While the idea of education via Webex is a convenient modernism, it totally ignores the needs of individual students. If you were educating a flock of homogeneous sheep, this type of education would be fine. For humans, not so much. How would individuals ask questions and get interactive answers? "Your question is important to us - please stay on the line. There are approximately 4,238 questions in front of yours." Augmenting normal teaching is a good idea, where super teacher broadcasts are followed by informed, local discussions with knowledgeable teachers.

I already had an undergrad degree in writing before I got my CS degree, and enjoyed IT/sysadmin/sys-programmer work for years. However, I truly "found myself" by combining my CS/IT knowledge with writing about it. Most software companies "need" a writer (whether they know it or not), and being a techie is an asset across the board. Documenting software for end-users is often viewed as a non-critical effort, but customers seem to like it ;-) I've also ended up doing product management work for various companies due to my user/product focus - it's a great space to be in. Similarly, I've also written a bunch of nerd books on various topics as a sideline. Feel free to contact me oofline for more verbose info, and some xrefs.

When Comcast came out to install my cable modem/etc, they insisted that they only supported Windows, period. I build a Windows machine out of spare parts, installed Win2k, and then let them come out and do their thing. Much less hassle than arguing. When they left, I took everything apart and hooked the RJ45 out of the cable modem into a hub, and things have been fine ever since. I bought a newer cable modem at one point, and just had to call them and supply the new MAC address.