Wow, seems I inadvertently started an EE vs. CS war of the engineers... Haven't had anything like that since the days in college :))

But I am in an unique position to comment since I have a Bachelor's degree in Instrumentation & Control(could I *be* more EE?) and am currently working in a proper CS job...
alongside mechanical and electronics + telecom enggs. That too providing Business Solutions using Microsoft technologies, Oracle and Java. How many CS graduates would you find doing an EE ( or for that matter any non-CS)job ??

I consciously chose Control Engg over the more popular Comp Engg becasue my crib is, Any 1 can learn software outside a college (books, internet, tuition) , but u cant learn EE stuff anywhere but college. In fact our syllabus included such CS topics like C/C++, OS, COM, DCOM, Data Flow Concepts, Parallel Processing
Real Time Operating Systems, Computer communication, Data compression techniques, Multimedia system,(Relational) Data Base Management Systems...phew!!... How many CS people can handle problems like Servomotor Control of a mechanism or Signal Conditioning design?

While CS is highly interesting, it is just a bit too abstract. The detachment from the physical "Real" world allows the possibilites of CS to be limited only by one's imagination... but this very same thing keeps CS people from being good *engineers*. They are more like Scientists in some aspects.

The good (or bad, depending on ur view) thing about a CS job is that you have to learn a LOT about the topic you are working for, be it business or technology. I have learnt things about a particular area of Business in 4 months of work that I couldn't have from books. And you have to learn every damn new technology that comes up (C# and .net nowadays ainnit?)

And Conrtol Engineers are the best, cos besides Electrical, Electronic, Computers, we study (and often need to work on) fundamental topics in other diverse branches like Chemical and Mechanical.

That said, I surely hope CS people won't have to drive taxies soon, cos I am a terrible at finding my way around !! :D Say, does my independency of math libraries mean I can get a job in UR company duh?? :-))

I think one part of telepresence is something being researched like Virtual Reality. Much of the research in Embedded Software is in design of RTOS, Compilers and other Software tools, which is why it often comes under CS in many universities.I would'nt mind making dancng robots as long as I got to do SOME design on it :-))
Besides i notice that Embedded Systems currently find most use in Telecom, DSP and mobile computing applications

My basic desire is to work on some thing where I have the freedom and creative license to design and configure ALL aspects of a device/ unit ...Hardware, Firmware and Software (High and Low level) "Smart" and Intelligent applications interest me too. I believe Embedded Systems can be such a field. Am I wrong?

Kundi