Unless Google has changed the meaning of its "Off The Record" button since I last used it, that just means they won't save the conversation for later viewing in the gmail interface (or in the gmail interface of the person you're talking to).

They don't provide http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/ as far as I can tell.

I don't hate RH. I like RH. I'm kind of annoyed with RHEL because people keep using ancient bug-ridden libraries and blaming me.

I've lost track of the number of times I've had this conversation:

Them: Foo doesn't work. Fix it. Fix it now.
Me: That was fixed upstream in library bar 7 years ago.
Them: We use RHEL4, and our policy won't let us install 3rd party library update packages.
Me: So you have an expensive contract. I'm sure RedHat will provide an official patch.
Them: Actually, we use CentOS4.
Me: . o O (Go buy a RHEL contract, you cheapskates. Or change your idiotic policy.)

But that's not RedHat's fault.

In some juristictions (eg. Ontario, Canada) the Professional Engineer's association takes you to court and collects a large fine from you if you call yourself an engineer and don't have a license from them: http://www.peo.on.ca/enforcement/callmeengineer.htm

So to "transition from hacker to engineer" with a Master's in Computer Science, you'd turn around, go back into university, and enroll in an undergrad Engineering course. The last time I looked (admittedly over a decade ago) the closest was "Computer Engineer" which did some software, but had rather more in common with Electrical Engineering than Computer Science.

Be aware of the legal status of the word "Engineer" in your juristiction before you add it to your title.

Whippersnapper. I seem to recall being beaten more than two decades ago by a 1k chess program on a Timex/Sinclair 1000 (aka ZX81).

Possibly even this one:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~uzdm0006/scans/1kchess/

About half of the force sounds right. It took me a while to get used to after typing on the Model M, but now that I'm used to it I prefer the lighter touch of the Scorpius.

Multi-million annual dollar contracts for products and services with both companies.

No- we can't retain staff with the necessary technical skill to deal with problems when something mysteriously doesn't work.

Multi-million annual dollars (times two) cannot retain staff with the necessary technical skill? The mind boggles.

The iOne Scorpius M10 has the \ where you want it. It uses the same mechanical switches as the Das Keyboard III, and is about 1/3 or 1/2 the price. I'm typing on one now.

No built-in USB hub, but I can get a USB hub for far less than the difference in price...

But the fact remains, when the software doesn't work- we can *make* IBM or Microsoft spend thousands of dollars analyzing and FIXING the problem (even if it requires a software patch).

Okay, what's your secret? I've got bugs that I opened with MS against Windows 2000 and Visual Studio 2003 that *still* weren't fixed as of Vista and Visual Studio 2008. So far, the only thing I've been able to *make* MS do is say "Closed (wontfix)".

We can't *make* a group of random people do that.

Maybe not a randomly chosen group of people, but you can certainly make your own employees do that, since the source is available. Or contract it out to RedHat, or whomever you like.