I get really defensive about coding, and having a passion for it. I want to go all Manowar saying "Love Heavy Metal or GTFO". Except with coding. The problem, of course, is the Golden Handcuffs as you mention. Don't even look at other jobs. If you don't like coding there's something wrong with you, but thankfully if you've worked as a "career programmer" and haven't been fired then you've never really coded before. Most people hire coders as a sort of cannon fodder, or labourers. But they're not. Do yourself a favour, and do a Ludum Dare one time, or an ICFP, or something similar. It completely wastes your weekend but at the end you'll know whether you like this or not. Hint: The answer is yes. Because coding is freaking sweet. And if you disagree after that weekend then something something Vikings! MEEETALLLLLL!!!! \m/

We have 3TB hard drives nowadays. The question isn't why compress with FLAC, it's "Why not?" I use FLAC for all my rips on the PC, but then transcode to Ogg when I copy to my mobile. Banshee and Rhythmbox both make this entirely transparent. I just needed to set a setting however many years ago. Surely everything does this.