It all goes down to what pleases you (it's *free* time, after all). I, for example, enjoy off-work programming a little bit, but I am very happy to *have programmed* off-work, that is, I love the results, the fact that I have lots of cool babies of my own (or in which I had a role), and I'm willing to spend the extra mile for that. Sue me, your mileage may vary anyway.

How does that relate to who I should hire, or who would hire me? Well, I guess the thing sorts itself out: each team will end up being built around the same types of programmers (off-time coders x non off-time coders, for example). In the medium term, the team "personality" is born, and hiring goes from that point, in my humble experience.

But I can't help noticing the author of the article is quite opinionated, and a few of his opinions cross the boundary between "funny" and "gross". "This Is America, Take Your Unicode Somewhere Else" is a title that shows how well he plays along with anyone that thinks or looks different, so take that in account when reading his blog.

From both the technical and marketplace perspectives, it is clear that Palm had no choice other than pull the plug (although they've mostly put themselves onto that situation). And, as others have said, development of the OS had already stopped years ago. But it doesn't stop one from having a slightly sad feeling of closing a chapter in a digital lifestyle age.

Palm OS is, for me, the icon of the computer-in-your-pocket times. The amazing fact of having a Palm III is that it had roughly the same firepower that the high-end computers of my late childhood (heck, almost the same CPU of an Amiga) - and it was available for me anywhere, anytime.

It is hard to underestimate that, and I feel sad to see it go - even not being an user anymore (yeah, I'll mark this day on my iPhone's calendar. :-P )

As another Brazilian, I have mixed feelings with the deployment of OLPC laptops here. But one thing is for sure: the *research* done by OLPC is something very benefitial for everyone. Just like when men went to the moon: maybe we didn't really need to land on the big piece of cheese ;-), but it allowed the research of several, useful technologies. Some of it happens at OLPC: see the "never-sleeping" WiFi chips, designed for mesh networks, as an example, or the dual-resolution LCD. Even if the $100 laptop never arrives, those technologies will hit the market somehow.