4 ms·

I guess going forward if you are under 18 and want to learn programming and not be harassed by the government you have to go back to having and offline only com

by t1234s 7mo ago

I guess going forward if you are under 18 and want to learn programming and not be harassed by the government you have to go back to having and offline only computer and stack of o'reilly books?

matheusmoreira 7mo ago
Soon programming will itself require a license. Only government approved individuals will be able to write code. CPUs will only boot software signed by the government.
- shadowgovt 7mo ago
  "Software engineering" is one of the few large practices with 'engineering' in its name that has no mechanism for license granting and revocation for violation of professional standard. That's not what is happening here, but we might see that happen in our lifetimes. Hopefully before someone writes the software that kills enough people to necessitate licensing, not after (since generally, such outcomes are how licensing comes into being).
  - gzread 7mo ago
    You only need the license to work professionally, of course. You don't need a bridge building license to build with Lego.
  - hahn-kev 7mo ago
    You could argue that we have security licenses (eg SOC 2), however I don't think it actually succeeds in making software safe. I think software is hard because unlike a bridge, which is built with limited scope and the risk is known when it's designed, software grows to become load bearing without us really realizing it. Eg CrowdStrike, I never would have assumed that an outage could affect so much of the world.
- morkalork 7mo ago
  Pretty clear this is the direction seeing Google's crackdown on sideloading apps on Android.
bigfishrunning 7mo ago
Honestly, that method produces better programmers. Fewer, but better.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
tzs 7mo ago
How would this hinder a kid learning programming? How would it even be noticeable?
- mceachen 7mo ago
  12 year old me would have sold their skateboard AND their bike to have a magic Patiently Explain Anything And Everything To Me robot instead of the mostly-impenetrable-to-my-tween-brain software engineering books I had access to in my town.
  - t1234s 7mo ago
    exactly... I had a hard time learning in the 90's with whatever I could scrape together for tools and books with no adults or public school system to help me.

by t1234s 7mo ago

I guess going forward if you are under 18 and want to learn programming and not be harassed by the government you have to go back to having and offline only computer and stack of o'reilly books?

matheusmoreira 7mo ago

Soon programming will itself require a license. Only government approved individuals will be able to write code. CPUs will only boot software signed by the government.

shadowgovt 7mo ago
"Software engineering" is one of the few large practices with 'engineering' in its name that has no mechanism for license granting and revocation for violation of professional standard. That's not what is happening here, but we might see that happen in our lifetimes. Hopefully before someone writes the software that kills enough people to necessitate licensing, not after (since generally, such outcomes are how licensing comes into being).
- gzread 7mo ago
  You only need the license to work professionally, of course. You don't need a bridge building license to build with Lego.
- hahn-kev 7mo ago
  You could argue that we have security licenses (eg SOC 2), however I don't think it actually succeeds in making software safe. I think software is hard because unlike a bridge, which is built with limited scope and the risk is known when it's designed, software grows to become load bearing without us really realizing it. Eg CrowdStrike, I never would have assumed that an outage could affect so much of the world.
morkalork 7mo ago
Pretty clear this is the direction seeing Google's crackdown on sideloading apps on Android.

bigfishrunning 7mo ago

Honestly, that method produces better programmers. Fewer, but better.

deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

tzs 7mo ago

How would this hinder a kid learning programming? How would it even be noticeable?

mceachen 7mo ago
12 year old me would have sold their skateboard AND their bike to have a magic Patiently Explain Anything And Everything To Me robot instead of the mostly-impenetrable-to-my-tween-brain software engineering books I had access to in my town.
- t1234s 7mo ago
  exactly... I had a hard time learning in the 90's with whatever I could scrape together for tools and books with no adults or public school system to help me.