The CERN SPS control room had carpet on the walls. This to stop us hurting ourselves when it all got too much and the headbanging started.
There were also jokes

>> Also, comparing Tritium to Plutonium is pretty weak sauce as well. They are only alike in that they're both radioactive.
And they both end in -ium. That's pretty significant. Like Strontium and Boneium.
OK, maybe not

Acceleration is done by RF power : the magnetic fields bends the particles round the ring, and focusses the beams (yes, that is an acceleration, but ramping up to the TeVs is RF)

Most of the UK is SI now. Road signs still use miles and you can get two metres of two-by-four but it's liable to be 5cm by 10cm, whatever it's called. And asking for a kilo of tomatoes got me 'That's two pounds, sir, and f*ck the French'

London to Perpignan a year ago was easy, a reasonable price (with a small child in tow I wouldn't fly PlummetAir) and maybe an hour or two longer, given end effects.
It was also fun; and a hugely enjoyable holiday wasn't darkened at the end by the thought of a miserable battle through the airports.

>> That's not to say that C++ isn't important. It is, because of its widespread adoption. It is baroque, however.
I beg to differ. It is byzantine. Or perhaps gothic.
Whatever, it ain't post-modern.

And do it. There's plenty of FOSS projects who could do with some help. When you've got a job to do, you'll get the idea of what tools to use.
Maybe it's kernel, maybe it's AJAX. Find the job and then find the tools. If you're any good, a new language will give you a week of pure panic followed by....oh, I get this....
My nightmare has been people who had deep, even obsessive, knowledge of X, X++ and Z-- and little ability to analyse the problem in the first place.
From PDP assembler to Javascript and Java, it's how to find the appropriate 'ammer, not being a pin-hammer specialist.
Except Cobol, of course. You're safe there.

I'd back that.In the UK there are various journalistic columns that do this kind of story - the Beeb, the Grauniad etc run them
Get hold of PR for Dell (if they have such a thing) and mention the basics of the story and who it's going to. That'll rattle their cage.
It's quite unacceptable as customer service for anyone, but you've got an awful lot of cred so you'll frighten the hell out of their PR.
Then you can tell CNN anyway
If anyone at Dell PR reads slashdot you'll probably get a pre-emptive laptop drop pretty sharpish. If they have any sense.
Oh, wait...