Computers are so good at the manipulation of symbols that we are all under pressure to reduce all human knowledge and experience to symbolic form.
IT? I’ve always used IT as a shorthand for “corporate information systems,” or “the stuff that a nerd wouldn’t voluntarily touch with a ten-foot pole”. ‘IT’ means ‘TPS reports.’ ‘IT’ means ‘9-to-5, Monday through Friday.’ I’m surprised that a pair of CS profs would lament the lack of “IT researchers and educators” — isn’t more CS researchers and educators what they want? If we’re to point fingers, it was corporate IT that sucked the ‘thrill’ out of computer science’s reputation among undergrads. (That, or Scott Adams. )If there’s anything truly opposed to the “hacker” philosophy that makes CS thrilling, it’s the reputation of corporate information technology.
Just because you’re a programmer doesn’t mean you have to be the help desk for a dozen friends, relatives, and the people in the apartment next door. Does it?
The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.
There is unexpected beauty hidden everywhere in this world — one just has to be open to seeing it. Remember that the next time you sneeze on your monitor.