I wrote a program that takes the remainder of thousands of fincial transactions that would be otherwise be rounded off... and puts them into a bank account under my control. It would accumulate these funds slowly over time. Hopefully I got the decimal place right in my program.

I never understood the whole "engineer" term being attached to everything in IT anyway such as network engineer. I used to work in a role as what can be described nowadays as a "network engineer", but I don't see any of the virtues of engineering applied to this occupation.

Engineering is a profession (a profession in the sense of being a lawyer, doctor, etc. with certification behind it -- as opposed to an occupation such as a plumber) that uses and applies the knowledge of basic engineering principals and math to address practical issues that may have direct consequences to property and the public. Data networking is more of a business problem sort of philosophy.

Now maybe if you were to design a layout of conduits and had to calculate power usage used by equipment, breaker panels, and other things of that nature for a system/installation (such as at a data center), I would certainly consider this to be engineering, and you would most likely be required to apply your PE (professional engineer) stamp as an “electrical engineer” to the design and drawings of said system and NOT as a “network engineer”. I don’t foresee a stamp being used by a “network engineer” unless that engineer happens to be a registered “Professional electrical Engineer”.

Also, be aware that using “engineer” in your title, while not being a certified as engineer (as defined by your State/Provincial department of licensing) is just as misleading as saying you’re a network doctor, or network lawyer. The title PE, or Professional Engineer, is a registered trademark in the US.

The term “engineer” in any title in Canada is regarded as a trademark. This got Microsoft into trouble in Canada when they were offering “MS engineering certificates”. There is a Wikipedia entry (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_over_the_term_Engineer) about this all this as well well.

Now network researcher, network scientist, network analyst, these are all more appropriate title to the occupation.

Actually you can often make a simple assumption and work off of F = m*a or some other well established theorem...

As for the math, now that is some pretty mind boggling stuff. Some of the math that was used to pull string theory together is pretty bleeding edge on top of the physics part of it. PBS had a interesting show on string theory(you can watch in three installments on PBS). What struck me the most was how splintered the physics community was as many researches were doing the math a certain way different from each other, but it was found to be all the same by another physics/math guru when he proposed 11 dimensions instead of 9 like the other researches had inferred.

Nice article title. Video games, rotting, and heritage in one formulation (I do believe that would be a more correct order of the words). Now all you have to determine is which heritage to pick that applies here... I'm at lost because I frankly don't see any heritage associated with video gaming, other than perhaps a heritage of a western-industrialized pre-pubescent through early 30's typically male individual, growing up with some or a lot of free time to paly games THAT COMES AFTER school/university/job/relationship/family obligations.

My thoughts of instilling a frame work that would preserve games more readily might be something akin to Valve's Steam content management system. Reason being that you purchase a title at it stays with you even over different computers installations and upgrades. Valve also seems to be upgrading older games such as Half-Life 1 (1999) to accommodate recent architectures implementations (such as mandatory SSE2 cpu instructions, though I don’t see the benefit of this with HL1) as well as a new OS’s (such with Apple/Intels). I realize this framework also relies on the continued operation of Valve as in painfully potent of a reminder when the Steam authentication servers go down (you can’t play any of your titles, at all, even if you are already in game).

Perhaps the best way to preserve game older titles is as many here have already suggested is through emulators.

I second this line of experience but I must add to anyone else looking to use a HDTV as TV monitor the following advice I've learned from my friends as well as the hard way:

1. MAKE SURE your resolution is 1080p (i.e. 1920x1080 pixels), anything less its a pain on your eyes. Yes, there are manufactures that sell 1600p and higher (such as Dell, Sharp, and Apple to name a few), but they are more expensive for what you don't get, and right now there is a price war between LCD and OLED TV's that are bringing HDTV LCD prices in general way down.

2. I've gone up to 42 inches diagonal size, but found this too big given the "1920x1080 pixels/diagonal size" ratio. 32 inches is about the upper limit you want to go, unless (as in my friend's case) you're sitting on a sofa with wireless keyboard/trackless mouse otherwise you got to go 1600p or higher resolution.

3. Costco is the best for choosing your "right" brand/model to HDTV for computer use. You get a 90-days no questions asked satisfaction guarantee. Some models (such as LG and Sony), optimize display settings for computer usage but don't advertise this per say... unfortunately you have to consult forums or just hook up your laptop to the display in the store to fiddle around with this.

4. Make sure you have a video card that supports HDMI output or DVI to HDMI output. If not just buy a cheap video card that does. Don't bother with AVI anymore, you are just wasting your money. There are special consideration with ATI cards when using sound output over DVI to HDMI cables: there's a special ATI/AMD adapter that has a chip in it to enable the sound signal over the cable (usally included with your purchase, if not, buy the card that includes this adapter).

5. Very important is the display stand... well I should mention you won't use the provided display sand... unless you like having a stiff neck in the morning. You would most likely buy a third party swivel wall mount that is adjustable for swing, tilt, and retraction. They cost from $100 to $300 depending on your screen size (read weight). If it looks cheap, it is cheap, return it. You need to be almost a handyman/engineer to mount these fuckers... have a friend help you hold the sucker up. You need at minimum a stud finder, a level, screwdriver, hand drill, and 2 hours of time to install. Don't be cavalier about this because you don't want your display to tear off your wall and be completely useless afterward as well.

Speaking about Steam... I was no fan when it was first implemented back in 2003 but I've since warmed up to the "content delivery system" that Steam provides. I do find the system a rather slick implementation. I do like the ability to demo "block buster" games before I decide to by as was the case for me for L4D2. Though, I can't say that I'm a fan of Steams' ability to dictate hardware cycles by forcing compatibility. Steam is thus to me like a benevolent dictator

Example in point is the Source Engine build 38 patch (April 2010), which among other things made SSE2 processor instructions mandatory. Fine, I understand that for source engine-based games, but why force it onto the older hlds servers binaries for the original half-life 1 engine? Yes I understand Steam’s hardware survey shows that less than 2% of processors don’t support SSE2, and pretty soon because of this rather silent update, SSE2 will be 100% implemented, forced by virtue of the force hardware requirement.

My old system was working fine as a hlds_l linux server using a non-SSE2 chip (AMD Athalon XP +1400) for a chip now considered obsolete now a days. But for a stand-alone, stripped-down server implementation ruining a 10 year old game engine, I see no reason to force specific hardware specifications . At least leave us a non-SSE2 binary for the Linux half-life 1 engine.

Now I’m more or less force to upgrade my system at cost and my time to track down a cheap used system (via Craigslist) because of this forced hardware upgrade

This pretty much sums it up for me from TFA:

Ah yes, the Unix millennium bug... a.k.a. the "year 2038 problem" for those that don't know of the impending doom.

However, since I'm using a (signed) 64-bit value for t_time instead of the current 32 bit representation, my wraparound date is approximately 292 billion years, on a Sunday, December 4, 292,277,026,596.

Just thinking ahead...

Can't you read into it... ???

They are in the hydroponics business growing "herbs" on a small scale. Now, they have been found by a larger "cartel" group, most likely from Mexico, whom are giving them an "incentive" to join forces...

Uninstall the Redmond virus using live distro Ubuntu CD...

I use invisible ink so you can't see how much ink I use. I also use CIA font for this ink in case you're wondering.