Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Is Computing As Cool and Fun As It Once Was?
dryriver writes: I got together with old computer nerd friends the other day. All of us have been at it since the 8-bit/1980s days of Amstrad, Atari, Commodore 64-type home computers. Everybody at the meeting agreed on one thing -- computing is just not as cool and as much fun as it once was. One person lamented that computer games nowadays are tied to internet DRM like Steam, that some crucial DCC software is available to rent only now (e.g. Photoshop) and that many "basic freedoms" of the old-school computer nerd are increasingly disappearing. Another said that Windows 10's spyware aspects made him give up on his beloved PC platform and that he will use Linux and Android devices only from now on, using consoles to game on instead of a PC because of this. A third complained about zero privacy online, internet advertising, viruses, ransomware, hacking, crapware. I lamented that the hardware industry still hasn't given us anything resembling photorealistic realtime 3D graphics, and that the current VR trend arrived a full decade later than it should have. A point of general agreement was that big tech companies in particular don't treat computer users with enough respect anymore. What do Slashdotters think? Is computing still as cool and fun as it once was, or has something "become irreversibly lost" as computing evolved into a multi-billion dollar global business?
While all true, people seem to forget how hard it was to get software before the internet, especially if you were a kid with no money. These days you can download vast amounts of high quality software, and its source code to tinker with. In some respects we are a lot better off now, and when you had to rely on friends, clubs and magazine cover disks/tapes.
On the other hand, we are definitely a lot further removed form the inner workings of computers now. There is a massive amount of abstraction, which is kind of good for a lot of purposes but also very much encourages people not to look too far beyond really high level library functions. The lack of hacking friendly ports on the hardware side is a big issue too.
But then again you can get a pretty good oscilloscope for peanuts now, so in some ways hardware hacking is a lot easier than it used to be to get into. We don't have those great kits you could buy from magazines any more though, and while people like Adafruit do offer some interesting stuff it's more Arduino level plugging modules together than figuring out why your transistor biasing isn't working.
Personally I like the older stuff. Emulators are great for it actually - back in the day I used to reboot my computer about 900 times a day as I was trying to debug assembler (didn't have a single step debugger and of course no memory protection) and figure out what the hardware was doing, and emulators make it much easier.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The programmer's toolbox is better now, with more languages, code can have longer, clearer and more complex lines, safer calls, better garbage collection and modularity, a more uniform common user interface, and sophisticated database interactions.
What's missing is that great unknown, limitless potential, the clubs, Dr. Dobbs, and the clueless millions wanting, needing and willing to believe whatever you told them. And they were willing to pay too.
Programming isn't as cool anymore. I know people in IT who look down on programmers, ridicule what they do. They beg their bosses for classes on how to be an administrator and run Windows, Servers, SharePoint, 365, Azure, Exchange, SMS,...
There is big money in programming, but rarely for programmers. Corporate programming jobs are often outsourced with short short term contracts, or just part time, which negatively affects the software product. The corporations don't care, as long as it doesn't affect the bottom line. Further hampering good programming, the sales departments have become dominant, turning software products into advertising platforms - even the operating system. Surveillance has become an indispensable revenue stream, as businesses have learned from Google and FaceBook how to monetize user information.
The game industry rakes in over $20 billion annually. As they've gotten richer, they've gotten more paranoid over DRM. 3rd tier business software is everywhere, with customers paying more every year. Accountants', auditors' and governments' standards demand that certain financial information be packaged according to the rule books. If anything goes wrong, until otherwise proved, it's the local programmer's fault. The one exception: if the programmer is in 'the club', they find somebody/something else to blame.
Yeah, programming can still be fun, but cool - eh.