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Marc Clifton wrote: A friend of mine recently said something I considered wise - "consider decisions without concern for money."
I'm good at this, probably because of a fundamental distaste for money. An employer once told me money is freedom so chase money and my first thought was to cut out the middle man. I worked less ever since then.  Though now I'm paid more.
I'll never be rich because of it, but I've known several rich people but no happy ones.
Marc Clifton wrote: YES! And while there appears to be a lot of successes, I feel like the way AI/machine learning is being done completely misses the mark (pun intended.)
I have a hunch it will continue to miss the mark until we move past computers as Linear Bounded Automata which I simply do not think are up to the task.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: 520kB of RAM
Don't make me cry. I feel sooooo sorry for you. 
Once upon a time I was stuck to 4k (and whatever RAMs I could scrape out of electronics junk).
Quote: Anyone else ever feel that way?
It's simple. Frameworks last about a week until they change everything in a new version. The fundamentals stay forver, no matter what processors, OS, languages or whatever you use. If you only care about the high level stuff, you are just struggling to keep up with all the sh*t someone else wants to dump on your computer.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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32kb effective is the least I've ever had to deal with. 4kb is rough!
I agree with your comment, generally.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I'm implementing a (felt) million of assembly macros for VT100 compatibility right now. Looks like the Zwölf is going to be stuck with it's serial terminal for a while longer. Before I can build a graphics card, I first got to speed up the hardware. Someone got his CDP1806 to up to 14 MHz. Now I'm curious how fast I can get my CDP1802.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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overclock it and submerge it in mineral oil. That should be good for a few MHz
Real programmers use butterflies
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extra fancy! 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Old as it may be, but at 7 MHz it does not even get warm. Passive cooling, just some conductive paste and a heat sink, will be all. Somewhere along the way the internal timing will break down, long before heat really becomes a problem. Carefully raising the core voltage will be more important to keep heat in check. For even having a separate core voltage the poor misunderstood thing was seen as an anachronism back then. The truth is that it was not outdated. It was far ahead of its time.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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First real programming job I had the machine took up 3 racks, the CPU was 4U, the 2 Mb disk 4U. We had 16K ( but I _think_ that was 16 bit words ) and that because both banks had been "knitted" together. Before someone caught that we had ordered 12K. ( PDP 11-15 ).
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Interesting. My first home computer was a PDP-11 (15).
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The reason one gets "old" is due to "time compression": when you don't learn anything new, one day is just like the rest.
I once said to myself I was too old to learn that (something); then looking back, after x years, it now seems is ridiculous.
I've stopped thinking about where a path might lead and if I have enough "time". It only got more interesting. It's the new domains you have to learn along the way.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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I have had a theory about this time compression too. One day like the rest is a big part of it. Nothing important for the brain to keep a vivid record about so it seems like the time is short. I notice the effect disappear when I go on vacation overseas where there is so much new to take in. There is also some effect of each year being a smaller portion of the total. So in wide retrospect, things seem to be going faster.
Moral of the story: do new and interesting things!
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Maybe you should consider combining the two - make a parser generator for a custom language you design or one not available on the machine. Maybe a code generator for dealing with I/O of various flavors. I am sure you can come up with something that bridges those interests, if that is something that compels you.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I've always enjoyed "programming in the small". I've found it's possible to do this in any development environment if you have the mindset for it. The question you have to ask yourself is:
"What's the minimum amount of code I can write that does the job?"
or perhaps more to the point,
"What's the least-engineered code I can write?"
This notion is most easily expressed as things not to do. If you're thinking of acronyms like KISS[^] or YAGNI[^], you're on the right track. I always liked the notion that "every layer of abstraction is another layer of obscurity", also known as "it's frameworks all the way down". Just because you have two or more types of 'things' in your program, you don't necessarily need to create abstractions for them. I especially dislike abstraction layers that are added solely for the purpose of adhering to some arbitrary metric or style guideline.
Software Zen: delete this;
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honey the codewitch wrote: with 520kB of RAM
That's 86 times the RAM I'm working on at the moment, and about 4 times the flash size. Automotive is fun!
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Nice. I've always wanted to program an ECU.
Real programmers use butterflies
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IDEs suck. I managed to cram VS and VSCode (which surprised me, as on my current project it's better than VS+VAX) everywhere at least as a code editor / navigator.
The venerable TurboC is positively alien technology compared to some of the worst offenders (MULTI and Keil are on the top list).
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I've been a programmer for over 40 years, and here's what I've learned.
Every advancement in development that promised to extend the life or improve performance of a given application, or make development faster and easier, will eventually be rendered ineffective under the weight of interference from management. Why bother even learning the new stuff if it's not going to matter in the end.
I have three more years before I can retire. I'm glad.
I'm pretty much done with my Entity Factory code, and have been struggling to maintain interest in writing the accompanying article. I'm simply tired of typing the text. I have to explain 26 screen shots, and I've only managed less than half that in the last two weeks. I haven't even started part 2, which is to explain the thousands of lines of WPF code. And I was intending to write a 3rd part that talked about converting the code to .Net Core, but... well... you know.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
modified 7-Dec-20 5:20am.
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I also have 3 years and have similar struggles. It's a different sort of challenge to find enthusiasm going forward.
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Try working with the young crowd, they will learn from you and you will feel refreshed..
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I'd consider it, if the young crowd didn't all work for other people. 
I don't like working for others, and I don't like being an employer. The former goes against what's good for me, and the latter goes against my personal beliefs.
So I'm kind of stuck as a freelancer, but it's a niche I enjoy. That kind of keeps most of the young people away except as clients sometimes.
I do have a much younger friend who has been using my place to teach her 5th grade classes from due to the coranavirus.
So I keep one handy.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Programming tiny connectable gadgets - "Internet of Things or IoT gadgets" is an absolute joy.
No frameworks to muddy the water - with 520kB of RAM you can't afford them, no abstractions to complicate the process, just you and the bare metal.
Building them is fun too.
i'd like to take part in this too. i just don't want to read (old, no time) dozen of articles to get 27 different opinions what is the best way, the economical opportunities, the future, the programming languages...
if i'm not understanding the whole idea of IoT wrong, could you please point to a getting hands dirty info on the subject?
what kind of device to buy and a platform that works with C or Asm and if it must be higher level can it be Lua od tiny JS 5.1?
i hope one can get a job like this, away from all the: products, product offers, customers, reports...
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thanks.
Real programmers use butterflies
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