xradionut

Never really had a graphing calculator when I was in school. Bought 92 Plus years later just to have a ultraportable "computer" for field work. LCD screen is starting to decay after years of use, so I picked up another in "mint" condition for $40 at a used book store.

Would love to take the old one and replace the screen and processor with something more modern, keeping the keyboard.

So he thinks his Pop is on top of the stack?

"That was before the Patriot Act and National Security Letters. Now, presumably, Nacchio would just comply. Protection rackets are easier when you have the law backing you up."

Reminds me of this old chestnut:

Q: Why does the government prosecute the Mafia?

A: They don't want any competition.

He has done coding and engineering since leaving Apple. You might want to do a little research like read his biography or scan his web site....

"Wasn't it a slightly less specialized world back then too?"

Yes. Byte had Steve Ciarcia's articles, which were one of the main features of the magazine. We used to modify and build hardware, not just to overclock it, but piggyback memory chips or talk to bench equipment in the lab.

By the time I got out of high school, military and university I had: Built a pirated Apple II+, etched circuit boards, worked with 20 different operating systems, built radios, modems, remotes, door openers, set up a BBS, repaired TVs and stereos for beer money, modified a radar system and so on...

"In fact I doubt most "coders" of today could do something simple for an Apple I, even given modern resources (like a ASM compiler)."

It's not a fair comparison.

Coders today don't have to drop to assembly or solder or wire-wrap or burn EPROMS. But it is something that many engineers and hobbyist did back in the day. (Myself included...)(And most commuters today don't have to harness horses up to go to work...)

But given time, I bet Woz or a few of us could teach someone interesting enough assembly to do something useful.

Disclaimer: As a developer and admin primarily on Windows for the last 18 years, I know more than I want to know about Windows. BTDT, got the t-shirts...

You are assuming that because he's an actor, he isn't an intelligent, informed, politically aware human that may give a shit about people.

"Instead you spend your technical efforts going to meetups and helping others."

Do this indeed. One of the best ways to get better and encounter interesting people is to go to meet ups, user groups and "fun" hack events. You will encounter peers, newbies, gurus, recruiters, investors and all sorts of interesting people with ideas, needs and possibly money.

Reminds me of the packet networks that we hams used to build back in the BBS days. Most of the stations went off air with wide spread commercial internet service and operator turn over, but there's a renewed interest with newer, cheaper, radio gear come out.

Also there's many cities with a first responders mesh network.

Bullshit. Microsoft crapped on it's developers, IT and users when it released Windows 8. How are you supposed to develop for a system when the frameworks change every couple of years? Not to mention pissing off independents, dropping TechNet and raising license costs across the board. Price out a decent MS server solution and 60 to 80 percent of the cost is Microsoft licenses. Azure isn't a solution either since Redmond is Yet Another NSA Bitch.

Julie Larson Green will probably be chosen to lead the ongoing descent into obscurity and mediocrity.

Some pointers from someone that deals with large and small organizations.

- Expect to be audited both security wise and financially. - The larger the organization, the longer the process. (Although smaller clients can be just as dysfunctional.) - Track everything; email, phone call, meeting, etc. It will save your ass in a dispute and may provide valuable metrics. - The customer isn't always right, but they still are the customer. - You will have to fire customers or crank prices up so the pain isn't so bad.

I can't speak for kernel developers, but when you have complex and large codebase running on a huge variety of hardware, you will have some edge cases that are rare or difficult to debug. And I don't envy the folks that have to interface directly with hardware, I have enough fun in database land...

So it's like Server Core for Windows Server 2012? Stripped down to the essentials?

We are semi-rational animals. Not many of us can handle the "Truth", it's fucking depressing.

I don't see "Them" ceding any power or capabilities. Nor do I see any long term solutions to this situation that don't cause worse problems in the future. Which is a shame, since there are other serious issues that will continue to be neglected till things do get really worse. Call me cynical, but I've read too much history in my life.

I'm all for OSS. I believe this is going to cause a lot more people to take it and security seriously.

"While they may have unlimited financial resources, I would pit unlimited technical resources and creativity against that any day of the week."

They are the ones with unlimited technical resources. You don't have armed drones nor biological nor nuclear weapons. You are an hostage like everyone else. You might as well accept that fact for now and just enjoy life.

"There's only one successful way to fight this: change the culture and change the politics."

Not going to happen short of a mass global natural disaster or mass military takeover changing the stakes. There's too much power concentrated at the top and no good reason for the people there to surrender any of it. If the masses get too persistent, they will "cull" the masses through whatever means...

If you want to use it, you can figure it out. It requires more work than most people care about.

Really? Vote for who? It's a choice of corporate backed candidate A vs corporate backed candidate B. Vote out the incumbent and expect change? That's what we have now, change.

The media has been "captured" with all the other "estates". Many people outside of the tech elite are aware of what's going on. What do you want the public to do? Protest? Riot? Revolt? Vote? Those aren't good choices considering what control the US and the UK government have over every aspect of life. The best thing to do right now is observe and remember. Don't let this depress you, worse things have and will happen in history.

International students or business folks usually are fascinated to talk with. But I think the article isn't about these people, but the children that have been brought up in a "bubble" where they had no real responsibilities.

They are still children, that never had to grow up.

I nearly got into a fight with an Indian, that did not understand, despite multiple official and individual warnings, that talking on a phone in the theater in the US,(except in the hood), is not acceptable behavior... But a pitcher of beer in your lap may be an acceptable reward!

"Old money has class, new money is crass."

I've seen the differences in the US as well. It was an interesting being a fly on the wall at a gym where old and nuevo riche worked out.

The main difference was how they treated others outside their class. Old school folks usually didn't flaunt their worth, were respectful, had manners and raised their children as well. Many were willing to offer valuable advice and such once they knew you.

New? Treated people as disposable, parked in fire and handicapped zones, littered, and had a pack of spoiled brats. You could smell the attitude. I wanted to drop them without resources in one of the lower class neighborhoods or a disaster zone for a week, just so they would realize how lucky and fragile they were...

You can mostly blame our leaders and media for this. And the crappy working class economy, large number of immigrants and globalization for the rest.

As a ham operator, there are standard phases and exchanges that make contacts easier. (Especially in a contest.) After time it becomes second nature. In "normal" or "ragchews" exchanges with older hams, you may have to brush up on medical and anatomic words and phases.

Ex-ham and ex-military radio operator/tech here.

Morse code, (CW), is a semi-valuable skill for radio operators, especially hams that do HF and weak signal work. It takes experience, but at a certain point the letters become words and the words become phases. It's no longer a requirement for a amateur radio license, but it's still used and useful. (If you want to learn, I suggest the Koch method.)

With the advance of radio technology, especially computers, DSP and SDR, digital modes modes other than CW have better performance. You can decode a whole band of signals digital/CW with the combination of a SDR receiver and software on a decently powered computer.

But the advantage of CW is that you can use really "primitive" inexpensive radios as transmitters and flexible humans as encoders/decoders.

They have also tightened the screws and raised prices on the only alternative, MSDN subscriptions. Plus cranked the prices on SQL Server, fucked the GUI up in Windows, screwed the pooch on RT and back-peddled on the new Xbox, etc...