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I don't know. I read it before and I agree. Heck, I've defended that point of view on the net in the past. But I have spent most of the last 2 days surfing the

I don't know. I read it before and I agree. Heck, I've defended that point of view on the net in the past. But I have spent most of the last 2 days surfing the net looking for information on which models of lightbulbs and washer pump I should buy for my car. Eventually I managed to track down and figure out the manufacturer serial number patterns and I was able to order the things (hoping the washer pump manufacturer I randomly chose delivers quality products) but I haven't yet found how to safely disconnect the battery of my - specific - car so I can perform the maintenance operation (which I am told is fairly easy). So that is going to take me 2 days (at best) to fix my washer pump and change a lightbulb (how many HNers does it take ?). Any mechanic `geek` could fix it in 30 minutes. But I decided I am not going to shell out $120 to have that done. Yeah me and the hacker ethos. My point is: I never had any proper mechanical courses in high school so I can see why today's kids can't find files or drivers or proxy settings (which reminds me of the f* proxy at work that is still getting on my nerves sometimes) or how to sort columns in excel even with the internet at their fingertips.

Kluny 10y ago
I see the parallel, but I don't think it's all that parallel. I'm in a similar situation right now with a motorcycle battery. My bike stopped working last Friday - 8 days and counting now. It took 2 days before I had time to go out and have a look at it. Then I had to come inside and look up a video to find the non-obvious location of the battery. I used a multimeter to check the charge on the battery, but I don't have a real tester to tell me the health of the battery. The multimeter seemed to be telling me it's fine. It took it to a local auto parts store to be sure, but the kid at the counter was even less sure than I was. So I took it into work the next day and walked to a motorcycle dealership to have it tested there. Yes, the battery is dead, no they don't have one... There are several more episodes in this story (which hasn't ended yet), but the point is that this would have been a 30 minute job if I had a SHOP and TOOLS and LIGHTS and the ability to work on it uninterrupted for a little while. The fact that it's taken 8 days is almost entirely down to the fact that I live in an apartment building and my tools are in storage right now. But the beauty of computers is that everything you need is contained on the device, and you can work from anywhere. If only more people would take advantage of it!

Kluny 10y ago

I see the parallel, but I don't think it's all that parallel. I'm in a similar situation right now with a motorcycle battery. My bike stopped working last Friday - 8 days and counting now. It took 2 days before I had time to go out and have a look at it. Then I had to come inside and look up a video to find the non-obvious location of the battery. I used a multimeter to check the charge on the battery, but I don't have a real tester to tell me the health of the battery. The multimeter seemed to be telling me it's fine. It took it to a local auto parts store to be sure, but the kid at the counter was even less sure than I was. So I took it into work the next day and walked to a motorcycle dealership to have it tested there. Yes, the battery is dead, no they don't have one... There are several more episodes in this story (which hasn't ended yet), but the point is that this would have been a 30 minute job if I had a SHOP and TOOLS and LIGHTS and the ability to work on it uninterrupted for a little while. The fact that it's taken 8 days is almost entirely down to the fact that I live in an apartment building and my tools are in storage right now. But the beauty of computers is that everything you need is contained on the device, and you can work from anywhere. If only more people would take advantage of it!