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When I was in grade 7-12 school, we had mainframes to learn how to program as well as the Apple. We did Fortran and C and Basic. On the Apple we burn EEPROMs for our embedded computer.On my Apple and peripherals I hacked the hardware and soldered in new functionality. In college we used every machine under the Sun to control experiments and analyze data. Such things taught me the difference between GPC and embedded devices and taught me that software is not all there is to computers.

There is nothing I did back then that I cannot do on the Mac. About the only thing that is missing is PLD software. The only difference is that software is much more sophisticated, so the learning curve is steeper, but the process is simpler.

Comparing an Apple][ to a iPod or iPhone is also silly. The later are embedded devices. It is like complaining one can't software hack a thermostat. Given no mention of Forth in the article(BTW forth was built into Macs until the Intel Mac) I suspect the writer could not hack it anyway.

If the writers wants to teach kids about tinkering, then most hardware is simply too complex anyway. There are too many levels of abstractions between the hardware and User. I suggest a subscription to circuit celler. In this issue we have a teletext based tv interface.

Lots of other small details were dead on. For those like me, with some interest in computers, a movie that actually got some things right was amazing. The movie *as a whole* is a different matter.

This brings up something I haven't figured out, it seems many on ./ didn't like the movie. But I did like it, and before it ever came out I had already decided to major in Computer Engineering. I had wanted to be like the hackers in the MIT Tech Model Railroad Club and the hackers on the west coast. My fav reading material back then was "Byte" magazine, I especially liked Jerry Pournelle's "Chaos Manor" and Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar". Unfortunately it went out of print years ago.

Falcon

"The Art of Electronics" is great. You might also want to look up Nuts and Volts magazine http://www.nutsvolts.com/, Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, http://www.circellar.com/ and pick up a couple of Don Lancaster's "Cookbook" series http://www.tinaja.com/. Steve and Don are hardware gurus that have been around since the beginning of home computers, and there is much insight to be gained. It is an odd thing, but often older books on 'obsolete' technology are easier to grasp, and give background no longer explained in modern volumes. For instance, I have a circa 1920's transformer handbook that speaks clearly on topics that are either glossed over, or not covered at all in many newer introductory texts.

Subscribe to Circuit Cellar Ink Steve Ciarcia has been doing electronic/software projects every month for over 30 years. Well OK, now he's just in charge of the magazine. That means you get to read about several projects every month instead of just one :-) This is exactly what you want to be reading. You can suplement it with some of the other suggestions on slashdot, but only to fill in the gaps when you don't understand something in Circuit Cellar. I'm shocked that I didn't see this listed in the comments so far - it's mandatory reading for what you want to do.

Other great DIY 'tinkering' sites I like are AX84.com, 18watt.com, and Byonics.

I'd post a link to my site with pictures/notes on my own hand-built tube amp project or my mini-GPS/APRS project (not yet out of planning), but I'm afraid of the /.-ing I'd take. :)

There was a similar device described as a Circuit Cellar column project in Byte about 9 years ago. IIRC, you had to buy an EEG electrode from a medical supply house. The design was very simple - essentially an amplifier, A/D converter, and serial connector. Search the Circuit Cellar archives if you are interested.

Check out Circuit Cellar if you like the hardware side of computing magazines.

This is the only non-IEEE magazine I subscribe to. Everything else I pick off the bookstore shelf, as I see fit.