Souleman - I'm 21. Although I'm still in the process of getting my degree, I consult for a number of small businesses and teach Computer Science courses at my university (they were short staffed, and I seem to have a real knack for programming and a strong teaching ability). I actually used one of the old Turing machines when I went with a few professors up to GMU last summer. They had a conference there, and I just tagged along, since the school said they'd pay for my ticket there. I didn't do anything substantial on it, but I got to play around a bit. It was a real hassle figuring out the whole "finite state" concept at the time, since it worked so differently then any other logic or math I had studied at that point (I have since taken two courses on finite math calculations and finite state machines so my understanding is much better now).

As for machines attempting to pass the Turing Test, the only one I've worked with was the program that I had to write in LISP. Beyond that, I haven't played with any other programs/machines.

AJ