I can be fun to kick around some philosophic arguments with friends, but make no mistake, philosophy matters. A lot. Especially to science and politics. Quite a bit more depth exists to philosophy than tired epistemological word games. Philosophy has given us such great things as The Enlightenment, and such terrible things as the USSR. The world's first public park (in Edinburgh), started as a philosophic exercise of David Hume. Data aren't truth. That is the misconception of science. Edit: Here is another shameless plug for a blog I wrote about the importance of philosophy to biology and politics.
I agree, philosophy is quite important for science and especially engineering. Not the word games, but things like ethics and the philosophy of science. For example, what is the ethical impact of the machine I am making. How can I improve my scientific progress. This too is philosophy. It is not just metaphysics. Edit: I'll read your shameless plug later :P