"The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn and headed for a series of close encounters with Titan, the planet's largest moon, also appears aimed for an extended stay at the ringed planet, the mission's chief says. "

When I was a kid, I really wanted to be an astronaut.  No, really.

On my 18th birthday, I applied to the Air Force with dreams of becoming a crack pilot, which at that time was the best way to get into the space program as a flying crash-test-dummy.  Imagine my disappointment when I was informed that a) I was too tall and b) color-blind people need not apply.  Would I like a nice position in the USAF as ground crew for runway maintenance?

So I turned to computers.  Was one of the first kids in my town to have unfettered access to PDP-11 workstations at the local university.  I wrote programs that used composition rules to churn out really sick sounding computer generated music.  Vector analysis algorithms to solve stress versus force problems for my physics class.  You get the idea.  Never did get around to obtaining a CS degree (which hurt me later in corporate life).  But experience does count, and while turning a great hobby in computers into a full time career in computer security ruined a good hobby, it's been a rewarding career. 

More later . . ..