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> By the way, I actually succeeded today at hacking the code of Flasher to erase and program modern flash chips. It required a lot of 68k assembly work, but luc

> By the way, I actually succeeded today at hacking the code of Flasher to erase and program modern flash chips. It required a lot of 68k assembly work, but luckily I had a good reference to start from in my USB SIMM programmer. And then, jealousy intensified, I close the tab and go back to debugging my MVC webapp.

TazeTSchnitzel 3y ago
Why be jealous and only feel bad about it? Let the envy motivate you to create great things! There are a million tiny hobby project ideas out there that you have the power in your hands to actualise.
- blincoln 3y ago
  You never know where such things will lead, either. I did reverse-engineering as a hobby for years because it was a personal interest, then eventually switched careers to information security partly because of that background. No one is ever likely to make a living reverse-engineering 30-year-old ROM-flashing utilities, just like no one is likely to make a living figuring out how to convert early-2000s console game data to standard formats, but that kind of hobby project builds skills that are uncommon and useful in certain lines of work.
  - rmilk 3y ago
    Precisely. I have been told I have a knack for reading other people’s code. Turns out it was years of reverse engineering as a hobby in my youth that gave me the skills to sit down and understand someone else’s code very quickly. A hobby that gives useful real-world skills.
Waterluvian 3y ago
Two facts I have discovered over the past 11 years: 1. There are always people far brighter than the people who wrote most of what we use every day. 2. You are far more capable than you realize.
surajrmal 3y ago
The grass is always greener. Working on low level things has lots of drawbacks and it's not uncommon to wish for better tools, documentation, libraries, etc like you get in higher level programming. It takes a lot of work to accomplish what externally seems like trivial results.
deleted 3y ago
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TazeTSchnitzel 3y ago

Why be jealous and only feel bad about it? Let the envy motivate you to create great things! There are a million tiny hobby project ideas out there that you have the power in your hands to actualise.

blincoln 3y ago
You never know where such things will lead, either. I did reverse-engineering as a hobby for years because it was a personal interest, then eventually switched careers to information security partly because of that background. No one is ever likely to make a living reverse-engineering 30-year-old ROM-flashing utilities, just like no one is likely to make a living figuring out how to convert early-2000s console game data to standard formats, but that kind of hobby project builds skills that are uncommon and useful in certain lines of work.
- rmilk 3y ago
  Precisely. I have been told I have a knack for reading other people’s code. Turns out it was years of reverse engineering as a hobby in my youth that gave me the skills to sit down and understand someone else’s code very quickly. A hobby that gives useful real-world skills.

Waterluvian 3y ago

Two facts I have discovered over the past 11 years: 1. There are always people far brighter than the people who wrote most of what we use every day. 2. You are far more capable than you realize.

surajrmal 3y ago

The grass is always greener. Working on low level things has lots of drawbacks and it's not uncommon to wish for better tools, documentation, libraries, etc like you get in higher level programming. It takes a lot of work to accomplish what externally seems like trivial results.

deleted 3y ago

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