I buy a lot of things online. With something as long term and expensive as a car I want to drive it first. In addition I want someplace to have it maintained and repaired. Shop, click, drive - No way. Last time I bought a car and researched online. There were cars I thought I wanted but once I drove them I didn't like them. If my car has a problem I take it to the dealer, they fix it and I can trust them. I drive a Toyota btw not a GM. The experience at the dealership is actually pretty good.

I'm older than you and I think you need to change your approach entirely. I am in a constant state of retraining. It's a way of life. In my opinion if you don't learn you might as well be dead. It doesn't matter if you are in technology or not, you will still have to retrain. I think the question you need to ask yourself is "do I enjoy technology?" Do I enjoy writing code and figuring out problems? If so then learning something new won't be a big deal, it will happen by default. If not, well learn something else. I've been through 4 distinct and vastly different careers (3 successful, 1 a dismal failure..but hey I know I don't want to do that again) and I expect to go through at least 4 more. Otherwise it would be boring. Asking if you are two old for something is like asking if it's time to die. Age has nothing to do with it, absolutely zero. If you feel your brain is slowing down then start getting some exercise. I just never could get how some people could work their life just so they could retire.

And the upside ..digital vs paper. 1) Less to carry around. 2) Always with you 3) Think about every time you've moved and the boxes of books.

Wife has a Kindle with e-ink, I have an Ipad Retina Display. If you are only reading ebooks from Amazon get the Kindle. If you read pdf's, ebooks and magazines get an Ipad with the retina display. I have a ton of technical documentation in pdf, plus ebooks from Amazon and a few magazine subscriptions on my Ipad. Sure you'll have distractions with the Ipad, but you'll have them regardless. I have zero regrets.

Yep it's called evolution. Adapt or die, it applies to most everything, just happens a little faster in the tech field. If you adapt you'll be even more valuable because not only will you know the new stuff, you'll be the only one around who can fix/modify the old stuff. It's your choice, expendable or indispensable. Personally I don't like .net so if it's going away (and I doubt that it is) I say good riddance.

In the end you are going to have to do a little code. For visual editing like others have said Dreamweaver is probably the best, and it's not bad for hand coding..it's just bloated. I do have a suggestion not mentioned here, try using wordpress and use CSSEdit to style the site. You will have to manually do some css coding however you will get instant feedback visually. If you learn to at least code css you will find you have much more control and arrive at the layout you want much easier. Now that IE6 is moving off the radar the bar to entry is much lower. The thing is, if you want something for the long haul learn at least html and css then you can use vi it's been around since 1978, it's free and it's really powerful and not going anywhere anytime soon. On the mac Textmate and Coda are excellent editors, but again, not exactly visual. GoLive was a wretched piece of software imho, if you suffered through that you can suffer through anything.

I was one of the folks that sent Diaspora some money. I like the idea of an open social network where you have control of your information. Sure it's going to be tough to be a facebook killer but I want them to have every opportunity to try. I've been on the net since the Lynx days, I've worked on the net in one fashion or the other since then. To me the big promise of the net was to bring people of different cultures, different geographic locations together, not to mention having a wealth of information at your finger tips. There is a lot wrong with facebook. I'm all for social networks (which is nothing new, we've had social networks since the stone age). I don't like the way facebook is going about it. To me facebook is the present day AOL. I could go on and on but I'm behind Diaspora and hope they get it right.

We have Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and people are still using IE. It sure makes one pause for a moment.

Why mimic a book? The book was designed around paper. The ipad and it's ilk are not based on paper. IMHO there is no benefit in two screens if you really think about it. It seems to me they are trying to shoehorn a book into a different medium instead of of taking a fresh look at how to present information and ideas. Bad idea, makes the device more expensive with no added benefit. As far as pen input goes. I can type twice as fast as I can write and would bet most of the folks on slashdot can relate. We've used pen and paper for a very long time and there has been no viable alternative. This "thing" is just a prototype and it's certainly not a step forward.

I was in a similar situation a few months ago. It had nothing to do with music but the general issue was the same. Boss trying to strut his authority over something trivial. For me it was a sign I should sum up my situation. I don't think trying to change his rule is the answer because something else will come up down the line. They don't have to employ you. You don't have to work there. Rule 1, don't up and quit. Start looking. If you get a job offer try to befriend an employee in the department and get an honest read on the place. Granted you will never find the perfect boss, but I think you can do better. I found a different job, jumped ship and haven't been happier. Not all bosses are evil. The best boss is someone you respect. As far as music goes. Most of the time I need it. Sometimes I have to shut it off but I find it helps me to be more creative. I'm better with it than without it. I would guess your boss doesn't like music so much. My advice, look, find, leave. Don't waste your time rocking the boat.

Well said and I'm in complete agreement. Microsoft will have to accept standards. Gone are the days when a Word document can only be opened in Word without jumping through many hoops, otherwise folks will move away from Word. Microsoft has built it's empire upon forcing it's own proprietary standards. This won't hold up as alternatives arise and the ability for various devices to communicate with each other becomes essential. "Microsoft might be all you know, but it's time to start learning about alternatives or you'll be stuck with the dinosaurs" True even if M$ doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs. I prefer to be in the unix/linux world, but I have Win7 installed in a VM so I can keep in touch with what is going on on the other side of the fence. Even though I hope for it's speedy demise.

Actually this makes a great deal of sense to me. I'm not sure on this but I think HTML5 contains tags for many of the things needed. I don't think css is the answer though as it is for presentation only. HTML is for hierarchy and structure of information as is XML. The part that makes sense with this is that it would be standardized (if you can keep Microsoft out of it) and could easily be transitioned back and forth between the web, ebooks and whatever device came next. PDF is widely used but truly it is a pain to convert into a structured document. Word is a nightmare with all of the jumbled up MS proprietary tags. I've yet to see an online editor that will clean up that mess with a simple copy and paste. The real issue is standardization in the way we store textual information. It's a huge issue and frankly Microsoft needs to be called on the carpet for manipulating and at the very least getting in the way of standards. It's refusal to recognize standards has caused needless expense to anyone that publishes information on the web. Few people realize the damage MS has caused on the web. Everyone bitches and moans about their operating system but only those directly involved in creating content for the web seem to complain about IE and their corruption of a standardized open document format. The damage they have done in this arena will haunt us longer than windows will, in my humble but sincere opinion.

I agree, no hardware from Google. And finally, we may have ebooks that work across multiple devices. 2 things have kept me away from the Kindle. Proprietary format which goes both ways I don't want my reader or my books tied to just one company. Secondly proper handling of pdf's. I have so much documentation in pdf format and I long for an affordable e paper device that does pdf. Truly the whole ebook thing can't happen fast enough for me. One thing for sure, I have more faith in Google getting it right than say microsoft. Books are way to important to have microsofts hand in it.

I live near the site Futuregen was to be built. There was fierce competition between Illinois and Texas for the location of the plant. Illinois was chosen based on science not politics. I have heard that Bush was furious that Texas was not chosen, pulled a few strings and the project was cancelled. From what I have read this was a technology that would work and let us take advantage of the abundant coal supplies without damaging the environment.