Personally, I would only rely on a certification to get you the interview. After that, it is entirely up to you to sell your value to the organization and articulate that you are not merely a paper-tiger who tests well. So, your certs are valuable, if only to get you that interview.

Now to be sure, there are those orgs that will get tunnel vision on the resume and presume you actually have the real-life skills to back up your certs without doing their due-diligence when hiring. There are risks working for those orgs that usually become glaringly apparent when your team/group is under pressure on a difficult project.

I haven't seen skies like this since my teenaged years, camping in the Big Bend NP under a cloudless, new moon.

The sensation you get when seeing more stars than sky is something that must be experienced fist hand. Pictures rarely seem to do it justice.

I can't wait to see their faces when my children get to experience it!

Not only do they need to look at inventory, I think they will also need to address employees. Without someone who can approach the role of an "Elmer" in the shop -- or someone who can at least knowledgeably field *general* electronics questions -- good luck attracting enthusiasts and growing the market

I couldn't pass a Radio-Shack back in the day; back when they had a fair selection of DIY stuff where you could browse around for project ideas. They've certainly lost that "ham-shack" luster over the years and I doubt they can return because it would appear they've been outflanked by the internet.

My sense of nostalgia wishes them well, but I just don't hold out much hope for them. Sadly, I think they might be better off losing the expense of their brick & mortar storefronts and moving strictly to the web.

Like the "demotivational" poster says: If you're not part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

So basically what you are telling all of us is that instead of substance, you reply with dick jokes because you are so intellectually dishonest, you can't even acknowledge the obvious point amiga3D was making? That "green" vehicles will quite likely always lose when they collide with nearly anything that has more mass like a normal sized car, an SUV, a guard-rail or perhaps even a dog-house? Whatever -- at least you probably feel smugly good about yourself, and that's what's important, right?

Or how about: Hundreds die from accidental electrocution each year. And yet you knowingly & willingly accept those deaths rather than give up your little porn box (and your TV, blu-ray, lava-lamp, etc...)

What? Same logic, right? Anyone who uses electricity is complicit in the "massive number" of accidental electrocutions every year, right?

Could he (fly/drive/hitch-hike) down to Bolivia (or some such) and start over in I.T. & beyond the reach of the US's wage-garnishment jurisduiction?

And if I grab a street corner in a nearby village and start announcing that the radiation has been contained and the plant is hiring laborers for clean-up efforts at $attractive/hour and applications will only be accepted in person at the plant by noon next Wednesday?

Though not all will take the bait, some might rush to the plant and contaminate themselves. Do I shoulder any responsibility for what may occur beyond their stupidity & gullibility? Could I (should I) get away with claiming freedom of speech?

Cool! If that little thing can produce 25kw, then I hope the vehicle it powers has a connection to power your house when the storm takes out the grid!

I also know plenty of federal workers. And considering the massive, ever growing head-count in the federal workforce, the 800,000 figure might be *low* for the "DMV Stereo-Types". Now, to be fair, I work with (or try to get them working, as the case may be) federal employees on a weekly basis. I know full well there are great people working for Uncle-Sugar. But there are also a *SIGNIFICANT* number of dead-weight, unionized, ass-hats that are wastes of tax-payer money, as well as wastes of DNA. Folks who should absolutely be given the axe, but can't be fired - seemingly because they've somehow been fortunate not to have been caught committing a felony in the workplace (or whatever it takes to actually fire them). I would even go as far as estimating the ratio of producers to leechers is worse in the fed sector than in the commercial sector. Likely because the fed sector does not have to produce anything, nor turn a profit. All they *HAVE* to do is be polite, and even that's too much of a challenge for some of them.

But yes, it is absolutely true there are some good folks working for the govt.

Actually? No, it is not a serious issue. 800,000 GOVT employees *not working* is status quo, is it not?

Bah! All you young whipper-snappers and your fancy-pants centimeter-band radios makes my shingles act up!
Real men don't need anything north of 30 MHz! That's where you find the radios made of iron and glowing tubes!
Not these sickly, plastic-fantastic micro-circuited gizmos!

Now get off my yard!!

I imagine if you replaced all those dots & symbols with a single image of a guy riding a bike, that morphs into a giraffe riding a bike, I would think you would be able to easily detect the change as it happens, whether moving or not. It just seems to me that the "busy-ness" of the image with the closely packed dots & symbols creates clutter that the brain resorts to simplifying what the eyes are viewing -- just another optical illusion. If the image were simplified and not so crowded & busy, would the illusion still occur?

To me it's not much different than watching wheel spokes appear to turn backwards when they reach a certain speed. This doesn't seem too terribly significant to me. Meh...

Firearm misuse has nothing to do with the point I was making. Also, certainly you *can* live your whole life enjoying "art" without illegally copying digital media. You just have to choose whether you will abide by the DRM protections or become a scofflaw and evade DRM to copy protected media (presuming you can't enjoy "art" without copying it, DRM'd or not).

The point still stands. Over-bearing DRM is as misguided and fraught with unintended consequences as over-bearing gun-control and mainly serves to either provide advantages to scofflaws and/or create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.