Next, you're gonna tell me you can't reproduce my cold fusion results. So, whose fault is that?...

Although the general public has always known about the CIA, they used to be totally unaware of existence of the NSA. So, although it's not remarkable that the NSA's head is retiring, it is remarkable that the public knows - or cares - about it. The Puzzle Palace just ain't what it used to be.

I think it's best to go "all in" - or not go in at all. If you want to get an MBA or other business education, make a commitment to it. However, most technical managers I know have no real business education and they do just fine in The Big Corporation. So a business education is helpful but not necessary.

Likewise, if you want to start your own business, go all in. I've operated a part-time home software business for the last 15 years which has been modestly successful. However, since I do 100% of everything myself, it ultimately can't grow beyond a certain level without more commitment of time and energy than I can give to it. I don't regret the way it's worked out, but it has never allowed me to quit my day job - as I had originally hoped.

An "all in" approach to starting a business would be to quit your day job, then sink or swim. A business education might be helpful, but if you're good at learning new skills, you don't need to get a degree for that. There's plenty you can learn through self study - and also from the school of hard knocks. In my case, I had to learn lots of little skills of both a technical and business nature, including various software skills, web site design/administration, software publishing, marketing, and basic business skills in accounting, taxes, and legal. For example, whenever I do a contract, I write it myself and then pay a lawyer to check it over and spruce it up.

I honestly don't think there's any degree that covers all that. OTOH, if you're more serious about your business than I am, you'd probably pay people to do most of that stuff for you. In fact, the highly successful entrepreneurs of the world recognize that they can't do 100% of everything and are adept at finding people to do it for them. And they go all in.

All typos in the writeup aside, the TrueCrypt FAQ states:

If so, why would it cost $16,000 to do that? Heck, I bet somebody would do that, and also do "a full security audit" of the source code, for free.

When I used to use TrueCrypt years ago, I assumed someone had already done that. But I never found any proof, so I stopped using it. Will the $16,000 maybe be used to pay someone to do that formally and publish the results?

You got me - I haven't ever actually written anything in COBOL. But if the goal is to "develop unmaintainable software" (see article), I think it's worth it. Heck, all that extra typing of COBOL code might even discourage me from commenting my code [wink].

(BTW, it fascinates me how a joke can get down-modded here, while a comment that clearly misses the joke gets up-modded. OK, it wasn't all that great of a joke, but somebody had to throw in something about COBOL when the subject is "unmaintainable software". One can only assume that the moderators are missing the jokes just like the commenters. So, to help the humor impaired, I've put in an explicit "wink" above. Moderators: please don't take this comment seriously and down-mod it - it's just another not-so-great joke - get it? [wink].)

Why use "the coolest mix of cutting-edge programming languages" when I can use just COBOL?

Clearly, Nomad should sterilize him. (And BTW, Nomad prefers that you call it the "GNU/Linux System".)

Haven't you heard? When aliens finally stumble upon the Voyager Golden Record, it will point them here and act as a Rosetta Stone which they can use to decode the stored data of the Humanity, long after it extinguished itself via thermonuclear war, greenhouse gasses, budget stalemates, or some yet-to-be-invented Man-made calamity.

The aliens will, of course, find the Voyager LP to be quaintly archaic, having long since moved on to CDs themselves. But they will be delighted to be able to decode from silicon nitride those fascinating Facebook status updates about what each Human had for breakfast on Monday, October 14, 2013. (BTW, what exactly do those Humans mean by "Grape Nuts"?)

Sounds like the kindda stuff Kevin Mitnick was doing to The Phone Company decades ago. He once broke into a local Ma Bell office to steal manuals, as reported in his book "Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker".

The book is a pretty good read. In it, Mitnick repeatedly claims he never profited from any of his adventures - except by selling books and becoming a security consultant, of course. Heck, some of the reported robbers in Silicon Valley might be even more ethical.

Imitation of a failed example is the sincerest form of flattery.

I found it remarkable that an article about a system that "stores electricity" (or energy, as you properly suggest) doesn't actually say anything about the energy storage method.

You may be right that heated salts are the method, but I've read that there are significant problems with salt for energy storage that revolves around its high corrosiveness. So, I was hoping that some new storage method would be revealed in the article. Instead, it reveals...wait for it...nothing - not even the well-known salt method.

How do you feel about that?

Good one, wish I'd thought of that. :-)