Is this whole story a troll? The false dichotomy proposed between the (poorly-labelled) attributes of "talent" and "skill" is disingenuous. The comparison between acquired knowledge (what the author refers to as "skill") and inductive reasoning about a proposed new piece of functionality/infrastructure/etc (referred to by as "talent" in this bizarre example) is contrived, and somewhat arbitrary. I almost never read or discuss Slashdot stories anymore, and this s a great example of the underlying problem. Now, all you kids get off my lawn, and leave me in peace.

But if you're running Windows, you could actually do a lot worse than Microsoft Security Essentials...

The Demon Princes (really, anything) by Jack Vance. Any short fiction by Cordwainer Smith and Avram Davidson. I also was greatly impressed by Peter S. Beagle's short story collections.

Bridge of Birds.

Bah, just use metacrawler and search them all.

Had he been duped? Or was he using it as an excuse to talk his wife into the fancy LCD TV?

Once you do, you'll realize how correct my original post was. C# is essentially someone running find and replace over the Java language and claiming it's "new," "radically different," and "much, much complex and serious."

Ok, first of all, I am far from a "fan boi", unless your definition of such is "someone who disagrees with binarylarry". Secondly, C# and Java are both based on C++, so it is hardly surprising that they are similar. In addition, designing a language so that it is familiar to those who use other, similar languages, is not a crime; if it is, then Java is equally guilty, as one of their original goals to speed adoption was to make the language similar enough that C++ programmers felt at home.

Seeing as how you provided no actual facts or even examples in your post for someone to refute, I'd say the responder did just fine.

'nuff said.

Please, stop holding back - how do you really feel?

Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them 'a disgrace to this country'. I doubt that the brainwashed old man and his religious zealot sidekick would have been a better choice for the country. I used to have respect for John McCain, but lost it all when he sold out to the extreme wing of his party. We see how well this country has done with ultra-conservative Republican leadership. Even if I don't agree 100% with Obama's policies, it was necessary to elect him, if only to shake the Republicans' tree and make them realize that this country doesn't want any more of the batshit crazy wing of their party. I am all about small government, low taxes, and personal responsibility, but that isn't what the Republican party is about anymore.

Until the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to our constitution in 1804, after the Jefferson/Burr deadlock, this is exactly what happened. The winner was president, and the runner up was VP.