Yes, I was there in April for ROFLCON -- same old horribly uncomfortable wooden chairs. I didn't get much sleeping done in there back in the day. :(

That's why you had to close your eyes.

Where else are kids gonna be able to take a good mid-afternoon nap? The seats in 10-250 were so comfortable. And in these smaller classes, everyone can see you fall asleep.

Wow, we had some elaborate story we'd tell about Dolly Parton coming into some accident, and each step of the story had a number you'd have to enter, and at the very end of the story you'd get 55378008. Wish I remembered it.

This is absolutely true. C is absolutely essential to learn, but you'd do well to learn the basics of C++ as well. I've been a *NIX developer for 13 years (oh my god has it really been that long) and I've done almost exclusively C++. If you want to be employable you need to learn it. Any large-scale, multi-developer projects WILL be using it. That being said, it is such a complicated language as many posters have already pointed out. You will spend the rest of your career developing your skills in it. Here is a great set of books to get you started: http://www.amazon.com/C-Depth-Boxed-Set/dp/0201775816/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228660512&sr=1-4

Whenever I think about the prospect of the end of civilization, via a plague or climate change or what have you (and I agree, the population has increased too rapidly for the Earth to support -- something has to break), I'm always a bit torn. On the one hand, as many other posters have said, "Good riddance." There are too many people, who cares if they go away? On the other hand, think about how terrible it would be if you or someone you loved were affected -- either your whole way of life changes, or you suffer terribly before you die. Either way it's no fun. So, not having RTFA, I'd rather see someone look at mitigating the effects for individuals rather than trying to prevent some cataclysmic occurrence. Or maybe just happy drugs -- or euthanasia drugs -- for everybody.