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The iPhone killed my inner nerd

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Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#31

Post by wyager »

amelius wrote: post #14

Also, modern cars with their proverbial weld-shut hoods have killed my inner mechanical engineer.

Some cars (like the Miata) are still specifically meant to remain more or less tinkerer-friendly, but yes, unfortunately the trend seems to be doing everything possible to force you to visit the stealership for even the most basic of repairs (headlight bulb replacement, oil change, etc.).

I would pay a healthy premium for a solid off-road-capable vehicle that wasn't intentionally as locked down as possible. I imagine one of the chief challenges is manufacturer fear of NHTSA or EPA retribution when someone releases an ECU image that turns a Prius into a rolling coal in exchange for a bit more power. I doubt this is going to change without explicit regulation protecting tinkering.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#32

Post by keyme »

zimpenfish wrote: post #23
tpxl wrote: post #16

>Apple’s iPhone has been on the market for 10 years now, and it hasn’t experienced a single instance of a mass malware attack like we’ve seen twice in the past month on Windows PCs. >Sure, there have been vulnerabilities, bugs, and near misses, but nobody has been forced to pay $300 to unlock their iPhone after a huge malware attack. I feel the article is disingenuous by comparing a phone to a PC.

I dunno - your average iPhone is a powerful PC running a complex OS with a (largely) permanent network connection and the owner almost certainly will cough up $100 to unlock given how much people rely on their phones these days. That sounds like a perfect target for hackers to me.

If all the data on the phone is in the cloud (as it is for most users), unlocking would just be a factory reset of the device.

Also, while it is indeed a powerful networked computer, it does a lot less stuff in the background than a PC (and does no "legacy" stuff at all). Unlike a PC, where a thing like SMB is expected to work (even though it's old and buggy).

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#33

Post by timvdalen »

grw_ wrote: post #29

> I’d sit smugly reading my emails on a train with my iPAQ or one of the original HTC Pocket PC devices with a stylus. I couldn’t download apps from an app store for these phones because those stores didn’t even exist yet. This killed me- I used to run a 'App Store'-like site for Pocket PC around this time which allowed installing apps OTA- usually this required running the installer on your Desktop PC and syncing to…

I recognize the domain, I'm pretty sure I used your site all the time.

I usually got there from a search after looking for something specific though.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#34

Post by behnamoh »

kalleboo wrote: post #10

I stopped tinkering when I grew up, which just coincided with when the iPhone became usable.

Exactly. I think as people grow up, their tendencies and interests just change. iPhone, Apple, and others are not to blame.

I don't like a lot of these modern PC games, not because they're ugly or anything, but because back in the days, every game I played was new to me. IGI, Medal of Honor, CoD2, and CS were probably the first shooter games I played. GTA 2, 3, and 4 were all great for their time. Age of Mythology, Stronghold Crusaders, Rise of Nations, and Dota also had new concepts in the gaming world.

But today, we have only games with better graphics, but lack a new concept and attractive story. As a result, I don't like the new games no more. Is it because the gaming industry has stopped progressiing? Maybe. But I think the fact that I don't dig games anymore is mostly because I just care about other things.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#36

Post by II2II »

TillE wrote: post #20
sametmax wrote: post #4

Yeah cause having an IA always on, connected to you entire house, to turn off the light is definitely easier than a switch.

Honestly, this recent nerd obsession with using hideously complex technology to control your home lighting is extremely funny. It's the idea of going to all this effort just to be able to do some not-very-useful things. You're running an entire embedded computer to control a single light bulb. Just hilarious.

Similar arguments can be made for most new technologies. When the critique isn't over utility, it is almost certainly over disproportionately high costs. The important things are to understand why things are done the way they are and how it will progress in the future.

I suspect that the long term utility for home automation is for managing energy use, rather than the gimmicky stuff that we are being sold on today. The reason for cramming a microcontroller into it probably has a lot to do with cost. Dealing with automation from top to bottom centrally would mean rewiring buildings and dealing with mains. Dealing with automation at the appliance level means that you can tailor the design to the requirements (e.g. cheaper components that handle less power if the device needs less power). Having a microcontroller means that you can use off-the-shelf components for networking.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#37

Post by grw_ »

timvdalen wrote: post #33
grw_ wrote: post #29

> I’d sit smugly reading my emails on a train with my iPAQ or one of the original HTC Pocket PC devices with a stylus. I couldn’t download apps from an app store for these phones because those stores didn’t even exist yet. This killed me- I used to run a 'App Store'-like site for Pocket PC around this time which allowed installing apps OTA- usually this required running the installer on your Desktop PC and syncing to…

I recognize the domain, I'm pretty sure I used your site all the time. I usually got there from a search after looking for something specific though.

Awesome :D

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#38

Post by douche »

collyw wrote: post #19
zyb09 wrote: post #7

I wonder if this will have an effect on how kids get into programming. Back when I was a kid we had MS-DOS, my primary motivation was to install and play games, but there was this easy built-in pathway of: Hey, you can do a lot more with this machine if you want, including making your own games. Nowadays consuming and developing are so disconnected, it seems almost impossible for the younger generations to just stumb…

In saying that I notice that a lot of the developers I work with who are gamers always seem to know a lot more than me about networking. I assume that its related to setting up LAN parties and the likes.

Maybe this is changing, but in my generation, gamers are typically more proficient in a lot of the low-level nuts and bolts. Modding was such a big force in pc gaming, and typically the tools to do it were a little sketchy and rough.

I remember hacking around in data files for Civilization II, or poking at python scripts for Mount & Blade, way before I learned any proper programming.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#39

Post by tpxl »

zimpenfish wrote: post #23
tpxl wrote: post #16

>Apple’s iPhone has been on the market for 10 years now, and it hasn’t experienced a single instance of a mass malware attack like we’ve seen twice in the past month on Windows PCs. >Sure, there have been vulnerabilities, bugs, and near misses, but nobody has been forced to pay $300 to unlock their iPhone after a huge malware attack. I feel the article is disingenuous by comparing a phone to a PC.

I dunno - your average iPhone is a powerful PC running a complex OS with a (largely) permanent network connection and the owner almost certainly will cough up $100 to unlock given how much people rely on their phones these days. That sounds like a perfect target for hackers to me.

Yes, but it's not an analogous to a PC. Comparing an iPhone, an Android phone and a Windows phone would be more apt.

Re: The iPhone killed my inner nerd

#40

Post by douche »

dingo_bat wrote: post #2

> Windows 8... probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the iPhone. I highly doubt Microsoft would have given up on new versions of Windows if iphone hadn't been released.

Quite possibly we would have been saved the pain of the start screen, "Metro" apps, and maybe Cortana.
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