3 ms·

Reminds me that some of the best engineers of the last two decades started out as bored teenagers. It wasn't so much the making free phone calls, but it was ex

by bb88 5y ago

Reminds me that some of the best engineers of the last two decades started out as bored teenagers. It wasn't so much the making free phone calls, but it was exploring the universe that was on the other side of the twisted copper pair coming into the house.

pjerem 5y ago
That’s something that bother me a lot. Nowadays systems are closed and their base security is totally teenager-proof. A lot of « us » learnt to (love to) program or to hack on their crappy limited but « open » hardware. This is not reproductible with an iPad or a smartphone and I’m really afraid that the current generation is going to let the machines control their lives because they’ll have no incentive to learn how to control the machines. For this particular reason, I’m really happy that projects like Raspberry Pi just exists. And I’m pretty confident that my son’s first computer will be a Raspberry Pi 400 (or the equivalent, because he is too young atm).
- anthk 5y ago
  Today you can get free internet connection with ease in the First world with public hotspots. A cheap chinese Android 4.0 WM8850 netbook is $30 minus shippings and Termux and Fdroid make a great workstation.
mfkp 5y ago
I really wanted to play my Sega Dreamcast online (I think the game was Phantasy Star Online), but my house had no internet at the time. I was probably 12 or 13 and had all the time in the world, but no credit card or parental permission. I figured out how to reverse engineer those spam AOL and NetZero signup CDs you would get in the mail to extract their dial-in credentials for new user signups. I managed to use that to get free internet access for the Dreamcast! I think I got caught when my mom needed to make a phone call... online gaming was tough in the days of 56k dialup.

3 ms·

Reminds me that some of the best engineers of the last two decades started out as bored teenagers. It wasn't so much the making free phone calls, but it was ex

by bb88 5y ago

pjerem 5y ago
That’s something that bother me a lot. Nowadays systems are closed and their base security is totally teenager-proof. A lot of « us » learnt to (love to) program or to hack on their crappy limited but « open » hardware. This is not reproductible with an iPad or a smartphone and I’m really afraid that the current generation is going to let the machines control their lives because they’ll have no incentive to learn how to control the machines. For this particular reason, I’m really happy that projects like Raspberry Pi just exists. And I’m pretty confident that my son’s first computer will be a Raspberry Pi 400 (or the equivalent, because he is too young atm).
- anthk 5y ago
  Today you can get free internet connection with ease in the First world with public hotspots. A cheap chinese Android 4.0 WM8850 netbook is $30 minus shippings and Termux and Fdroid make a great workstation.
mfkp 5y ago
I really wanted to play my Sega Dreamcast online (I think the game was Phantasy Star Online), but my house had no internet at the time. I was probably 12 or 13 and had all the time in the world, but no credit card or parental permission. I figured out how to reverse engineer those spam AOL and NetZero signup CDs you would get in the mail to extract their dial-in credentials for new user signups. I managed to use that to get free internet access for the Dreamcast! I think I got caught when my mom needed to make a phone call... online gaming was tough in the days of 56k dialup.