Depends what part of the country you live in and whether the office is in a larger city or smaller city. For example, I live in San Diego, which is in Southern California. The African American population here is pretty small, but the Asian and Mexican population is quite substantial, larger than the white population when combined. Seeing a picture of one Asian, an African American, and a white person seems normal, although more realistically it would be one white person, one Asian, and one Latino.

However, if you are working in, say, Atlanta (a big city in the southeast part of the US) there is a much larger African American population. And you'll see a larger percentage of European immigrants in the northeast (New York, Boston, etc.).

Sales figures depend on a number of factors:

• The prominence of the author - Martin Fowler sells a certain number of copies based on his name alone)
• The marketing abilities of the publisher - not every publisher has as deep a reach into the brick and mortar businesses like the big name companies (O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Sams, etc.)
• The topic - an introductory book on PHP is going to sell more copies than a book targeting uber-advanced PHP developers
• The existing coverage of said topic in the market - if there are 10 books covering the same topic you're going to sell fewer copies than if your book was the only option, obviously
• The popularity/user base size of said topic - a book on Microsoft Word is going to sell more copies than a book on Open Office

I've written a number of books on a specific programming technology (ASP.NET) and have blogged about book sales and numbers and other metrics. Check out The economics of writing a computer trade book (with a comment from Tim O'Reilly of all people), as well as my list of blog entries on technical writing.

That is (in part) why the author receives an advance on royalties. To help pay for the author's investment in time while the investment is being made rather than having to wait for the book to get typeset, copy edited, printed, distributed, and, finally, on shelves.

Not to mention that the book store sells the book for double what they paid. So if you buy a $50 book at Barnes and Noble (or Amazon or wherever) the publisher made, say, $25, of which the author sees $2.50 or so. For a bit more detail on how authors get paid, check out The economics of writing a computer trade book.

I agree wholeheartedly that there are a lot of unfit parents out there, although I think that it's a stretch to say that most people shouldn't have kids. There is certainly a population of people who are bad parents and shouldn't procreate, but I believe this number of be the minority. I'd even go as far to say that people with bad upbringings could learn the skills needed to raise good kids.

In my experience, being a parent is more about patience, routine, and having the fortitude to take actions that are in the best interest of your kids in the long run regardless of how much they bitch and moan. In other words, it's mostly mechanical skills. There's no magic. Folks with great parents have an upperhand as they know the behavior to model, but I believe these behaviors could be taught to most people who had a poor childhood themselves.

And I do really hear you, too, but one thing that parenthood has taught me is that your opinions and views on parenting and child rearing morph a bit once you become a parent and go through some experiences. That's not to say that you don't have valid points - you do - but hearing a childless adult say, "What's wrong with parents these days is X" is a bit like a white trust fund baby who's never left the Hamptons except to tour Europe making comments on the problems of inner-city youth. :-)

Case in point: every parent before they are a parent has a list of things they plan on doing or not doing when they have kids. Trust me, that list differs substantially from its pre-kids to its post-kids state!

In the best shape physically, perhaps, but not necessarily in the best shape emotionally, mentally, or economically. Try all that buying diapers, baby food, cribs, toys, etc. when you're making $8 an hour at WalMart. How many 14 year olds have the emotional maturity and patience to choose staying at home with to take care of a screaming, a colicky baby versus going outside to play with their friends? How much more likely is a tired and frustrated 15 year old to shake or strike the baby in a fit of anger versus someone who is 35?

The plan my wife and I have has worked well for us - married at 25, first kid at 30, with those first five years of marriage involving a lot of travel and other big adventures that you can't enjoy for some years after the first kid pops out.

I agree that people should do what they love, have new experiences, blah blah blah, and not worry about the money and career building and job safety when they're young and have no dependents. It's a little more sobering and a much more difficult decision when you're a father with a wife and children you need to provide and support. I can see the allure to job safety, even if it means sacrificing doing what you enjoy.

All that being said, I think it is possible for one to do what they enjoy and be less focused on money, even with a family, if they've made some prudent financial decisions and are content with not keeping up with their next door neighbors.

Age shouldn't matter at all in the hiring process, but I can understand why it can impact hiring decisions. Some people have a hard time having a much younger boss, which is likely for an older candidate being hired in this industry, especially an older candidate straight out of university.

Also, for those crazy dot com-type companies that like to work their employees to the bone, older employees are more likely to have real responsibilities (family, health issues, a life, etc.), and more of a backbone to stand up and not take the company's crap. Of course, when making such generalizations, you could also say that the young are foolish and irresponsible. :-)

The policy makes sense, as it touts Blockbuster's physical presence and gives consumers a reason to choose them over Netflix. This policy was the primary reason I chose a Blockbuster account, namely because we have a store down the street from us. So after watching a movie from the mail we could return it and pick something up in store, and get the next movie in our queue mailed out at the same time.

The people who study businesses and evaluate their potential upside have clearly signaled that Blockbuster is dying. Their share price has dropped 96% since 2004, whereas Netflix has increased 20% in the same time period.

That's not to say that Blockbuster will go out of business anytime soon, but it does imply that over the past five years their business has been contracting rather than growing.

I put down dates on contracts and other legal forms and whatnot as YYYY-MM-DD. That is the only unambiguous, language-agnostic, recognizable and easily understood by fellow humans date format, to my knowledge.