First, thanks for taking the time on this. I'm grateful for the detailed info on the guts of the thing.
They are a *lot* more expensive. The RPi doesn't come with much out of the box. You need a PSU (many USB ports don't give out enough juice), an SD card, and probably a screen and keyboard to get going. This device is much more arduino like. They're not really comparable at all.
Yes, I'm aware of that. Actually these are being pushed 'free' in limited numbers. But, actually, in pre-history the BBC Acorn computer (which was the beginning of ARM) was expensive too. I feel that qui peut le plus peut le moins who can do the most can do the least is a good way to do it, too.
And a magnitude more of a pain in the ass to set up. To use this Pi, the pupil would require - a monitor or TV, an HDMI cable, a USB mouse & keyboard, a network connection or wifi dongle, a PSU, a charger, an SD card, and a very patient teacher and set of parents capable of setting this all up and transferring files for grading and exercises.
Actually I worked last year with one school that was successfully doing this. You don't really want switched-on smart phones in class, anyway, so you're obliged to hook the micro:bit to a 'computer' (of some kind), as with the Arduino if you want to do any programming.
Also to continue being ranty, Microsoft has had a good look in this time, not surprising since the last two technology heads were biased in that direction. If they want to 'develop', everything, yes, everything (the thing itself and associated ecosystem) needs to be open source, because it's public cash.
I did freelance work for the BBC in the early 2000s, but have stopped (my own choice) now.
I think it's a micro-controller actually. One program at a time, no operating system, just load/run. It's therefore similar to the Arduino.
As a Brit, I'm very annoyed by this, they could have just got behind the Arduino (for example) but no that was apparently NIH (Not Invented Here) so they've spent a lot of public money on this.
I do a certain amount of school volunteering and this is another thing that fragments attention and class time. I would have preferred full-fat pupil owned Raspberry Pis for example, a little more expensive but an order of magnitude more capable. Still the BBC is a law unto itself.
I'm not actually sure that the maths works out for large, luxurious, permanent, private space habitats, but I see this as a step in that direction. Makes it easier to countenance wrecking this one, for anyone that can afford it. For example, as Neal Stephenson wrote in Seveneves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (in a different context, the moon disintegrated) 'we' could just go up until things straightened themselves out a bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Alternative 3 looking less and less like a joke or a piece of conspiracy theory now. Everyone seems to want to rush to Mars now, too, although, that seems to me to be a lot less realistic than near-earth habitats.
Agree. Now got Linux Mint on my ex's (who used to phone every other day for support) and also a small office that I do voluntary work for (no money and fairly ancient laptops). There's a learning curve and a bit of push-back and after a couple of weeks everything settles at a much lower support intensity. No Windows virus infections either. OK, I probably don't have a huge sample there.
It's not a case of being a complete fanatic, but the practical reasons and aspects look pretty good, nowadays. The blocking factors tend to be specialised Windows-only software (Wine sometimes solves, sometimes not), hardware (drivers) but mainly 'fear' driven by brand (non) recognition.
Nope, not sure at all. Weak antibacterial properties will leave populations of higher resistance bacteria in your 'kitchen colony'. We were a lot dirtier (in many ways) in the 1960s, it hasn't harmed us (I can see the flame comments already building under this!) and may have been of benefit to our immune systems. Don't clean that basement (every week, anyway).
I'm old enough to have programmed in COBOL, and Java is the COBOL of the 1990s, bloated and ugly. The licensing is 'murky' and therefore subject to the current Google/Oracle 'discussions' and probably more of the same later.
However, as a Perl person and increasingly a Python person who 'sometimes' does Java, it makes both look good. I'm expecting some flaming for the mention of Perl, but, when you're used to it, it's nifty, just over-comment. Admittedly APL was probably 'too' expressive, but Java makes one die of boredom before the first finger hits the keyboard.
See http://www.forbes.com/sites/sa... for example. It's endemic. They'll probably derail civilisation as we know it eventually, bridges falling, weapons launched. Then, when we're back to the caves/trees and eating nuts and berries (not a bad life outside the cubicles, really), we will curse the evil god Ex-cel and provide blood sacrifices on altars (inscribed with A1, C2 etc.) to keep him away?
Thank you. Exactly, I haven't been there since 1989 and I'm 65 now, so I won't be going. Shame, good conferences and there's lots I like/admire about (some of) the 'common people' but your government is as bad as ours in the UK now. We're probably sneakier and more hypocritical though, that's the British way.
Whoosh! Please accept a hug from 'an ignorant old fuck'. I was funning, hey, I even know what 'Facebook' is. Remember too that you will be 'an ignorant (you're that already!) old fuck' someday unless you'd prefer to die before reaching that exalted state. Normally, I don't feed trolls, but today, on behalf of my decrepit sisters and brothers and polite people everywhere, I'm making an exception.
I remember it, at 65, actually I remember huge batch only mainframes. On a more serious note, I have a lot of time for Gopher, Lynx and all the 'simpifiers', I'd prefer everyone to have knowledge and communication at a low bandwidth rather than adverts, emojiis (whatever they are) and pictures of cats. My vision, going forward is goodbye port 80 and port 443, let's start again.
Yes, really, I'm 65 now, born in 1950, started 'computing' with discrete transistors, relays (I was something of a steampunk before it existed) and dekatrons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Well done for the calculator and I agree, always good to play with 'first principles', fun too. Be well.
NAND chips bah! How about relays? I did actually try this in about 1965, but my family took away the half-working half-adder because I blew some fuses. Spoilsports.
As as child in the 1960s, I went to the Science Museum in London. There were lots of handles to crank and buttons to push, and the science tended flow out of that. Taking my own son in the early 1980s, it was somewhat the same and rather enjoyable, crank something and see what happens.
Also (one of) MONIAC, the Philips Hydraulic Computer was there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and currently there's a reconstructed Difference Engine (also in Mountain View, I think?). These objects make computing very 'visible' and kids (quite wisely) are not very abstract. Besides they can now get all the coding lessons etc. in school, so a musueum shouldn't be more of the same.
Yes, it's full of hydrogen which is very flammable and explosive in comfined spaces. The oxygen helps it burn too. I'd suggest gin, but, that's got water in it, and, anyway alcohol is inflammable and lethal too. We're doomed, I say, doomed.
I removed myself from Linkedin on the very day that Microsoft bought it. I'm not a totally rabid anti-Microsoft, but there's a sustained history of unpleasant business practices. I don't want them in my professional life, such as it is, at 65. People may say (somewhat rightly) that I have that option.
However, here is a thought experiment. If everyone closed their Linkedin account, then Microsoft is immediately out $26 billion, no rioting, no police or lawyers, nothing. This is rather beneficial flip side of if it's free, you are the product, more like if you can de-subscribe, you control the value of the product, less elegant but truthy.
Doesn't anyone understand that half of the consumer offer is (what I call) 'binaries' now? For a specific razor, there is a specific blade, printer and printer cartridge (preferably with phone-home and self-destruct for any third party supplier), coffee machine and specific coffee capsule. So basically, you buy the thing and then you buy the accessory until the thing wears out.
If people start making stuff according to universal standards, then things fit in other things and the sky will fall. I agree that this argument is weak when applied to headphones, but it's part of it. For example, once we have bluetooth only, let's encrypt the stream, so that only Apple headphones (or Whatever TM and licensed) work.
Yes, I'm part of this thread, as a 65 year old. I first wrote a little FORTRAN program in 1966 to calculate Ï to run on an ICL mainframe that was part of the UK steel industry. Because computer time was so expensive, 'they' (management) wouldn't let it loop and loop.
Yes, as I [mis]understand this, it has to go to the Tory (Conservative, for readers abroad) party membership in September. Leadsome is/was a 'leaver', a Brexiteer, May isn't. The non-London members may well be a majority of 'leavers', who might feel that May's heart is not in 'leaving'. Who knows?
Incidentally, May is a great image-person and self-publicist but her actual level of achievement is less than stellar, see: http://order-order.com/2016/07... which was pulled from the (right wing) Daily Telegraph.
I call these things 'insultations' now. The government (national or local) asks a question, we waste time formulating reasoned answers and then they do something else after saying something like 'we are concerned by your issues'. There's a huge disconnect between UK government/Westminster (in principle, our 'representatives') and the people now, part of the reason for the recent surprising Brexit vote, it was probably just anger, in many cases, not a real desire to leave.
We always need more and more stuff, until we live on a mound of immediately obsolete consumer goods and (apparently, thanks Alexa!) rolls of lavatory paper.
Yes, it's very sad. Last time I went was 1989, I'm 65, a Londoner and not planning on going again. Mid 80's I went out with someone from Oregon and was made very welcome, they enjoyed my strange accent too. New York too, immediately you arrive you feel that you drank about five cups of strong coffee (though I guess New Yorkers are immune?).
I don't think the people have changed that much and, very often, they are lovely. But the government etc. seems to have.
I've noticed Google and Microsoft pushing into the UK too. My view is that instead of education, we're getting 'knowledge by Amazon', a brand that they will remember and re-access/prioritise for purchases as they grow older. Amazon (Google, Microsoft etc.) are getting a huge amount of free analytics from their 'future consumers' (or school children/our kids as we'd probably prefer to call them). So it's win-win, NOT.
However the Council of Permanent Representatives (COREPER): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... prepares and 'adjusts' the agenda for the European Council, they are unelected.
The parliament pretty much rubber stamps. The one nuclear power they have is to sack the Commission, last time they chickened out though. Junckers himself is Luxembourger, Luxembourg is a major tax haven (yes, that's ad hominem, but it's an 'indicator').
I worked for both for nearly ten years and came out a marginal 'leaver'. That said, there's going to be some long term chaos now, that I'd prefer to avoid.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I'm aware of that. Actually these are being pushed 'free' in limited numbers. But, actually, in pre-history the BBC Acorn computer (which was the beginning of ARM) was expensive too. I feel that qui peut le plus peut le moins who can do the most can do the least is a good way to do it, too.
Actually I worked last year with one school that was successfully doing this. You don't really want switched-on smart phones in class, anyway, so you're obliged to hook the micro:bit to a 'computer' (of some kind), as with the Arduino if you want to do any programming.
Also to continue being ranty, Microsoft has had a good look in this time, not surprising since the last two technology heads were biased in that direction. If they want to 'develop', everything, yes, everything (the thing itself and associated ecosystem) needs to be open source, because it's public cash.
I did freelance work for the BBC in the early 2000s, but have stopped (my own choice) now.
I think it's a micro-controller actually. One program at a time, no operating system, just load/run. It's therefore similar to the Arduino.
As a Brit, I'm very annoyed by this, they could have just got behind the Arduino (for example) but no that was apparently NIH (Not Invented Here) so they've spent a lot of public money on this.
I do a certain amount of school volunteering and this is another thing that fragments attention and class time. I would have preferred full-fat pupil owned Raspberry Pis for example, a little more expensive but an order of magnitude more capable. Still the BBC is a law unto itself.
I'm not actually sure that the maths works out for large, luxurious, permanent, private space habitats, but I see this as a step in that direction. Makes it easier to countenance wrecking this one, for anyone that can afford it. For example, as Neal Stephenson wrote in Seveneves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (in a different context, the moon disintegrated) 'we' could just go up until things straightened themselves out a bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Alternative 3 looking less and less like a joke or a piece of conspiracy theory now. Everyone seems to want to rush to Mars now, too, although, that seems to me to be a lot less realistic than near-earth habitats.
Agree. Now got Linux Mint on my ex's (who used to phone every other day for support) and also a small office that I do voluntary work for (no money and fairly ancient laptops). There's a learning curve and a bit of push-back and after a couple of weeks everything settles at a much lower support intensity. No Windows virus infections either. OK, I probably don't have a huge sample there.
It's not a case of being a complete fanatic, but the practical reasons and aspects look pretty good, nowadays. The blocking factors tend to be specialised Windows-only software (Wine sometimes solves, sometimes not), hardware (drivers) but mainly 'fear' driven by brand (non) recognition.
Nope, not sure at all. Weak antibacterial properties will leave populations of higher resistance bacteria in your 'kitchen colony'. We were a lot dirtier (in many ways) in the 1960s, it hasn't harmed us (I can see the flame comments already building under this!) and may have been of benefit to our immune systems. Don't clean that basement (every week, anyway).
I'm old enough to have programmed in COBOL, and Java is the COBOL of the 1990s, bloated and ugly. The licensing is 'murky' and therefore subject to the current Google/Oracle 'discussions' and probably more of the same later.
However, as a Perl person and increasingly a Python person who 'sometimes' does Java, it makes both look good. I'm expecting some flaming for the mention of Perl, but, when you're used to it, it's nifty, just over-comment. Admittedly APL was probably 'too' expressive, but Java makes one die of boredom before the first finger hits the keyboard.
See http://www.forbes.com/sites/sa... for example. It's endemic. They'll probably derail civilisation as we know it eventually, bridges falling, weapons launched. Then, when we're back to the caves/trees and eating nuts and berries (not a bad life outside the cubicles, really), we will curse the evil god Ex-cel and provide blood sacrifices on altars (inscribed with A1, C2 etc.) to keep him away?
Thank you. Exactly, I haven't been there since 1989 and I'm 65 now, so I won't be going. Shame, good conferences and there's lots I like/admire about (some of) the 'common people' but your government is as bad as ours in the UK now. We're probably sneakier and more hypocritical though, that's the British way.
Whoosh! Please accept a hug from 'an ignorant old fuck'. I was funning, hey, I even know what 'Facebook' is. Remember too that you will be 'an ignorant (you're that already!) old fuck' someday unless you'd prefer to die before reaching that exalted state. Normally, I don't feed trolls, but today, on behalf of my decrepit sisters and brothers and polite people everywhere, I'm making an exception.
I remember it, at 65, actually I remember huge batch only mainframes. On a more serious note, I have a lot of time for Gopher, Lynx and all the 'simpifiers', I'd prefer everyone to have knowledge and communication at a low bandwidth rather than adverts, emojiis (whatever they are) and pictures of cats. My vision, going forward is goodbye port 80 and port 443, let's start again.
Yes, really, I'm 65 now, born in 1950, started 'computing' with discrete transistors, relays (I was something of a steampunk before it existed) and dekatrons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Well done for the calculator and I agree, always good to play with 'first principles', fun too. Be well.
NAND chips bah! How about relays? I did actually try this in about 1965, but my family took away the half-working half-adder because I blew some fuses. Spoilsports.
As as child in the 1960s, I went to the Science Museum in London. There were lots of handles to crank and buttons to push, and the science tended flow out of that. Taking my own son in the early 1980s, it was somewhat the same and rather enjoyable, crank something and see what happens.
Also (one of) MONIAC, the Philips Hydraulic Computer was there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and currently there's a reconstructed Difference Engine (also in Mountain View, I think?). These objects make computing very 'visible' and kids (quite wisely) are not very abstract. Besides they can now get all the coding lessons etc. in school, so a musueum shouldn't be more of the same.
Yes, it's full of hydrogen which is very flammable and explosive in comfined spaces. The oxygen helps it burn too. I'd suggest gin, but, that's got water in it, and, anyway alcohol is inflammable and lethal too. We're doomed, I say, doomed.
I removed myself from Linkedin on the very day that Microsoft bought it. I'm not a totally rabid anti-Microsoft, but there's a sustained history of unpleasant business practices. I don't want them in my professional life, such as it is, at 65. People may say (somewhat rightly) that I have that option.
However, here is a thought experiment. If everyone closed their Linkedin account, then Microsoft is immediately out $26 billion, no rioting, no police or lawyers, nothing. This is rather beneficial flip side of if it's free, you are the product, more like if you can de-subscribe, you control the value of the product, less elegant but truthy.
Doesn't anyone understand that half of the consumer offer is (what I call) 'binaries' now? For a specific razor, there is a specific blade, printer and printer cartridge (preferably with phone-home and self-destruct for any third party supplier), coffee machine and specific coffee capsule. So basically, you buy the thing and then you buy the accessory until the thing wears out.
If people start making stuff according to universal standards, then things fit in other things and the sky will fall. I agree that this argument is weak when applied to headphones, but it's part of it. For example, once we have bluetooth only, let's encrypt the stream, so that only Apple headphones (or Whatever TM and licensed) work.
Yes, I'm part of this thread, as a 65 year old. I first wrote a little FORTRAN program in 1966 to calculate Ï to run on an ICL mainframe that was part of the UK steel industry. Because computer time was so expensive, 'they' (management) wouldn't let it loop and loop.
On my list is Filetab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... as mad as Perl and, like Perl, very useful.
Yes, as I [mis]understand this, it has to go to the Tory (Conservative, for readers abroad) party membership in September. Leadsome is/was a 'leaver', a Brexiteer, May isn't. The non-London members may well be a majority of 'leavers', who might feel that May's heart is not in 'leaving'. Who knows?
Incidentally, May is a great image-person and self-publicist but her actual level of achievement is less than stellar, see: http://order-order.com/2016/07... which was pulled from the (right wing) Daily Telegraph.
I call these things 'insultations' now. The government (national or local) asks a question, we waste time formulating reasoned answers and then they do something else after saying something like 'we are concerned by your issues'. There's a huge disconnect between UK government/Westminster (in principle, our 'representatives') and the people now, part of the reason for the recent surprising Brexit vote, it was probably just anger, in many cases, not a real desire to leave.
We always need more and more stuff, until we live on a mound of immediately obsolete consumer goods and (apparently, thanks Alexa!) rolls of lavatory paper.
Yes, it's very sad. Last time I went was 1989, I'm 65, a Londoner and not planning on going again. Mid 80's I went out with someone from Oregon and was made very welcome, they enjoyed my strange accent too. New York too, immediately you arrive you feel that you drank about five cups of strong coffee (though I guess New Yorkers are immune?).
I don't think the people have changed that much and, very often, they are lovely. But the government etc. seems to have.
I've noticed Google and Microsoft pushing into the UK too. My view is that instead of education, we're getting 'knowledge by Amazon', a brand that they will remember and re-access/prioritise for purchases as they grow older. Amazon (Google, Microsoft etc.) are getting a huge amount of free analytics from their 'future consumers' (or school children/our kids as we'd probably prefer to call them). So it's win-win, NOT.
Nothing is free and this sucks.
Nope. It's a statement of fact. Oftentimes they do, but read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... concerning democratic legitimacy, Seidentopp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and finally, Bernard Connolly's Rotten Heart of Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for a closer look at all this, in detail.
However the Council of Permanent Representatives (COREPER): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... prepares and 'adjusts' the agenda for the European Council, they are unelected.
The parliament pretty much rubber stamps. The one nuclear power they have is to sack the Commission, last time they chickened out though. Junckers himself is Luxembourger, Luxembourg is a major tax haven (yes, that's ad hominem, but it's an 'indicator').
I worked for both for nearly ten years and came out a marginal 'leaver'. That said, there's going to be some long term chaos now, that I'd prefer to avoid.