I concur that linux has lost the pioneering edge that it once had.
For more "fun" projects, I've switched (in the hobby sense) to embedded processsors. I've always done professional embedded projects and for the past few years have been having fun with the PIC and recently the ARM processors.
You might want to look at doing applicatons (like stand alone systems) without the use of a canned OS/hardware platform.
Shoot nowadays, if you can solder quad packs, you can get all that you had on the CP/M based machines available as an under $10.00 part. There are even snippets of code for things like RTOS and FAT16 file systems for SD cards and the like.
Of course you can always go with uCLinux.
Although there are active communities with the same interests, they are all on the internet and as I mentioned on my earlier post, they don't have the "face value" associated with geek meeting geek over pizza and a couple of brewskies.
I have firsthand memories of the homebrew computer club. As others have mentioned, Lee usually
was the man with the stick (moderator). It was a live crew that showed up at SLAC. In fact, my first engineering mentor would show up from time to time. Most/many of us were "paid hobbiests" that did it both for fun and bucks. I don't believe that I was around Woz as I was a smoker and we seperated the two sides of the meeting to smokers and non smokers (a different era). There were many "famous" folks who regularly showed up at club meetings:
Lee, as mentioned developed the first Osborne.
Our librarian later developed Dr. Dobbs Journal.
Yeah, as mentioned earlier, the Apple I did tie up the only electrical outlet in the front doorway. If memory serves me correctly, Apple Basic didn't come in until Apple II's. It was a video octal/hex debug tool in the Apple I. Indeed, I remember wooden sides and a plexiglass top panel, so you could see the motherboard.
Many of us were interested in the 8080/Z80 systems of the Altair/Imsai/etc/etc/ systems. Indeed, I was there when the club coined the term S100 bus. My little piece of history.
A "big" system had 16K RAM, usually an audio cassette mass storage device, an old RS232
terminal (mine was first a Textronics, later a Lear Sigler ADM3, which I still have in
my garage and still has the best keyboard "feel" that I have ever run across). If you were
real lucky you had one or more floppy disk drives (8 inch Sugarts were favorites). CP/M was the "big time" operating system of choice. The Apple was more of an "interesting" device, not mainstream for the hobby at that time. The 6502 was certianly cheap enough!
I can still find some of the camaraderie at the local Linux UG (LUG). However, I don't find the "rough edges" and cutting edge technology. Really, it was more of "damn, I wonder if this will work" rather than some "intuitive philosophies". Smoke was not your friend then as it still isn't your friend today, but you sure saw a lot more of it in those days...... Our LUG still has the geeks show up and we have interesting lectures, but even the open source stuff is getting pretty cut and dried, relatively speaking.
The internet is great for technical correspondence and "group" software projects, and althoug h we have worldwide contributers, we can't all go to the meeting, then to pizza and beer afterwards.
So yeah, I agree with Woz. I'm typing with my peep, not chillin' with my peep.
The work/life balance was a big watchword at HP about a decade ago.
Unfortunately, it is somewhat shortsighted. It might be a good view from
a company perspective, but not the perspective that an employee should have.
I contend that it should be a "work/life/me" balance. And if you want an
example take a look at all the harried "supermoms" out there that try to
juggle the work/life so much that there is no "me" left in them!
Setting realistic boundaries between the outside forces against your
personal space requirements lets one feel that one is in control of at
least part of his/her enviornment.
And you DO have to set these boundaries. If not either the "work" or
the "life" will suck all the resources out of you!
I'm an old fart engineer whose kids are almost out of college. During
their growing up, there was a constant battle between the job and
the family life. Plus, throwing in some time for myself. For awhile,
I let the job/life consume my full resources. I suggest that it's not
worth it. So what if the boss or the kids are a little mad by you
saying no (if it doesn't make the job review THAT bad, or that the
kids run away from home.....).
The point, YOU have to take the initiative to set the boundaries from
the external forces in your life to keep your sanity. It seems to
be a constant 3 way battle.
Life is too short. No, I'm not going to work the weekend on your
little project. No, that is a good enough pine wood derby racer, I'm
not investing more work and effort on it to make it the very best.
Yes, I am working on my pet open source project.........
Again I suggest it's not work/life balance.
It's work/life/me balance.
Although I am a diehard penguin fan, there are just some aps that ought to be ported over, but aren't.
Sigh. I do a lot of medium and large format transparencies and they get scanned in with a Canon DU2400.
For the run of the mill, knock off, transparecies they are adequate without haveing to resort to a 10K$ drum scanner, or a 20K$ digital back for the 4X5. The 2400 dpi in a 4X5 transparency is "good enough" for most interactions with the customer. IF higher definition is required well then I can send it out for a drum scan.
Such as it is, I still keep windoze around for both photoshop and premire. Sigh.
Note that my jpegs run over 100 Mbyte/image with this. And I am NOT doing 35mm images. These are full blown, commercial shots.
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I concur that linux has lost the pioneering edge that it once had.
For more "fun" projects, I've switched (in the hobby sense) to embedded processsors. I've always done professional embedded projects and for the past few years have been having fun with the PIC and recently the ARM processors.
You might want to look at doing applicatons (like stand alone systems) without the use of a canned OS/hardware platform.
Shoot nowadays, if you can solder quad packs, you can get all that you had on the CP/M based machines available as an under $10.00 part. There are even snippets of code for things like RTOS and FAT16 file systems for SD cards and the like.
Of course you can always go with uCLinux.
Although there are active communities with the same interests, they are all on the internet and as I mentioned on my earlier post, they don't have the "face value" associated with geek meeting geek over pizza and a couple of brewskies.
Cheers.
I have firsthand memories of the homebrew computer club. As others have mentioned, Lee usually was the man with the stick (moderator). It was a live crew that showed up at SLAC. In fact, my first engineering mentor would show up from time to time. Most/many of us were "paid hobbiests" that did it both for fun and bucks. I don't believe that I was around Woz as I was a smoker and we seperated the two sides of the meeting to smokers and non smokers (a different era). There were many "famous" folks who regularly showed up at club meetings: Lee, as mentioned developed the first Osborne. Our librarian later developed Dr. Dobbs Journal.
Yeah, as mentioned earlier, the Apple I did tie up the only electrical outlet in the front doorway. If memory serves me correctly, Apple Basic didn't come in until Apple II's. It was a video octal/hex debug tool in the Apple I. Indeed, I remember wooden sides and a plexiglass top panel, so you could see the motherboard.
Many of us were interested in the 8080/Z80 systems of the Altair/Imsai/etc/etc/ systems. Indeed, I was there when the club coined the term S100 bus. My little piece of history. A "big" system had 16K RAM, usually an audio cassette mass storage device, an old RS232 terminal (mine was first a Textronics, later a Lear Sigler ADM3, which I still have in my garage and still has the best keyboard "feel" that I have ever run across). If you were real lucky you had one or more floppy disk drives (8 inch Sugarts were favorites). CP/M was the "big time" operating system of choice. The Apple was more of an "interesting" device, not mainstream for the hobby at that time. The 6502 was certianly cheap enough!
I can still find some of the camaraderie at the local Linux UG (LUG). However, I don't find the "rough edges" and cutting edge technology. Really, it was more of "damn, I wonder if this will work" rather than some "intuitive philosophies". Smoke was not your friend then as it still isn't your friend today, but you sure saw a lot more of it in those days...... Our LUG still has the geeks show up and we have interesting lectures, but even the open source stuff is getting pretty cut and dried, relatively speaking.
The internet is great for technical correspondence and "group" software projects, and althoug h we have worldwide contributers, we can't all go to the meeting, then to pizza and beer afterwards.
So yeah, I agree with Woz. I'm typing with my peep, not chillin' with my peep.
Cheers!
The work/life balance was a big watchword at HP about a decade ago. Unfortunately, it is somewhat shortsighted. It might be a good view from a company perspective, but not the perspective that an employee should have. I contend that it should be a "work/life/me" balance. And if you want an example take a look at all the harried "supermoms" out there that try to juggle the work/life so much that there is no "me" left in them! Setting realistic boundaries between the outside forces against your personal space requirements lets one feel that one is in control of at least part of his/her enviornment. And you DO have to set these boundaries. If not either the "work" or the "life" will suck all the resources out of you! I'm an old fart engineer whose kids are almost out of college. During their growing up, there was a constant battle between the job and the family life. Plus, throwing in some time for myself. For awhile, I let the job/life consume my full resources. I suggest that it's not worth it. So what if the boss or the kids are a little mad by you saying no (if it doesn't make the job review THAT bad, or that the kids run away from home.....). The point, YOU have to take the initiative to set the boundaries from the external forces in your life to keep your sanity. It seems to be a constant 3 way battle. Life is too short. No, I'm not going to work the weekend on your little project. No, that is a good enough pine wood derby racer, I'm not investing more work and effort on it to make it the very best. Yes, I am working on my pet open source project......... Again I suggest it's not work/life balance. It's work/life/me balance.
Although I am a diehard penguin fan, there are just some aps that ought to be ported over, but aren't.
Sigh. I do a lot of medium and large format transparencies and they get scanned in with a Canon DU2400.
For the run of the mill, knock off, transparecies they are adequate without haveing to resort to a 10K$ drum scanner, or a 20K$ digital back for the 4X5. The 2400 dpi in a 4X5 transparency is "good enough" for most interactions with the customer. IF higher definition is required well then I can send it out for a drum scan.
Such as it is, I still keep windoze around for both photoshop and premire. Sigh.
Note that my jpegs run over 100 Mbyte/image with this. And I am NOT doing 35mm images. These are full blown, commercial shots.