Internal layers? What, do you think they used a 4-layer board on a $59 computer in 1980?

...and some of us have the drive to create stuff. I have been making electronic stuff since I was 8 years old. I'm over 50 and show no signs of letting up. I started a home business to sell the stuff I make, and one of my designs has recently been successful enough to pay more than my part-time day job (which is creating stuff for a university). Not so surprisingly, I grow tired of the work needed to make the same thing over and over, although it pays fabulously well.

There are also plenty of people with degrees, working at hell desks.

I'm one of those college dropouts that has made a successful career, although I am by no means rich. I have a part-time job at the university that I dropped out from 30 year ago. I'd quit that job entirely and concentrate on my money-making sideline (Nixie watches, which are marketed for me, for free, by a very rich college dropout), except that my family needs the health insurance provided by the cushy government job.

The older programmable logic chips of the seventies and eighties, such as bipolar PROMs and PALs, had a metal fuse for every programmed bit. Those fuses would be melted to program the chip. However, those days featured external programmers to do the melting.

Having read hundreds of 419 scam emails, I can assure you that they do NOT link to a website, despite what you may thing defines a competent spammer. Remember these are con men, not advertisers. They want to conduct a long, drawn-out interaction with a sucker. They most often use AOL or Yahoo addresses, and sometimes Hotmail. When the reply-to is different from the email given in the body, it's different by a minor change such as the number after the name in the recipient field.

Since I save my 419 spam, I am able to do a test of the data in my spam folder to verify my idea. Data:

Body email matches reply-to: 11
Body email different form reply-to: 4
No body email address: 2

You were saying?

The statement you made is specific to non-419 scams. 419 scams are conducted via email rather than websites, as with most other spam, so they have to have valid reply-to addresses or they are ineffective.

The "from" address is stolen from an address book. The "reply-to" address is the spammer's address.

If you took the time to read all your 419 spam, you'd know this.

I enjoy looking at the spam from one of my email addresses because it's almost all Nigerian 419 scams. I've even received personal messages from the wives of various deposed middle Eastern leaders.

Although I've noticed lately that the Nigerian scams are being replaced by Hong Kong scams.

That, too.

All of us went to college. The two of us who studied electronics both dropped out for the same reason - we already had electronics jobs that were teaching us way better than school was.
My other brother got a degree in mechanical engineering and has never used it, unless you consider fixing cars to be using it. OK, he does work with a FIRST robotics team, so that counts for something.
My sister had an interesting experience - she was taking a sculpture class as a 40-year-old housewife, and noticed that the other students were watching her instead of the teacher. So she started her own sculpture school and is doing well.

I live in the desert. 75% humidity is unheard of here. I like to think that people are thinking about making water bottles for thirsty people in the desert. Oh, well.

Why, oh why, do coders think it's a good idea to waste time pretending that every computer page is a paper page by making the corner flip up and move over? It's slow and distracting and adds nothing to the user experience except aggravation.

So... people voluntarily do this to themselves? Weird.

The fact that rational explanation is not effective against people who adhere to a belief system put forth by their church indicates that what is needed is to get the people who run the church to change what they say. This would have to be done in imperceptibly small increments, perhaps by sneaky and subtle atheist copy editors at the printing house.