I have had great fun as a computer person for astronomical observatories. Have been treated quite well without the PhD, but there is certainly a ceiling without one.

The Square Kilometre Array is the current hotness, and is hiring.
http://www.skatelescope.org/people-contacts/jobs/

Nice article here explains how to roll your own:

http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06/13/hardware-packs-for-allwinner-a10-devices-and-easier-method-to-create-a-bootable-ubuntu-12-04-sd-card/

Anyone who thinks this is a silly idea needs to spend two weeks in a city without modern plumbing.

Seriously, many of these news sites are publishing their content via RSS (News Corp. sites in particular). I assume that they will stop foisting their content on the interwebs, before unleashing the copyright flying monkeys.

Fifteen (!) years ago, I took a UC Extension class on Neural Networks taught by Stanford professor David Stork. He had developed a lip-reading system for communication in noisy environments, such as an airplane-repair facility. If you could do it 15 years ago with workstation-class desktops, I suppose you could do it with a smartphone today.

Terrorists stage a high-profile robbery to incite a police chase, which leads to the use of one of these EMP things, aimed at Mae West. Th' InterTubes go dark, civilization collapses.

Slobodkin is GREAT!
http://www.slobodkin.org/books/index.html