IMO the main point of going to a big-name school is it buys you a good rep, rightfully or not. You get one good glance at your CV if it has a name on it. Also, people simply think that I'm smarter than I really am, because they see where I studied. Working hard at proving them wrong.

This is a wording that I can support. It's not saying that someone should get you a router and a subscription, just that if you have this, you should have unfiltered access.

Well, going with the same logic, didn't the cambrian explosion happen about 500Mya? And couldn't you combine that with a model of how long a planet stays habitable for? Still only one somewhat tenuous data point though. Wonder what other approaches one could take.

Some of the best dribblers in football are not very tall. Messi, Maradona, etc. It helps to have a low COG.

You don't see so many of these little magicians though. One reason is that other people can learn to be good at dribbling too (look up TIPS Ajax Amsterdam), and if you're not amazing at it, stronger players will muscle you off the ball.

TFA says they're gonna take the results to Albany. Is the state under any obligation to look at this?

Also, on a somewhat related note, is there any desire amongst Americans to have proportional representation? There's pros and cons of course.

You're right, of course I'm writing from a certain point of view, not one based in the early years of the computer age. But times have moved on. These days a lot of programmers are merely facilitating some other business, rather than working as a programming specialist in a programming firm. You know, guys doing various websites, apps, that kind of thing. They're "using computers for other reasons than computers being cool". They're also not as involved, or care less, about the hardcore aspects of what they're doing (try looking at an excel sheet written for an option trading outfit if you want to see messy code). Quite a lot useful things can be knocked together with standard parts these days. They may not be optimal, but many are functional.

I actually have a Ted guy in my building. He works by himself, all day, on what I consider to be pretty hardcore engineering. I think he also writes the drivers for the PCB he's building. Interesting fellow, and somehow he does give off the air of "uber-nerd". But I'm thinking these days, you've got a lot of people who've taken tech in many different directions, and those guys aren't so similar to my buddy.

IMO programming is inherently a social activity. Aren't most programmers writing things that other people are meant to interact with? When you code, don't you ask the users what they think of your creation, how to improve it, etc? Don't you also try to influence how they use the program? That's a social thing, surely?

I was agreeing with you. Would be great if people weren't rude, and yes rudeness detracts from the arguments. Just wondering to you (and often myself) whether debating with people online ever changes anything.

1. Politeness on the net would be great. There's no mod for "rude" and people don't use "troll" that much.
2. I don't think anyone ever changes their mind about any discussion on the net. At most, you get an opinion where you were indifferent. So yeah, what does "winning the argument" mean?