Actually... the analogy is not really that flawed. Your first "Hello, World!" program is about as complicated for software as wiring a light bulb to a battery is for hardware. I'm not arguing for or against software patents, though personally, I feel software should be patentable if it exceeds a certain threshold of complexity. Something along the lines of, "Wow! I'd have never thought of doing that." should be the litmus of whether the software is complex enough to be patentable (and should be done by someone with expertise in the applicable field).

Yeah, because Canonical strayed oh so far from GNOME... Have you seen GNOME 3? It looks like Unity.

What was that? You can still use GNOME anyway (or KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment, or whatever else floats your boat)?

Are you aware that GNOME's website is hosted by Canonical?

Quorum looked a lot like BASIC to me. Only the keywords were different. The headline for the article is horrible (as usual). The headline (and summary) neglect to mention that this test was given to people who had no experience in programming.

My takeaway from this "research" is that Perl is not a good language for beginners. If you already know the general concepts of programming, Perl is fairly easy to pick up.

The original Doritos flavor was Taco. Right now, they appear in retro packaging. I see them all the time at the local convenience store in Podunk, USA. If you are looking for unflavored Doritos... They're sold by Frito-Lay under the trade name Tostitos.

Exactly. All that is required is that the packet reaches the intended destination. The easiest way to do that on a TCP/IP network is the magic packet sent to one of the broadcast addresses (either network specific i.e. 192.168.0.255 or the general purpose one: 255.255.255.255). Every switch knows how to handle network broadcasts (and every hub, though I haven't seen an actual network hub in ages since small switches are commodity hardware now, transmits every packet to every connected port).

But where will you get the pinball machine parts to replace it?

With the exception of professions where there is either very little expansion of knowledge, but a vast knowledge base (such as literary professions) or an ever increasing knowledge base where knowledge is seldom replaced (such as medical professions), most of what a college degree proves is that you have learned how to learn. This is especially true in the IT professions where the industry changes so quickly that the curriculum is already multiple generations behind by the time changes have been approved.

My advice for those entering the IT professions: Try to get in with a start-up. The work is not stable, but they will be more willing to take a risk on those with less experience (due to the fact that the more experienced will be looking for something more stable.)

I'll take it you've never heard of Wake-on-LAN. Third-party services such as LogMeIn actually can turn on remote machines as long as there is another computer on the network with LogMeIn installed. That doesn't even require an IP address. It's a packet addressed to the MAC of the NIC (which is why the originating packet needs to be on the same network).

...and then once you have learned what you set out to learn by programming in C, immediately stop programming in it unless you are doing some heavy-duty programming (like writing an OS or bleeding-edge game development) You can write robust apps in nearly any language, but the language you are using when you make a mistake (and you will make mistakes) will determine what happens. Screw up in Python, Perl, BASIC, Java, etc. and your app will crash. Screw up some memory management in C or C++ and your OS will crash.

You are aware that visible light is also electromagnetic radiation (as well as infrared and ultraviolet - both provided in gratuitous amounts by the sun... far more than produced by any artificial light source)

Of course the back pain reported by workers of electronics stores has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are likely moving heavy objects (probably without taking proper precautions to prevent injury) and are on their feet for most if not all of their shifts.

Ignorance does not improve the credibility of your field.

On a tangent, now that 3D is popular in movies again, would you agree that it's time for "Nature Trail to Hell" to actually be made?

I, personally, am unable to perceive the Haidinger's Brush effect, which may be related to my poor night vision (in low light situations, I perceive an effect similar to the white noise static seen on televisions). In normal lighting, I have no apparent adverse conditions.

1936
        Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer First freely programmable computer.

...but with the WebOS phones from Verizon, the tethering app is included... by Verizon... for free!

Agreed. iTunes is barely even arguably better than just using folders and Sound Recorder for (mis)managing your music library.