Google Code? What is this Google Code you speak of? Never existed.

Google Code is dead. Long live Google Code!

You give the verbal offer and *then* do the background & reference checks?

Good analysis. I honestly am a bit baffled by Intel's purchase of Altera (especially for the price they paid). I don't think this means there will suddenly be a scramble to buy up FPGA companies (Altera and Xilinx control something like 90% of that market). It's not clear that having an FPGA on your SOC will be a clear win in the datacenter - FPGA programming is hard partly because it's hardware development which is in many ways very different from software development, and partly because the tools suck. The FPGA dev tools suck because Xilinx and Altera have controlled 90% of the market and haven't been willing to spend much money to improve their tools. Maybe Intel will change this in the case of Altera's Quartus tools, but I tend to doubt it - Intel isn't known for their software either. I suspect nobody is in a hurry to acquire Xilinx because they'll wait and see how this plays out with Intel/Altera. AMD would certainly be a poor match as a potential purchaser for the reasons you stated. Better choices might be Qualcom or Samsung, but I really doubt either of them will be in any hurry to buy Xilinx.

Have done 1-4 and 7 exactly. The only way to survive in tech longterm (I'm now in my 50's) is to live way below your means, save as much money as you can for the lean times. You need to get to the point where you can relish a layoff because it means you're going to get to do a few months of self-retraining. I try to have at least a couple of year's worth of living expenses on hand to be prepared for the inevitable layoff. The only fly in the ointment is health insurance. While Obama Care has helped immensely, we're still looking at having to pay about $650/month for the wife & I on a Silver Plan. I suspect that in not that many years insurance cost will exceed the amount we pay for our mortgage each month. Hopefully we'll have the mortgage paid off by then.

seems much more likely that they're opening a Silicon Valley office. Google would probably like to have them close by as well to look after that $542Million investment.

No way. Very Red state. Hot & humid. Hurricane prone. Ground zero for sea level rise.

If it all comes down to "freedom vs. Control", well, TJ Rodgers is a huge control freak - just ask anyone who has ever worked at Cypress Semiconductor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010 (and of course there was the Tempest video game back then too)

My parents have lived in Moses Lake for the last 12 years. They're trying to sell their house and get out of there; unfortunately for them the housing market there is not as hot as it is other places. In fact they haven't had any bites in the last couple of months it's been on the market.

You mention water skiing in Moses Lake - However whenever I have visited the lake is full of algae scum. It's a rather stagnant lake. Not anything I'd want to swim in.

And the weather? It gets very cold in the Winter (down around 0 is not unusual) and very hot in the Summer (100 is not unusual this time of the year). And it's a desert landscape without much of anything interesting. There's a park nearby called the Potholes Park (sounds just lovely). Lots of farms around so you can get plenty of pesticide spray wafting your way (one of the reasons my parents want to move - it has become enough of a problem that it's effecting their health). Oh and then there's the Hanford Nuclear Reservation not an hour away - lot's of glow-in-the-dark fun to be had there!

No, Moses Lake is not the beauty spot you make it out to be. I actually find it to be one of the most depressing places I've ever visited - but maybe it's partly because I prefer the green side of the mountains.