1995 is a stretch for anything modern but I have kids playing Minecraft on Pentium 4’s (with decent graphic cards though - that is the critical part). These boxes would have been new around 2003 or so.
246 karma · joined May 26, 2016
Yes, yes, snow uphill and all that, but my point is all of that energy was driven by a belief that you were just beginning to tap into real power, cracking open a portal. A glimpse of the future was in there, and the future was awesome.
Uh huh. Today I cannot believe how dystopian things have become. This is totally not the future envisioned back in the day. I’m not discounting all advances, but I am thinking about the state of the average home PC today. It is not filled with hopefully bliss, but instead it has become a nightmare of “how do I avoid Big Brother's claws today, this week, next month?” This of course was always the Sci-Fi possibility, but I personally never dreamed that this would be the norm.
IMHO, today’s computer environment destroys the inner geek. Going retro brings it back. Maybe something good and modern will eventually blossom.
This is true, yes!
But I am concerned about what this does to them as a person. Life will kick them down (and then in the head for good measure), and a time will come when they are truly standing alone. If they are lacking the inner self, will they have the fortitude and the wherewithal to navigate themselves back up, even without any immediate payoff? Or will this constant need to feed be so ingrained they won’t know how to push through a hard time with little hope and almost zero positive gain, and instead gravitate towards what feels good for the moment?
But, your anecdote offers hope anyway. Thanks for sharing.
This hurts to read because it really nails it. This very thing has been on my mind quite a bit lately after watching my older kids now as young adults. We managed to keep them away from much of this simply because we never thought it necessary, but apparently not to the extent I wish we would have. Now with complete freedom of how they spend their time I’m not exactly pleased with the results. They still seem to be lacking the inner drive to create, but instead would rather consume.
My desire was for them to know how to be satisfied from within, developed from their own inner source, not coming from the outside, simply fueled by what they are consuming.
You’ll get over it. However, you will forever be cursed with having to keep your wiz-kid credentials up to date as you will never have that degree to help wedge the door open for your next opportunity. Ultimately, if programming is what you do (yes, I know CS is not just about coding) it doesn’t really matter, because the rubber meets the road at some point, and either you can code, or you can’t.
Code is different. There are many times that I have been developing and I do something to my code that causes mystery behavior, and I don't catch it until perhaps days later. Being able to walk backward in time and see when the problem first occurred is invaluable.
I used to really like using Visual Source Safe. It was so easy to set up and integrated directly with Visual Studio, there was no excuse not to have a VCS. Too bad it had a reputation for garbling itself (something I never had happen as a single dev).
I got on the phone with the engineer responsible for the firmware and sent him my code, but I never did find out what the problem was (sorry for the letdown, maybe someone at Parallax remembers and reads Hacker News?). They acknowledged it as a bug, and made a fix. Unfortunately the fix made was to always draw 300uA at sleep!
Fast forward 18 years (!) and from their website it looks like their latest modal draws 50uA, so it was a happy ending after all. The end.
If he has his needs met, what does it mean to him to have his needs met more? I know logically this can be worked out that lots of money buys lots of comfort, but thinking back at that age, I personally didn’t know squat about the value of a dollar. I grew up with less money than most of my peers (not “food insecure poor”, but “all I got for Christmas was cloths and 1 small toy poor”) but never thought about it. I just thought my parents were careful spenders.
However, to your point; where were the adults in the equation?
I think it would be fun to try all of the recipes somebody had previously checkmarked as a way to stretch back into the past and connect with part of their life (and maybe gain some insight).
Besides, who can resist tongue sandwich? (p75)
I built it off of the IE object model (Internet Explorer Browser Extensions? Can’t recall). I think I just used the object model for connectivity settings. If you could get to the net using IE, my browser would work as well.
I think I coded to HTML 1.1 specs, and had it working after 2 months (with a few minor rendering issues). It did not support scripting, CSS or really much of anything (although it could POST), but it was surprising how much of the web was accessible. And it was really fast. Not because of my skillz, but when you cut out the garbage, it’s amazing how fast a page will load.
Anyway, I would not recommend this approach, but I would offer you encouragement. HTML parsing isn’t really that big of a deal, and you could get something very minimal (text rendering) working in short order. It would at least give you a feeling of what you are up against.
In truth though, in previous editions it was not consistent, so you never knew if higher or lower would be required of a particular die, and sometimes it would be at the DM’s discretion.
Your "lucky" (cleverly microwaved) dice were no match against the true genius baked into 1st edition.
I now have a son going through the proper steps of receiving a degree, and I have book to supplement him for every class (except for the higher math).
I think when I code, I want to own the machine, not just skate on the surface. Python doesn't even crank my engine the way BASIC did years ago.
I also think part of my problem is it doesn't solve any needs right now.
I did a quick search and came up with Quora answer given here: https://www.quora.com/Why-was-the-BeOS-dropped
but this doesn't jive with my memory. I will have to see if I can find an old email or maybe dig further on the net. I certainly don’t want to be rewriting history.
They had zero vendors willing to put their OS on a box and resell it because MS threatened the vendors with pulling their right to sell Windows if they did. This wasn't particular to Be, but to any other OS.
He was a constable who happened to be scratched in the mouth by a thorn bush and contacted strep.
Wine really is quite impressive. Even for many games it is very solid.
Exactly. I think once you drop down into assembler it becomes very apparent what C's goal was - to standardize assembly language and make cross CPU coding easier.
If you code in assembly, you eventually need to begin writing your own routines for copying, appending strings/memory, etc. It begins to look suspiciously like the stdlib as it evolves. And consequently, your code begins to look like C with assembly mixed in for the control logic.
The big difference is your source only works on your target CPU. Drat.
It sounds embarrassingly crude, but it has served as an internal equalizer when I feel like desiring or whining. I have tried to demonstrate to my kids that contentment (happiness) is really best obtained and empowering when you realize you don’t need to buy it, you can just make or generate it yourself.
I have a keen interest in WWII, so I had to do some brief research into this claim as I was surprised and had never heard it before. A few minutes of browsing seems to indicate there is a history of dispute in the area. This area was apparently given to the Poles as part of Versailles Treaty and the Czech's took it back by force in 1920.
I now I have some reading to do.
I’m speaking to myself, BTW. I have spent a good portion of my life of explaining it to others and questioning it myself. I started programming in the 80’s though, and I had to fight through a wall of people with the mindset that computers were inherently “evil” and treated with high suspicion because they were not commonly understood. Yes, I grew up in a backwater.
Not only can this be surprising to a client, but it also makes it difficult to leverage the code for reuse elsewhere ("I only wanted the IP address, not the rest, guess I'll write one called getIpAddressOnly", etc).
Functions like this also tend to become muddled and difficult to maintain because as time marches forward, functionality may need to be added between these side effects, and again, unless it is refactored, it has to end up within the same function, making the whole problem even worse.
I have worked in tech here for over 10 years and there are very few jobs. I've already used up Plans A, B and C. My next move will probably be somewhere else (if I'm still competitive). This is where you go to retire, not to advance your career.