What happened to the good ol' days of hackers?

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[MaxBeta]

  ..boy does this make me feel ancient..  It's my contention that PC's for the masses happened sort on a gamble at first..  Surprising numbers of consumers "bought" those near $3K boxes.  That's all it takes to start the snowball rolling..with the eightball of operating system upgrade close behind..  Look how many years it took to get the price down ..to earth level at least.  Which I think the competition from PSxx's and Xbox did play into it.. just a little.  Mostly the price is to reach the "other" consumer level..those conservative types who just won't buy until the price is "attractive"..

My history goes pre-processor, my first contract was to assist in the development of the 8088 hardwired processor..a time will the transistor count was a drop in the bucket to today's astronomical collection.  During that time I just didn't conceive ..having the computers I knew..at home.  I had kids and home was home.. work was work.  That sure didn't last long.. along comes Amiga..Commodors.. with me working two jobs..Intel during the day...testing and debugging DOS based games at night.  (being a natural insomniac that I am).. all seemed normal.

So when Windows finally arrived... the suggestion that a conspiracy seemed to be born.  I agree that the basic foundation of the way coding is implemented.. is flawed and a better approach could be used.  But the core of the coding is an out working of concentric circles of ..(like UC says) dll's supporting sys files..so the tsr world of processing data stays glued together...in a somewhat predictable state.  I've posted before..that the first approach to speeding up processors was like adding more tires to a race car...rather than making it fly like a rocket...which would mean changing the basic foundation of the processor itself.   

Once I brought a PC home..they've never left.. I have all of my collection still.. one I show off the most is the 486DX100..which has one of Western Digital's first 1GB hard drives..well before the retail outlet.. at the time everyone thought I had a "super computer" at home.  Some folks have tossed their ol PC's..as they are truly useless in today's tech-hyped world for practical use.  With me there's just too many memories tied to each revelation.. I worked on something with each one.. specific applications which in some instances became part of the foundation of what we have today, so the meaning is probably more personal than anything else.

Even though Windows is suspect and always far from perfection..it'll still get the call for those of us who realize ..it is are only means to handle what we want to do.  PC's have become a "third" arm.. I want it do whatever I ask it.  I leave the xBox and PS to the younger generation.. even the Wii for those who like that format.

Will Windows ever be prefect...? probably not.  Will someone revolutionize the OS environment?  Hopefully (I truly mean it).  Until it is replaced..on these hopes..like everyone else..I'm reduced to knowing or finding out.. how and what to do when things go wrong.  That battle no one escapes entirely.. ask CB how many time he's tried Vista.. hehe   

 

[City Builder]

No!  Please don't ask.  I don't have enough fingers and toes to count that high

I've seen OS's come and go, the next big craze hits the grass roots market and then they all stagnate due to the primary issue of no software to run on them in a mass market.  I liked where BeOS was going but it to like all flavors of Linux, and Unix, and so many other smaller unknown OS's always end up not being adopted by the mass market due to not enough of the software that we want to run being able to be run on those OS's.

Linux is about the only one that has stuck around and I attribute that to it being used on so many web servers, but who was it that tried to promote Linux as the desktop operating systems in the computers they sold? Walmart I believe and it was a failure from what I remember.  Now I travel through the techy isles in Walmart and see that they are now selling the HP's with Windows Vista on them.  If a giant like Walmart can't get the public to fully adopt a different operating system then nobody ever will.

It's my belief that since everybody and their grandmothers too design software to run on Windows there will never be another operating system that will be adopted by the mass mainstream market.  I feel it's just too far along now, when I go into a store like Frys electronics, I see aisle after aisle of software for windows OS, I see maybe 2 feet of one shelf of software that will run on Linux and one or two aisles of mac software.  I think it pretty much impossible to try to compete with that on a mainstream level.

You're only ancient if you were programming on punch cards.  If you were, then indeed you must be ancient

[MaxBeta]

 

Ancient?.. Yes..then I am.. my first job before Intel was with Texas Inst.. programming punch cards for manufactures who were re tooling to robotic/automated machinery..  so that dates me.. huh?... Being one of the first class of EE's with a Math degree.. then I had few places to land a job.. boy did that ever change.. hehe 

[City Builder]

Yup, it makes us people that started on tape youngsters by comparison.  But that's okay, we still wub you.

[MaxBeta]

   Thanks.. I need all the "wub" support I can get.. There's much insecurity obtained..when tech overwhelms a person's fond memories of times when things were so simple.  Tape?... did you ever use the tape component accessories with your trusty C64.. just curious..   

[City Builder]

No, my tape days started with the Tandy (radio shack) color computer and the regular cassette tape.  I use to have some textual games that were on those, and after rewinding them with little care about a dozen times they would stop working due to stretched tape.  Back then $14.99 was a small fortune, so I was quite bummed when that would happen.

My commodore was used for nothing more than playing "music" in the background of my home.  I lived up in the mountains without television signal, no cable TV, no radio, no nothing.  So odd as it sounds, I would load up some games on the commodore and just listen to the "music" that they played as background noise as someone who might listen to the tv or radio for background noise.

[MaxBeta]

   Yup.. a Tandy or two crossed my path.. mostly to just satisfy the kids..  Tape medium?.. ...had those sensitive moments.  That said.. every format, Atari, Commies.. we had to try them all at some point...that ol HOT new game syndrome thing we all know about.

Makes me want to dig out my collect of 5" floppies..just to remind myself of some of those early games.. and as I recall the music was kind of an afterthought.. well before mpeg days.

Folks have been dribbling in.. getting close to "present time"..  So I'll have to survive the distraction.. and probably miss my playing time for ..at least a day or so.  So what to do.. have another serving of Fruitcake I guess.  That's seem strangely appropriate considering..    

Have a Good one CB..where and whatever you're up to..   

[Unitedcat]

I went from the Texas Instrument Ti59 To the Commodore 64 
So I've had my 'experience' with the 'tape drive ' and I tried later to use 2 floppy units with the C64
Those Floppy units was I believe was more advanced, then the C64 itself. It was almost impossible to use 2 of them at the same time.
Each floppy unit contained a 6502 processor for it's own little OS    This must have been a bit overkill even at that time!?
And for some reason the read / write heads become misaligned frequently. It gave me the knowhow to align them, but it was not funny
after the 3rd time.

But overall it was the dawn of (Home) Computers, and it was funny and interesting many times 

Take it easy and don't eat too much. (it only makes you feel sick. Have coffee and a nice Brandy (Cognac) after the food, it's Great)

Merry Christmas to You 

[MaxBeta]

  Hard not to eat everything in sight...all these neat goodies..

I've been telling the g'kids tales of Xmases past..what their parent DID to make this time a memorable one.. they get bored so easy..so I spice it up whenever possible and let the parents straighten it out..if necessary.   

Mm?  I actually can recall when some of these mega companies were operating out of a two room tin building.  Definitely had the advantage in such a bright future..plus the consumer..appetite for High Tech.   

[CoconutKid]

YES,
I know it's not "nice" to open graves!

However, I was looking at all the current stuff about DRM and DLC and the various aspects of the war on game pirates ++ the hackers who are national security issues because they hit supposedly secure government agencies. Then I think about the chattering classes walking around exposing their genitals with their unencripted, hand-held devices. The "Borg" has conquered half the planet by accident.

Since this thread is only four years only and a sea-change has set in during that time, it seems to be a good place to start again about the pace of technological change vs the skill of the pirates \ hackers.

My question is, why do game developers think they can beat the pirates? From my view point, their efforts to do so are counter productive. They narrow the audience to computer nerds, or else they reduce the game content to eye-candy "Pac-Man."

http://pacman.com/en/

I also know I have a lot of personal baggage about the kind of games I enjoy. But no one wishes or needs to hear about that.

The world of games does intersect with the non-electronic world. The post office concept is collapsing as the paper letter and newpaper disappear (it never had a monoply on "parcels") -- soon there will have to be cellphone battery exchanges alongside the needle exchanges for the homeless. Your cellphone number will be more important for personal identification than your Social Security Number. Land-lines (of various components) are becoming obsolete in the competition with "wireless." Monetary policy concerned with the currency in circulation is completely obsolete since almost all (by value) money exchanges are done through electronic means - and many of the transactions create currency.

The medium of the game reflects the medium of the rest of the world. Or so I suggest for discussion if someone cares.