Ohio/Northern Kentucky area schools (jumped between a few schools because I moved a lot). Most were theory heavy (senior year project example: write a solitaire game that plays itself to figure out how often it can't win. no UI, just output results of each game), "fix the problem in code" projects, or lots of on paper stuff. We did do stuff in various languages as well. The C projects were always smaller than that java ones.

I should mention that this is undergrad, not a masters or phd. Still, i jumped between a few different schools and it all seemed to be the same.

I don't think i've seen school code that ever made it past 1,000-2,000 lines of code

My last few projects were in the 100,000+ lines of code range (multiple employees)

Regardless of school code being good or bad, it's easy to write good code when you have clear business rules for needs to get done and you only have to write something small

You think the government isn't already tapping in and getting everything they want? You think the government can't "shut down" the internet in US/Canada by strong arming the tiny group of companies that own most of the lines?

Of the two viable options (current system vs government run system), i'd take the government one where we know they're wiretapping anyways, but at least we get much better connections, for much cheaper. The government option is MUCH closer to a "free market" option where small ISP's can actually start up and get the same price / access to backbones (price per gig) that the current big players would also pay. Otherwise, the barrier to entry is too damn high for anyone to really compete with the very few big companies.

It's very lightweight/fast so things that often hit the server side with ajax calls benefit. Example: gmail checks for updates every few seconds and then uses javascript to update the gmail interface without refreshing. That's a good example of where node.js work well.

New tech seems to be paying well. As a person that keeps up to date on a lot of technologies, I've worked from networking, to coding, to security, and now full time DBA. The pay is good for what I do since I stick to newer "hot" technologies (or smaller unique high pay one-off jobs).

I am currently working in a fortune 50 company for the last year, and IMO - I can tell you that the reason that "tech" people are not getting more money is because, quite literally, 30-50% of the staff is off shore people trying to get green cards. And I am not talking about small number of people. Instead of just offshoring things, people are bringing offshore workers in locally to say that they don't offshore their work. The local foreign workforce, along with fresh-out-of-school types, are doing all the "old timer" jobs like java development, xml parsing, db2 and mssql work. The high pay people are now team leads, architects, or using new fangled technologies like nosql, and html5, and python (not perl for command line), and all of those other "brand new" technologies to the industry. (note the sarcasm with "new fangled technologies").

Add a bunch of people who are EXCITED to get paid $30,000 to the workforce ... and it brings the average down

Are you willing to move somewhere new? If not, consulting is the best route to go.

Do you have your heart set on continuing to program? You mention PL/SQL - PostgreSQL experts are in great demand now and are replacing oracle jobs all over the place. Few people have a LOT of experience, so being able to just claim that you've installed it locally (hint: install it locally on a unix server), and being able to do PL/SQL, you have a good chance of getting SOMETHING in that field.

Do you plan on working more of a "corporate" job - aka: Big company to move up in? In that sense, i can see why your age would be a problem. Instead, take up android development. If you can get ANYTHING published, you will be in extremely high demand all over the country for java based android developers. You would also have a much higher chance of being able to telecommute or work from home full time. Either way, having long time java skills will still give you a shoe in to many android shops.

Final recommendation - if you want to continue writing code and can't find anything, I would recommend taking up javascript and HTML. You can always work from home, PHP/Python/Ruby are pretty easy to learn, BUT you can keep using c# and java as well. There are a LOT of web jobs available all over.

As for a+ / network+ ... both are pretty useless in my opinion. Security+ i've seen a few people give a nod of acknowledgement, but that's pretty much it.

As for WHERE to get jobs: www.dice.com and www.craigslist.com are my two recommendations for finding something. Otherwise register yourself with a tech recruiter like teksystems or accenture. They make money by finding you jobs, AND they will sometimes bypass the interview portion with the official company they are trying to place you in, or they might only do phone interviews - that should help keep your age a little more hush hush while going through the interview portion.

HAVE? This is the future... Can't i just BE my own authentication device?

What about a 2 tiered copyright system?
1. A "Development" phase copyright. This could last for UP TO 5 years on its own
2. A "Production" or "Industry" phase copyright. A full 5 years once a company starts to make money on the product

Basically, If you first register a copyright for development, you can have up to 5 years to develop that. If you only spend 2 years on development, then that's it. At the point of first sale, a full 5 year copyright would begin.

The goal here is that a company who failed (on their own terms while in development), won't have a copyright on something that would screw up the market over the long term. If they had a good idea, but their company died, the idea should be passed on for others to use no?

Thoughts?

Most everyone I know associates "HTML5" to be the bundled package of pre-made functions/rendering engines from browsers that let you use do interesting things with CSS3, javascript, as well as the new markup language tags. This includes things like the "canvas". According to the doctype on HTML5 pages... the markup language is just called "html".

Radius of earth = ~3959 mi

13,000 mph / 3,959 mi = a little over 3 times around earth per hour

In metric: about 20,900 kmh / 6,378 km

Half hour in the air = a little over 1.5 times around earth. Nice! I wonder what the speed up / slow down times are to hit Mach 20.

I agree that the internet is a fantastic place. But I will assume that when most people talk about "the internet" they are talking about sitting in front of a normal computer or laptop. I extend your list of websites and mention my favorite mobile app:

http://www.pulse.me/

Works on android, and iphones/ipads. I don't work for the company but this is one of my "highly recommended" apps for everyone to get. It's a news aggregator that lets YOU choose what feeds you want to have, as well as setting up "folder" like areas so that you can have an entire area of science stuff.

This is how i get my latest news. 5 minutes on a bus, waiting at a food place, sitting on the toilet, bored during commercials, etc... throw open the app, and get a quick view of the latest stuff from a bunch of different websites.

*note, when adding in news feeds, there is a section under "browse" called "trending". These will show the "top stories" for anything from business, to gaming and of course, science

Enjoy =)

Obligatory Link

Here is how you can get an internet for your own monthly meetings:

Internet in a box (extended version of the famous scene for those who have not seen it before)

2 cores CPU for basic program use - Example: Pandora and Email checking at the same time

Another core, cut down on functionality for "phone use". This includes GPS, tower connections, and actual phone use. This is useful for location based apps. This would not normally share with the primary CPU cores, but mixing it into a "multi-core" architecture would free up space in devices for future technologies, faster / better hard drives, longer lasting batteries, or even things like solar power or kinetic power generators (watches that you shake a bit to power, or the shake powered flashlights) hardware to help keep things alive longer

Another "core" - GPU

Right there we instantly have a "quad-core" setup where you can hopefully integrate a lot of technology onto a single chip in such a way that you can lower battery needs, free up space in the very limited size of these mobile devices. The GPU / satellite & antenna / CPU portions would work independently so that they don't hold up the software

Does this actually use a "quad-core" in the traditional sense that many of us are thinking about it? No. But it does allow for growth into a system where a single "chip" can hold many tasks/jobs/hats independently and effectively. Eventually with more gaming and advanced programs, multi-core technologies (traditional multi-core CPU as we normally think of it now) built into single apps will become more common as well

Call me a cynic at this point, but I don't believe the US government any more when they claim they are trying to "help" people. It's all about the money lebowski.

The money trail -

Step 1: Find the biggest companies who have the most (or at least most potential for) money : Google + Verizon Android Deal (Basically - plans to get android on a bunch of verizon phones to tap into the iphone / apple market)

Step 2: Figure out how the government can step in to get paid while still looking good: Google + Verizon Net Neutrality Deal (Basically - WIRED stays net neutral (government looks good) ... while WIRELESS doesn't get net neutrality ... )

Step 3: Show public support for a bill that will help the big companies.. err I mean the people - "YAY! Interwebs for Allz!!"

Step 4: Avoid the headache that is the current wired infrastructure...

Step 5: $ Profit $

... Well.. except of course the people who are being forced into these crap agreements and who's money is being handed out like candy ...

Fast forward to 2:05...

Yea dude! 4:20 is the new time for... umm.. youtube! Bwahaha... i'm so high ... ??? I think anyways? I'm listening to some really annoyingly pitched opera singer... Does that count!? DAMN THESE AUDIO WAVES ARE MESSING WITH MY HEAD!!1!