I’m curious to know what everyone thinks of this trend. Do you view it as a good thing, bringing efficiency and economy of scale, competition and so forth? Or d

I’m curious to know what everyone thinks of this trend. Do you view it as a good thing, bringing efficiency and economy of scale, competition and so forth? Or do you consider it a bad thing, another salvo in the War on General Purpose Computing [1] so vividly described by Cory Doctorow? I, personally, am interested in retrocomputing, amateur/hobbyist electronics, and hobbyist computing (including semiconductors [2]). While these techniquess and devices may be light years away from anything resembling a computer that can compete with SotA commercial offerings, they do offer the promise of “keeping the candle lit” as it were. I will note that if you follow Sam Zeloof’s chronicles, he progressed through the earliest phases of semiconductor development far faster than the industry did back when it was pioneering the technology. Of course, he had the benefits of knowing it was already possible and access to the written knowledge of the experts who went before him. [1] https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCSIGejNT4M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCSIGejNT4M