how dare they!

Women have a duality about them, a wave (sex object) and particle (higher intelligence) duality. You must learn to see them as both. And always remember that physics solves everything.

The solution is clear to me. I would stop using XML.

That extra level of seperation would add no security benefits, so would be unnecessary.

I see no advantage to having the the X Server running as an "xserver" user versus running as a regular user. If there isn't an advantage, then its an unnecessary complication.

local and remote would work better for the computers

It is surprising how quickly acedia becomes wrath at the pride of those who don't think depression is a mental illness.

I think he means companies that "live by free" are ones that give content or a service away for free and attach advertising to it.

The original goal is to develop an excellent system based on linux, GNU software, and other free software. If all of your .NET developers jump to Windows, you are failing (to the extent that your systems use .NET). I guess you could call that a religion, but I think calling it a philosophy would be more accurate. Honestly, if you don't see the importance of that goal, why are you even posting in this thread?

$1 million plz

Or maybe putting down software engineering in regards to "real" engineering is the sort of feel-good certificate-of-achievement bullshit the OP was opposing.

The OP said periodicity of the pendulum rather than its motion. So I'd guess that would be how fast the sine wave decays.

I'd say engineering is building something and science is determining how something works. Is that too simplistic?

I was with you up till the last paragraph. Government jobs are good. They are a necessary evil that keeps society functioning smoothly. Without society functioning smoothly, things would cost more. I guess the key determination is what keeps society functioning smoothly.

And I don't think there is such a thing as a wealth generator, otherwise I would have built it!

And that whole "businesses generate wealth that feeds back in the economy" sounds like trickle down economics.

I assume by "seasoned" programmers, you mean ones that are entrenched at their current company. If so, then you must realize that they are there, because they are making more money then they deserve. They will mostly try to discredit their fellow employees in everything they do. Because, a discredited peer is one that won't be stealing their raise. You will be hearing lots of phrases with "since the beginning" and "experience" in them.

What you must do is to show no favor to one or the other. That way they will continue fight for a competitive advantage for review time. I'd also advise bringing in some extremely young programmer and sing his or her praises. Call the young programmer "hotshot" and "guru". There is nothing more that they will hate than this programmer. You can use this hate to blackmail them into working more. You may be able to even get them to do some overtime.