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The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

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Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#221

Post by exporectomy »

LocalH wrote: post #110
exporectomy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really any more limiting? They can make programs in Scratch or other web apps on their phone. It's not "real" native software but it wasn't in the 1980's either. Kids then used BASIC interpreters. Compilers for "real" programming languages like C were unaffordable. Even assembly language and machine language were often inaccessible because computers didn't have an assembler or hex editor and you couldn't get ne…

ML wasn't totally inaccessible by that metric, it was quite common to store ML in DATA statements and POKE it into the desired memory locations. Depending on the platform it would either be directly called with SYS or CALL type statements, or it'd be vectored through USR() (or perhaps the ampersand in Applesoft).

That's true. I was mainly thinking of a struggle I had trying to create a binary .com file containing ML. The BASIC had no function for writing an arbitrary binary file. In hindsight, I suppose you could use one of those ML techniques you mentioned to do file I/O but that would have seemed out of reach in difficulty to me as a teenager.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#222

Post by johnnycerberus »

I really believe that distributed systems will weight more in the future and that virtual machines will be able to abstract both local resources and remote ones and new paradigms will be created in order to program these. We are still in the early days of programming and there's a lot of room for innovation.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#223

Post by ravi-delia »

InvertedRhodium wrote: post #208
ravi-delia wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may well be that internet access in general is an essential utility, though I'd disagree that any device in particular is. However, the fact that the 'two dominant platforms' continue existing is mostly due to people's personal preferences. Besides, saying that Android devices even approach the same level of locked-downness of Apple devices is absurd; I run an open source version of android on all my mobile device…

Does your banking application, Google Pay, and other services that (needlessly) rely on SafetyNet work on that phone?

Yep, although getting it to work if you root your device takes a few extra minutes. More importantly, to what extent is it Apple's fault that banking apps don't work on my android phone? Even if every device had a little hardware switch that would grant root access, those apps would then be under no obligation to function. And if you then go after the apps, why did you bother with the phone anyway?

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#224

Post by CountSessine »

wtetzner wrote: post #220
CountSessine wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that these are security boundaries. Look at all the malware that was being spread by people posting bad Fortnite apks. I posted a Fortnite apk to a forum and I included some of my own custom code. I made a decision to install that on other people’s phones. (I didn’t really do this) Obviously this is a bit self-serving on Apple’s part - restricting software installs begins to feel like a protection racket…

Sure, but users still have to make the decision to install that apk. Yes, there's a security risk, but what's really being said here is "we're going to decide what you're allowed to do so you won't hurt yourself". And I guess I just don't think that should be their decision to make. Or to put it another way: Apple can keep the app store, and even make it the default, but there should be a setting to allow installing…

Sure, but users still have to make the decision to install that apk.

They certainly didn't make a decision to install my malware in that apk!

Yes, there's a security risk, but what's really being said here is "we're going to decide what you're allowed to do so you won't hurt yourself".

I'm sure you won't hurt yourself - most iphone users will though.

Or to put it another way: Apple can keep the app store, and even make it the default, but there should be a setting to allow installing things from outside the app store. It can even be behind a few scary popups warning the user of the danger.

Yeah, I agree with you - as long as it's not something as simple as a click-through and ignoring a few worthless scary warnings that everyone ignores anyways and exposes non-technical users to bogus certificates and downloaded malware on Windows and Android. If it was something like MacOS's system integrity protection deactivation where you have to restart the whole system and execute a command through some obscure interface, it could work.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#225

Post by exporectomy »

Robotbeat wrote: post #63
exporectomy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of technologies start out appealing to technologists until they mature enough to reach mainstream adoption. It's not disturbing, it's a sign that they were successful! Cars did the same, and aeroplanes, and electricity. I'm happy the internet is now as common and easy to use as electricity. Geeks can move on to the next interesting immature technology. Perhaps cryptocurrency or machine learning or whatever. The…

Cryptocurrency has now pretty solidly transitioned from hobbyist/enthusiast to monetization through centralization. Which is a little ironic but that’s how it goes.

Well, yes. I'm showing my age a bit. Don't have my finger on the pulse of what the actual current tinkerer-stage technologies are.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#226

Post by magwa101 »

It's a strange article. Portable languages have rendered "general purpose CPUs" moot and allowed for incredible innovation at the chip level. Some may recall that making software run on different chips was a huge deal. Now, you use a portable language and potentially portable APIs that are specific to the purpose at hand.

The article ignores that vast access to general capabilities are now available through the internet. With an even higher abstraction that again renders the underlying CPU type irrelevant.

Who knows or cares what CPU is serving this page.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#227

Post by anigbrowl »

grawprog wrote: post #174
anigbrowl wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can cooperate with others to figure out to defeat those protections, or not buy into the Apple ecosystem in the first place. I agree they make it very difficult to fully personalize their products and share your dislike, but to me this is like complaining about a case being glued shut or requiring a special driver to access.

>but to me this is like complaining about a case being glued shut or requiring a special driver to access. Both of those are fairly valid complaints though. Intentionally making a device hard to access or repair is almost as bad as not allowing it at all. That shows an actual concerted effort to stop or make it as difficult for consumers as possible. That's basically the definition of anti-consumer practices. It in n…

OK, but that's when you make the decision not to buy it in the first place. I've managed to go my whole life without buying an Apple product because I always thought their products were kinda user-hostile and unfriendly to hacking/customization. On the other hand, I don't feel that Apple has any obligation to deliver the sort of product I want, when they have so many customers that actively prefer their walled garden/black box approach.

Occasionally I find myself thinking I'd like to own an Apple product, eg when I run across a cool iPad app or something, but this rarely persists longer than the few minutes it takes me to remember that I don't want to reorient around the Apple ecosystem.

Re: The decline of computers as a general-purpose technology

#228

Post by 6pac3rings »

aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA wrote: post #23
6pac3rings wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the "Cage of Birds" experiment going at TSMC?

Could you give some more search terms? Google isn’t returning anything.

Search for Nikkei article on TSMC and growth plans. Look for "cage" and "bird" search terms at that source.
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