We did trees and sorts and crap like that.

Yeah, I did a lot of that in college as well and then hardly ever had to do it since typically there's a library call that'll do it for me. Code I don't have to maintain.

One funny thing I've noticed with probing the job market around here. It's very hard for me to make recruiters (or relatives and friends for that matter) understand I don't work in an IT department, I work for a company that sells software. I've done work on software that sat on a shelf in Best Buy (not anymore though, different company).

mr. flea is an engineer who does a lot of (specialized) programming and worked as a software developer (for specialized software) for 2 years. I think he learned Fortan and C in college (grad. 1993), but since I've known him has self-taught C++ and Java.

Working in industry was really good for him in terms of skills and best practices. When he went back to academia, he was shocked that some people writing MScEs were using an excel spreadsheet to do some programming functions, and he pitched a number of fits about the inability of people he worked with to consistently use a version management thing he set up for them.

he pitched a number of fits about the inability of people he worked with to consistently use a version management thing he set up for them

Not using source code control? Yeah I don't blame him, that way lies madness.

I used to worry about my marketability in the job market, but with the current economy I'm not planning on looking for another job unless I have to. My fear is that currently there'd be a billion better qualified applicants for any job I'd consider applying for. OTOH, I do have 15+ years of programming experience....

The thing that scares me a bit about the current economy is how specific the experience requirements get. Candidate must have 5+ years of experience using this CASE software on this specific platform with this specific language in this specific industry.

From Apple Insider:

AppleInsider reports that it has received information that Apple is planning an enhancement to its next-generation MacBook Pros that will allow for automatic switching between integrated and discrete graphics processors based on whichever is the more optimal technology (power consumption vs. performance) at any given time.

That's funny - I just assumed that my MacBook Pro did that, and was disappointed to discover it wasn't true and that I had to quit all applications and manually make the switch....

Apple Planning Smoother Transitions Between Graphics Processors in Upcoming MacBook Pros?

In other words, they are going to use NVIDIA discrete cards.

Here's the info on how it works:

[link]

From Slashdot:

"The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday granted Google the authority to buy and sell energy on a wholesale basis.

As one commenter said, welcome to Google Earth.

IORandomN, I am amazed you can't do a recursive 'find' in DOS. Time to download cygwin....