It is interesting how many people in computer science in my class also studied design or film or music or some similar thing. Being "arty" and in the programming field is very common, though I guess few people realise it, especially outside of the field. And the graphics classes are always the biggest and most eagerly anticipated, I don't think just because it is trendy. And even if it is trendy, why would it be so if not because people have an interest in graphics, pictures, animation and arts? "Because I want to" is for some reason not a reason most people assume. And when people ask why one is NOT doing a particular thing, "Because I don't want to" is equally surprising to them!

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

Interesting if women are discouraged from entering into programming. Programming was originally a bit of a drudge job, considered low-paid monkey work (and thus clearly suitable for women) - according to a female programmer a lot older than I who started out "back in the day", and the majority of people being trained up for the jobs were women when she started. I believe she applied for the job training in the same way a young woman now might sign up to get a certificate in how to make coffee or serve customers and earn minimum wage. I'm nowhere near as clever as the woman in your story, but I do also want to be a fashion design or clothing industry kind of person. Of course, instead of being discouraged from doing technical or "boys" things, I was encouraged in those directions because I was good at them, which is fair enough and I enjoy them too, but I always felt (I was shy and timid too) too scared to even WANT to do artistic things, let alone actually do them. People at school did not seem terribly interested in encouraging a career in creative things, and I felt, and still feel, guilty for being interested in things that "smart" people don't do*. Smart people don't go to fashion school (actually, I am finding that that is mostly true ;P) and if I say to the fashion students I am a programmer they say "what are you doing here then?". Ummm, duh, "what are you doing here? I'm here because I want to be." When I did photography in my last year of school, people said "oh, it's good to do something different". That seemed wrong to me. I wasn't doing it because it was different, but because I wanted to. Other people apparently did arts because they were good at it and enjoyed it; but I must have been doing it because I "needed a break" from all that maths and physics.:doh: I seriously felt like some kind of alien. *I am doing a few fashion courses part-time :) P.S. I've never seen women be discouraged from entering technical fields; I guess I am lucky.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I can never remember how old I am. I stopped being able to remember when I turned 18. And my SO is permanently 34 in my mind, so I can never remember how old he really is either. Classic conversation there though :D "How old do you think you are RIGHT NOW?" :laugh:

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I did both of the "write a simple calculator" labs in one go, and he wouldn't mark the first lab until I had changed it back so it ONLY did the stuff that was required for the first lab. Note that the second lab only required adding functionality so all of the previous labs stuff was still there and working. I am almost paralysed by the stupidity of that. And he used to call the STUDENTS stupid. I'm not sure how he became and remained employed as a tutor. I think you're right in your comment. This is not an isolated experience, nor is it confined to such simple examples but can be applied more broadly. Two more examples - when I was 5 or 6 I was told off for reading the school journals (little books of reading materials for the kids) above my level and I had to read them in secret. One teacher at my intermediate school said she did not think I should be advanced a class "because my hand-writing was not good enough". Ha, who's laughing now, hmmm? Am I hand-writing anything? No. Typing. And when did you last see hand-writing you could actually read anyway? Apart from that one person who takes 5 times as long as everyone else to write something down because they are so precise, never. :laugh: I'm thinking of more...must stop...

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

My husband is into his cooking knives, although I do most (all) of the cooking. When we moved into our house, that's what we absolutely had to buy straight away - expensive knives, particularly the type in one piece blade to handle. I was mostly impressed because he got them 25% off. For some reason the sales lady decided that since the boxes for them were broken we should get a discount. Sure... who keeps their kitchen knives in boxes? Man, those knives are good. They make cutting and thus cooking so much easier it is amazing. Trying them after only using stinking normal knives, the experience is just amazing.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I don't know what it is like with other jobs, but I agree that in the case of programmers, they often give extra value by "thinking on the side". Even if they don't actually program out of work hours (like I don't) then they will be thinking about the problem. Programming obviously involves a lot of thinking, so this thinking is very valuable. And it doesn't even seem like work since you can do it while walking, exercising, showering, whatever! That "what toys did you play with" question is awesome :-D

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

Yeah, everyone wants experience around here, but they seldom ever want to pay for the experience they want. I am actually only one year into my job, which I started one year after doing mostly nothing for a year after graduating. However, my husband is also a programmer and has been for at least 10 years, so I get to hear a lot about his office and staff ;) There are a lot of small companies here, and not a lot of experienced programmers, and a university with a comp sci department, so there are probably better opportunities for graduates because people know they are available and what they can do (as everyone already working is also from the same uni) - and no one has much money so they want to hire graduates because they are cheap! It is harder for an experienced programmer to get a job here that will pay anything like what they would already be getting (which is how the "bad" companies keep (most) of their staff).

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

My husband - however, good idea. Books are quite expensive as well so we seldom buy them new - thus a good gift. I'll keep an ear out for what he wants :)

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

The fairly brilliant guy I know is working for a start-up gaming company started by a friend of his. In first year uni, we had a Java lab where the point was "using buttons". We basically had to put a button on a form and make it do something when clicked. Pretty retarded purpose to spend 3 hours on. Anyway, he didn't like the buttons in Java because they lacked customisability and exciting functionality - so what do you do? You write your own buttons of course. Pretty cool for a beginners level programming course. (He had experience in BASIC, as most of us with any programming experience did, but I believe that's all) Of course the tutor wouldn't mark his program and made him do it again using the proper buttons. That guy (the tutor) was a bit of a .

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

It sounds like if your wife does actually give you the radio system you'll actually have nothing to do - a time-consuming hobby will be ripped away from you just like that! But maybe after you get one you could start hinting about knives :D I'd like to say my knife IS really cool. One of the other cool things about it is that the blade is a recycled crow bar! How cool is that. I can't remember if I said it was a Japanese knife or not, but it is, with a single peg going through the handle and the tang to hold the blade in. The guy who made it before enjoyed making it too I think because he had never made one like it before, in that style. Although non-standard gift-giving might not ACTUALLY be a sign of guts and security ;), it sort of seems that way to me. It was the best way I could explain the subtle aspect that wasn't the "oh look, he knows me" aspect. :-) re. the SCA, my husband now feels he is too old to do all that wet, cold, muddy lying around in fields after "dying" in a mock-battle kind of stuff. Plus there's computer games to play! But yes, we have a general interest in that direction.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

"I have found and heard a few cases..." This doesn't read correctly. It is supposed to be a combination of "I have found that..." and "I have heard of a few cases....". A mixture of people I know and people who are known by people I know.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

oh well - all depends I suppose. I have found and heard a few cases where people are too busy talking about the way they do things and the things they have done, rather than doing things to fit in with the way everyone else does things. And they want to continue doing it their way, regardless. Whereas a graduate doesn't even have a way to do things yet, so you can give them one :) Plus, the people I know were more terrified when they got their first programming job than thinking they know everything. Some great people I knew at uni probably WOULD have a problem with customers and timeframes because they just program all the time and creatively and they really DO know a massive amount - and you can't let anything, like eating, or customers, get in the way of programming the thing, whatever the thing is. True hackers. Of course, if you can control them and get them to work on their work, then they will be brilliant and you'll get a lot of random extra contribution besides.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I don't think these tips apply to my husband :( To start with, I'm more likely to want tools or things to drink than he. Electronics are generally pricey and thus go into the "we agree to buy this thing" category. He doesn't like any kind of clutter. It's difficult to find purely useful things that don't make a mess that are suitable for a gift. More advice please. ;)

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

Could you write something about giving gifts to men? I never know what to give because they never seem to want anything. When I finish it, the next gift for my husband is going to be a quilted jacket for wearing under chainmaille, medieval style... That's a good one I reckon :D Unfortunately he had to leave the chainmaille he made in Australia and then his parents chucked it away. (The agony just thinking about it going to waste - couldn't they have give it away or something?!!) The first birthday gift he gave me was a Japanese style knife he got made near here, wrapped in a rainbow coloured silk scarf, with a leather sheath he made himself, all in a carved wooden box. Pretty cool, but not on the cheap side. He looked all over for the right parts though, and went out to the knife-makers house on the peninsula a couple of times to do it too. Normally a man will not give his relatively new girlfriend a knife, so it shows that he knows me, which is important and very nice, similar to your "basket of mangoes" example but more expensive and less obscure ;) A special, odd gift also shows that you've got guts in a way, because you are not just going with some standard cliche or anything. You're taking a chance to do something special, and it doesn't just show that you know the woman well, but also that you're secure in yourself and the relationship. Of course, you can't do something special EVERY time, or most people can't, and sometimes you just go with what you can find, but that's ok.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I think it is worth finding someone who can learn, then it doesn't really matter if they have experience. Even if someone has experience, if it takes them ten years to learn a new concept, that is not useful. Plus - if you get graduates they will not be "stuck in their ways" and they will (hopefully) not think they actually know anything, so they will be easier to integrate into you companies ideal work strategies and methodologies. I know you didn't really ask WHETHER you should hire graduates, but I think the "suitability for brainwashing" is so seldom brought up normally that I thought I should ;)

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

well, here are some recent examples I know for sure. Some books I wanted are $75 to buy in NZ, but $48 including shipping from Amazon (shipping about $15-$20). Another thing (a self healing cutting mat of a particular size) is $55 in the US (bank conversion from USD->NZ) and is $125 to buy it here. A rotary cutter to go with the mat is $30 (bank conversion) and $75 here. So between 2 and 3 times if you use the conversion rate. But even 2 years ago I bought a McFarlane model (of The Creech!) - $20 NZD for creech, $30 NZD for the postage - the man in the US I bought it from thought I was crazy to pay more more than the item in postage - but it was $140 to buy it in NZ!! It wasn't even second hand - brand new in a perfect box. Everything is expensive here because we make little and thus have to import it from miles away. I do a lot of craft and sewing things and people in the USA will say, oh, use this, it is only xx dollars. Which seems fine, but it is two, three, in some cases up to five times more expensive here, and the cost is prohibitive. This applies to hardware store type supplies, sewing, quilting, reading, hobbies, whatever. I can only assume food or rent or something is cheaper.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

If one is in NZ, now is the best time to buy almost anything, so long as one can get it from the USA. Even including shipping (which might be up to or more than the cost of the item itself) it is significantly cheaper to get books, and as you say, geeky game supplies, from the US. Other things I've bought recently (sewing and craft tools) in NZ I've bought in online auctions here from people who must be importing from the US because they are a third of the price they are retail here and only slightly more than what they would cost in the USA. None of the prices in NZ have adjusted due to the relatively low US$ so it is even more painful to look at how cheap stuff is over there than it ever was.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

pffft. That's crazy talk! :laugh: Sometimes, it seems that some people just can't get their head around the difference between their computer and Microsoft Office, or between their web browser and the internet, let alone other concepts. But I also think that once those people go away and think about it, you know that kind of thinking in idle moments where stuff just runs through your head, then they might get it. It is too much to take in at the time one is talking to them.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

I think you over-estimate the ability of the average Windows user by a great deal. My experience is that most windows users can open their web browser - if it's in exactly the same place as last time. Anything beyond that quickly becomes increasingly unlikely. On the other hand, it is surprising what a completely clueless person can learn to do if it lets them get around security and policy restrictions.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams

Never heard of them. I have hot chocolate that when you add hot water to the powder it makes it frothy on top and you can get coffees that are similar, but I don't drink coffee unless it is made from real coffee, not stuff you add hot water to so I don't know how that is. All the frothy drinks are either called something-cino or something-latte. My hot chocolate is chocolatte, but with an accent over the 'e' there. It's a bit pathetic. I can't see that you'd need to microwave any of it because if you have a microwave, you probably have a jug and some water.

"Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails." - Scott Adams