A little late to the party here, but if anyone is still reading this thread, Neuromancer is a great novel. Even after 30 odd years or so it still brings the mojo. And the anti-hero hero is a programmer.
". . . some people cannot manage their libido effectively. .
What a concept: the efficiently regulated libido. I don't know if Freud would have wept or laughed.
I've bought 7 of these in the past year (at my boss's insistence) for our CAD-using engineers. Two have had to get replacement motherboards (one of them twice!) and a third just dropped dead and had to go back to the factory.
I've had to set up several M3800s for engineers running Solidworks. They look great and feel solid but they have been quite buggy, with lots of BSODs, OS re-installs, and 2 mobo replacements by Dell techs. Plus, the giant track pad looks good but is easy to hit while typing. And just to get it all out: USB dongle for ethernet? Putting an RJ45 jack in would have spoiled it's Apple-like lines? Meh.
or
Gam BA te !
Japanese for: "Go for it!"
It sounds like you are where I was twenty five years ago. You have some interest and enthusiasm and maybe a certain knack. You are probably a local expert, the guy other teachers turn to when they get frustrated with technology. A career in IT -- that's what you are describing when you say you want to set up email servers -- sounds like more fun and money then teaching.
But, unless your "knack" is a true gift and you are willing and able to put all your mental power into acquiring the deep knowledge you will need to operate at a high level in your new profession you will end up frustrated, stressed, and frequently out of work.
I.T. is a dead end. Fewer and fewer mid-level jobs; more and more automation, consolidation, and out-sourcing.
And believe me, you don't want to be crawling under desks and tracing network connections when you are fifty.
Or maybe you do. My 2 cents. Good luck to you.
E.M. Forster's short story, "The Machine Stops," was written in 1909 and seems more prescient by the minute. It would certainly provide a nice contrast to Kurzweil.
In his novel "Rainbows End" Vernor Vinge describes a near future where car ownership is unnecessary. Once simply calls for a car via the functional equivalent of a smart phone and a little electric car rolls up and takes you to your destination. Once you get out it drives off to pick up someone else or recharge or return to the depot. I would *SO* prefer a system like that. Zip car minus the tedium of having to return the car to a specific place by a specific time.
Old programmers never die, they just become managers.
