I've got a 800 MHz G4 quicksilver that used to be a cutting edge 3d animation desktop at a friend's ad agency about 8 years ago. I still use it to browse the web and work on docs. Unfortunately, it's never going to run Leopard or later; and will go end of life in a couple of months. Amazingly it can get to MS Office edit screen for doc faster than my 2 GHz Lenovo laptop. Mcafee is still loading on the Lenovo by the time I'm on my second paragraph on the mac :-).

I briefly (2 years) had a NeXT cube; but I was an idiot and sold it when I was moving. I used to love that machine. I sometimes still catch myself thinking I still have it lying around somewhere.

The fuel we burn is the result of a hundreds of thousands of years of natural processes working on plants and other bio matter. In the last 100 years, we've taken about 70% of that material and pushed it into the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide. Think of it as a tin can of carbon dioxide. It took nature 40 million years to fill the can. We emptied it out into the atmosphere in a 100 years. Left to nature, it will take 40 million years to put all the carbon dioxide back into the can.

However, taking the same analogy further, there are many other tin cans of carbon dioxide around. A good super volcano eruption can do the same thing as we've done with fossil fuels a heck of a lot faster. However, that's not something we can prevent. The question I would ask is ... what if the effect of us pushing all the Carbon Dioxide into the air does end up being catastrophic. There are, as I see it, two possibilities:

1) things get so bad so quickly that we can't keep up - and we end up extinct

2) we figure out a way to do what nature took millions of years to do - and lock up the Carbon Dioxide again

The aggressiveness of the man-made climate change camp is going to help ensure that we do put money into having option 2 ready if it ever come to the point where we need it. So, keep your super cars and SUV's if you want them. However, ensure your insurance policy is fully paid up by funding alternate fuel and carbon sequestration research.

I am an Indian, and I have some news that I thought /. folks would already know, but somehow don't really pick up on. The salaries in India for folks at the top end of the market are equal or higher (after taxes) to the salaries you get paid as an Indian on a green card, and way higher than you get on an H1-B. In the last 6 or seven years, nearly all my friends who I consider top of the game in their respective fields; software, hardware R&D, banking, management consulting and senior corporate management; have all moved back to India.

For the salary that gets them a tiny flat in a crime ridden suburb of Jersey or LA, they can get a house, two cars with drivers, 3 servants; and get to stay near the kids grandparents so they can actually go out if they want to. Many of these people are US citizens already, or green card holders. Many folks actually let their green cards lapse because they are so sure they are not coming back.

The main reason Indians move out are today are 1) they can't beat the system in India and move up high enough or 2) they are so fed up of politics and bad infrastructure that they want to get away. The US is NOT the most common destination for these folks. People who want to emigrate for good have been moving to Canada, New Zeland and the Far East. Many moved to Dubai and other Middle East countries now that you can stay there for life. It's only a percentage of techies and senior management types who did move here to do their post grad work or earn MBA's. With the cost of college tuition going up, and chance of scholarships going down, that percentage is going to drop.

There are still 65,000 people apply for H1-B VISA's every year, I do agree. Out of a population of 1 billion, that's not a high percentage. Also, if you've spent the last 3 years slogging it out to finish college, you are out of the loop back in India, and the thought of competing with the huge numbers back home can be scary. So they put in an H1-B petition so they can avoid the competition. A backdoor start if you will. A very large percentage of these really don't want to live here for the rest of their lives (nor will be allowed to by their parents)

On a related note - I do agree with most posters here that a vast majority of Indian programmers who you get to work with suck. On behalf of my fellow Indians, I apologize for foisting these bozos on you. But you were suckers enough to pay for them and - Caveat Emptor and all that. You should really have been paying more attention during the interviews. There are some great programmers out there - and I consider myself one of them. When you buy in bulk, you are going to get some rotten fruit with the good stuff. Spend a little more time and shop around - and you can cherry pick the best. If you did not do that, or get your organization to do that - you will, unfortunately get ripped off. I, for one, always tip over the strawberry boxes to look at the bottom row that's hidden under the juicy ones. If you find a shop that never has ones with fungus and frost damage in the bottom row, let me know.