I would suggest against ASM as a first step. Kids of the last two decades (myself included) have grown up around computers, they're already thinking several levels abstracted from the bare metal, and when they think 'programming computers' they probably want to see problems and results at their current level of abstraction and understanding, and gain knowledge they can use.

When a person mostly understands their current "layer" is when they should move up or down in abstraction. Given a one-on-one scenario, I suggest asking about their interests and find out where they are the most knowledgable, then use that as a starting point.

Teaching them about registers and opcodes will probably not integrate with any of their current knowledge. Much like in school, I disliked math, not because it was hard, but because teachers could rarely relate it the my world or current knowledge. Basic mental methaphors. We're not building a house, we're building a network of information. Foundations matter, but they're not always the starting point.

While the evolution of genres into sub-genres is expected, ironically, the Christian rock branch seems the least inspired of them all due to it's outright imitation of 'regular' rock.

If Christian musicians were genuinely good at what they did, you would expect to see many of them able to cross over into mainstream. It happens, but it's extremely rare, or the Christian visage is dropped along the way. Why is a self proclaimed nation under God unwilling to buy Christian music?

Either way, I expect message-based videogames would follow the same trend. There's a market for it, but only a small subset of the mainstream would buy it. Figure out how to pitch a game that can meet a minimum level of production quality (Deer Hunter level) at a price point someone is willing to risk against that small market, and you've got a money making idea. Good luck, FSM be with you.

On the other hand, "Old Testament God" slaughtered humans like it was going out of style and made us do all sorts of silly things. If we want to view it as a set of Russian dolls, then perhaps we're just experiencing the same steps towards maturation?

But us beer snobs...we're legit.

Old P3 laptop = 12lb ugliness, crap battery life, no wireless.
New Atom netbook = 2.5 lb sleekness, +6hrs battery life.

I've only ran OSX on a single core Atom/GMA950 machine (built for the purpose of OSX), but found it to be fine.

Obviously it's no media center or number crunching machine, but it browses the web wirelessly, handles non-HD Flash and all normal website Flash, and will play back non-HD videos without a problem. It runs Photoshop and Eclipse without problems. Loading apps is slower than my quad-core box, and it gets bogged down with intense multitasking, but it's not miserable either. It would even run VMware Fusion + an ubuntu virtual machine at a level I'd still call responsive.

I'm genuinely curious, where is your bottleneck? What OS's are you using? Is it a problem of expectations? I've been nothing but happy with the performance for the $180 in parts.

A cancer treatment from Microsoft would mean that you'd have to continually buy a license to maintain use of the treatment from them or they'd cut you off and let you die. You may survive, but you're enslaved to them. Then again, that's not far off from current medical practices either.

I can one up you on titles. The company I work for was bought by a larger contracting company. Within my original organization, I'm a Software Engineer I to HR, in the larger company, I'm an Associate Programmer II for payroll purposes, but in the host company I'm an Application Developer & Support for contractual purposes. Within the host company, other departments refer to me as Software Analyst.

Titles are fluff. Yes, they can reflect real world salaries, and make a difference in getting past HR resume keyword filters, but I've got 3 official titles for the same entry level crap job. I could just as easily be Jr. Software Developer, Web Programmer, Enterprise Web Developer, Jr. Java Architect, etc, and it wouldn't matter at all. I don't mind being lumped into IT, as what I do is "technology regarding information", but the IT industry is horrible about creating crap titles that mean nothing, and really bad about consistently differentiating "code monkey" workers from actual computer scientists.

I'll drink to that.

Projectors are becoming smaller and smaller (see that new Nikon camera). Bendable/rollup displays are in R&D. Displays quality keeps improving. TV-Out is old news and HD capable phones are already just around the corner. Mobile HD displays are just a matter of time. Hell, current top-tier cellphones have better resolution than SDTVs.

And I can already update my resume on Google Docs from my phone. Printing it out is only an issue of interfacing. There's no technological barrier to it right now, there's just no demand. Some HP printers already connect to Google Maps, it's perfectly conceivable that any network enabled printer could be accessed via a phone.

Never is a strong word. Unless by 'cellphone' you mean it in the most literal sense of the word, a cellular phone sans other capabilities, your statement is already false.

Theater is only effective when people don't know it's a sham, but everyone today knows it's stupid. You make no differentiation between types of security.

There's a difference between security through inconvenience and security through preventative measures. Typical 5 pin locks are security through inconvenience since they're easy to pick. Guarded doors with metal detectors are inconveniences pretending to be preventative measures. Once it's realized that you're only being inconvenienced, it's no longer security. Much like your coat is not security if someone watches you carry tapes to your back seat.

I'm pretty sure a government or corporation intent on espionage can provide you with a non-electronic, non-metallic camera. May not be a digital camera, but it would work. Or a step further....just conceal it in "approved" electronics. Unless they're doing complete teardowns of everything you bring in, you can hide a pinhole camera just about anywhere. Almost all security is security theater. It's there to make fearful people feel better, prevent good people from doing normal things, and does nothing to stop a sufficiently driven enemy from doing anything.

What about those who choose netbooks for their price and battery life? Wouldn't a larger screen add value to those people? Surely I'm not alone in thinking that netbook's compactness is overrated. They're smaller, but still awkward to carry unless you're just aiming to pack as much crap in a bag as possible. My smartphone overlaps my netbook needs so much that the only real difference in functionality is what the smartphone screen space limits me with. I also get the feeling that Intel feels this cutting into their C2D profits, and that they're the victim of their own success in the netbook realm.

Ubuntu doesn't follow Gnome's releases on purpose, it has a standard 6 month release cycle of updates.