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Even with LED bulbs being relatively efficient I see no point in leaving them turned on unnecessarily.

No reason for it, but there's the question of the cost of devices to automatically shut them off...

For your pantry/storage closet, I'd probably use an old $1 refrigerator door switch, or maybe a magnetic alarm switch like so:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU...

So yeah, Vermont Yankee going offline will change things, but we'll manage. Indeed, losing a source of subsidized power will create more opportunities for expansion of renewables.

And that is almost certainly the whole and entire real reason for opposition to the plant closing.

Remember, Green is the New Red.

Amazon charges for instances by the hours they're running and the type of instance. Think of an instance as a server, because that's what it is: an instance of a VM. You can find the prices for various services at http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/. What you want are EC2 pricing (for the VM instances) and EBS pricing (for the block storage for your disk volumes. For EC2 pricing figure out what size instances you need, then assume they'll be running 720 hours a month (30 days at 24 hours/day) and calculate the monthly cost. For EBS pricing take the number of gigabytes for each disk volume (each EC2 instance will need at least one volume for it's root filesystem) and multiply by the price (in dollars per gigabyte per month) to get your cost. You can manage instances the same way you would any other machine, other than usually needing to use SSH to get access and having to worry about firewalling (these are publicly-accessible machines, you can't shortcut on security by having them accessible only from within your own network).

The cost isn't actually too bad. For generic Linux, the largest general-purpose instance will, for a reserved instance on a 1-year commitment, cost you $987 up front and $59.04/month for runtime in the US West (Oregon) data center. An 8GB regular EBS volume will cost you $0.40/month for the space and $50/month for 1 billion IO requests. And not all instances need to be running all the time. You can, for instance, use on-demand instances for your testing systems and only start them when you're actually doing release testing, you'll need to pay for the EBS storage for their root volumes but you won't have any IO operations or run-time while the instance is stopped.

The downside, of course: if Amazon has an outage, you have an outage and you won't be able to do anything about it. This isn't as uncommon an occurrence as the sales guys would like you to believe. Your management has to accept this and agree that you guys aren't responsible for Amazon's outages or the first time an outage takes everything down it's going to be a horrible disaster for you. Note that some of the impact can be mitigated by having your servers hosted in different regions, but there's a cost impact from transferring data between regions. Availability zones... theoretically they let you mitigate problems, but it seems every time I hear of an AWS outage it's one where either the failure itself took out all the availability zones in the region or the outage was caused by a failure in the availability-zone failover process. This all isn't as major as it sounds, outages and failures happen running your own systems after all and you've dealt with that. It's more a matter of keeping your management in touch with the reality that, despite what the salescritters want everyone to believe, there is no magic AWS pixie dust that makes outages and failures just vanish into thin air.

The major advantage I see of having lighting controlled is to allow automatic management of such. Does a bare bone interface to turn on individual lights make sense? IMHO, NO. But with the right software and hardware managing lighting and other devices in a home is an essential step to reduce the bill.

That's nonsense... Motion-sensors and power-on timers have been around for a long time, they cost far, FAR less than these expensive bulbs, they don't need a computer program written and running around the clock, and they don't need to be replaced when the bulb eventually burns out.

What's more... LED bulbs are so power-frugal, that you'd literally have to accidentally leave a light turned-on for YEARS to pay off the up-front purchase cost of smarter equipment.

Back of the envelope figures for a 60-watt equivalent LED:

9.5watts * 24hrs * 365days / 1,000 * $0.11 = $9.15 per YEAR of power-on time.

That's right, with an LED in your porch light, it'll take YEARS to pay off the cost of a dusk-to-dawn sensor, versus just leaving it turned-on around-the-clock.

A motion-sensor is still a good investment in big rooms, where you're going to wire multiple bulbs to one sensor...

But for closets, bed rooms, bathrooms, dens, attics, etc.? You're better off just spending $3.40 up-front for a 30watt equivalent LED, and not bothering with anything more advanced than a light switch for it:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AN...

"As somebody who's going back to college, I'm really surprised to see how big the "ADD generation" is. They're everywhere, they can't focus, and they have a million ideas at once. I always thought the ADD craze you mentioned was bullshit too, but being around younger people I can see they are considerably different from the people I worked with back when I got my first degree. It really was a night and day difference when switching from being around thirty-somethings to twenty-somethings."

Explained in part: http://www.amazon.com/Supernor...
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
http://www.paulgraham.com/addi...

So, always on smartphones full of interesting content are just like sugar-laden donuts -- killing you with a seeming treadmill of pleasure that totally displaces other less-fun-or-pleasurable-in-the-short-term behaviors and nutrients needed for well-rounded health and success.

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte...

I completely agree with the sentiment that IP laws (laws in general!) should be much simpler. There's two problems with your argument, though. First, some areas of law are necessarily so complex that only a tiny fraction of lawyers and judges (let alone laypersons) are competent to handle them. I would not trust a constitutional law guru to handle corporate bankruptcy, nor a brilliant civil rights litigator to draft a patent on synthetic DNA.

Second and more importantly, there's nothing "select" about who can know and understand these laws. Anyone who wants to become well-versed in the vagaries of US IP laws can do any or all of the following:

1) Read the actual laws
2) Pick up a book that will aid you in understanding IP law (no quality guarantees there, I just googled "understanding IP law" and this is the first thing that popped up)
3) Go watch some YouTube videos that explain, for instance, design patent law or the concept of trade dress (again, no quality guarantees, just showing there's tons of content out there)
4) Go to law school and take some IP courses (I don't recommend this if all you want is a passing understanding of IP law)
5) Ask NYCL himself to explain the issue to you

Unlike some of the scientific content discussed here on /. (esp. things like QM and particle physics), IP laws are not particularly hard to grok for the average person—with a little effort and a helpful search engine. Stop me if I'm stabbing a scarecrow here, but I think you might be confusing "IP laws shouldn't be unreasonably complex" with "IP laws should be intuitive enough that people don't even have to look them up".

It's not cheaper to mass produce.

Err.. sorry? Last I knew, it was cheaper to turn on the tap than it was to open a bottle of Evian.

The materials cost the same.

Ah, no, not really. That's just not how it works in the real world. Go read up on Economies of Scale for some rather desparately needed 101-level learning on this topic.

Alternatively, you can convince us all by trotting down to your local supermarket and coming back with a single pound of beef - but at the level of quality and price that McDonalds pays for it.

http://articles.chicagotribune...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

So people are upset about the NSA spying on companies and a country that was willing to look the other way on some very questionable practices ?

A little reality check here. George Washington was one of our first spymasters,
  http://www.amazon.com/George-W...
And the value of intelligence information to our well being has not decreased one bit since the revolution.

No, not just games/graphics. Some of his books apply to all software

I thought this was called the Human Calendar.

It has been known for decades and the single book that is the bible in such things has been out forever now..

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-...

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie

She may have came up with a better presentation, but it's the exact same thing.

He is caught in the conservative frame, and your arguments will not reach him because his mindset cannot process them. I'm not saying (s)he is stupid, he just thinks differently. Conservative mindset is all about making sure it survives and gets bigger, and destroy everything that opposes it. Now Obama is the biggest problem they have, and making him the biggest problem of the country is one of their methods of getting power back. Want to know more? Read up on the strict father morale vs the "nurturant parent model", or read George Lakoff Don't think of an elephant about the (really effective and successful) conservative framing effort. For me it was a revalation to see how they work, and what their real goals are. (Posting AC because of mod points)

Carmack (the fact you can't spell him name right ames me dubious you understand his intent) said this on Twitter:

I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale.

If you want to understand what he means, read Ready Player One.

I'll recommend a tour guide in the form of John Bentley's Programming-Pearls-2nd-Edition.
His Programming Perls book does a nice job of putting interesting algorithms and design forces into context and helps the reader understand the pros & cons thereof. Part of the problem with just wandering around looking at things is you don't see the history and decisions that were made leading up to the result; understanding "what" isn't nearly as important as "why".

Also, the book isn't related the the Perl language; instead it uses Pearl as a metaphor for a small yet beautiful treasure.

Anyway, check out the Amazon reviews to see if it is worthwhile (I have no vested interest here; I just stumbled across this in a real book store some time ago and found it a satisfying read).

If you follow the principles and practices in Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship: Robert C. Martin you won't go far wrong. It also includes a worked through example of refactoring a piece of bad code into clean code.

There is an excellent book on this very topic. It goes into the history of American crankery, and explains how important it was, but that the situation is different now. Read it. It's funny, and sometimes rather disturbing.

Here's LAPD "community outreach": http://www.amazon.com/Daryl-F-Gates-Police-Quest-PC/dp/B000CQF5V6

They already have equal time - and place - it's called "church".

How about we amend the history curriculum to explain the well understood history of when, where, how and why the Abrahamic religions were made up?

https://archive.org/details/Wh...

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Wrot...

Gould may have used the default system to analyze it but Chaitin did not. He looked at it from the perspective of metabiology -- which ought to be neutral to any current politcized stance.

I consider interviewing to be similar to sales. You're selling yourself and you need to be able to effectively counter objections. It's a skill that very quickly becomes rusty.

One book I found helpful is the Adams Job Interview Almanac as it helps identify the reason why questions are asked.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Adam...

Doing so isn't easy and is a skill that must be practiced. In the current commercial for AT&T with the 4 women and 1 man professionals, would you be able to understand why each question is asked and be able to answer effectively?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

(The Soviets saw Star Wars as a complete joke.)

Not true. Gorbachev was scared shitless over SDI, and it was really the only big sticking point in negotiations that could have reduced nuclear weapon stockpiles far more drastically in the 1980s than what actually happened. The Soviets responded to the threat of SDI by ramping up production of ICBMs and nuclear warheads, on the theory that it would be cheaper to overwhelm SDI with ridiculous numbers of targets than to try to devise a technological countermeasure or to produce an SDI of their own.

For reference, I highly recommend this book.

Not a joke, and also not in the Creationist camp either, is Nagel => http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Cosmos-Materialist-Neo-Darwinian-Conception-ebook/dp/B008SQL6NS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395494879&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+nagel
One views with some amusement that the magnitude of Evolutionist dogmatism roughly equals that of the Evolutionists.
For the record, I'm kind of disinterested in the topic.

I bring a 12 volt battery camping, 35 amp hours with 4 cigarette plugs available (30amp fuse on the main, 10 amps for each plug) in a marine battery case. I can power phone chargers, a laptop (using a 12 volt power cord, pretty efficient), fans, a bug zapper, and even an electric blanket (4 amps per hour, but auto-off after 30 minutes so it's only a 2 amp draw). I also have a quality 800/1600 watt inverter which can power most things I may bring except power tools (works great for charging power tool batteries).

Yeah, it isn't hardcore camping, but I camp a lot (30+ nights per year), and with my kids (4 years old this year).

This is probably overkill for your use case (for most everyone). But, it wouldn't be difficult to setup a smaller battery in the 5 to 7 amp hour range (5 pounds of battery). It would be far more portable and more than enough to charge a couple of phones for a three day weekend.

You can also get a lightweight, foldable solar charger, here's one on Amazon with 2 USB ports for $70:
http://www.amazon.com/Foldable...

Just some ideas, there are plenty of ways to apply technology to power our technology when in remote locations. If only cell service was available everywhere...

Are you seriously trying to argue the merit of a film based on ticket sales? Or about which hole some character in the film likes to fuck?

You haven't a clue about the content or themes of "Frozen," "The Hunger Games" trilogy or "Gravity."

"The Art of Frozen," out of print, and in fine condition, sells at the rare book price of $100. The sheet music for "Frozen" is #49 in book sales at Amazon, #1 in all categories of music book sales at Amazon, Frozen: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

"Frozen" in 3D is #7 in DVD and Blu-Ray sales at Amazon.co.uk. Frozen [Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray] [Region Free]

3D, remember, is a video technology the geek fondly likes to think is defunct.

We are not talking about throwaways here --- we are talking products that a film's core audience consider an essential buy-in --- and it happens damn rarely on this scale.

The "merit" of the film isn't essential to my argument.

That a film released on Thanksgiving Day remains a top ten box office draw in the states past St. Patrick's Day is. That "Frozen" was successfully translated into at least 43 languages and a hit in every one of them means you have a product with a global reach and appeal.

That will have the producer of the AAA game or low-budget Indie sitting up and listening,

But if you insist on some measure of "quality," the Wikipedia lists some 59 wins and 94 nominations to date for "Frozen" in all categories. List of accolades received by Frozen (2013 film)

The second season is one of the best things ever done for television. As far as I know it's only available via Amazon DVD-R or their streaming service. http://www.amazon.com/Jeremiah... Highly recommended.

Depends on which "American" culture you're talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-A...

There is a profound difference between the upper middle class educated professional communities that many of us grew up in, and those communities populated by what used to be called "trailer trash."

If intelligence and academic achievement were not "cool" where you went to school, then you need to make sure that your kids grow up in a place where they are.

So are they going after Amazon?: http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM...

I'm afraid that's an apples and oranges example. Amazon resells multimeters, they do not have them branded with an Amazon logo in Amazon packaging (that I could find). Same as Home Depot and Lowes and Ace all resell multimeters that are yellow and gray.

In your example, the onus would be on Supco, who happens to be an American manufacturer, so once again, this argument is moot. The vast majority of the yellow bordered, gray faced multimeters are made in America. Not everything has to come from China, even though most of it does.

As such, Sparkfun, having their stuff made in China instead of the good 'ole USA, got caught in the crossfire of a trademark infringement through Customs. Had they had their stuff made here, they wouldn't have been out the $30k and wouldn't have gotten caught trying to import them. This is not to say they still couldn't have been sued by Fluke for trademark infringement, though I don't see enough resemblance between the models mentioned here for that to have flown.

This is simply people doing their jobs. For this particular order, on that particular day, they opened it up, punched in the description of the item into some computer and found it infringed on a trademark. Whether that trademark is too broad or not is immaterial to the situation, really.

This is a risk you take as an importer of products. For them to claim ignorance of this risk speaks volumes about their lack of understanding of the business they are in. Every importer understands there is a probability that some items may be held, and in some cases, refused and possibly destroyed, by customs. Anyone who has ever ordered anything from anywhere else in the world should know this is a risk... why didn't they?

I'd recommend reading these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-...

And understanding the Hollywood screenwriting and production process a bit better before blaming JMS for that. Plus, if you don't have a credit in the movie, you don't get residuals, and professionals get paid.

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

More greyish-and-yellowish multimeters no one would ever, ever confuse with a Fluke:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PDM... http://www.amazon.com/EXCEL-DT... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Wotefusi... http://www.amazon.com/eFashion... http://www.amazon.com/Digital-... http://www.amazon.com/Mibuka-6...
http://www.amazon.com/lucky-Pa...
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-...
http://www.amazon.com/602-270-...
http://www.amazon.com/DT9205M-...

But I've been on 3 interviews so far where showing your work merited a "sorry, that's not fast enough" with nary a discussion on thought process, coding style, etc. I even explained my thinking with the dataset and worst cases.

Basically there are some companies that suck and some that don't. Your job as a job-seeker is to find that ones that don't.

Also consider that you are not going to find a company that does the exact same thing you were doing before. You might end up at a company where you need to actually optimize stuff. So be open to the idea that different companies require different things.

Also, if O(n) is really giving you trouble, consider that you're not as good as you think you are and get yourself a book to improve your skill. O(n) vs O(n^2) is not hard so there's no reason not to know it. This book is a good one if you aren't sure where to start.

a near identical model shipped by amazon http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Transistor-Measurement-Digital-Multitester/dp/B00BG9IHYU

So are they going after Amazon?: http://www.amazon.com/Supco-DM...

That is not concealing enough, I suggest one of these: Auto darkening welding helmet

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...

Starting from the position of an "old skool" programmer and trying to learn all the new tricks at once is difficult. You're absolutely right about that. Don't let that discourage you though.

The reason it's difficult is because if you're trying to learn one of the common frameworks from your position, you're basically trying to learn a whole shedload of new things all at once. There's a ton of buzzwords and jargon that you'll need to work through, new concepts, and of course the conventions of the framework itself. It's too much to try to learn all that in one hit.

What you need (and what all the framework authors and tutorial authors seem to miss) is to take things a step at a time. You'll probably be able to get through things pretty quickly that way.

I'll assume you're familiar with OOP already. If not, that's where to start because most of the modern concepts that you're talking about hang off of having a structured object model. Make sure you have a grasp of the more advanced OOP concepts like inheritance, polymorphism and the like; they're all actually fairly simple concepts once you get past the jargon, but again key things to know before tackling the next bit.

Now you can start thinking about "Design Patterns". This is another topic where there's a lot of people spouting jargon in a way that makes it virtually impossible for the uninitiated to understand what they're talking about. The basic thing to know is that design patterns are just ways of writing software. They've all been around for a long time, and you're probably using a lot of them already without even thinking about it just because they're the obvious way to achieve things. They key thing to know is that in the mid-90s, a book was published which described the common patterns, and gave them names. These names have become the standard ways of referring to them, so you'll find people talking about Factories, Adaptors and Singletons and expecting you to know what they mean. You may want to consider getting a copy of that book.

Next thing to learn about is a concept called MVC. Where design patterns describe ways of writing individual classes or linking them together, MVC is about the architecture of your entire application. Virtually all the common frameworks these days use an MVC architecture, so you really do need to know what this is before you'll get anywhere with a framework. MVC divides your code into business logic ('Models'), user interface ('Views') and code to manage the interface between them ('Controllers'). As with design patterns, the basic concept of keeping your business logic separate from your user interface has been good practice for decades, but has been formalised with concepts like MVC.

Those are the core things you need to know. Additional concepts (you mentioned DRY in the question) will show up along the way as well but you can pick them up as you go.

Also, human hunting local predators (for food, for resources or for safety) might have detabilised exiting prey-predator balances, ultimately eliminating ecological niches for the moas. This is called the second order predation hypothesis and it seems to fit quite well for the megafauna extinction of prehistoric times, which may have some similar caracteristics to the moa extinction.