How did the senior developer find out what the new hire was paid anyway? Any time stuff like this leaks out, it's never pretty. That being said, one should be paid based on one's value and contribution to the organization and supply and demand -- not strictly on seniority. And...yes...I'm over 50 and work hard everyday to keep my skill set up-to-date.

Plain and simple.

He said "Wang"!...snort, snort, snort...

I just don't see what possible value that studying three-legged dogs to bring to the table. How to help leg-challenged horses?

How about as fodder for jokes?...

This traveling salesman is _way_ out in the hills and approaches a farmer to try to sell his wares. He notices a three legged pig hopping around in the front yard and asks the farmer about it. "That's no ordinary pig!" exclaims the farmer. "That pig is smart! We all owe our lives to that thar pig! Why, last winter we wuz all asleep and a spark from the fireplace caught the cabin on fire, and we would've all burned up. But that pig squeeled and beat on the front porch to wake us up and saved all our lives! And last sprang my son wuz a swimmin in the pond and took a cramp and woulda drown, but that thar pig come a runnin to the back fourty where I was a plowin and drug me by the overalls til I saw him and saved his life again!" "Wow, but what happened to his leg?" asked the salesman. "We owe it all to that pig! Why, it wouldn't be right to just eat him all at once!"

'nuf said.

Web server log entries from the past 8-9 years show 95% of the attempted break-ins originating from China. They've been checking the locks on the doors and windows for along time. But, when I suggest that we simply block all IPs from that part of the world (I usually added a course explicative that conveyed that they could make sex with themselves), management says no. I'm a full-blooded capitalist and believe in the power of a free market and society, but this is ethics, pure and simple. If I were Google, I'd be spinning off large team of people to start working on hacking into anything in the PRC they can find. If the "Law of the Land" condones computer breaking-and-entering then, by God, full steam ahead!

It's secure. It's online. It stores more than just passwords. And it's free. 'nuf said.

Captialism works because it rewards people for their efforts and creativity, not because of their NEED. Some will make more than others -- not all men are created equal. But greed? No. Now the internet operators will have to make everyone pay more for high speed internet access because they're forced by the rule of guns and "laws" to provide access to those who can't afford it but need it.

• Contradiction
• Mary, Queen of Scots
• Penguin on the Telly
• Gumby Theatre
• Abatoire

The needs of the people outweigh the rewards of hard work and creative output.

Where have I heard this crapola before?

How about sitting in a temporary trailer, in a parking lot, in Miami, in the summer, right in front of the door that had a spring not an automatic closer so the damn thing would bang everytime it closed, with people coming in and out constantly just because they liked our printer. The only consolation was the Cuban coffee shop next door. Now THAT I miss!

...or...to quote Ron White..."You can't fix stupid."

1) Sorry, but programmers ARE developers. Graphic artists and architects are users. To say otherwise is a slap in the face of developers, including me.

2) Programmers...er...developers don't pick a development platform simply because it's new. That's a user-thing. If fact, we don't pick a OS...our employer does. And guess what they're probably using?

3) Mac marketing as been brilliant but that's not a reason to buy a computer. In fact, one could say that the Mac could have been the "cow that got killed" if it hadn't been for the i*.

4) Vista ain't bad as long as you have the right hardware. I know...I've been developing on it for over a year.

5) Apple's market share for web and graphics designers is not based on the OS simplicity but on history -- they were the first ones to market with hardware and software that seemed made for publishing and image processing.