Reading through this, I just had a goofy idea. Might be fun. Wants, needs, risks and weightings.

Have people input their income and expenses. The product of that is some nice presentation of where their money currently goes.

Add value by doing the math, and if the inputs do not come within a few percent of income, prompt them for more spending.

For each spend, give it some data fields that detail the kind of spending, when, why, how and variances. Break it down so they get a screen with some great picks that tell the system what they are spending and might spend in rough ways.

eg:

Type of spend
Electric Bill, recurring, 15th of every month. Time base = quarter (as opposed to weekday, week, day, year, month, etc...) Summer = $100, Fall = $150, Winter = $200, Spring = $75

Smokes, recurring, every other day (give options here, day of month, pattern, weekly, annually, quarterly), $5

Oil Change, recurring, Quarterly, $35.

Savings, recurring, bi-weekly, $200.

You get the idea.

The more they input, the more robust the data is, and show them that as often as you can, or ideally as they are inputting so you are flexing that database and using spiffy features too.

Now they know what they are spending. Ask them about risks based on the input and some stuff you've thought up.

Car repair? Theft? Get sick? Have them input those.

Wants.

New car, $10K. Given that want, and the spending, show them options to save vs finance. As they add more wants, highlight where they overshoot their means and how the risks might screw them.

Then they can select weightings of various kinds...

Lots of fun there, uses database, might actually get used too.

Generally, I'll sample during a trial because that's a freebie. If I've paid in, they get that cycle to sell me.

Ok, I can type more than that for my comment.

In a nut shell, I make them regret they even considered calling me. Generally speaking, I get them to run from the cube sobbing, never to return to work again. Ideally, they quit their job right then and there. Been close to that, and I've deffo scored the sobbing and a coupla "unscheduled breaks" from the cube. One of these days, I will get one to quit right then and there.

Throughout that mess, I remind them about that recording for quality and I ask them whether or not they really want to face the ribbing they will get when the call gets checked. "Jesus, look at what happened to Ron last Tuesday! Holy fuck! What a lamer!" Or whatever...

There are a few rules to this.

1. You have to keep the call time high. It takes some time to break through their script and understand them well enough to impact them personally.

2. Every single word is double edged torture, laced to the max with empathetic expressions of wonder and disgust over how they can even consider doing that work, while at the same time establishing a rapport on some common ground basis they can identify with. This really gets to them.

3. Use profanity very lightly, if at all, and always use it in context that can be taken to be colorful, passionate expression, not anything they can take personally. Demean the work, the company, everything, but make sure it's one citizen to another trapped in a hopeless machine kind of way.

4. Use their name frequently, and if you suspect it's fake, work 'em for the real deal, then continue.

I've stopped most of them on the first call. Once or twice I've come up on the dialer within a short time frame. Typical responses are, "Oh fuck, it's you!" to which I start in as if nothing ever happened, happy to be speaking with them again, and where did we leave off?

The best is when they lose it big! Usually, it's some rant, or really sorry story, involving crying, yelling, frustration, you name it. And I listen intently, looking for just the right response to send them over the edge hard.

Call me, you might lose one of ur doodz.

Fuck, if I know the answer to this mess, but I do know how to raise the cost and I've got some great audio archived.... Hey Brandon from Vonage! Yeah, it's me. You know who I am, and are you still working there after our last two calls? Jesus dude, I told you how to get hold of me. Quit that shit and I'll do my best to hook you up. Just let me know.

http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html

They need extensive testing and an object level code audit, along with tool chain certification to insure what they are running is what the code represents.

??

That's a hilarious warning. When we observe elections in other nations, we get involved at all levels, and frankly given the state of many of our elections, could use the same here.

Oregon Vote My Mail: Ask for it in a State near you.

and take it to work.

Cheap ass, and damn tasty, if you know what you are doing. If not? Well, there is that Arby's...

All of them. They remain useful until they are completely broken, thrashed, just worn the fuck out dead.

That's why they are doing well. I pay a lot for mine, run them hard, and when they are behind the curve, they get cycled home for various things, until they finally just don't work, and that process is generally painless too.

I like the matte black finish. It's not sexy, but it endures way better than the shiny, "please don't scratch it" finishes on so many machines do. Maybe starting out a little less sexy has it's advantages. Black is damn cool in my book, and there is always that little brightly colored something on the machines, sort of like a great tie on an otherwise boring business suit. Perfect.

The keyboards are a bit noisy, but I like that too. Always have. I can type and type and type until the buttons are all worn, and they just keep going great, no worries.

Heavy little buggers, if you buy the more powerful ones. If I need to clock somebody with my laptop, Lenovo is there! No worries, and I can probably post to Facebook after doing it too.

Linux is well supported across most of the machines. I love that. A Think Pad was the first machine I ran OS X on too. Worked amazingly well, and was faster than the Mac I ended up getting soon after. Gotta admit, the touch pad on the Mac is better tho, but not by much. Some Think Pad touch pads need to be worn in. Once that has happened, they work much better. Weird.

By and large, I leave most of the value added software on the machines. It works well. HP is noisy, Dell just horrible, etc.... I get a competent disc burning kit, defrag tools, etc... Nice package that actually has some real value. On my latest machine they even tossed in the nVidia 3D licenses. Didn't know that, until I connected up to a new TV for some 3D CAD tests. Nice!! That's $14.99 for most of you out there.

Funny thing is I was not a fan early on. One ended up at the house, and I started using it. By the time I got it, the machine was a bit dated, but damn if it wasn't just great to use. When it outlasted some HP thing or other, I was sold. Typically, I get a top machine for work purposes. Need big RAM / CPU, nVidia, etc... Once it's done, it goes home for micro-controller related projects. Long life cycle on these. Worth it.

And... matte finish displays that are typically nice, bright, with fine dot pitches. They've wavered a bit on these on some models as of late. Gotta be a bit picky about that, but so has everybody else. Get the better display they offer, and it's no worry.

The few times I've ordered replacement things under warranty, they shipped 'em, the work wasn't hard. Once the machine ends up at home, I find I can service it much easier than I can the HP machines, which incorporate all manner of fiddly components, glue, buttons that fail, etc... Ugh. Dell sometimes does better, and is in my mind, competitive on this front. Apple? Difficult, but then their stuff works a long time too. Fair game they are playing, but HP is just losing big on this front. Get an HP, and you better hope it works, or service might be very difficult no matter who does it.

I expected some of this to fade when IBM let go to Lenovo. Very pleased to see they've kept the bar high so far. Hoping they continue.

Well, not too much officially.

The official curriculum consisted of some application specific learning. Standard stuff for the time, Visicalc, AppleWorks, etc... When the PC lab got built, it was the same deal there. Practical learning, skills based, focused on using the computer to do something specific.

It also included some real basics on computers. The parts of them, things about data, floppies, backups, etc... Not too much, other than care and feeding of the computer and some understanding of what makes it do what it does.

Our labs were Apple ][ series machines, one PC AT / XT lab, and a Mac or two hidden away for special things, LOL!

Unofficially?

Anything and everything. One educator there was very fond of putting students into interest groups where he would then enable that learning, whatever it was. For me, and a few peers, this was golden! I've written this here a time or two, but can't find it at the moment, so I'll just summarize:

We got a few rules. State what we wanted to do, state why, sell that, then do it and move onto the next thing. In a few years, we got through programming in BASIC, LOGO, PASCAL, 6502 assembly. We also got to explore CP/M and compare / contrast to the Mainframe we could dial up running UNIX, and Prodos and our own home computers, whatever they were.

It ended up being a mini comp-sci course, where we worked from books, photocopied data sheets, and long hours on black boards working out binary math for various things. A few of us ended up teaching courses too for senior projects and such. Mine was LOGO programming, and it was a pretty successful course with most students able to write some spiffy programs.

While this was going on, those of us really interested were scoring info wherever we could. Magazines at the corner market, photocopies made from the University library, and documentation requests from various companies. Moto sent me out their 6809 / 68K programming reference just for the asking! Rockwell sent us data books too. Damn cool time.

For those that got after it, some seriously good learning happened. For the ordinary student, it was less than stellar, though they did at least get some seat time and basic literacy skills.

I went on to start into manufacturing, knowing enough to tackle things like paperless drawings and CAD and Internet in 91. Automation systems of various kinds, G-code, and filters / plotters to evaluate that stuff happened too. I often wrote in basic back then, just because it was good enough, but Turbo Pascal was the real tool. High School was enough to continue directly, which is what I and a few peers did, all having tech-oriented jobs today doing various things. Invaluable frankly.

Coupla notable things:

1. The math teacher was down on binary. "Who uses that esoteric number system?"

2. Took a class in mechanical drafting, then got exposed to some early CAD. I finished that class with an F, because it was much more useful to lay out D&D maps... The CAD ended up being a career as I could use CAD leaving High School, and did right away in a manufacturing context, later on engineering.

3. Some learning was different. Today, kids are often taught Microsoft Word. Back then we were taught what a word processor was, it's functions, etc... Then we got exposed to some word processors. Same with operating systems, and all manner of things. There is a perspective that comes with learning that way I find extremely valuable today. My own kids didn't get that from school, but did at home, of course.

Lots of things didn't happen yet. Internet was not really deployed on a wide scale, meaning one basically got online through University, or via some expensive service, or through a BBS gateway, etc... My experiences there were outside of school. The same is true for storage, networks, etc... All mostly missing, due to the time frame. No educating was done on this, but to explain the dial up to the University to tap the mainframe. (And the damn thing printed on big paper, such a waste... They could have attached a VT100 or something for a much better experience, something I didn't know until after leaving.)

And that cluster is 11th? Nice!!

That's it, just general best wishes.

I don't disagree.

There are a few layers to this discussion. One is the stationary computer. For me, that's gone for all but that old Apple.

The second is "The end of the PC" discussion, and I don't think we are anywhere close to that. Tablets and phones are growing very potent. Lots can be done on them, but they are not the general purpose computing devices "PC" devices are. Some of them can be, and I see people attempting to do that.

I myself am looking at a basic droid device for that purpose. I also use portable Linux distributions a lot, along with virtualization to decouple from hardware.

When it comes to authoring things, the PC is still king. For information consumption and some light manipulation, tablets and phones are rapidly filling that niche. There will be fewer PC's, but no end to them anytime soon.

I've ditched the desktop. One laptop works for me. I don't even have external screens and such anymore. It was just easier to learn to use it well just as it comes. I will, on occasion plug in a mouse, or other specialized input device, and those are carried in my backpack.

Older laptops get purposed for specific things. Media server, or development machine for micro-controllers and such.

The only real PC that I have now is my Apple //e! (and I wish it were portable) And it's a nicely equipped //e, with a USB card for storage, serial, etc...

Being a programmer, at the lowest level, is composing instructions. Lots of people do that, and they do so without too much trouble.

Now, being a good programmer requires being able to manipulate and keep track of simultaneous abstractions. That's a lot harder, and I do think there are plenty of people who just don't work well that way.