Before you attempt to change this kind of code base, you need to understand what it does. The best way is to write unit tests that exercise system. Think of tests as very precise requirements. Once a decent test suite is in place (200 to 300 test cases) then you can start thinking about fixing, rewriting portions of the system.

Rewriting from scratch is probably the worst thing you can do. See this article by Joel Spolsky,,

Here is the link to 2600 website with the DVDs that you can get of the talks.

3. Remove any student who is constantly disrupting class. If they become a problem (and don't have a documented mental handicap), simply expel them and kick them out onto the street.

OK. And then what? What happens to them? They are citizens as much as you.

Lot's of good books were suggested. However, with an 8 year old it probably would be best if YOU read these to him. The time spent together is probably more important than the actual books.

I had turned my daughter (who is now 20) into a Trekkie - I got her started with the Voyager series and then together we watched all the available Star Treks. We have had great time doing all this, and now when she visits home from college we still re-watch old episodes of Voyager.

I don't know. My band recorded several CDs. With professional mixing and pressing few hundred copies it costs us about $1000. If you look at many jazz recordings, most of the tracks are recorded live in the studio in one or two takes. Then you need few hours of studio time to mix and master. Costs are not excessive..

These languages were released under GPL so I don't think their exact APIs would require a paid license...

"..tell the goverment".

That means that you should be calling your Congress person. Are you? The elected representative is the guy/gal who determines how the money is spent.

What we need is F**ing sharks with lasers on their heads!!!

Just a glitch in the matrix....

Have you see this story about COO of Facebook

Hey, I'm 56.... started coding in the 70s. Still code everyday for a living. Note that the Bloomberg News piece is written by some CS professor for the Opinion section of Bloomberg news.

.. is to write video games. My son used Megazuex - a self contained ASCII graphics environment for building and playing games. He learned it all on his own - and in 5th grade science project he presented one of his games.

Squeakland