I've been out of university for a little less than three years. We didn't study a lot about hardware, but we did have an opportunity to build an 8-bit machine from logic gates. We touched on assembly briefly, but that was very limited. I'd say we got a brief introduction at best to low-level concepts. Not enough to be any sort of expert, but enough to generate interest in them, if one wanted to pursue them further.

I'm glad someone mentioned that. How many songs can you still sing every word, even though you haven't heard the song for probably a decade or two? The old NFB stuff is fantastic!

Oh, come on now. Who doesn't LOVE to work with Crystal? :rolleyes:

Code Complete is absolutely outstanding! Very good choice. I'll be looking at some of the other books that are recommended here, too.

And those of us who get a 10 year old piece of software dropped in our lap with almost no comments appreciate your efforts! I've had an awfully frustrating time the last couple of months tracing through reams of code for hours just to figure out what is happening. One of the most common phrases to come out of my mouth is, "What on Earth were they thinking?" :omg: I'm with you, John. I hope that the legacy I leave behind for the next person is one of less frustration than I've had. :cool:

code-frog wrote:

Well it's a balmy 23 degrees F here and that's what I call butt-freezing cold. If we went for a swim it would likely be our last.

Sounds positively tropical! I just drove to work in -34 Celsius (that's -51 with the wind). All told, that's equivalent to minus 60 in Farenheit. Yuck! Still, I'll take bitter cold and no sick kids, any day. I've been through my fair share of that, and I wish you the best of luck.

You definitely did the right thing by turning them down. To ask someone to do that on a professional level is far past any type of ethical boundaries I could possibly imagine. The moral arguments on piracy notwithstanding, the way this was requested of you kinda makes my stomach turn. Then when I see that others have been in similar situations, I just shudder. The idealist in me says that if piracy is going to happen, it should be tucked away in someone's cold, dark basement, away from the mainstream. It's a shame we don't live in that world. If you can't get any legal action against the requestor, I think he/she at least deserves a flaming bag of poop on the doorstep. :D I wish you luck. And for the record, I support your "crusade".