Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

thewalrus.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 106 posts

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#91

Post by Nasrudith »

Buldak wrote: post #79
sxates wrote: post #19

When I was a kid, my dad changed the oil in our cars, replaced brakes and spark plugs, and if it broke down he could at least diagnose it if not fix it himself. Now I'm grown up, and cars have changed a lot. I have a tesla, and the only thing I can really service on it myself is the washer fluid. But it's also more reliable and doesn't need constant tinkering. This was what came to mind reading this. I was of the "ti…

Yeah, I wonder of "tinkering" isn't bound to diminish with technological progress. If things like cars and computers become more sophisticated over time, presumably that pushes them progressively beyond the abilities of laymen. (More optimistically, they may simply require less tinkering to begin with.)

Tinkering is encouraged by glitches or under-optimization really since there is a reward to improvement. It brings to mind Turning's bicycle - while needing to reattach the chain every 200 yards may make you more handy one that stays on wkrks far better.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#92

Post by Nasrudith »

hopler wrote: post #89
metaphor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weird relationship between electricity and self-confidence that I've never quite understood; suspect it's similar to the phenomena that enables math to be the only general academic subject in which it is socially acceptable to suck at, and/or related to a lack of "correction window" when tinkering with forces that propagate at the speed of light. That being said, I'd posit that having a set of technical man…

It's really easy to kill yourself if you go messing around in your house wiring. It's possible to be safe, but it's not on the same plane as messing with an unplugged washing machine or TV.

Barring fires it isn't that hard. Just turn off the circuit breakers for absolutely everything in the area and test the voltages just in case there is any capicitance before touching any wires. I am a complete neophyte with wiring but that part is simple.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#93

Post by dkersten »

goldfeld wrote: post #47
dkersten wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not caring about the details leaves us with people who can't fix simple issues and with applications that use way too much cpu, memory or energy than they really should. Sure, a lot of people don't care and just want to do the thing, but if you at all care that your computer that is 1000x as powerful as the one you had years ago, but doesn't really do a lot more, then you have to care. If you care about the users of…

Every user application doesn't have to be written in C.

Of course not, but from reading HN, I’m not the only one frustrated with the performance state of many applications. They don’t have to be written in C to perform well. For example, I quite like using Qutebrowser, a minimalistic keyboard-centric browser that’s more lightweight than Chrome or Firefox, yet its written in Python (well, I guess the actual browser engine is C++/Qt)

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#94

Post by Nasrudith »

high_derivative wrote: post #17

I have long thought the term 'digital native' is a sort of filter for people who are not actually technologists but avid consumers of mostly social platforms. I (as a computer scientist) have never heard people actually working in tech refer to themselves as that.

It is about ability to use as opposed to ability to design and repair. Those are separate skills and it is possible for a shocking degree of range. A "digital native" could set up a projector easily while being clueless to the underlying principles beyond "must be plugged in and this connected to this". The fact use is so common compared to design makes it stand out more - especially since it is easy for them.

Meanwhile an electrical engineering professor may be capable of designing and diagnosing it and know about all of the nasty design pitfalls like "if you try to make the cache too low impedience for low latency it can lose its DRAM state" or "wired this way will add noise to your analog signal" but have trouble operating the menu or unable to use a tablet with the ease of a toddler.

It is possible for both to learn the other side of course.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#95

Post by metaphor »

sametmax wrote: post #90
metaphor wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars don't fix themselves--people do. The only difference is vehicle manufacturers have convinced ignorant consumers into believing that technology has advanced so far that only a "professional" can do it, i.e. those who hold a copy of official technical manuals.

People are happy to be convinced. They want to have their car fixed, not necessarily fix it themself. I'm a linux guy, but why do you think people buy macs ?

Some people enjoy paying for their Kool-Aid as much as they like drinking it, and businesses are quite adept at parting fools from their money. Try again[1][2][3], just to cite a few.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska...

[2] https://www.eff.org/issues/right-to-repair

[3] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evmeya/apple-ipho...

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#96

Post by jacobolus »

dghughes wrote: post #78
kijin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, not having to fix your own car happened one generation ago. Now it's happening to computers.

Not only that but people these days are terrible drivers now that cars have ABS, traction control, blind spot sensors, even brake assist and automatic cruise/autopilot. They crash into the car ahead of them in multi-car a pile up and cry they are innocent. People using computers seem to be the same people mindlessly click on anything with an OK button on it. Then their entire bank account is drained and they cry inno…

Considering how much the death/injury rate from automobile collisions has fallen in the past few decades, you’re going to have a tough time convincing me that it’s comparatively bad that “people these days are terrible drivers” because controlling the car has gotten easier.

Anecdotally, several people who I rode with 20–25 years ago who were >50 at the time were aggressive and reckless drivers, much more than anyone I have ridden with recently. My general impression is that such aggressive driving used to be much more common than today. Even if they had fast reaction times and good control of steering, I would hardly call it “good driving” for public streets.

If you want to see this style of “good driving” try riding in taxis in China or some other developing country. Dudes with amazing steering and reaction times shaving every possible second off by pulling risky probably illegal stunts.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#97

Post by Godel_unicode »

Nullabillity wrote: post #86
Godel_unicode wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only harder if you make it harder and don't put any thought into it. Desktop computers still exist, and you can still order the parts to make your own. You can even buy cool glass cases where the parts are exposed and all light up. Raspberry pi are essentially free, and can be used for all kinds of interesting stuff. Do that. See also Razer synapse, the El gato streamdeck, programmable keyboards, all of which st…

Sure, but it's no longer the device people have to be default. Kids usually aren't in a position to order expensive and/or niche stuff on a whim...

Fortunately, those kids frequently have parents who care about their development and bemoan the unhackable nature of their phones.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#98

Post by eecsninja »

askafriend wrote: post #64
dkersten wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not caring about the details leaves us with people who can't fix simple issues and with applications that use way too much cpu, memory or energy than they really should. Sure, a lot of people don't care and just want to do the thing, but if you at all care that your computer that is 1000x as powerful as the one you had years ago, but doesn't really do a lot more, then you have to care. If you care about the users of…

Performance is a business decision. It doesn’t come for free and ultimately other things might be more important.

If any performance gains from Moore's Law get canceled out by inefficient software due to Wirth's Law, then what's the point of all the work that we technologists are doing?

You can call it a business decision, but that basically means the tech people are doing the work and making our execs rich without actually creating anything that's more beneficial to humanity compared to the computer systems of 10 or 20 years ago.

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#99

Post by [deleted] »

ecshafer wrote: post #82
jeena wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's simply that modern machines are (generally) so reliable that you never have to get under the hood to figure out what broke until you (rarely) do and then you have no conceptual framework for trying to resolve what is broken. You have the same problem with cars. When I was 18 I was able to disassemble and reassemble my car and basically fix anything which broke. I even replaced the bodywork one time aft…

One issue with cars is that many of the simple tasks to cut your teeth on, can now require a lot of work. I had a car that you couldn't change the battery without removing a wheel and using a lift.

[deleted]

Re: The Rise of the Tech-Savvy Parent

#100

Post by eecsninja »

gordaco wrote: post #9
dbg31415 wrote: post #2

Consumer tech has been refined and dumbed down to the point where everything just sort of magically works, and since it's "magic" you never have to dive into the nuts and bolts. By making it so easy to use, we are depriving people of their opportunities to organically learn like people in my generation had to. Exceptions exist. * Here's What Happens When an 18 Year Old Buys a Mainframe - YouTube || https://www.youtub…

Regarding computer literacy, there are two glaring difference between the current generation and the one who grew with computers in the 90s: one is the one you mention; in the 90s we were our own tech support, so to speak, and when DOS didn't want to run that shiny game that you just got, it was up to you to figure out the problem and hopefully to find a solution. We learned a lot because we had to. The other is that…

The bad news is that you can't do any of that on modern computer systems anymore.

I started out learning how to program in Windows 95 to make games. I learned to use inline assembly to set the video mode, and then directly write to video memory at 0xA0000000.

You can't do that anymore on modern Windows even if you knew how. Today if you wanted to start game programming, you'd probably read a bunch of articles recommending Unity, which doesn't even easily support C++ FFS.

Post reply on HN