As a graying 60 plus who also started with Z80 assembler then progressed through Forth, Fortran, Lisp and 7 other languages, I have considerable feel for your situation. However, having endured lots of online discussion about today's 'real programming jobs' being for younger folk, I regret to suggest that full employment is an unlikely outcome (if a nice dream) in the tight financial environment we have all been living through. But I have found personal renewal and significant career and financial payoff in iOS app development for publication, then cross-development for Android, although the iOS payoff has been nearly 10x greater than for a similar Android product. And as one of my renowned neuroscience mentors taught, learning difficult new skills is the best way to keep an aging brain healthy... Fortunately, programming isn't my main career, but my downsized programmer brother (over 10 years my junior) has also had significant recent success learning to program mobile apps (Android) bringing in new income and job prospects. We both started out trying to tap the still hot market for mobile devices, and it would seem a shame to ignore higher-level independent mobile developer prospects if you couldn't land a rare ARM assembly coding job with a commercial firm. But with about 90% of the current coding on my day job being for multi-device web applications (in a world where 20- and 30- something web designers are 'a dime a dozen'), staying flexible and diversified, finding a niche and evolving new applications for new technology seem to have been the most important strategies for long term survival as a programmer.

(6 x 7)

Oy! Mind meld, my recto-tectal tract! Functional assertions not withstanding, MRI derived blood flow and oxygen usage patterns are not algorithmically equatable with thought...

Existing MRI scanners are overwhelming auditory assault systems, and I can (in my sf-enthusiast imagination) conceive of no better way of limiting military drone pilot endurance than to link one to a state of the art MRI scanner. As if current Raptor trailer sessions probably don't produce enough "Hellfire" stress, in theory...

Of course, since the pop-sci overlay came first from a reputable sci pub, it must be gospel... Um torah...

Put me DOWN? Heh. Heh. How slow on the uptake do you have to be over 2K Km? The Israeli grad student and his institution clearly won this week's sci-hype contest.

Serious heavy metal jewelry: Solar powered quartz anatog-digital, multizone, with E6B flight computer (i.e. slide rule) bezel. No need to leave the smartphone behind, but wtf: this is a different kind of tech statement. Program something else. - ['DB]

OK Apple, here's your chance to serve all us other plebian drivers on the road!

Howsabout some Siri functionality to nag upper class (and wanna be) Benz drivers who behave as predicted by today's preceding PNAS study item (on unethical behavior in the upper class, including driving).

Shrill harridan warnings for running reds, being more than the second left turn after the red, egregious speeding, passing in the right turn lane on red lights, illegal u-turns, rolling non-stops at 4 way intersections, high-speed drafting/tailgating, etc.

Yeah, I 'spose that the Prius owners should pay extra, but upper class Land Rovers and Bimmers should get it as a stock option too...

Probally happen when St. Steve's widow puts plates on his silver SL...

Fo' sho'!

['DB]

Just finished teaching the units on male and female sexual development at a major medical school last week. Even my students know that you need part of the human Y chromosome (SRY gene) to make testes differentiate from primordial gonad tissue. It also makes the 'pre-Fallopian tubes' and what would become uterus and much of vagina (Mullerian duct system) "go away" in developing male fetuses. If SRY gene "jumps" to another chromosome, you don't get proper differentiation of gonads and genitalia. No SRY, general 'female type' morphogenesis. No Y, no sperm, no babies without cloning or parthenogenesis. Without the X and Y autosomes we really lose the basis for most human sexual reproduction... No fun (for standard hetero sex repro) even if you do like sci-fi and scenarios of massive gene and body engineering! Still I seem to recall one or two sci-fi Amazon (non-dot com) societies with parthenogenesis out there in the meta-universe.

If people were really interested in this functionality, they could share the library of IR control code audio files.

General musings on iPod recording capabilities etc (from one successfully using an MD Walkman for years of pro audio recording):

A) Wonder if the 8 Khz recording bandwidth of the iPod would be enough to record the IR pulses directly? (Lessee, I got a homebrew [Radio Shack plan and parts] IR detector around here, throw a 1/8" jack on the output and plug into the Belkin Universal Microphone Adapter for iPod....)

B) Bug Steve-o about the wisdom allowing 44.1 Khz stereo recording on iPod. What the hell, I'm gonna buy a high-end Sony Hi-MD Walkman ANYWAY since he won't go for it....

C) Four easy steps for making my professional school lectures available to students on-line: 1) Record lectures on iPod using lavalier mic; 2) Drop audio file and exported lecture Powerpoint JPEGs into iMovie; and 3) edit and export to CD or class Web server. 4) There is no step 4....

D) Of course, at 8 KHz the iPod recorded audio won't be as crisp as what I get off my MD Walkman. On the other hand, I eliminate the step of importing narrative audio files through a pro MD deck with optical S/PDIF outputs.

E) Yeah, Duke is SO lame for giving incoming students iPods ;-) (Wonder if the radiologists in their medical school use iPods for carrying medical image files like our radiologists do?).

Hardware hacking 4 ever.