Ok, so I didn't start as late as you did (early 30's) but I turn 50 this year, and my career has advanced steadily during my life as a software engineer. If you like it and you're pretty good at it, I don't see any reason why you should worry. You may run into a company or two that could have a problem with your age, but my current employer placed a premium on experience. I *DID* work at an internet start up that seemed to buy into the idea that younger programmers were a better bet, but a friend from a previous job vouched for me, and I was hired as the oldest engineer there. The younger programmers scoffed at the idea that experience counted for anything, but soon the managers realized the the older workers were the most productive workers -- fewer false starts, grandiose solutions, bugs etc. YMMV but when the Internet bubble burst, I wasn't one of the ones that got laid off.

Ok, maybe maybe most of us won't actually miss you (since we've never actually met you), but we'll miss your posts. When you mentioned your proposal to your (now) wife, it brought back fond memories. Thanks for sharing with us for all of these years.

LOL, Yeah, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East (&technically West) Germany, and that's just staying in Europe. I was thinking about this when I first saw this poll, but you beat me to it. In some ways its a shame, but c'est la vie.

I've travelled a fair amount and spent nearly nine years living in european countries (not military, FS), and spent time in more than 12 countries, even though I'm 'American'. While I agree that many Americans don't travel abroad, I've also noted the same is true of a lot of countries, though it does seem to be harder to do in europe :). I've spent some time in some places in europe where a sizable portion of the population have never even left the region where they were born, so I'd hazard a guess that it's not a universally American trait.

World domination. Of course, if it looked like Tricia Helfer, it would be that much better!

I, for one, welcome our new Colbert overlord.

I don't think that it should be a matter of fear at all. Some of the best comic based movies were PG-13, and, like the earlier post, I enjoy watching comic based movies with my kids. I'm more concerned that the movies are faithful to the series. I think that several movies have done a good job of modernizing the origin stories of the character while remaining true to the core. That said, I recognize that there are some comics out there that would probably be pointless to be made into a non R rated movie - it would remove the themes and plot elements that make them interesting.