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Hackable Christmas Presents?
An Anonymous Coward asks what many of you may start thinking about in another month...if you already haven't: "While sitting thru various classes..I started wondering today what I'll drop hints to people with money for what
to get me for Christmas..I want something to hack on and with..but preferably in the sub $300 dollar category. Remember the fun of hacking things like the C64 or
Spectrum or whatever? A fun home machine to hack on.. preferably not a PC (though I know you can get them in that price range) but something a little different. A cheap ARM or Mips based machine or something. Suggestions from anyone?"
No, please, not yet. Don't mention the C-word for at least a month. I want to go to Japan to escape Xmas - they are pleasantly unclear on the concept there. Sometimes they make a token effort - one department store had a christmas display showing father christmas nailed to the cross.
Anyway, you don't need to go out of your way to give a true hacker a hackable device. In fact, its oxymoronic. A hack is where you figure it out yourself and modify something in an unforseen way. Giving somebody a "hackable" toy is condescending.
Slightly offtopic - I plan on making a homemade EEG (Electro-encephalogram, scan brainwaves) for an Xmas present to myself, I can handle the software side, but can anyone tell me what components I need to get some sensible signal into the serial port.
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
a sister ;)
you can even reprogram her brain,
and sometimes it's quite fast!
also exists in "brother" version.
(bZen
--
It isn't easy being the parent of a six-year-old. However, it's a pretty small price to pay for having somebody around the house who understands computers.
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, and I'm feeling good! -- Muse
You can't just rush out and buy an Amiga to get a hacking toy. Not if you have newer owned one before.
Getting an Amiga is like getting a child. You need to prepare yourself for the arrival of a new family member. You need to ask yourself if you are mentally ready to fully appreciate the technical superiority you will have at your hands.
Yes, you will swear when your Amiga cries (GURUs), you will lose sleep over trying to find the balance between different patches and hacks, but the Amiga will always reward you at the end of the day, and then you must prepare for wanting more, more and MORE!
Also, you might start loathing the disadvantages, shortcomings and quirks of other platforms, but don't do that. You will find that they sometimes can have their uses and by knowing your Amiga you'll know where the good things in the other platforms came from and what to expect in the future.
By all means, get an Amiga. But if you get one and discover that you are not yet prepared for one, please make sure that it comes to a new, loving home. The world has millions of closets with neglected and incarcerated Amigas who failed to find families who would love them and give them the attention they deserved and craved for.
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
Why get a computer? Last week I bought an electric wheel chair, complete and working. I allready have a second hand R/C aircraft radio and some wheels.
This isn't much different from hacking 300a's(drilling & welding) to run in SMP.
Sure it will not run linux, but it will scare the crap out of the familty pet.
Get yourself a cpu chip, a bundle of ICs and wire-wrap sockets, some board to hold the whole thing together, and a power-supply from a scrap PC.
For the cpu the 6809 - if you can still get them - is a really lovely set of instructions. Another possibility is an RCA 1802 or whatever is available nowadays. Another set of instructions with power beyond anything else at the time. Now hack away. Think of a FORTH-like inner interpreter for the 1802/Cosmac in less than 40 bytes! I made a multi-channel datalogger with one of those with only 256 bytes of RAM and 2k bytes of ROM. Those were the ( good old ? ) days of hacking. Forget distractions like Chistmas and new fangled notions like Linux until at least next February. Have some real fun.