As for fun parties before marriage, that is all up to the comfort level of the people. Such as my wife and I could go to the strip club together man or woman. We are both 100% sure that neither of us want anyone else. Other people aren't that sure, or even comfortable with a naked body, especially in the US.
Mbr> But as far as a great marriage, communication open and honest and all the time. Hold nothing back, and hold no ill feelings when you hear something you didn't want to. Love each other more than you did the day before. as has been said, you are a team and should function like a single unit made up of two parts. Alone time, that is important to everyone. You need your time alone and so does she.

We have a rule not to let the sun go down on an unresolved issue. If it's not worth fixing right then and there, it wasn't worth arguing over in the first place. And if you have an argument, ending it happy. Our last argument ended in a prime rib dinner in a candle lit dining room and the argument was about communication not being as open as it should have been. So, we opened the doors over dinner and had a wonderful night.

Have fun. We play video games, go to museums, watch movies, ride our motorbikes or just relax together. But we have fun together.

Gifts are not only for special occasions. If you see something that you know would make your wife glow, get it. My wife loves See's candy, so out of nowhere I got her a 4lbs box and she loved it. Or a movie she's wanted for a long time. Perhaps a great book that's been on her list for far too long. You don't need a reason to show your wife you love her.

Sex, everyone has different levels and understanding the needs of the other is important. She can't keep up with me so she lets me have my porn collection, and I don't smother her with my man bits. When she's ready, it's business time. When she's not, it's porn time.

My geek wife is strong and has no filter. She'll say it like it is. I have a filter but still tell her how it is. So, be yourself, don't try and change the other person. After all you didn't want to marry the changed person, you wanted to marry the person she is today, and the same for you, don't change. If either one says I love everything about her but this, now if I can change that, they'd be perfect. Wrong. Either you love them for who they are, or you don't.

Be supportive. My wife is pregnant with our first and I didn't realize how much she has done around the house since I've gone back to school. The dishes, laundry, cleaning the house. When she's not feeling well or can't handle the smells of the kitchen, I take up with no ill feelings. I'm there to support her through this great time in our lives. When she can't lift the laundry basket, I carry it for her. When she's sick and feeling down, I'll rub her feet and make her feel better. It comes down to love. If you love her like you should, those things wont be a problem.
I also think every geek is smart enough to know how to handle the situation at hand. You know what you want, and if you're both open you know what the other wants and can make a great marriage from it.

My $0.02

Ben

Off topic on my part.
I'm doing a research paper for school. I'm needing to interview an industry expert. Are you a professional programmer? If so, how long have you been programming?
Some of the highlights in your reply are the same as my theory on learning to program as a child.

Please send a reply to elevtro at my.wgu. edu

Some questions I have are below. Please answer the ones you can. Add any other insight you have that I may have missed.

The question driving my paper is as follows. What are the benefits to a career in programming if you learn to program as a child?

Child is all ages to high school, to be clear on the wide range of ages I'm looking into.

Do programmers in the work place that learned to program as a child generate better code?

Do they program more efficiently?

Can they solve more complex problems faster?

Do they write better quality code?

Or are their usual independent learned skills more of a hindrance?

I sincerely appreciate your time spent with this interview.

Regards,

Ben Stine

Agreed.

MS should give the crippled version away free. The one that runs only 3 apps. Then there would be no getting your money back when you purchase a computer. It would also compete with the price of Linux and BSD. Then drop your tiered pricing by a lot. Home basic at $30, Home premium $50, Professional $150 and Ultimate at $175.
I bet a lot more people would "purchase" their OS if they structured it like that. I also think it would help in the level of illegal copies.

How did MS win in the web browser market? They made it free and included it in their OS.
Why not give away the lowest level of your OS for free to retain your market share?
That makes better sense to me at least.

Regards, Ben

I've been at it for my present company for over 4 years now. It is hard not to be a BOFH. Be good at what you do. If you are good people will respect you, unless they are an utter ass, there is no helping those people. Yes I will get stern with some of the hard headed ones. But usually after I've shown them a few times, exactly what THEY DID to cause the problem, they can fix it themselves. If after those few times you are still coming and asking for help then I might let that rudeness come out. I've only been a BOFH once, and I felt so much regret afterward that I apologized to the user and told them I was wrong for what I said. I didn't want to turn in the PHB, who are the real assholes around here.

Learn your users personalities. Learn their level of user. Then use that information when assisting them. It makes it person and real for them and they will respect you more. No matter how many times you've heard the question or been presented with the problem, the user hasn't. It's like the person at walmart being asked where the trash bags are 100 times a day. He knows, and has said it a 100 times, but when you're the 99th person asking, he might be tired of hearing that same question over and over and gets rude. But if you understand that this person hasn't been told 98 times before, those were 98 other people, and this person really doesn't know, you can keep it real every time someone asks a question that you've answered before. Patience and lots of it go a long way.

Meditate. It keeps you relaxed when even the nastiest of shit hits the fan. If you are at peace with yourself, you are at peace with all.

Lastly, work for a company with HIGH turnover so that you never have to deal with someone for more than a year. That way every user is a new user.

Just kidding about that last one.

I just did this a month ago. I've been waiting for their service to get at least 2.5 Mbps, which they recently did. I was also waiting for the other cable company to update their digital channels, which they did as well. I called big brother cable and said you suck, since you bought the little service and became this big bloated crap service, I've had the worst consumer experience ever. Your service sucks and now it's time to fire you.

Since that day, I've had a smile on my face. =)

People are the factor I think.
Were I your employee, I would have expressed my appreciation several times.
My current employer is one of the few doing well. We are actually growing and making profits.
Due to the nature of the industry I work in I can be negative at times, but I have seriously changed my attitude over the last 6 months due to the company's stability.
Is it my dream job? No.
Will I leave eventually for a better company? Yes
All that said, I am loyal and will continue to serve my employer until it's my time to leave and it will not be in a negative manner. See, I'm in system administration right now, and my dream has always been to be in programming. If my company had any use for programmers I would stay, but they do not. So, when that time comes I will leave.

It just seems to me like you have employed people that may have the skills you need, but are not consciously a thankful bunch.
That all comes down to personality, ethics, how one was raised, and everything that makes a person unique.
Just like the people I see on my drive to and from work, a rare few are polite drivers, and most are jerks that cut you off.
Employees are the same, you'll get the rare few that will appreciate what you are doing, but the majority will not even care or notice. You are just a means to their ends.

Just my $0.02

elevtro ~ Ben

Oh no, anything can be used for any purpose! Let's blame the people that make vehicles because terrorists use them for transportation, recruiting and blowing things up, like people. I kill you, boom!

I couldn't agree more with what you've said. I was a member of the IBEW and while entry level wages were higher, top end wages were lower. Not to mention the dues and other contributions that were expected. Then the near pointless meetings. In every other labor job I held they were non-union and the starting wages were lower, but the overall environment was more friendly, and we got a lot more work done. In the end that lower starting wage when you compare the take home, was about the same. So basically in the union you made more to give it to the greedy people running the union. Now working as a sys admin, I would hate it I were somehow forced to be in a union. I might have to climb the management ladder just to stay out of one.

Get your tinfoil hat on, it goes deeper than that. It was someone's wireless computer they used to crack in to the airplane's computer to feed that bad data. We all know that people smart enough to crack in to the system would get on the plane to bring it down.
Oh, even better, blame it on some jyhad extremists. Ha ha ha, since they were bringing down the plane, lets make those vampires so they could fly to safety.
All that just to blame someone else for a mistake, and to fortify the un-found claims that wireless electronic devices shouldn't be used while in flight.