I would go back and just watch the dinosaurs live. People have speculated that the T-Rex was about as intelligent as a cat. Did it play with its prey as a cat does? Did it train it young to hunt? Inquiring minds want to know.

My wife tried with our rescue cat who was a few years old, and it was an unsuccessful, traumatic experience for the cat. I suggest trying it only with a kitten. I understand that a large water bill is a potential side effect. Cats a keenly interested in the flushing water, so if you teach your cat to flush, watch out!

That sounds like a Thought of the Day.

I would understand if you said that you two got to first base or second base, but where does moon base fit in? Is it after home run?

My first computer was the Sinclair ZX81 which had 1K of RAM. I was ecstatic when the 16 expansion module came out, because I could do my inventory with it. My next was the C64, an incredible bargain considering what it could do. I learned both C and assembly with that PC. My next PC was the Amiga 1000, and after that, I had learned enough to change careers and program professionally. I still have all three computers.

That's my kind of joke. Unfortunately, my French wife never gets that one.

Unlike the rest of you, I truly am a dinosaur, in the process of becoming extinct. I got tired of spending my evenings and weekends learning a new language and framework every couple of years, and transitioned into testing. Sometimes, I miss the fun of coding floating point routines in assembly because the C code would not fit in our devices. I don't miss learning that half of our Java framework's routines did not actually work. But mostly, I enjoy my evenings with my wife at the end of a testing day. I am looking forward to retirement in a few months, and maybe I'll start programming for fun again.

Clifford Nelson wrote:

The problem with the IQ test in the past has been that it was designed to be somewhat accurate for WASP.

I have seen that statement for more than 40 years. The reason that I doubt that statement is that no one has yet devised a test that WASPs do worse at than others.

Nick

I concur. I notified my boss about trying for a position last year year, but the position fell through due to cut-backs. However, this year, a similar position opened up in our department, and my boss notified me about it today. He indicated that if I was going to leave his team, he would rather that I still be in the same department so that he could access my experience. I would not have known about the position were it not for him.

My first computer also was a ZX81. I just read the Basic manual and started programming. I remember how excited I was when the 16K expansion module came out! (I used a large rubber band to keep the connection secure.) I was manager of an optical store back then, and wrote an inventory program and printed the results on the Sinclair's tiny thermal printer. I also remember the BBS calls using the 300 baud modem, where the output was so slow that you could read everything in real time. Good times, good times...