A friend and I learned BASIC in 5th grade from older friends using a TRS-80 at a Radio Shack in the local mall. The employees there used to allow the area kids to come in and use the floor models for free (because back in the mid-80s, none of us could afford such a thing.) Eventually, the schools started investing in TRS-80s and set up fledgling computer labs for students to use and that's when things really seemed to take off. I spent a lot of time in front of that green-on-black screen teaching myself how to code and it's amazing to this day how much of what I taught myself is still relevant. Styles and syntax come and go, but the underlying concepts seem to be fairly static.

You do realize, of course, that roughly 30 years ago, computer geeks were running complaining about these new-fangled GUIs and how they just wanted a good ol' command line interface without the pretty graphics. I think we're long past those arguments at this point. IOW, you are squarely in the minority. People want computer interfaces they can relate to and that feel "human" and that means pretty effects and cool graphics.

Well, why not watch the video then?

And for those decrying the use of video, you'll definitely want to check out Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction by the same author: http://worrydream.com/LadderOfAbstraction/

It's a big wall of text with interactive javascript examples and no video.

The range of human skin color is quite close to the range of wood color.

Let's say you put out a bid for a 250 page website to be built and I submit a quote of $2500 to create the site, stating that I will personally be doing all of the work. Would you come back to me and say "Sorry, your price is attractive but I've calculated that your effective wage is too low and your working conditions aren't up to my standards. In order to make a livable wage under decent working conditions, I propose that I pay you $25,000 instead."?

Don't forget Poland!

As long as your role pays you for being accessible. The rates vary but should be between 10% to 20% of your hourly pay for the hours you're on call. For example, if you make $50/hour normally you should be getting at least $5/hour for being on call. Think of it like being a babysitter. Most times they just sit around and watch TV or do their homework or chat with their boyfriend. But it's the chance of there something going wrong that they're paid for. I hope you're getting paid for being around in case something goes wrong too.

Odd... that's exactly what she said.

What's the charge time for turning this dead cow into a liter of gas?

Then I guess you'll have to do it as a mental exercise rather than packing 10^80 lunches for the voyage.

You mean to tell me that after such careful thought into the practicality of the voyage, you have no concerns about the fact that you'd turn to dust long before you made any significant progress on the journey?

I get that. My tongue-in-cheek response was because it had absolutely nothing to do with what I wrote.

If they get military funding: ARRAY, LARGE, VERY

Thanks, Hank. I might need to pick up a new model; mine must be on the fritz.