Are you a real programmer ?

[David Makin]

The premise here is that only real programmers spend more on a single computer than on a single car.

So what's your programming strength i.e. cost of latest computer/cost of latest car ?

Mine's currently 4.5

*but* when I got my first windows PC (a bl**dy awful AJP import) which was a W95A P66 laptop with all accesories including docking station and extra hard drive, external keyboard, mouse etc. it cost a cool £3000 and the car I had then was about £500 so that gives.....

My highest:  6

To be honest if I could afford it then the ratio would be astronomical since I don't believe anything for simply travelling from a to b overland is worth more than £1000 in today's money but I'd happily spend trillions on computer power if I had the money

Edit: Of course given rediculously large funds I'd actually spend it on setting up the ultimate software research and development studios

[KRAFTWERK]

You do not have to be a programmer to have ratios like that...

[panzerboy]

I refute your premise. Real programmers program arduino's and build robot armies. 
The story of the original "Real Programmer" (the story of Mel) can be found here http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/mel.html
To answer your question my real programmer ratio is .27

[hobold]

What price do I plug into the formula if I never owned car? Using my most expensive bicycle as a reference, and the most expensive computer purchase (including accessories and a display device), I end up somewhere near 12.5 ...

[makc]

What price do I plug into the formula if I never owned car?

0? places your ratio at positive infinity.

[Sockratease]

What price do I plug into the formula if I never owned car?

0? places your ratio at positive infinity.

Or Undefined.

[matrixfighter]

What about those, who have computer - still no car... Then I am bloody good programmer my programming strength tends ot inifnity.

P.S. Hope, not negative 

[A Noniem]

What about those, who have computer - still no car... Then I am bloody good programmer my programming strength tends ot inifnity.

P.S. Hope, not negative 

Divide by zero exceptions. Exceptions are hardly ever a good thing when programming (generally means your application crashes if you leave it unattended and in this particular case it is not defined), so I'd buy a car if I were you.

[David Makin]

I guess we could simply adapt the original formula and use (1+cost of computer)/(1+cost of car) which is the usual type of trick used in many colouring algorithms - and of course gives 1 if you have neither computer nor car
My last car got written off after a blowout causing collapsed suspension (driver's side front) so I had to get a new (old) car, cost £550, so my ratio using the new method is now:

4501/551 = 8.17

Although admittedly that's ignoring any minor repairs necessary on the new car (e.g. am waiting for new fuel gauge as it currently just registers as empty).

[Xazo-Tak]

Hmm, what about computer prices varying? Custom built computers are quite cheap to make and give a lot of power. Btw, do you think it would be safe to overclock my CPU if I have an overpowered cooling system? (Computer temperature is never higher than "cold metal")