Weird how life changes...

Wayne

Wayne

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Hi guys and gals,

Just sitting here waxing all philosophic and sh*t about how life changes over time. My 44th b'day was on the first. Don't know why it's hit me like a brick today, but it has. Not in a depressing kinda "Jack Daniels and straight-edge" kinda way, but more a moment of introspection....

15 years ago, I lived, ate, and breathed computers. Amigas, PCs, hell, everything was interesting (except the black and white macs of the time)...

These days, I noted with some degree of WTF that my iMac hasn't even been turned on in a week and -- aside from using it to rip DVDs for the iPad -- I probably wouldn't have bothered to turn it on last night.

Then it dawns on me that I haven't thought about Web sites, posting, or hanging out online either. It's work, go home, work, go home, then occasionally catch a movie or dinner out.

For my birthday, thanks to my dad, Got a beautiful bike, and had a great birthday. I've been out riding back and forth to work, but that's not the same as the famed "weekend runs" of last year. Every weekend I think to ride home to Huntsville, it's been either 100+ degrees, raining, or I've had stuff to haul back to Montgomery.

On the web front, as all of you know, I keep thinking about doing something with Whyzzat (or any of the other 15 domains I own) but again, just can't seem to bring myself to get interested in that either.

Sick huh?

Just curious if any of your lives can be traced back to a series of WTF moments where you realize the direction you took isn't where you're at now?

Maybe I just need a weekend at the beach. Any takers?

Wayne
 
Wayne said:
Hi guys and gals,

15 years ago, I lived, ate, and breathed computers. Amigas, PCs, hell, everything was interesting (except the black and white macs of the time)...
Click to expand...

15? Dude, you mean TWENTY FIVE years ago.

When I was a kid I was all about computers, but computers don't exist anymore. Now they are "devices" that are more about the software that runs on them. I liked back in the day when the I/O was the bus and the wires just stuck out so you could slap some logic on there - and you could buy logic. You could code to right there to drive those wires and do stuff that was cool and the machine was a component in what you were playing with.

It's kind of what you do with a PIC or microcontroller now but those things are less fun. The whole build it, transfer the software over step kills the immediacy. You've got a computer a gazillion times more powerful than the C64 but you have to add a USB to in circuit programmer and then the chip board and install all your dev tools and after all that you still aren't connected in that immediate sense.

The bar was lower back then. POKE-ing and getting +5V on a line was a lot quicker to get up and running than building a PIC board and writing a USB driver for it.

I like my little netbook for all the things it does but I don't like it in the same way that I loved those old and simple machines.

As for life - work is the problem. It chews up the time you would spend doing the things you would like to do. It regiments the time that you would otherwise split up differently. Back when I wasn't working I could wake up when I didn't need to sleep any more rather than when my alarm went off and if I got a good idea and buried myself in it I could work it for darn near 30 hours without having to worry about having to get up at a certain time. It's how I worked best as a kid and it's still how I prefer to work but it doesn't fit in with the world. It leaves me with a lot of things I haven't even started to do because I know that I would have to stop too soon and then it'd be too hard to pick back up the next time I got a chance to work on it.

A holiday isn't enough. I've had a few of those. A hiatus of about a year would be the thing - but a year away from the family :)
 
I used to be all about computers. Then the children came. I don't regret it in a second. But, it does change your focus. Programming is simply not a social event for a nearly 4 year old.

I'm hoping that once the two kids get into school we might be able to share the hobby. Unfortunately most kids today seem to use computers but not be into how to make them work. They're spoonfed packages that allow computers to do what they want to do.

I remember a time when we didn't have these clever gui's, saved to a 5" floppy that had a 50% of failure, programmed our own word processor and spell checker if we wanted to type something, and war dialed while sleeping to try to 'network' with someone else 'online'. We walked uphill to school both ways and that's the way we liked it!
 
You guys need to get an 8bit Commodore with some modern expansions. Modern computing is useful, even essential, but it is not "fun". Putting a few expansions on a Commodore and surfing the internet, now that is living :wink:

Actually it doesn't have to be a C64/128, almost any classic retro computer will do. The idea is to know up front it is a hobby, with no silly notions the platform will once again take over the world. Solder together some hardware project and play with it all on free time. If life gets busy, it will be there when time frees up.
 
faethor said:
I remember a time when we didn't have these clever gui's, saved to a 5" floppy that had a 50% of failure, [...]!
Click to expand...

Saved? Ha. Yea, right. Usually your write down the really tricky parts but the rest you'd just remember roughly how it went and recode it the next time you needed it. Once I finally got my 110 baud FSK cassette interface the fun started going out of computing - 'cept that you could use the FSK over the phone too but in the UK paying by the minute for even local calls - 110 baud was a bit expensive. It was cheaper and faster to bike down to your mates house and type the program in for him right at his keyboard.
 
You guys are like me just addicted to the low CRT frequencies. It triggers pseudo epileptic attacks which gives you a sense of euphorism ;)
 
But in all seriousness, you people need to do more without the computer. You need to get inspiration, the breathe to just try to learn a 4th generation programming language and get ideas what kind of digital functionality would be really an addition to life nowadays. I always have the idea that even the simplest of 8bit computers have not been utilized to the max. All it needs are good ideas.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
faethor said:
I remember a time when we didn't have these clever gui's, saved to a 5" floppy that had a 50% of failure, [...]!
Click to expand...

Saved? Ha. Yea, right. Usually your write down the really tricky parts but the rest you'd just remember roughly how it went and recode it the next time you needed it. Once I finally got my 110 baud FSK cassette interface the fun started going out of computing - 'cept that you could use the FSK over the phone too but in the UK paying by the minute for even local calls - 110 baud was a bit expensive. It was cheaper and faster to bike down to your mates house and type the program in for him right at his keyboard.
Click to expand...
Hm, maybe not only epilleptic euphorism, but also a bit of stockholm syndrome as well.
 
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