...(and by "embedded systems", I don't mean Micros~1's bastardized version of the term, either. I mean real-time, event-driven systems embedded into lab tools, medical equipment, vending machines, you name it.

I don't do IT.

(Yeah, I do do Windows apps when I need to. Fortunately, I don't need to very often. With any kind of luck, I can avoid .Nyet, by sticking to embedded, and (soon) Linux app development. I've spent the last year-and-a-half doing QNX development, so I'm on my way...)

Does that make me an "ivory-tower intellectual"? Dunno...probably not. It does, however tend to isolate me from those who are completely devoid of knowledge about basic computer concepts (except, of course, for my PHB-manager types, whom I can never seem to avoid no matter what I do...).