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I really liked this video, it highlights that a lot of software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working. The frequently updati

I really liked this video, it highlights that a lot of software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working. The frequently updating title thing is cute, it'll be interesting to see what dies first - YouTube pulling the "title update API" or Tom's script running wherever he's put it

travisjungroth 7y ago
All the software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working.
- diggan 7y ago
  That's a grand assumption :) Who knows whos GitHub code will be included in the "Big MasterScript" that is written into the consciousness of the universe in the future, making it forever. I know, far out there and in theory, I agree with you, everything is temporary and nothing is forever. But who knows, maybe in the future, things will no longer be ephemeral.
  - sjilo 7y ago
    Probably left-pad
- solarkraft 7y ago
  Like ourselves and the rest of the universe.
  - sneak 7y ago
    I think that thinking this way is a coping mechanism in response to the massive loss of control we experience being subject to the whims of giant corporate platforms deciding what we can and cannot run on our own devices. The alternative is to face how insanely unfair and belittling it is to have bought an app and a device and due to circumstances out of your control arbitrarily no longer be permitted to run “your” app on “your” device.
    - travisjungroth 7y ago
      You think that being aware of our own inevitable deaths, and the eventual end of the universe, is a coping mechanism to avoid the unbearable reality of closed software platforms? Am I talking to Richard Stallman?
      - solarkraft 7y ago
        You never know.
  - flingo 7y ago
    If humans discover a way to defeat entropy, even at a limited scale, whatever device is created to preserve information into the era of a universe solely made of black holes and hawking radiation will be capable of running doom. I fully expect the last computer to ever be built by humans to still be able to load original .wads.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  Unless you're a game developer! Lots of people are still playing Super Mario Brothers daily! They're running it in an emulator now, most probably, but all of the original code is doing the work. Obviously it won't outlast the heat death of the universe or anything, but I'd say it's has the potential to live as long as any other human creation.
- romwell 7y ago
  You can say that about anything we do. However, at my previous job I integrated an LFBGS[1] implementation into our production code. That was written in the early 80s in Fortran '77. The code outlived all hardware that it ran on when it was first written (we ran it on an OpenMP cluster for a scientific-computing problem related to lithographic mask optimization), if not its authors. It will continue to exist, and run, for a very long time. Sure, all software is ephemeral. But as you say so, you probably used SciPy/NumPy. Deep inside, there's an implementation of LAPACK/BLAS doing the heavy lifting for you[2]. It started in 1979, and is still kicking. (And it's still in FORTRAN) [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprograms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprogra...
  - OwlsParlay 7y ago
    Wow, I'm actually using some of the C++ code based off of MINPACK for one of our current projects at work. It is quite humbling to realise this dates back so far.
wil421 7y ago
I can go find NES games and Gameboy games in my parents basement. If the NES worked I could play it or find a knock off on Amazon. Pretty sure I have a Doom floppy. Kids these days will be lucky to remember their favorite mobile games. Let alone be able to play them. Will they ever have an iOS or Android equivalent of ROMs?
- jldugger 7y ago
  I have a humble bundle set of android APKs I think.
- def8cefe 7y ago
  It's pretty easy to backup and install Android apps to/from a file.
- amatecha 7y ago
  I have a huge folder of iOS apps, but.. unfortunately in I think iOS 9 or so, Apple made it so backing up your iPhone stopped backing up the applications, and I believe made it impossible to install applications from your hard drive backups (that may have happened in a later iOS version - I forget). Meaning... iOS apps are now simply unrecoverable once they aren't on App Store anymore. Good thing I have a couple old iPhones which actually allow installing these old backed up applications. Even then, the entire ecosystem is completely reliant on internet authentication to even install the OS, so if your phone needs to be restored -- good luck. Very sad times, indeed. Yeah the personal effect of this for me is, I can't show people the song I had in Tap Tap Revenge anymore. I do have an old iPhone that still has it installed, but it's not like I carry that around with me. The app is no longer on App Store and I thus could never install it on my newer iPhone, nor restore my backed up copy to it (and even if I could restore it, it wouldn't run anyways because of the breaking of backwards compatibility in recent iOS updates). Overall, a whole ton of user-hostile product choices in the iOS ecosystem, sadly. Not the Apple I grew up with, where I could modify anything to my heart's content (ResEdit, anyone?)...
- slg 7y ago
  Some of those NES and Gameboy games might not work as originally intended. Lots of them had internal batteries in order to save information and those batteries are starting to die. Floppies from that era and early CDs are also at the age in which they are likely to degrade. So while some of this old tech might have a longer shelf life than tech today, as the video says, entropy will get us all in the end.
dylan604 7y ago
> lot of software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working. You're giving me a lot of credit by implying the software I write works to begin with! Can we hurry up and get to the day with software like Facebook and Twitter stop working?

travisjungroth 7y ago

All the software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working.

diggan 7y ago
That's a grand assumption :) Who knows whos GitHub code will be included in the "Big MasterScript" that is written into the consciousness of the universe in the future, making it forever. I know, far out there and in theory, I agree with you, everything is temporary and nothing is forever. But who knows, maybe in the future, things will no longer be ephemeral.
- sjilo 7y ago
  Probably left-pad
solarkraft 7y ago
Like ourselves and the rest of the universe.
- sneak 7y ago
  I think that thinking this way is a coping mechanism in response to the massive loss of control we experience being subject to the whims of giant corporate platforms deciding what we can and cannot run on our own devices. The alternative is to face how insanely unfair and belittling it is to have bought an app and a device and due to circumstances out of your control arbitrarily no longer be permitted to run “your” app on “your” device.
  - travisjungroth 7y ago
    You think that being aware of our own inevitable deaths, and the eventual end of the universe, is a coping mechanism to avoid the unbearable reality of closed software platforms? Am I talking to Richard Stallman?
    - solarkraft 7y ago
      You never know.
- flingo 7y ago
  If humans discover a way to defeat entropy, even at a limited scale, whatever device is created to preserve information into the era of a universe solely made of black holes and hawking radiation will be capable of running doom. I fully expect the last computer to ever be built by humans to still be able to load original .wads.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Unless you're a game developer! Lots of people are still playing Super Mario Brothers daily! They're running it in an emulator now, most probably, but all of the original code is doing the work. Obviously it won't outlast the heat death of the universe or anything, but I'd say it's has the potential to live as long as any other human creation.
romwell 7y ago
You can say that about anything we do. However, at my previous job I integrated an LFBGS[1] implementation into our production code. That was written in the early 80s in Fortran '77. The code outlived all hardware that it ran on when it was first written (we ran it on an OpenMP cluster for a scientific-computing problem related to lithographic mask optimization), if not its authors. It will continue to exist, and run, for a very long time. Sure, all software is ephemeral. But as you say so, you probably used SciPy/NumPy. Deep inside, there's an implementation of LAPACK/BLAS doing the heavy lifting for you[2]. It started in 1979, and is still kicking. (And it's still in FORTRAN) [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited-memory_BFGS [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprograms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprogra...
- OwlsParlay 7y ago
  Wow, I'm actually using some of the C++ code based off of MINPACK for one of our current projects at work. It is quite humbling to realise this dates back so far.

wil421 7y ago

I can go find NES games and Gameboy games in my parents basement. If the NES worked I could play it or find a knock off on Amazon. Pretty sure I have a Doom floppy. Kids these days will be lucky to remember their favorite mobile games. Let alone be able to play them. Will they ever have an iOS or Android equivalent of ROMs?

jldugger 7y ago
I have a humble bundle set of android APKs I think.
def8cefe 7y ago
It's pretty easy to backup and install Android apps to/from a file.
amatecha 7y ago
I have a huge folder of iOS apps, but.. unfortunately in I think iOS 9 or so, Apple made it so backing up your iPhone stopped backing up the applications, and I believe made it impossible to install applications from your hard drive backups (that may have happened in a later iOS version - I forget). Meaning... iOS apps are now simply unrecoverable once they aren't on App Store anymore. Good thing I have a couple old iPhones which actually allow installing these old backed up applications. Even then, the entire ecosystem is completely reliant on internet authentication to even install the OS, so if your phone needs to be restored -- good luck. Very sad times, indeed. Yeah the personal effect of this for me is, I can't show people the song I had in Tap Tap Revenge anymore. I do have an old iPhone that still has it installed, but it's not like I carry that around with me. The app is no longer on App Store and I thus could never install it on my newer iPhone, nor restore my backed up copy to it (and even if I could restore it, it wouldn't run anyways because of the breaking of backwards compatibility in recent iOS updates). Overall, a whole ton of user-hostile product choices in the iOS ecosystem, sadly. Not the Apple I grew up with, where I could modify anything to my heart's content (ResEdit, anyone?)...
slg 7y ago
Some of those NES and Gameboy games might not work as originally intended. Lots of them had internal batteries in order to save information and those batteries are starting to die. Floppies from that era and early CDs are also at the age in which they are likely to degrade. So while some of this old tech might have a longer shelf life than tech today, as the video says, entropy will get us all in the end.

dylan604 7y ago

> lot of software we write is ephemeral and will one day either be retired or stop working. You're giving me a lot of credit by implying the software I write works to begin with! Can we hurry up and get to the day with software like Facebook and Twitter stop working?