Christine Lemmer-WebberFeb 26

Something has changed about the unprompted responses from people seeing me using the MNT (Pocket) Reform in the last month. I'm not just getting a "whoa this is cool and nerdy", I'm hearing more people, unprompted, say "Oh, this seems important, because maybe we won't be able to get computers we control soon."

It's uncomfortable, in a way, that this is starting to become more of the zeitgeist, because I think it's true.

I really do think we need computers we can control and hack on and advance. Because we're in real trouble if we can't.

Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberFeb 26
A friend has been saying "we need more routes to getting chips, we need more routes to manufacture PCBs, people have no idea how fragile 'being able to control your computer' is right now", and I agree with that
Show threadIrenes (many)
@cwebber yeah definitely, on all counts. artisinal small-batch silicon etching is kind of the dream we've been hoping those smart chemists will figure out, but, right now... well, it's barely a thing...
Mar 1 at 9:19amWeb
Show threadNot a Spring OnionMar 1

@ireneista @cwebber

Also isolation milling for PCBs, maybe trying to home-brew chips from the 80's instead of trying to compete with current sizes, etc.

(IMHO, we don't need all that computation power, we simply need to use it better. (Personally, I believe GUIs to be a hype and collective infantilization of most of the user base, but that is an entirely other topic. (Oh no, this post is devolving into a tree structure, stopping now.))

Show threadLisPiMar 1

@wakame @ireneista @cwebber

(IMHO, we don't need all that computation power, we simply need to use it better.

There is a point however where you really can't do more efficiently other than implementing the function in hardware.

Even just doing modern cryptography on a 6502 will be painful.

And yes ensuring adequate data integrity & security essentially requires such cryptography.

artisinal small-batch silicon etching is kind of the dream we've been hoping those smart chemists will figure out, but, right now... well, it's barely a thing...

It's awfully expensive and much of it is horrendously toxic. That's mostly the issue.

(Personally, I believe GUIs to be a hype and collective infantilization of most of the user base, but that is an entirely other topic.

There is a large number of things that cannot be represented efficiently or intuitively in text.

Text-mode interfaces and vector graphics can cover for a lot of what now gets done with bitmap interfaces, yes.

And then of course there is literally all the digital painting & drawing that mostly can't be done without bitmap graphics (at least without ridiculous efficiency issues).

Show threadNot a Spring OnionMar 1

@lispi314 @ireneista @cwebber

There are definitely uses for graphics. Or GUIs.

What I abbreviated beyond the point of comprehendability or even context:

Many GUI designers (actually: programmers) seem either to believe that one more line, one more gradient, one more toolbar full of icons will somehow make the GUI more usable, "nicer", etm.

Same people who couldn't set a sensible tab order if their life depended on it.

A candy bar vending machine where you type in two digits and look at an 8-segment-display for the price is IMHO at least twice as usable (on the Foobinger-Nonsens-Scale) as its touchscreen equivalent.