No sleight taken, just a little friendly banter

And I'm not trying to be snobbish about the mechanic vs. tech thing, To me a tech is the next step/evolution of mechanic work. I drive what I work on for a living (as do the rest of the techs at the shop - I've got a 300E, a BMW 528i, BMW 325e, a VW cabby, and an Audi A4). I spend time in the evenings and on the weekends in training, going to training classes, digging up info in manuals, and participating in discussion on paid tech websites. Working on these cars for a living is more of a lifestyle (and mental illness) than a career choice.

As a computer guy, you will find this interesting. The latest BMW factory diagnostic program (ISTA) assigns each car an IP address and works through an ethernet port on the car. A scan involves downloading ALL of the cars coding as a file structure and then loading all of it back up after fixing the car.