totally see it being the case that you enjoyed the bits of programming you were taught, but never stumbled onto the right set of tools... Namely, if I see something I want to accomplish, I'm contemplate solving it with various capabilities I already know. If I know some of the tools needed, that's enough to get started. E.g. if I need something that talks to a serial port and monitors packets, while recording packet timing? I know the serial part, so I'll just jump into the project and figure out the timing part as I go.

I would recommend starting off with scripting (e.g. Python), to reacquaint yourself with the logic, and then add in one of the "real" languages in order to become familiar with the proper approaches to larger complex setups.

If gaming is a potential hook for your programming interest, I suggest using AutoHotkey to learn a bit of logic while making macros for tedious stuff...

Once I re-read the post after submitting, I knew someone would catch my omission of 'successfuly.'

I'm not sure any one has achieved survival of a nuke when using it... /pedantic misreading

Pidgin is definitely gaim in nature.

I've not heard of Pidgin and Metro being combined, though.

But really! I was expecting Slashdot to have this news tomorrow at the earliest!

This is too small of a fix to be worthwhile, most likely. 15 million gallons... per YEAR is 0.01% of 380 million * 365 days.

I have to imagine there are so many alternative things to invest in that would make more than a 0.01% dent.

I see where you're coming from (imaginary slashdot full of news for nerds and stuff that matters)...

What about when the Surface comes out at the end of this month? The Surface Pro?

Just curious if your opinion differs for products with release dates further removed from announcement.

I, too, am a huge fan of that style of volume control. Search for the Targus Slim Internet Media USB Keyboard.

I have two... They're cheaply made, but the only thing that's broken in the two years I've been using mine (other's a spare) was the folding feet.

I've also added the trackball from those button-less Apple mice to the keyboard, and replaced one of the feet with a USB hub...

Do you ever have issues with lag in with the K350's keystrokes?

I've had this problem on separate computers, both Win 7 and Linux... (But it's a rare enough problem that the keyboard finally found use at work.)

Nah. I'd forgotten that Simon wasn't square. Sparkfun's DIY version has supplanted my mental image. And indeed, exact same ordering of colors in both.

So is the average user going to think that the logo is the app for the game Simon? Artistic brilliance, aye! Should make that playable while computer boots...

You mean like this? http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=4431

You'd probably want the more recent SUPER PRISM design (optimized for betterness; I think it's fewer larger cores for increased efficiency, along with updated calculations of various sorts)... Though that gimmicky name probably doesn't help in convincing people... Too bad we largely stopped doing research on the PRISM based designs in the 90s.

And I suspect thorium/PRISM/etc. have a major hurdle in economics. The US's current fleet of reactors has a ~91% capacity factor (aka fraction of max electricity/year that we're getting). The capacity factor is highly dependent on highly optimized materials science from the past decades. You don't have that for different fuel/coolant setups. Good luck convincing the power company to build the reactor that's going to have 70% capacity factor instead of one with >90%.

Well it's certainly not normal! Oh wait...

(disclaimer: I had to look it up :( )

Slashdot ate my 'less than' symbol. The update mean iOS 3 devices couldn't run Stanza.