"Most of the 'real' (sic) programmer I know think I'm crazy when I tell them that the firmware, written to interface with their PC applications, is about 2K bytes...."

NO. The embedded guys are the Real Programmers - the PC/Windoze guys are mere Quiche-eaters! ;-)

http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/REALPROG.HTM
http://www.combro.co.uk/nigelh/pascal.html

http://www.gre.ac.uk/~cs25/humour/realprog.html