I have one that is very old. Exact age not known but I've had it since the early 1980's and it was old then. I have several others that are probably older based on the types. I know several people that have ones that are from their great grand parents. They last.
Speaking of manual transmission, I hear your pain, but I just bought one with manual transmission, and high-low as well. Nice machine.
Also, just because a machine is digital doesn't mean it has to have the nonsense monthly subscriptions and limitations. A counter example is Apple is becoming more open with their ecosystem with their latest OS and iOS and Google is even more open. Feel free to hack the core. There have always been people who do it and people who feel too intimidated. Pick which you want to be.
My cast iron frying pan has worked for nearly a century and will likely last several more centuries without any upgrades, fees, etc.
Personally I'm not all that interested in having a microprocessor in every device. Most things don't need them. However, virtually everything I own I can take apart, fix, hack and rebuild - yes, even "Smart" devices.
The original poster's comments say more about them than they do about technology. There have always been people who didn't know how to do more than turn the switch to get light.
"I'm not saying dealers don't provide a valuable service."
I am. Dealers provide a huge disservice. They are over priced, monopolistic and provide awful service because they can. Since they don't have competition they get away with this.
What you describe has nothing to do with the Z80 processor but rather the ZX81 kit you had.
I had a Exidy Sorcerer which had a Z80 in it also. A great computer. It was my third but not my final Z80 based machine. All of them were tops for their time and a lot better than you're describing. You merely had a poorly done implementation.
It is important to differentiate the OS (what you're really complaining about) from the processor.
Spoken like a true coward that doesn't know how to do it and doesn't get it. I can't hire people to do what I do and we enjoy what we do. It's the journey. When you figure that out you'll be much happier.
1) Documentation. 2) We cross train. Not as in sports. 3) We're all family and our family is very engineering and math inclined. It seems to be a genetic trait. Some people have it. It makes machines, and even electronics and code, fairly obvious while to those without this trait things look too complex. Some people are born engineers. Training enhances it, yes. But there is an inclination. Just like starting out with good genetics in livestock or farm working dogs.
Sugar Mountain Farm Pastured Pork Sold mainly in Vermont since we intend to stay small. One only needs to work so hard and one only needs so much money.
Problem is Apple is putting too much emphasis on glimmer and glitz. They need to focus on functionality, speed and legacy compatibility. A new OS should always be faster, less buggy, more stable, etc. It should also run smoothly and easily on the older hardware, gracefully falling back on functions the hardware won't support. Doing old things should always be the same or better, never worse.
We are a small family farm. We're building our own USDA/State inspected meat processing facility - almost done. I designed the facility myself from scratch. We have done all the construction of our building. We will do all the work in the facility ourselves. We built much of the equipment for our butcher shop, mostly out of stainless steel. We built many of the tools to build the above equipment. We invented techniques, tools and processes to do what we need to do. More people need to innovate. It is quite doable.
And in MacOSX 11 and iOS 9 Apple will officially abandon all previous file formats so you have to rebuy all your music in their new wonderful format.
8Track Tape... Cassette Tapes... CDs... DVDs... BlueRay......and all those other formats that never really made it but they suckered people into buying. The industry likes you to rebuy your entire data collection every few years. It's a cheaper way for them to make profits than actually producing great new products.
"I have noticed that many of the older software developers are burnt out. They would rather do their 9-5, get paid, and go home. They have little, if any, passion left, and I constantly wonder how they became this way."
The reason you are seeing this is that the good creative developers left to start their own companies leaving behind the people like you describe. Fairly classic.
In other news Google points out that although the Sun and stars shine with bright light they also have light bulbs in the Google offices and in their next office buildings they will be eliminating the light switches so that lights shine by default.
So does this mean that I'll get faster, better service?
OR
Does this mean that I'll lose the service I now have?
OR
Will the price skyrocket?
One of those three. I live in a rural area, as does much of the country. We have a big country. This is not some piddling small urbanesque country like they have in Europe with short distances. The USA has vast distances between homes and businesses in the rural areas.
Basically what I hear him saying is he only wants to subsidize the urbanites and to hell with the rural folks. Typical bureaucrat. They are from the cities and don't understand the real world outside their borders.
The reality is I already pay $130/month for what costs about $20/month in the city but I only get 1.5Mbps rather than the 25Mbps they get in the urban areas. I suspect that rather than getting better service I'll simply lose what I have. When a piece of hardware goes down the phone company, the only ISP around, will just not replace it leaving a black hole in the telecommunications landscape. No cell. No landline. No internet.
Save your 'outrage' for something real and meaningful. This is not a real problem. You have not been harmed. Get over it. It has been normal for decades for music players to come with free sample songs.
Yes, this is happening and judges sometimes throw it out as government gone too far. Hopefully the trend of government getting their knuckles knocked will intensify.
Actually, "how high above the dirt you own" is already well defined, both in law, regulation and court cases. What is happening at the ground and a bit above on your property is yours and you can even own copyright on it. Government and individuals are not supposed to snoop on you. Fliers are not supposed to fly below 500' above you in rural areas, higher in urban areas. The result is that if someone is peeping on you in a situation where you can reasonably expect privacy you can sue them and they can also separately be fined and imprisoned by the government. The government itself is supposed to get a warrant to view you.
Just as importantly, the other logical question is how far down below the surface do you own. This is your mineral rights.
Typically in the eastern United States you own all the way down, let's say to the mantle. The exact depth doesn't get too much precedence since deep drilling hasn't been done but fracking may be changing that soon.
Out in the western United States you may well not own below your surface soil, you may well not own your mineral rights, you may well not own your water rights and you may well not even own the rain that falls upon your land. Check your deed and your state laws.
In the fourth dimension of space you own nothing. That is possibly reserved for the alternative owners who may or may not own the land you own in this variation of the multiverse. This will not appear on your deed.
In the fifth dimension (time) your ownership started at some point in the past delineated by your purchase and will end at some point in the future marked by your death or other event. Again, check your deed for the particulars.
Slashdot Mirror
I have one that is very old. Exact age not known but I've had it since the early 1980's and it was old then. I have several others that are probably older based on the types. I know several people that have ones that are from their great grand parents. They last.
Speaking of manual transmission, I hear your pain, but I just bought one with manual transmission, and high-low as well. Nice machine.
Also, just because a machine is digital doesn't mean it has to have the nonsense monthly subscriptions and limitations. A counter example is Apple is becoming more open with their ecosystem with their latest OS and iOS and Google is even more open. Feel free to hack the core. There have always been people who do it and people who feel too intimidated. Pick which you want to be.
Yet the government (FBI) objects to our desires for privacy (Apple & Google on-phone encryption).
My cast iron frying pan has worked for nearly a century and will likely last several more centuries without any upgrades, fees, etc.
Personally I'm not all that interested in having a microprocessor in every device. Most things don't need them. However, virtually everything I own I can take apart, fix, hack and rebuild - yes, even "Smart" devices.
The original poster's comments say more about them than they do about technology. There have always been people who didn't know how to do more than turn the switch to get light.
"I'm not saying dealers don't provide a valuable service."
I am. Dealers provide a huge disservice. They are over priced, monopolistic and provide awful service because they can. Since they don't have competition they get away with this.
What you describe has nothing to do with the Z80 processor but rather the ZX81 kit you had.
I had a Exidy Sorcerer which had a Z80 in it also. A great computer. It was my third but not my final Z80 based machine. All of them were tops for their time and a lot better than you're describing. You merely had a poorly done implementation.
It is important to differentiate the OS (what you're really complaining about) from the processor.
"Either the author is an idiot, or his universe has more dimensions than mine."
The latter seems more likely.
I love this idea. Until the cooling system fails.
Spoken like a true coward that doesn't know how to do it and doesn't get it. I can't hire people to do what I do and we enjoy what we do. It's the journey. When you figure that out you'll be much happier.
1) Documentation.
2) We cross train. Not as in sports.
3) We're all family and our family is very engineering and math inclined. It seems to be a genetic trait. Some people have it. It makes machines, and even electronics and code, fairly obvious while to those without this trait things look too complex. Some people are born engineers. Training enhances it, yes. But there is an inclination. Just like starting out with good genetics in livestock or farm working dogs.
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pork
Sold mainly in Vermont since we intend to stay small. One only needs to work so hard and one only needs so much money.
Problem is Apple is putting too much emphasis on glimmer and glitz. They need to focus on functionality, speed and legacy compatibility. A new OS should always be faster, less buggy, more stable, etc. It should also run smoothly and easily on the older hardware, gracefully falling back on functions the hardware won't support. Doing old things should always be the same or better, never worse.
Fail.
We are a small family farm.
We're building our own USDA/State inspected meat processing facility - almost done.
I designed the facility myself from scratch.
We have done all the construction of our building.
We will do all the work in the facility ourselves.
We built much of the equipment for our butcher shop, mostly out of stainless steel.
We built many of the tools to build the above equipment.
We invented techniques, tools and processes to do what we need to do.
More people need to innovate.
It is quite doable.
And in MacOSX 11 and iOS 9 Apple will officially abandon all previous file formats so you have to rebuy all your music in their new wonderful format.
8Track Tape... ...and all those other formats that never really made it but they suckered people into buying. The industry likes you to rebuy your entire data collection every few years. It's a cheaper way for them to make profits than actually producing great new products.
Cassette Tapes...
CDs...
DVDs...
BlueRay...
Et U2?
Imagine how much less spamming and hacking we'll have! No more Russian brides. Yeah!
"I have noticed that many of the older software developers are burnt out. They would rather do their 9-5, get paid, and go home. They have little, if any, passion left, and I constantly wonder how they became this way."
The reason you are seeing this is that the good creative developers left to start their own companies leaving behind the people like you describe. Fairly classic.
A significant difference in the distribution. But you're probably urban and don't understand this.
In other news Google points out that although the Sun and stars shine with bright light they also have light bulbs in the Google offices and in their next office buildings they will be eliminating the light switches so that lights shine by default.
So does this mean that I'll get faster, better service?
OR
Does this mean that I'll lose the service I now have?
OR
Will the price skyrocket?
One of those three. I live in a rural area, as does much of the country. We have a big country. This is not some piddling small urbanesque country like they have in Europe with short distances. The USA has vast distances between homes and businesses in the rural areas.
Basically what I hear him saying is he only wants to subsidize the urbanites and to hell with the rural folks. Typical bureaucrat. They are from the cities and don't understand the real world outside their borders.
The reality is I already pay $130/month for what costs about $20/month in the city but I only get 1.5Mbps rather than the 25Mbps they get in the urban areas. I suspect that rather than getting better service I'll simply lose what I have. When a piece of hardware goes down the phone company, the only ISP around, will just not replace it leaving a black hole in the telecommunications landscape. No cell. No landline. No internet.
"Our robot can be silent and as efficient as animals. The only things you hear are the feet hitting the ground."
He doesn't have very good hearing. Real animals can be a lot quieter than his motors. His robots are making sounds - he just isn't hearing them.
Furthermore his future goal of 30 mph is pretty slow. I have dogs that run twice that. Real cheetahs run almost three times that.
Not to diss his achievements with his robots but he should stop spinning the PR so hard. Exaggeration isn't necessary.
"When antibiotics are used to kill them, dying viruses release toxins"
Too bad SlashDot isn't a science web site...
(Antibiotics aren't used for viruses.)
Save your 'outrage' for something real and meaningful. This is not a real problem. You have not been harmed. Get over it. It has been normal for decades for music players to come with free sample songs.
If you're limited to three dimensions then I'm sorry but you won't be able to understand. Here... ... did you get that?
Yes, this is happening and judges sometimes throw it out as government gone too far. Hopefully the trend of government getting their knuckles knocked will intensify.
Hmm... then your world is a subset of the real world. How fascinating to meet you.
Actually, "how high above the dirt you own" is already well defined, both in law, regulation and court cases. What is happening at the ground and a bit above on your property is yours and you can even own copyright on it. Government and individuals are not supposed to snoop on you. Fliers are not supposed to fly below 500' above you in rural areas, higher in urban areas. The result is that if someone is peeping on you in a situation where you can reasonably expect privacy you can sue them and they can also separately be fined and imprisoned by the government. The government itself is supposed to get a warrant to view you.
Just as importantly, the other logical question is how far down below the surface do you own. This is your mineral rights.
Typically in the eastern United States you own all the way down, let's say to the mantle. The exact depth doesn't get too much precedence since deep drilling hasn't been done but fracking may be changing that soon.
Out in the western United States you may well not own below your surface soil, you may well not own your mineral rights, you may well not own your water rights and you may well not even own the rain that falls upon your land. Check your deed and your state laws.
In the fourth dimension of space you own nothing. That is possibly reserved for the alternative owners who may or may not own the land you own in this variation of the multiverse. This will not appear on your deed.
In the fifth dimension (time) your ownership started at some point in the past delineated by your purchase and will end at some point in the future marked by your death or other event. Again, check your deed for the particulars.
How interesting that she, a liberal, is just now waking up to this. May they all wake up, on both sides of the spectrum, and realize the dangers.