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I build weird devices like this at 3am[^]
Because I only sleep 4 hours at a stretch. Maybe some of the older folks here have the same issue, as I hear it's common in one's august years, so maybe some can relate. Lots of empty space to fill in the wee hours.
I figure eventually my setup will look something like this[^] which is life goals, actually.
I don't really think of myself as a hacker (regardless of hat color - hardware or software) but maybe the shoe fits given my extracurricular extravocational activities? I may have to reassess.
I started building digital circuits at 7 after my grandfather bought me one of those radio shack 200-in-one kits. They were simple, but my interest started very young. I didn't start coding until a year later or so. I only got into coding because as a kid I didn't have a revenue stream for electronics hobbies and my family hated me taking things apart all the time, but we had a computer. Given the right circumstances, I probably would have been a fabricator actually. My interests are varied.
But hardware has changed me. Getting back into the metal of things has even changed why I code.
Before it was always about doing stuff I couldn't do - leveling up. Now it's about exploring how everything works. Again. Like I'm 7.
I want to disassemble the whole world and see how it works.
And then make it better.
Why do you do what you do? What drives you?
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Started out as a child and a 200 in one kit too!
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I had a similar electronics kit, but was seduced by the Dark Side (software) when I was about 11. 
My ambition is slightly different. I want to do a code review of the Universe's O/S, and finally fix all that pesky technical debt! 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I have no hands-on hardware experience. My understanding of hardware is conceptual, and I have no interest in going beyond that.
I enjoy the sense of creation that software brings. For most of my career, I worked on servers that were five- or six- nines. That is, no more than 30 seconds or a few minutes downtime per year. We had technology that was far ahead of most of the industry, including live patching in the early 80s and a distributed software library in the early 90s. Our products were built using a proprietary language and operating system. I was surprised to learn that much of the computing industry seemed unaware of the techniques that we used and often did things in inefficient and counterproductive ways. So once I retired, I set out to make those techniques available in a non-proprietary language, on commercially available operating systems.
I have no desire to toy with the universe. It's hard enough to get my own code right. There are already far too many world improvers messing things up, and I don't have, to borrow from Hayek, their fatal conceit.
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Greg Utas wrote: I have no desire to toy with the universe.
I can fantasize about tinkering with the Universe's O/S only because I know that I'll never get to do so.
I've been following your articles about robust software development, and have learnt quite a few things from them, some of which I wish I had known 25-30 years ago.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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If the Simulation Hypothesis turns out to be correct, maybe we'll get to tinker with it!
Bostrom's argument[^] for it is a good one, but the hardware would likely need the power of a Dyson sphere. But give the hardware boys enough time and they'll do it. But the software? I think that's the best argument against it. It would be down for "routine maintenance" every weekend, though maybe we wouldn't know it.
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Greg Utas wrote: If the Simulation Hypothesis turns out to be correct, maybe we'll get to tinker with it!
That depends; are we running as an ordinary user, or as "root"?
I find the Simulation Hypothesis to be unconvincing. By the same token, we could be part of a Multiverse (see the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics). There is no way to tell the difference between these two scenarios. In either case, the only Universe that we can experience is the one we inhabit; by definition, all others, even if they exist, cannot interact with ours even in principle, therefore we may as well treat them as non-existent.
If another Universe can interact with ours, all it means is that the Universe is larger than we expected, and has a non-trivial topology. This would require a major rewrite of Physics, but would not change the basic idea that there is only one Universe.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I've always been a curious type, I love learning new things.
Always told my kids; "If you keep your ears open and your mouth shut, you'll learn something every day."
The most expensive tool is a cheap tool. Gareth Branwyn
JaxCoder.com
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honey the codewitch wrote: I want to disassemble the whole world and see how it works.
I want to disassemble the whole world and recycle the parts. 
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In Grad school, we had a semester project that involved modeling in software (PL/I) the individual logic gates used for basic arithmetic, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and basic assembly level program flow, etc. We actually had to model the input/output lines as if they were on a circuit board.
This circa 1976-80 if memory serves. Loved it.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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honey the codewitch wrote: Why do you do what you do? What drives you?
I think that I'm driven by an insatiable desire to know all that there is to know. I've been driven by that since childhood. Even as a little kid, I had neighbors dropping stuff off to see if I could fix it. I usually could figure out what was wrong, even if I sometimes couldn't fix it. Dad used to tell the story of the day, when I was 5, that he ran to the parts store for a job he was doing on the car, when he returned I'd removed the bumper because I wanted to help, and that was the only part I could reach. Good thing I didn't know about brake lines back then...
As I mentioned in a previous post, a little thing called "The American Basic Science Club" lit my intellectual fire, supplemented by a fully stocked Gilbert chemistry set. For the rest of my life I've pursued knowledge and skill like a starving Chihuahua craves a pork chop. I can't help it. I don't program professionally anymore, but I still love the hardware, and having the ability to create programs to make it dance. I've designed complex electronics systems, and built steel and concrete electrical substations, created programs to control all sorts of hardware. I can fix cars and trucks, most any machine, I weld, and have a small machine shop on my porch. I'm a gunsmith, and I have the tools to fabricate parts that are no longer available. I have a tractor, and I know how to use it. There is absolutely nothing that I'm unwilling to learn, unless it requires a pole and a feathered boa.
I was raised by a man who taught that there is no such thing as too many tools, nor too many skills. Dad never paid anyone to do anything he could figure out; neither have I. My time in college taught me that there's no such thing as too much knowledge, unless you count the fuzzy subjects that do nothing of value. And my own life has taught me that there's no such thing as too much ammunition (unless you're trying to swim). Given the price of bacon these days, I'm glad I have so much; I can barter!
Thanks for your fascinating posts, Ms Codewitch; they often inspire me. But please don't think you're in your "august" years. I'm 67, and I ain't done learning yet!
Will Rogers never met me.
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Roger Wright wrote: But please don't think you're in your "august" years. I'm 67, and I ain't done learning yet!
Ha! I don't think so yet. But I am getting some of the problems that come with it already. Not sure what that says. 
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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honey the codewitch wrote: Not sure what that says.
You're just ahead of your time. 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Learning from errors and persistence are almost always the winning combo for any task.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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"Great blog ... shopping": Member 15723866 - Professional Profile[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
modified 1-Aug-22 7:32am.
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"Surely some mistake here": ed.
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Oh c**k.
Copied to A&A ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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You seem to be having a bad time the last few days ... I'd suggest a ![Beer | [beer]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/beer.gif) or two, but I know you don't.
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There are times when it's tempting ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Oh, ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) - I forgot Herself's cat pictures.
She likes to do jigsaws, and she really likes to do them on her tablet(s) where the cat can't get at them.
And she likes to do pictures of cats, rather than anything else. So every week one of my jobs is to create a dozen square pictures of cats she hasn't seen before so her jigsaw software can accept them.
To make life easier I keep a folder of "unused" cat pictures that I can work from to crop and resize appropriately when she needs them.
That folder is ... on the NAS. And I can't get at them ...
Please, seagate support: get back to me quickly ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I would start to prepare blanket and pillow... the probability that you end sleeping in the sofa is increasing with each post...  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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If there is danger on your life, Sir, we may have to send in the SWAT-team
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Are there battered husband shelters in Wales? It looks like you'll be needing one...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Where, oh where, could you possibly find a new set of cat pictures?
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The problem is finding ones she hasn't seen before.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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