Why was everything more fun 40 years ago?
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Keith Barrow wrote:
Now it's all 555 timers and 8088 microprocessors!
and 90% of it not needed / useless ;) :rolleyes:
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
90% of it not needed / useless
But ... but ... what would you do if your toaster couldn't connect to the internet? :omg:
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Was nostalgia more fun 40 years ago?
This space for rent
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
Hmm that robot (or Driod?) I think I have seen him without arms...
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
Surface mount killed kitchen table electronics while enabling what you're using to post on CP right now.
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Keith Barrow wrote:
Now it's all 555 timers and 8088 microprocessors!
and 90% of it not needed / useless ;) :rolleyes:
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
You make me want to go down in my basement to dig up all my old BYTE issues from the late 1970s - I never got my collection complete from Isusse #1, but it is close. One of the 70's DYI projects that I remeber well was a computer controlled wood stove. This guy had build a container for finely cut wood (it wasn't pellets, but roughly that size, I believe) with a funnel into his stove, so the wood could fall down by gravitation. This must have been a few years before the IBM PC; the computer may have been an Altair or Imsai, controlling the motor opening the hatch allowing more wood to fall down, and the motor opening/closing the air vent. What I don't remember is how he read the inputs - you couldn't simply buy a USB thermometer in those days... When the magazines are ten years old, everybody ask "Why don't you throw that old shit out?" If you stubbornly cling to the magazines until they are fourty, everybody gasps: "What a treasure!"
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Nelek wrote:
90% of it not needed / useless
But ... but ... what would you do if your toaster couldn't connect to the internet? :omg:
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
[The Object-Oriented Toaster](http://www.danielsen.com/jokes/objecttoaster.txt)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
Because this was the heyday of the hobbyist. Then we shot ourselves in the foot by getting jobs, thinking we could get paid to do this fun stuff. It was still fun for a while. Then eventually it became a job. :sigh:
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We are pioneers. Once things get consumer friendly we lose interest. It's in the blood. Discovering is much funnier than simply braindead producing.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
den2k88 wrote:
Discovering is much funnier than simply braindead producing.
You do not like working on the assembly line? :rolleyes: Me either. X| And here is the interesting part... As software development absorbs more process and more patterns it becomes more like assembly-line coding and you transform from an artist to a key-presser. However, with no process things are terrible -- some developers act like every project is a new piece of art that has zero process and they are the magicians. :sigh: That's bad. But, as software development nears the 100% repeatable process it becomes total monotony. X|
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den2k88 wrote:
Discovering is much funnier than simply braindead producing.
You do not like working on the assembly line? :rolleyes: Me either. X| And here is the interesting part... As software development absorbs more process and more patterns it becomes more like assembly-line coding and you transform from an artist to a key-presser. However, with no process things are terrible -- some developers act like every project is a new piece of art that has zero process and they are the magicians. :sigh: That's bad. But, as software development nears the 100% repeatable process it becomes total monotony. X|
Processes are good. Cobbling together anything written by others in the dirtiest possible way are not an acceptable process, nor are good. X|
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Processes are good. Cobbling together anything written by others in the dirtiest possible way are not an acceptable process, nor are good. X|
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
Yes, process is good. I'm thinking you are agreeing with me. :) Imagine if there was a giant library which had every function you'd ever need. You'd just drag and drop the functions you want into a file in the order you want them to work and voila! You're done. This is process in the extreme. Very repeatable. Very boring. The ultimate CASE tool[^]!
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Yes, process is good. I'm thinking you are agreeing with me. :) Imagine if there was a giant library which had every function you'd ever need. You'd just drag and drop the functions you want into a file in the order you want them to work and voila! You're done. This is process in the extreme. Very repeatable. Very boring. The ultimate CASE tool[^]!
raddevus wrote:
You'd just drag and drop the functions you want into a file in the order you want them to work and voila! You're done. This is process in the extreme. Very repeatable. Very boring
And very unlikely... at least for all the software that isn't mass produced. Modern websites might be buildable this way but every other type of software (firmware and specialized sw) is next to impossible to be done like this in a viable way.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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raddevus wrote:
You'd just drag and drop the functions you want into a file in the order you want them to work and voila! You're done. This is process in the extreme. Very repeatable. Very boring
And very unlikely... at least for all the software that isn't mass produced. Modern websites might be buildable this way but every other type of software (firmware and specialized sw) is next to impossible to be done like this in a viable way.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I believe you are agreeing with me again. :rolleyes: I don't want to work on an assembly line either. :) So, I am glad that CASE tools fail. Now, AI on the other hand will probably write better software than all of us humans. :rolleyes:
raddevus wrote:
Now, AI on the other hand will probably write better software than all of us humans. :rolleyes:
But will it resist armor piercing incendiary rounds? :D maybe one day infantry combat experience will become a required skill for a developer :D
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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You make me want to go down in my basement to dig up all my old BYTE issues from the late 1970s - I never got my collection complete from Isusse #1, but it is close. One of the 70's DYI projects that I remeber well was a computer controlled wood stove. This guy had build a container for finely cut wood (it wasn't pellets, but roughly that size, I believe) with a funnel into his stove, so the wood could fall down by gravitation. This must have been a few years before the IBM PC; the computer may have been an Altair or Imsai, controlling the motor opening the hatch allowing more wood to fall down, and the motor opening/closing the air vent. What I don't remember is how he read the inputs - you couldn't simply buy a USB thermometer in those days... When the magazines are ten years old, everybody ask "Why don't you throw that old shit out?" If you stubbornly cling to the magazines until they are fourty, everybody gasps: "What a treasure!"
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Do you really program toasters? Or are you one of those spammers that use gadgets to create spam bot nets and get money with not so ethical processes?
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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You make me want to go down in my basement to dig up all my old BYTE issues from the late 1970s - I never got my collection complete from Isusse #1, but it is close. One of the 70's DYI projects that I remeber well was a computer controlled wood stove. This guy had build a container for finely cut wood (it wasn't pellets, but roughly that size, I believe) with a funnel into his stove, so the wood could fall down by gravitation. This must have been a few years before the IBM PC; the computer may have been an Altair or Imsai, controlling the motor opening the hatch allowing more wood to fall down, and the motor opening/closing the air vent. What I don't remember is how he read the inputs - you couldn't simply buy a USB thermometer in those days... When the magazines are ten years old, everybody ask "Why don't you throw that old shit out?" If you stubbornly cling to the magazines until they are fourty, everybody gasps: "What a treasure!"
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
You're looking for fun in the wrong places today. Sites like [Hackaday](https://hackaday.com/) cover doing low level in the weeds electronics projects now.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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Sadly it's a common forma mentis these days, even without descending in the monkey show that is QA. I had colleagues that instead of thinking 5 minutes to a solution spent days looking for premade solutions and designed convoluted ways to glue them together. The end results were bug ridden, unmaintaineable and crumbled at the first change. The simple idea of devising an algorithm was alien to them because "it's not possible to do better than the ones other people already made". Basically they were factory workers, you could swap programming with bending iron bars and they would hardly notice.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
A colleague made a similar comment... On a teleconference people were discussing a months long time lines to evaluate and implement some enterprisey solution to perform load testing. Colleague speaking: We capture enough information in our production log files so we can replay the logs against a test setup. Just a few hours of work to extract the info into a replay format. There was a long silence on the line... "Moving onto the next topic...".
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I have been reading electronics magazines from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had some of the issues and always wanted to read the articles in the issues I missed. Besides those which are relevant to my (then and now) interests, there are many more articles which promise lots of tinkering and fun. Examples? Build yourself a modem and get your box online.[^] The parts list for the modem includes lumber and a tennis ball. :-) Build a robot. With arms and sensors, not just a little toy.[^] Now, where did I see such a robot before? Build a raceway video game console.[^] These games on a chip obviously were popular at the time. Somewhere in the same issue there is an ad for a similar tanks viedeo game chip and there probably were even more. It cost something like $5.95, not much even in 1980. What computer to get if you want to learn all about microprocessors.[^] In the same issue: Computer control for the robot![^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats. His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
