Looks like the least I can get away with is about a $600 machine. A second-gen i3 and 8GB of RAM should do, but I might as well go i5. In the grand scheme of things, it's a heck of a lot less than taking the training courses. So I guess I shouldn't complain.
ron
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a haiku...
NULL is not zero
NULL is not an empty string
NULL is the unknown