OBI WAN: That's no moon....

Now, I would like to see a disinterested, neutral 3rd-party investigate the rest of our three-letter-agencies.

I'd also like to see that same level of oversight on three branches of our Government.

While I do think seeking a degree is a worthwhile endeavor and personally rewarding (you are lucky to be working in this field without one, really), it is time for you to get out software development. You might try and become a business analyst or a project manager. Being in your early 40's is way past the shelf life of your typical coder because you cost too much and your are increasingly outside the culture of the younger guys.

It's awful. It's unfair. It's true.

There are statistical outliers working into their 50's but the odds are you will not be one of them.

Except we cannot make 1.7 oz burgers like those PHP studs are capable of crafting.

A tester needs to be prepared to take home less pay and expect high turnover in his/her dept (if he/she doesn't leave first).

We have a QA dept and they don't stick around more than a year, tops. By the time they really get into the product, they're either fed up with the pay, the hours, or they get switched to another product. QA catches few important bugs because we (a) treat them as second-class citizens and (b) we don't involve them at the beginning of the design cycle.

I've also seen some pretty brutish egos among fellow devs wear out QA staff. Do you want to subject yourself to that?

Good Lord,

Switching power supplies have been around at least since the early 60's. Also for a long while 400Hz power was standard on all aircraft. The apple II in no way blazed any trail in power engineering. Now apple may have been the first to employ them in consumer-grade hardware for a small computer but let's not take any further than that.

Sounds like someone forgot to pay a Senator off.

The [sic] perpetually want a set of requirements. And they get upset if a new requirement is added later.

Yeah, pretty much. I think that sums it up quite nicely. I'm guessing you have not written much commercial software.

They would probably be sued ... in short order.

I guess for me, the real shock is a cop can earn that much money. Even in California this figure is quite generous for someone with possibly an Associates degree (guessing, as most cops are in this range) and some time at a local academy (also normally hosted by community colleges).

There are people a lot better educated and arguably more productive to society making about that figure.

I never would have thought that but you are very correct. I just read the data sheet for the device. Just because we live in a modern world does not mean all low-level consumer electronic gear uses a crystal time-base.

In some organizations the only resumes the Developers get to see are the ones picked by the HR staff. And they are not passing along anything that does not have a BS or the right mix of buzz words. We don't even get to write the requirement!

I'm averaging 70-hour weeks. There is absolutely zero chance I'm going to go home and do more coding on a personal project.
The last thing I want to see or talk about outside of work is code.

Why the hell am I even reading Slashdot ? :P Good lord, there's something wrong with me.

The nature of my work involves very deep dives into some thorny problems. I crave and try to attain a good flow psychology to help me with complexity and the workload. I "enjoy" solving the problems. Social interaction, in my case, is counter-productive to the organization and to me.

Am I a "miserable cunt" because I don't like it when someone comes to my desk to pull me out of the zone and ask me for the 15th time to explain to them everything they should already know or could find out themselves with a little effort? Do I need to feed their dependency by breaking bread with them each day for some more concentrated verbal blather?

I am paid to produce code. Everyone's paycheck ultimately depends on the code I produce. Why sabotage my efforts by making me also don a faux social mask and take part in the office club? As another poster stated - I enjoy eating at my desk with headphones on and surfing the web for relaxation.

Los Angeles? I think we could afford to let that one go. Call it a Mulligan.