I wish I could reach out and shake both you and the GP's hands. You both are doing fantastic jobs as parents of gifted children. I'm blessed with one as well, and his reading and math skills are at a 4th/5th grade level or higher. But his problem is like your kids -- he gets so bored in class because he's always done with his 2nd grade tasks way before everyone else. So we do the same at home -- raise the difficulty higher and higher, and we marvel at the things he's able to grasp and understand almost intuitively.

However, I think we got lucky this year to have a teacher that understands his dilemma, and also tries to challenge him during class, but there's only so much time he can dedicate to each student. That's where we come in to continue the education at home. I think it also has a lot to do with the school district we're in, as ours is one of the best in our state because we fund our district well, and the better funding certainly means better teachers. That's where the rest of the US is falling down -- you get what you pay for.

Yet another monthly recurring charge that I'll never use, nor ever get around to cancelling. At least my idle gym membership won't feel so lonely now...

What is this term "magazine" that you speak of?

I manage a team of system administrators, so I'm constantly on the phone with customers, vendors, helpdesks, and IT manager peers, so that my SA's can avoid the phone and concentrate on putting humpty dumpty back together again. Otherwise, the SA's would never get anything done. Running interference for them is a big part of what makes our team work well.

Send the telephone sanitisers, middle managers, hairdressers, and advertising account executives. They'll probably need legal representation when they get there, so better send some lawyers and congress critters too.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy....

Seriously /.'ers, there are people out there that don't consider computer maintenance as a fun thing to do. I know, it's blasphemy, but variety is the spice of life.

Would you penalize those that build highways for giving road racers the smooth and long pavement on which to drive recklessly? It's not their fault that people choose to break the law (or in this case, violate copyright).

I don't see how it's the responsbility of the providers to be liable for their customers use or abuse. That smacks big time of collusion in politics. Who in the UK parliament is supporting this bill?

I think the Cubs have a better chance of making the World Series than Google Docs or OpenOffice have of making any threat against MSOffice. For any/many number of reasons, MSOffice is the gold standard, and probably has a 99.99% share in businesses, personal computers, schools, and elsewhere. The portion of people actually using GoogDocs or OOo as their primary and every-day office-suite is likely to be very, very small. And yes, the Slashdot crowd doesn't exactly model "the average user".

Hiring is not cheap. For starters, you have to burn your own productivity (and the accompanying salary) in talent searching, interviews, and the paperwork involved with hiring. Then there's the investment in the new employee on training, benefits, location, and knowledge transferral. Additionally, all of this must occur regardless of where the new employee is located.

And even then, chances are that 10% or more of the employees you hire will probably leave within one year anyway, meaning you have little time to recoup your investment in the hiring process.

You're assuming continuous employment with the same company. OTOH, the older programmer is more likely to be subject to involuntary RIF's, and then find themselves subject to ageism in the job market that is forced upon them. Thus, they won't be able to command 100%+ of the salary they once had, but will have to accept 80% because it's all they can find, despite experience.

BTW -- this doesn't apply to the true geniuses out there, who can not only sell their wealth of experience, but prove during interviews the "why's" and, more importantly, the "why NOT's" of coding. Those are increasingly a rare breed, and are quickly snapped up, usually at a premium of their former salary.

New AT&T logo -- "Less bars in more places?"

AT&T has got to be hating this update. It's going to expose their lack of coverage in a HUGE way.

Uptime.
Penetration testing.
Viral infections.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

Dare we ask how much time the average Slashdot user spends here per day?

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

You're describing the recent trend of Debt Collection Scam. Two of the worst are Allied Interstate and NCO Financial. Now truth be told, those two companies probably do have some legitimate business in collections, but just do a Google search on their company names. Their track record is horrible, and abuse of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is rampant. It doesn't matter if you owe or not to them, as they're not interested in playing fair -- they are scammers through and through. Got your number on "Do Not Call" registry? They don't care. They're just like spammers looking for that one sucker out of thousands that will pay something they don't owe, and thus, validate their raison d'etre.

In my case, somehow both have gotten a hold of my cell phone number, and are calling at least 1-2x per week. It's always an automated dialer, leaving me a message to call them back at so-and-so number. Never, ever is there a live person, either if I pick up right away, or let it go to voicemail.

Here's the kicker though -- when they first started, I got worried that I might have been the victim of identity theft, so I pulled all 3 of my credit reports. All 3 are clean as a whistle and have been for years, and there are no unexpected accounts or credit inquiries. So, as mentioned above, they're trolling for suckers, and seeing who will return the call and then will harass the caller into paying something they don't owe.

The scambusters website has a lot more good information on this growing scam. Go here --> http://www.scambusters.org/debt.html

FWIW -- I've recently filed complaints with the FTC. We'll see where that goes.