I realize it's popular to say "not in my home" regarding tech like this, but I, for one, welcome our retail overlords. ;)

We say these devices are to sell us "crap" but it's only crap if we don't want or need the stuff.

Frankly, if my television learned that I will never buy perfume, conditioner, tampons, lawn mowers, garden furniture and instead showed me ads for motorcycling jackets, computers, sneakers, electronics and other stuff I'm interested in, well, I might be up for that.

There's a dude on a show i watch who is always wearing the coolest stuff. I would appreciate it if I could pause the TV and have it tell me where to get what he's wearing and how much it costs.

I'm an American Consumer -- sue me!

"Where TF is the blowjob kiosk?"

Ask and ye shall receive. https://youtu.be/ldy4LOgvUCw

Yes, they are that stupid. I wanted to buy one of the aforementioned games from Amazon and found that they wouldn't sell to me unless I bought a Prime Membership or from one of their 3rd parties. After 10 seconds of stunned silence, I browsed over to target.com, found the item for the same price, discovered that the brick-and-mortar Target price-matches *even from their own website*, trundled down to the local target and got the item the same day instead of waiting for shipping.

I took the time to write Amazon a nastygram, explaining that their shortsighted decision drove my sale away from Amazon to Target, that I was happier, more satisfied and received my item quicker, and that in the future I would consider that route first.

...this time with way more experience, world knowledge and self-knowledge.

I went into programming with the kind of wide eyed exuberance that only a teenager can have.

Got completely used up and burned out after 12 years with a company that started strong and went straight down the tubes. I've bummed around since then, knowing that I didn't want to work for different morons in another corporation.

Finally though, smartphone programming offers me programming on my own terms: MY project, MY hours, MY tech support --> MY profits. No more apologizing for other's mistakes, no more Dilbert bosses. When I was leaving my former company I was fond of saying "If I want to work for morons I'll work for myself." ;)

I can work from home. No more endless, useless meetings. I can work from anywhere. True freedom, enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Yes, I want to program when I'm 50, but on my terms.

I think it's ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS that you slashdotters are on a social networking site, one that is at least 13 years old, one that has not been supplanted by the newer and better thing, and yet you can't see that maybe, just maybe, Facebook is as entrenched as slashdot is and is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Face it -- YOU'RE SOAKING IN IT, MADGE.

I've 45 and the game that I keep coming back to is LittleBigPlanet.

The game designers ingeniously included a level editor that is unlocked when you finish the game. They encourage you to build and publish your own levels and reward you for participating in the community. This has resulted in a rich online community of players and level builders so there's ALWAYS new content. The last time I turned it on, there were 3.3 MILLION user-published levels. 14,000 new levels had been published since the last time I played a few days earlier.

Are all of the levels great? Of course not. But there's a sophisticated rating system that makes it easy to find levels you will enjoy and level builders whose work you appreciate.

What I admire most about LBP is that in addition to creating a fun and compelling game, the game designers created an environment in which players can create their own games. The creativity out there is astounding and they made a game where players can make whatever they want and publish, get feedback, and refine.

Don't like what you find? Think you can do better? Fire up the editor and try your hand at it. Publish and get instant feedback and try again. I find it brings a whole new level of admiration and appreciation of my fellow gamers.

For me, it comes down to respect. I can't work for people with whom I don't share mutual respect. Life is too short to work for people who don't respect you and your work, and it's absolutely too short to work for people you don't admire and respect.

I have quit more than one job because my boss or bosses have proven through his or her or their actions that they either don't respect me, don't respect the workers, and/or that they are not worthy of my respect in return.

Your bosses believe they are better than the people who work for them. They believe that there are two sets of rules, one set for them, and another set for the workers. And, your bosses have proven that they don't care what the workers think of the double standard.

Bosses that don't model the behaviour that they expect from their workers are not bosses that are worthy of your valuable time, concern and effort. In essence, if management doesn't care, why should anybody? If your boss doesn't care about data security, why should you? They are demonstrating through their actions how they feel about the company, the policies of the company, and the workers at your company.

Bosses who aren't thankful EVERY DAY that they have loyal and concerned people/workers/employees doing their best for the company EVERY DAY don't deserve to have those people/workers/employees.

Your bosses have done you a huge favor. They have demonstrated that they don't value you and your work. Take this as a sign. You need to tidy up your resume and start searching for a company whose values match your own.