Probably terrorists. We should pass some laws to arrest them without evidence or even a trial.

Looks like the time for a Scramble Suit like in A Scanner Darkly. I so wish I had one of those.

I have been using a pirated copy of Ubuntu for over a year now. Even with the low price of Ubuntu, it makes me totally 1337 to pirate it.

Bears? Really? I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that after you let go of the trigger the person (or in this case, animal) is fine. It seems to me like this would just really piss off a bear and I don't know that they would run away or come after you. I want to see a video of this experiment! :)

Yep. I agree whole heatedly. There are many old dudes that are happy as crappy still doing old cobol stuff for the same pay that they have made for the last 10 years though and have no desire to learn or do anything else. Many people will start with a better salary than these guys.
In the scenario in the story though, I expect that this new developer will underestimate the work load, miss deadlines, go over budget, not document anything and possibly even quit before the project ends.
I believe that allowing a senior developer to learn new skills on the clock or even be sent to company paid training is a big moral booster and makes the guys job more interesting too. Plus, you know that you have someone you can trust or at least that you can predict.
Of course the senior developer may just be a whiner who sits at his desk all day reading slashdot. ;)

When I was a new grad, I thought that I knew everything, but taking a class in a subject does not make you a subject matter expert. I did write more code when I was younger, but it was pretty crappy and hacked together. It worked "fine" mind you, but I pitty the fool who has to maintain it. comments? Technical Design Document? Those did not exist.

google around for something called the 10,000 hour rule, but it basically says that to become an expert in something you need to have about 10,000 hours of experience in it. That's about 5 years if you work a 40 hour week. Take out meetings, coffee breaks, lunches, "compiling time" (http://xkcd.com/303/ ) and what not and a really EXPERIENCED programmer has about 7 to 10 years of professional experience.

I personally have had no trouble transitioning languages or technologies over my 14 years of experience. If you understand the concepts of software, then everything else is pretty straight forward. A short book on the intricacies of a language such as memory management, basic libraries (network, DB, etc), syntax, compilation and a quick tutorial project should be all that an experienced programmer needs in order to out perform a recent college grad. It should not take more than a week or two to get up to speed and start being effective, but that's about it.

keep in mind that coverage and price is VERY state dependent and even city dependent

I agree, this is the way to go. Cost will vary state to state, but I have done this in texas and for me and my wife, major medical cost like $200 a month or so. When going to the doctor, we would pay cash and the doctors cash price can vary. We found a walk in clinic for those times when you are just sick and need medicine and it was like $60 the first visit and only $45 for every other visit. (Stinks because I was already paying a $30 co-pay before!) Our regular family doctor cost about $70 and my wifes "girls's doctor" (nudge nudge, knowwhatImean) was like $100 per visit, but hey, he is a specialist and takes care of important stuff!

We really did not go to the doctor much, like maybe 3 times a year, but we wanted to have the extra coverage to cover any surgery or a car wreck or whatever.

Bad part is NO MATERNITY was covered at all, so we would have to pay cash if my wife got preggo. Called around to hospitals and it would cost about $8k to have a baby.

Add it all up and even having a kid every year on cash is cheaper than corporate style insurance for the self/un employed.

Don't stress and keep in mind that while insurance companies and hospitals may be soulless cash sucking machines, most doctors are people and hate the system to.

One company I used to work for would give us like $150 a month if we did not take their insurance, and to tell the truth, I would take the cash and do that now if my current employer would let me.

So, if they leave the whole town abandoned, what is going to keep all of the abandoned properties from becoming meth labs, crack houses or interesting places for a rave?

look at it on google maps, street view. It is mostly old trailer homes. I think that 3 mil is probably way too much.

I seriously doubt it. Look at the satellite images that you posted! Drag the little man to the map in Cardin and look at the street view. All those white spots are not lakes or mountains, they are 50 foot piles of chat, just showing that area is probably pretty nastified too. Besides if that is in the water table then you are going to have a much larger contamination area.

Keep in mind though that it does not state that you can not use software that does not include this notice and I would assume that if I download a P2P program that was developed and distributed from China, this would not apply in any way. Or maybe it could come from Sealand... I'm just sayin'...

What about using old software written before the law takes effect?

And wire kinks. They cause problems too. The 0's do not really have a problem, but the 1's get caught in the kinks pretty easily. I offer a wire straightening service if anyone is interested.

You are right that you can not take a Direcway or HughesNet satellite dish and set it up on your own, but Ground Control and other companies make mobile satellite solutions that will locate the satellite and do all of the setup without your help. They even have an in motion solution. If you are going to be remote, this is the only real solution but it is pretty expensive. There is lag, but the connection is fast when it is constant. I would combine this and 3g from ATT and 3g from Verizon. I would include Verizon because I have found that ATT does not work too well in remote places of the pacific north west like Montana, but it really depends on where you are going.