I started at about 6, on a ZX81 - later a C64. My brother taught me the basics (he was about 16) The thing that got me hooked may have been interacting with a command line interface, although I remember being very excited about typing a few lines of code and making the computer do what I wanted it to. I've found over the years that I enjoy programming less due to the level of abstraction between myself and the hardware. Compiling down to IL etc puts me off :-)

I don't think that would work. Surely an outer join is necessary? Something like this:

SELECT A.*, B.* --please, replace with the fields you really need...
FROM A
FULL OUTER JOIN B
ON A.A = B.A AND WHERE A.A IS NULL OR B.A IS NULL

Oh man... drinking + coding = frustrating. The only thing worse is coding while goofed. I can never remember what I was trying to build.

For me, the most comfortable way to sit while coding is with my left leg on the table... ...unfortunately I can't do this while on-site: attracts too much attention It is exceptionally comfortable though, as my entire right arm is on the table too - kinda like having your elbow out the window while driving.

Some of my favourite harmless ones: - Sticker over mouse laser (or remove battery from wireless mouse) - Change keyboard layout in regional settings - E-mail confession of undying love to coworker, victim usually only realises the plot when they receive a rejection letter. hehe - Wallpaper screenshot, as mentioned earlier - Mouse settings - (Clicklock keeps them busy for a while) - Accessibility settings on windows login (this is not really fair, the victim DID lock their workstation) - Swap laptop locks between desks, works especially well in a large open-plan office

Why not just build your own ORM using generics (and reflection, if you don't mind the slight performance impact)? Then you can adjust it to your performance/usability needs. (And you can fix any bugs that may pop up, instead of relying on somebody else) I wrote my own ORM a few years ago, when .NET 2.0 came out, and I'm still using it. Offhand, I'd be surprised if it's more than 500 lines of code. 2c [edit] - Ok, it's 2619 lines of code

"Look what you DID! I can't BELIEVE what you did!" - Henry Jones (Senior)

This is an excerpt from some sample code provided in the documentation for an EFT interface

decimal divider;
// we need 10^18, but Math.Pow does not support decimal
// types and decimal does not provide a power function
divider = 10*10*10;
divider = Decimal.Multiply(divider,10*10*10*10*10);
divider = Decimal.Multiply(divider,10*10*10*10*10);
divider = Decimal.Multiply(divider,10*10*10*10*10);

Blows my mind :-)

How about making the rendering engine simulate a 4D (or 11D) space-time continuum instead of a traditional 3D world? Then the artifacts would be quite realistic. Not sure anyone has managed this yet tho.