PorterDuff

The book is a bit expensive, although I'd like to have a copy.

Given the turn that modern politics has taken, I guess all that matters was this sentence:

"Today, as cultures cross-pollinate, and as technologies topple timeless ways of living, it is an open question whether the familiarity of Rome’s ancient forms will be felt much by those who live in the future, beyond the next horizon."

It's not a bad question really, with 'Rome' as a stand-in for all the well-worn bits of culture. Are 500 year old nursery rhymes still in practice and will they be? You can certainly see the change in the teaching of literature in schools. Latin or Greek are scarcely taught anymore. No doubt there are 100's of examples. 'Rome' of course is an imaginary construct that is really a later Anglo-American version of historical matters.

I doubt I'll live long enough to see the results of states that knock out the underpinnings of common culture. Perhaps they'll build their own fresh ones, perhaps it never mattered.

"He should appeal to Trump. Pretty sure Trump would enjoy trolling the Left forever about it."

That's an interesting notion. Perhaps have Trump pardon him. Never gonna happen given who actually runs government.

There are a ton of people who are pro-Snowden who are anti-Trump so I do like the idea of watching the uproar. Honestly, I think that kind of paradox is good for peoples' minds.

It's just my own ignorance speaking (probably), but I can't say that I like the idea of Android getting near/intertwined with mission critical systems. Hopefully 'infotainment' implies something that is well clear of 'stopping' and the like...although I'd just as soon that they dropped the 'tainment' part and simply provided an interface for diagnostics, HVAC, &tc.

What bugs me the most about the 'tainment' part is that not only do I find most of it irritating, but that you are binding technology that obsoletes quickly with an expensive product that should last 10-20 years. It's a shame that car companies have picked this as an area for product differentiation.

Between the need for expensive training and diagnostic equipment, and the ever-widening view of things that are .gov mandated and covered under smog or safety laws including spare parts sourcing, we are largely there.

I'll counter. In a world of electric cars (which I'm in favor of), how long until the politically well-connected emissions testing industry becomes repurposed into mandatory safety inspections at the same or higher price?

" Chevy Small Block v8 is a little newer starting mid 1950's"

...and not used since 2003. Honestly, it's probably best to view an engine family like this as a form factor, not a design. It isn't like there were any 1955 parts in a 2000 engine, but the interconnects are (mostly) the same. Generally, any 90 degree V8 with a cam in the block is going to be the 'same', designers have pretty much standardized on just a few layouts.

An invariant SBC is like saying disk drives haven't evolved if they use the same mounting points and cabling/logic standards.

I'm rather hoping to forget how to code at age 65.

Entertainment media narratives are mostly interesting when they are done for reasons outside of maximizing sales. You certainly can't blame someone for making up plots with just any old nonsense as long as the butts fill up the seats.

I wonder if the writers of penny dreadfuls ever tried to 'improve' the public in some way. There's probably a sociology paper in looking at older pulp fiction or movies made via the old mass-production system to see if they are aimed in different ways than modern ones.

"A lot of public services and utilities have shifted their customer facing operations to the web and the very people who struggle to interact with these services are often the ones who need them the most."

Well, that's the thing isn't it? Personally, I think I'd be happy, and probably better off, with an internet that consisted of email, USENET, and Amazon. (maybe eBay, although I could do without it). Unfortunately, the rest of the world and it's needs and addictions tends to drag you along.

That's an interesting essay.

It seems to me if desktop general purpose computing becomes a distinctly minority need, then the future of hardware design will bend towards that article's view. Large scale design and manufacturer of hardware platforms will be (mostly) exclusively towards central servers and to specialized devices on the edge. I expect there's an awful lot of legacy desktop design that will disappear.

That's an interesting point. I have friends in the movie makin' business and should ask how their unions work in terms of benefits, negotations, etc. The jobs all seems to be split into individual films as independent businesses so to a software contractor there would be a lot of similarities.

My view of the state-level (golden) rule for cyberwarefare:

(1) Thou shalt not publish the goods on another country's elite else they shalt do the same to you.

It depends on the use case of course. Low cost with no other constraints is good for utilities, medium cost with smaller size and weight for vehicles, high cost/high capacity/small-light for portable devices.

Since the rest of electric cars is essentially designed, I'm looking forward to someone who really cracks the battery problem. It's a real game changer for a large part of everyday life. No wonder the car companies are thinking twice about building new ICE models, the world could change in a minute.

Question: Is there a graphable Moore's Law at work for batteries?

It seems to me that it would be difficult to separate those valleys from the valleys you see from long term cycles in mass human behavior...under/over population of labor for example (or under/over supply of prey animals and food plants).

Betcha that women tend to be protein deprived in hunter-gatherer groups, at least the ones where they don't get to run a bunch of buffalo off of a cliff. I should look around for a study based on dental remains.

I've always been amused by the concept of egalitarianism in tribal societies. Prison (or high school) should teach you otherwise

And then itty bitty windshield wipers on the glass.

> (Two other solutions exist...

Or using a monitor for the 'windshield' and cooking up some way to keep the camera lens clean.

Dammit, it's like they have a different word for everything.

re: Unions

If a software union only existed to deal with the following:

. Pensions . Health insurance

I can see the point.

You mean this?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/282505033/always-punch-...

It's an interesting problem. There's some sort of rule of thumb here (it needs a name).

. Due to network effects, websites sites tend towards monopolies.

. Due to human tribalism, websites tend towards bias.

Even given some sort of publishing rules, I can't imagine how you veer away from this. The quest for wealth might keep you from choosing up sides, but not always.

It's just one more case where there is a mismatch between offense and defense realities.

I'd much rather try to design an anti-carrier missile than design a carrier that was missile proof.

It sounds like a reasonable idea for another job shop who gets a cut, perhaps dealing with some of the contractor's paperwork over time. The more the merrier. Good luck.

What I would like to see are contractor middlemen who are more technically specialized. An embedded systems one would be a great thing.

Also:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/china-seeks-to-buy-cont...

That seems pretty smart to me. If your two choices are either assimilation or to make a separate state (with separate laws, etc.) out of your 8th or so largest city, I can see doing this.

Obviously, both sides will alter each other with the largest one doing most of the altering.

The Toyota Jihad model does appear to be a popular truck in certain quarters.

I've been surprised for years that infrastructure wasn't more effectively attacked. It seems to me that a ton of mayhem could erupt just from a guy with a Barrett 50 cal.

If you make it to Senior Principal Staff Engineer they'll bring coffee to you.

"If I have a low level, quasi hardware layer service that I need coded in C or C++? Fine, yes, experience matters. It matters a lot in those instances, and I'd be foolish to hire some kid to do that. But there is less and less of that kind of work. "

You know, that could be. Dunno why you got the downvote so here's an up.

Offshoring of manufacture probably has something to do with the dearth of work. Development was bound to follow mass production.

I've always liked the idea of a consulting firm that specialized in hiring old people. I wonder if there's enough work to keep something like that fed if one were to specialize in 'obsolete' tech and market at a national level.

Heck, to the right client, that one i860 or C80 programmer might be worth gold. Either that, or just do a highly competent job at embedded programming generally.

"I'm 54. Have been in sw dev for 40 years.....Last year I applied for 300 positions,..."

Being somewhat older than you, but bored, I think about taking up the oar again. My problem doubles down on yours in that my background is all in products with an expensive hardware component or workstation software, neither appears to be a growth industry.

Aside from the inevitable well-meaning advice to become some sort of 'project manager', etc. I wonder if it makes any sense to hit the .gov job markets at all.

Has anyone done that at an advanced age?

Rats are too good at the game given a chance. Given proper hiding places (like your barn), you'll never find them.

"We had something like a consensus reality when big newspapers framed the terms of debate. Now we're retribalizing."

Looking at newspapers prior to (let's say) WWII and that statement might be worth reconsidering.