Find a good job first use whatever they want you to use. A good job where you're allowed to be creative and not Micromanaged. Find that job and usually they'll have enough sense to use development tools that give them a competitive edge. I've had crappy jobs at crappy companies. Usually they used crappy development tools. Currently, I have a good job with a good company. I write Python and C++ code for high performance Linux systems. If I came up with a good business reason to use another language the company would most likely go with it. So find the good job and the rest will follow.

Your Washington figure for sales tax is wrong. In Seattle sales tax is 10% and in most other places in Washington is 9.8%.

Isn't this what VBScript is for? If you don't like VB you can use JScript.

Avatar is not anti-technology. Technology saved the Na'vi. The movie was making a statement about imperialism and ethnocentrism. Both the Na'vi and the humans possessed advanced technology. The Na'vi have advanced biological tech including a world spanning network that they can tap into at will. They fly, possibly better than humans can with their technology. The Na'vi are not stone age primitive people, they are a highly advanced culture with advanced technology. Their technology is just very different than human technology.

It was interesting work but the management were clueless about software development. That's another company on my resume that no longer exists. Damn.

How about recording the lecture using a cell phone and otherwise pay attention to what the lecturer says. You can then take notes from the video or audio.

• Jack hammers upstairs so loud that when they stopped your ears rang.
• Random things would fall from the ceiling.
• Strange liquids fall on your desk from the ceiling.
• Noxious vapors filling the floor forcing an evacuation.

For 3 months this went on. During this time everytime we complained, the office manager who worked on a different floor would say, "Oh it's not that bad".

Thanks D4 for my Dilbert experience.

Most software is still embedded. Combine that with, any joker can become competent with Java or C#. There are a lot of low paying jobs dealing with Java or C# that you see advertised. Competent C and C++ developers are harder to find and consequently earn more money. I constantly am getting calls from recruiters looking to bring me in on C/C++ jobs, especially, for medical devices and military systems. This stimulus bill that Captain dumbshit just rammed through the legislative branch contains a lot of funding earmarks for medical and military. So I expect that this trend will only increase. Get familiar with the MISRA coding standard and understand how to design reliable systems in C and C++.

Won't be doing so now. I'll just stick with my Zaurus PDA and Gutenberg.

This is one of those shoot themselves in the foot moments. The people who are going to by this device and make it profitable are the ones that will want to tinker with it. If the tinkerers don't buy it the Kindle will fail as a product before it has a chance to become mainstream. Good job Amazon.