Funny, I'm from Canada, now living in New York, and people back home get surprised when I tell them how much MORE I have to pay in taxes than they do (in terms of property taxes for instance), but without getting some of the decent stuff like universal medicare and such (to be fair, NY does have some very nice programs in place, such as first time home buyers program, financial aid for studies for studies, child health plus, etc). I'm insured now, sort of, but for the longest while wasn't (and really couldn't afford anything anyway). That rather sucked. Question becomes, the state may have good stuff that I don't mind being taxed for, but where does all the federal money go to? Ummm...killing Afghani children with 2 million dollar bombs maybe?
As much as I've come to love using CLI since entering the Linux fold, one thing that's bothered me a bit is I wonder were the future lies in terms of computing and interfaces and such. I find that a lot of people, such as me, who like the CLI type stuff, also have a retro nostalgia for computing in the 80s and such, or earlier. But I have to ask myself, will this really be the direction that technology goes in the future, for me I find that doubtful. Stupid example I know, but I was struck by that part of the film 'Minority Report' where Cruise's character is tapping away at holographic windows on his system. Never mind the bit about the psychic trio and such, for some reason it did leave me wondering where heavily command line based systems will be in a while. Not that I think MS's domination is going to last forever, but realistically, I wonder what will replace it. Will we still be hand editing config file is/etc using vi in thirty years? Are we just re-inventing old technology (like Bill Joy seemed to think), or is this going to expand to something quite beyond itself? I don't know. Any thoughts?
Like someone else mentioned, isn't this just what we had back in the glory days of the Vics and C64s, etc? I remember one of the big reasons I hated DOS back then was actually having to load the OS (on a floppy usually) before you could do anything. On my Commodores, just flick the switch and bang, you got your READY, with a built in BASIC interpreter and all, good stuff.
Oh man, it was my dream to have a Koala Pad. I always wanted one, would look at its picture in some computer mags I kept re-reading as a kid (well looking at the pictures over and over at least). But sadly never got one. Funny thing is one of my favorite computer things to do at that age was when I'd visit my uncle who had a nifty Mac (with the black and white display) and use the mouse to paint, loved it. Now I have a young one of my own, and guess what's one of his favorite programs, tuxpaint. Do they still make anything like the koalas today, within the affordable range?
hmm, how about Barbarian, Defender of the Crown, boulder Dash, Impossible Mission, Pirates!, Times of Lore, Bard's Tale III, Fungus, Pogo Joe, BC's Quest for Tires, Chilly Willy, Law of the West...and a ton more I must be forgetting. Good stuff (we should port them all to Linux I say(some of them already are I know), anyone want to try?)
Mind you I did eventually get a c64 (and then a very sweet Amiga 500, yes I was pretty much a Commodore die hard, even played on a Pet before). But the Vic was my first, and a glorious one was she. Playing Omega Race, Robotron, the Count (or was it called Dracula? Anyone remember, the one with the 'dumb waiter', now that was a challenge for a seven year old to figure out)
The glory days, impressing my friends with uber leet lines of code like 10 print "(insert the heart symbol here)" 20 goto 10, woohoo! All running with my ultra cool tape drive running acme tapes. Does bring one back.
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Funny, I'm from Canada, now living in New York, and people back home get surprised when I tell them how much MORE I have to pay in taxes than they do (in terms of property taxes for instance), but without getting some of the decent stuff like universal medicare and such (to be fair, NY does have some very nice programs in place, such as first time home buyers program, financial aid for studies for studies, child health plus, etc). I'm insured now, sort of, but for the longest while wasn't (and really couldn't afford anything anyway). That rather sucked. Question becomes, the state may have good stuff that I don't mind being taxed for, but where does all the federal money go to? Ummm...killing Afghani children with 2 million dollar bombs maybe?
As much as I've come to love using CLI since entering the Linux fold, one thing that's bothered me a bit is I wonder were the future lies in terms of computing and interfaces and such. I find that a lot of people, such as me, who like the CLI type stuff, also have a retro nostalgia for computing in the 80s and such, or earlier. But I have to ask myself, will this really be the direction that technology goes in the future, for me I find that doubtful. Stupid example I know, but I was struck by that part of the film 'Minority Report' where Cruise's character is tapping away at holographic windows on his system. Never mind the bit about the psychic trio and such, for some reason it did leave me wondering where heavily command line based systems will be in a while. Not that I think MS's domination is going to last forever, but realistically, I wonder what will replace it. Will we still be hand editing config file is /etc using vi in thirty years? Are we just re-inventing old technology (like Bill Joy seemed to think), or is this going to expand to something quite beyond itself? I don't know. Any thoughts?
Like someone else mentioned, isn't this just what we had back in the glory days of the Vics and C64s, etc? I remember one of the big reasons I hated DOS back then was actually having to load the OS (on a floppy usually) before you could do anything. On my Commodores, just flick the switch and bang, you got your READY, with a built in BASIC interpreter and all, good stuff.
Oh man, it was my dream to have a Koala Pad. I always wanted one, would look at its picture in some computer mags I kept re-reading as a kid (well looking at the pictures over and over at least). But sadly never got one. Funny thing is one of my favorite computer things to do at that age was when I'd visit my uncle who had a nifty Mac (with the black and white display) and use the mouse to paint, loved it. Now I have a young one of my own, and guess what's one of his favorite programs, tuxpaint. Do they still make anything like the koalas today, within the affordable range?
hmm, how about Barbarian, Defender of the Crown, boulder Dash, Impossible Mission, Pirates!, Times of Lore, Bard's Tale III, Fungus, Pogo Joe, BC's Quest for Tires, Chilly Willy, Law of the West...and a ton more I must be forgetting. Good stuff (we should port them all to Linux I say(some of them already are I know), anyone want to try?)
Mind you I did eventually get a c64 (and then a very sweet Amiga 500, yes I was pretty much a Commodore die hard, even played on a Pet before). But the Vic was my first, and a glorious one was she. Playing Omega Race, Robotron, the Count (or was it called Dracula? Anyone remember, the one with the 'dumb waiter', now that was a challenge for a seven year old to figure out)
The glory days, impressing my friends with uber leet lines of code like 10 print "(insert the heart symbol here)" 20 goto 10, woohoo! All running with my ultra cool tape drive running acme tapes. Does bring one back.