Donatella and Alain, I have a small nit to pick, as a former programmer who is an Ivy League graduate - and hopefully not dull. The Ivy League isn't the genesis of programmers who don't know the application (Gates dropped out). Nor is it really the home of techies. It is more likely that the simple and amateurish program that works will come from the Ivy Leaguer who is following his interests. The complex program from the massed team is likely from a squad of techies hired by an entrepreneur.
But I'm probably wrong, I'm out of date. And programming was far from my first occupation after graduation, there were no computers then. It was a late life occupation for survival. In my day a college degree wasn't like a trade school certificate, as it seems to be today. We had to know more to get into college than most need to graduate these days. OK, so I'm an unrepentant old snob and curmudgeon. But this is one area where I'm more attuned to Europe than to the US. The emphasis on almost universal college/university attendance in the US has merely made the secondary schools less responsible. Most current college graduates in the US would be hard pressed to match the education of a secondary school graduate in Europe or England (unless they have changed also). A fault in a system that has come to regard a college degree as a ticket to a job rather than a recognition of learning. And I mean learning rather than being taught. Learn how to learn, and to enjoy it, and to think critically about your reading, and you will learn for the rest of your life. Take your ticket and go, expecting admission to the world of the mind, and you will fall behind. Best, Jon (Former Investment Banker, Commercial Banker, Management Consultant, Ski Instructor, Furniture Mover, IBM Executive, Carpenter, Computer Programmer (at machine level), Folk Singer (before Dylan and Baez), Naval Officer (seagoing) and General All Around Sportsman <g> - also Princeton A.B. 1957 in Psychology, which I never practiced as it was B.S.). To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
