I never noticed the glory on a large scale - it usually comes as hurried "thank you"s after I have recovered someone's Word document they edited straight from an email attachment, then lost, or when I look up Excel help in front of the end user to answer their question. It never comes from building an enterprise level CMS that works perfectly for the end user for years at a time. Luckily(?), we still hire people who don't know how to log in when presented with a username/password box. My job isn't nearly the same as it used to be, but I definitely have job security while our education system is as poor as it is.

...you don't need to spank or hit your children.

I can answer that. I spent a year waiting for the right hardware to come along to replace my Dell Inspiron. I wanted a true gaming laptop, not a compromise. I found everything I wanted in the hgih-end 15" macbook pro: cutting edge 512mb vid card, fast RAM, killer screen (you should check out the viewing angle compared to the macbook), sleek design. I priced a can't-quite-compare (last-gen vid card, slower RAM) alienware machine the day I bought my mbp at $300 more. When you are looking high-end, macs kick A$$.