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I Love the Computer

michaelenger.com

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Re: I Love the Computer

#151

Post by k4rnaj1k »

abc123abc123 wrote: post #149
thewebguyd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my fear, and unfortunately I think its likely to happen. I feel like we will settle down a little bit, but into a new higher "normal" baseline that still largely makes it unaffordable for most. There's also still the risk of the creation of a new economic underclass, if both a) hardware remains too expensive for local inference and b) subscription or pay-per-token based inference also remains expensive or incr…

This is not correct. Prices will adjuts when the crash comes. At worst, the market and prices will just open peoples eyes up to the reality that 99% of the daily software we use, runs perfectly fine on a 5 years old computer. The idea that you _must_ have 128 GB RAM and 1 TB ssd in your computer is juts absurd. Remember... we reached the moon with the compute power of a pocket calculator, and there is no eternal law…

[dead]

Re: I Love the Computer

#152

Post by tptacek »

totallymike wrote: post #122
tptacek wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What year is it, that you're getting frontier model responses saying to put glue in your pizza?

I trust that you can use your reading comprehension skills to understand that by referring to a famous example of LLMs producing garbage, I’m simply using it to illustrate the phenomenon at large, rather than to suggest that I am still struggling to find glue-free ways to make my pizza stringier. If you still need help breaking down what I meant in the previous post, feel free to ask. Sentences can be tricky. On a re…

I'm sorry, I could have said this more plainly: no, no frontier model for the past several years has told you to put glue in your pizza.

Re: I Love the Computer

#153

Post by JKCalhoun »

I loved (past tense) the computer.

Many of us here can wax nostalgic on our first memories of a computer in our home. And when we look at the current slab now in front of us with a little less wonder, it's easy to dismiss this as us having grown up with the machines, having become older, perhaps even a little jaded. That spark is gone?

It's also possible though that the machines now just aren't the same as the ones we grew up with.

Personally, I remember beginning to dislike computers a little when I was suddenly tasked with remembering passwords. At first it was simply to log into my machine (didn't need to do that on Mac System 6.0). Then when the internet came along, suddenly it became something of a chore using the machine…

After working 25+ years at Apple, when I finally retired, people have asked me since if I miss working at Apple. I have to tell them "no and yes". I don't miss working at Apple in the 2010's or the 2020's (when I finally retired). I do however miss working at Apple in the 90's, when I began. It was a very different time to be working at Apple. I miss it and have been missing it for several decades now.

Re: I Love the Computer

#154

Post by neuropacabra »

This is so nice and resonates with me deeply. For quite a while I have been stuggeling to love modern computer. When I was reading this, I saw myself - this is more or less me. We got a 386 when I was 4, and as much as I can remember I was playing DOS games and later on Windows I have been exploring this whole concept of computers and dreaming about writing a game or learn how to program. This was so transformative. I remember the whole hacker like community - tweaking registries, shareware on floppy drives, demo scene, the dawn of the internet, Altavista - yes no Google, every generation was a leap forward. Golden time? Maybe I romantize it too much? I don't know, but I remember I was technology positivist and loved computers. How am I suppose to love the machine that is snooping on me and selling my behavioral data to 3rd party and making people selling me ads based on this rich. Every app needs an account, now also age verification - what the ***. I want my computer to be mine. I want my data to be mine - how did we let happen all of that...Apologies for the rant :-) today's technology is equally exciting and cool, but one have to be careful about it much more. After reading this, I am certain I do love computers...but for few years now, I was a bit in lethargic mode thinking I once loved the computers.

Re: I Love the Computer

#155

Post by neuropacabra »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #153

I loved (past tense) the computer. Many of us here can wax nostalgic on our first memories of a computer in our home. And when we look at the current slab now in front of us with a little less wonder, it's easy to dismiss this as us having grown up with the machines, having become older, perhaps even a little jaded. That spark is gone? It's also possible though that the machines now just aren't the same as the ones w…

What a story. I never had a chance to play with System 6.0, my first one was Mac OSX Maverick...before DOS/W95-98/XP and Debian/Ubuntu...what was it like?

Re: I Love the Computer

#156

Post by ryandrake »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #95
m463 wrote: post #73

Computers used to have unlimited promise and potential. then at some point, the balance started tipping. Things I specifically remember: - half life required you to register online to install your single-player game from CD - turbotax would only install on one computer. - software started rooting around on your system and uploading the findings - the iphone didn't let you install your own software - microsoft. enough…

At some point, we were the owners of the machine. More importantly, this was normal . We could do whatever we wanted, and the corporations just had to accept it. World changing technology. Limitless potential. Now it's the opposite. The computers belong to the corporations. They're just generously allowing us to use them, and only in ways that they profit off of. Computers, arguably humanity's most important inventio…

Computers were great when the user was in control and got to decide what gets run and what doesn’t get run. When the user was in the driver’s seat. When software developers asked “what does the user want to do with their computer?” and not “what do we want the user to do?” Now instead of driving the car, users are just passengers going wherever software companies are taking them.

Re: I Love the Computer

#157

Post by stasomatic »

neuropacabra wrote: post #154

This is so nice and resonates with me deeply. For quite a while I have been stuggeling to love modern computer. When I was reading this, I saw myself - this is more or less me. We got a 386 when I was 4, and as much as I can remember I was playing DOS games and later on Windows I have been exploring this whole concept of computers and dreaming about writing a game or learn how to program. This was so transformative.…

I was at CUNY/Baruch in '91, discovering Usenet, Gopher etc at the campus' VMS, getting the thrill of using GameDoctor on my SNES. Then the civilians came onboard and all stopped feeling ... exclusive? How dare they voice their thoughts on comp.*, I am out...

It's all pure nostalgia for the times long gone. I get an urge once a year to get a thing from that era, and I do but I don't use it. That 90's Zelda does nothing for me anymore, but TOTK does.

Re: I Love the Computer

#158

Post by fusslo »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #153

I loved (past tense) the computer. Many of us here can wax nostalgic on our first memories of a computer in our home. And when we look at the current slab now in front of us with a little less wonder, it's easy to dismiss this as us having grown up with the machines, having become older, perhaps even a little jaded. That spark is gone? It's also possible though that the machines now just aren't the same as the ones w…

> suddenly it became something of a chore using the machine…

That really rings true. I can't believe how frustrating it is to get to a place where I can actually focus and do some work.

1. log into my computer with a pincode

2. log into jira, gitlab, confluence with sso (no automatic sign on)

3. ssh into dev containers with key that requires a password

4. open vscode, again ssh into dev containers with a password protected key

5. Close all the popups from IT (usually get 3-5 a day) in the notification area

Heaven help me if IT decided to force an update (I timed one to be 53 minutes). Some days I feel like a custodian instead of an engineer.

I know it's very much a first world problem, but it's shocking how many barriers exist to get any work done in US corporate world. Startups I've worked at didn't have this problem - just get a macbook and here's your gsuite user/pass.

Re: I Love the Computer

#159

Post by n3mo-dev »

I think I loved my first computer not the my latest one since the alot of thing changed ,I learnt my first coding language on their , it was fun , now I have a new computer but I hate it every time I open it I feel like it's a burden,open laptop take lectures ,do leetcode. So it just the time changed for me

Re: I Love the Computer

#160

Post by fpereiro »

pmg101 wrote: post #4

I love the computer too. Never more than while writing 6502 assembler for a decades-defunct home computer for literally no purpose at all. Meanwhile, the economy needs software to be written and I need employment, and I'm lucky enough to have a job that hews somewhat close to my interests, whether that be learning the latest JS framework or to prompt Claude. It's all pretty decent and better than chiselling coal out…

> It's all pretty decent and better than chiselling coal out of a pit for 10 hours a day.

Your comment has made my day, perhaps my week. Well said.

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