I've been in software development for 15 years now and have worked multiple "Agile" projects. I've learned the hard way that Agile never means the same thing from the perspective of the guy on the ground actually writing the code. In most cases it's a excuse to have short development cycles with poorly defined gates. Usually "Agile" just boils down to a poorly run waterfall process from the end dev's perspective.

When I hear "Agile" now a days I just tells me I need to up my billing rate and make sure my contract has been run past my lawyer.

The real kick in the teeth for CS majors is when they get into industry and everyone uses google to find and reuse code examples / functions / classes / etc. In industry you're expected to take the most efficient and fastest path to the solution. When you're on an agile project with 3 week turn around times that include spec gathering, execution and testing in that 3 week period you do what you must to get done on time.

Subject says it all.

While there is a lot of hate for USB now I feel like we're forgetting how difficult computing used to be for some users back in the day. Having sold computers in 1999 I got to see the switch from plain tan boxes with barely labeled ports, to color coded cables meant to make setup easier, to the introduction of USB ports (2 per computer!) and USB equipment. Say what you will about USB. External hard drives and scanners on USB are a lot easier to work with than SCSI and the various cabling and termination issues you had there.

I'm trying to decide if this is malicious or just idiocy. I've had waaaay too many "IT Pros" in industry who don't have a god damn clue what FTP, Telnet, SSH, or SCH are. I could see a reporter hearing about Telnet being on by default and then finding out that it can be a security risk. With a little bit of poorly misunderstood math (2+2=Lemon) getting that these routers are maliciously set up for spying.

On the other hand Bloomberg could just be a left leaning National Enquirer.

Sadly the only problem with the chromecast audio was the standard price. $35 was just too high. I got mine on a holiday sale last year for $15 with a discounted google home speaker. It let me upgrade me old yamaha 6.1 to allow easy streaming. I would have snapped up 4 more if the price was $15-$20 all the time. For $35 it was just too expensive for what it did. Honestly however if they add a 3.5 mm jack to the google home puck speaker I would get go that route.

I always hear about the shortage of skilled technical people, but I've witnessed the opposite being true. A number of people have IT related skills but cannot find a job because companies are often looking for rare skillsets. When I say rare I mean tools that were developed in house and not commercially available. If you don't have 10 years experience with their internal process they want nothing to do with you. They then claim they couldn't find anyone and try to find a H1B or H2B visa holder.

The side of the coin I'm on is I have 15 years of PLM experience. I work a full time position for good pay, and I've had the following experiences in the last two years.
-I get 5-10 calls a week for positions that are short term contracts of 3-6 months for pay less than I make on my salary.
-I've been flown out for a interview with a company in California for a job that was supposed to be in Michigan. After the interview they met my salary
requirements, but told me they were closing their Michigan location and the job would be in the Bay area. What would have been a nice career move turned into a major downgrade. I refused and suddenly the job was made available for an H1B position.

For rare skills sure there is a shortage of people, but that's because no one is hiring at the entry level and training up. I know a lot of engineers who have had a degree for 10 years or more who have not had engineering positions and instead work retail. The people are out there. It's a HR problem, not a supply problem.

It'll be nice to get $30 because my car is affected. In all seriousness I wonder if this will cause recalls?

Lets face facts. We're still trying to understand how intelligence works. Even in neural networks of the past we had this issue. Once you delve into this area you should just be happy that it works.

I'm going to have to second this. I've gotten my older family members PCs in the past and it's always turned into a major headache for me. Your best bet is one of two solutions:

1) Apple everything: Macintosh based computers, Ipad tablets, iphones (if they are cellular users), and apple TV streaming devices. While many rip on apple (including me. I was a mac fan in the apple 2/ mac 2 era, but got burned in the shift to OS X) once your completely in everything just works. If they need help applecare or the apple stores are there to assist or you can use something like Teamviewer to log in remotely.

2) Google everything: Chrometop based computers and Chromebook laptops, Android tablets and phones, and finally Nexus players for TV's and stereos. Much like the apple ecosystem Google equipment works well together. Maybe not as much at the local level, but once you tie them to your Google account everything is tied nicely through web services. Unlike PC (and even apple equipment) Chromebooks and Chrometops are immune to viruses as each time you hard boot they get a fresh OS from ROM. Use their existing PC to push their music and photos to Google Music and Photos.

As for the printer get a networked hard wired multi-function printer. I've found issues with WiFi printers including poor sleep states and difficulty getting them to resync to the WiFi after a power event. A hard wired printer is more reliable. By hard wiring it you make sure everything is in one location. Cable modem, WiFi router, and printer. Tie it all into the same surge protector and if anything goes wrong your mom and dad just need to know to turn off the surge strip for a minute then kick it back on.

As for your dad's 3tb drive I'm not sure what he would be storing on that. In the Apple ecosystem he could either just attach it as a external to what ever mac he chooses to use, link it to his router and use it as network attached storage, or plug it into a real NAS box like a synology. On the Google ecosystem you are limited to just external storage. You probably could push the files to google docs if he wants to pay for more storage (unless it's all photos and music then the basic account would probably do) and just hang on to the 3TB drive as an emergency backup.

Hope this helps. While windows is the primary OS, I'm finding older relatives who are less technical are better served by other technologies. Especially since these "Indian tech support scams" are becoming more commonplace. I've had to remind all of my relatives that "Microsoft will never call you". The ones who have Macs and Chromebooks usually just hang up because they already understand that Microsoft wouldn't provide support for their device.

So having worked at a number of car companies I can estimate why they said it was the product of a couple of engineers. Manager to Engineer 1) "We need you to set up a software routine to make sure than our new TDI is compliant with emissions standards. Make sure you tie it to a CANBUS flag that we can modify in testing to show that the software is working." Manager to Engineer 2) "I need you to write a routine to modify the state of this CANBUS flag. If all four wheels are in motion we want it off. If only the front wheels are in motion we want it on." I love how it always boils down to an engineer or two and not a business decision.

BenFranske is correct. You're looking for a matrix switch for the video. They are sized by the number of video inputs and outputs. You're probably looking for a 6x2 ( inputs( pc1 screen 1, pc1 screen2, pc2 screen1, pc2 screen1, laptop screen1, laptop screen2) x outputs (screen 1, screen2). Remember these devices will not use a keyboard shortcut to direct sources to outputs. You'll either need to use the remote or rig something up with an arduino as most of these devices accept RS-232 commands that are fairly simple.
Something like this would work http://amzn.to/1L2pWmU

As for inputs such as keyboard and mouse that would be something different. I used a USB switch and a hub to create this solution, but now this type of gear exists.
http://amzn.to/1FB3dyd

I believe this would solve your issue. Your other choice would be to get two 4 port HDMI KVMs each hooked up to a monitor. You only need to hook a keyboard and mouse up to one (say screen 1's kvm). The issue here is you'll have to use the remote or buttons to trigger Screen2's KVM as you won't be able to use a keyboard shortcut where as you can on Screen1.

Hope this helps!