I had been shinning my father's shoes for months to save for my first computer. I also picked weeds growing in the yard around our house for 5 cents each; but I was only paid if the root of the nasty weed was more than 2 inches in length; yes, my father, the engineer, would measure! Those chores coupled with a newspaper route and other odd jobs finally made it possible for me to buy my first micro-computer, a TRS-80 in all its 4K of RAM glory! Little did I know, at the tender age of 13, I would be condemning myself to a lifetime sentence of computer programming. As I write this, I am now in my mid 50's, having earned a couple of degrees and a pile of accreditation's in a multitude of languages and platforms mastered… and forgotten. I have worn many hats and badges - as a help desk operator, computer operator, programmer, systems analyst, systems manager, database administrator, instructor, and even the trendy "web developer"; but whatever hat or badge you cur