feoh

joined 1 year ago
 

Hi all!

With things here seemingly not in good shape, I created an account over at lemmy.ml and created an Atari 8 bit group over there.

To be clear, this group isn't viewable / findable from worldwide lemmy at all :(

You can find that group here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not as of yesterday, no.

And that's fine, I certainly have no shortage of things to occupy my time, I'd just hoped to be able to help make the SDF even more awesome :)

I'm giving up on this Lemmy FWIW. I signed up over at lemmy.ml

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

I could be wrong but I think this is a general issue within the SDF. It's an incredible organization and I value my membership in it very highly but I wish it were easier to pitch in and volunteer to make things better.

I think I'll give lemmy.ml a shot. It's run by the Lemmy developers so seems like chances are good it'll continue to function properly :)

Ah well, we live in an imperfect world. I'm grateful for them in any case! :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

So it's interesting reading all the folks talking about permacomputing and the like.

And I think there's merit to keeping those architectures around.

But let's turn this on its head, shall we? Where do we get the people who still have that hardware who are willing to actively take part in Linux kernel development?

Like, to become facile enough with the process, tools and codebase to be able to bear the load of writing new security patches as vulnerabilities are found?

It's a hard problem. The number of people actively contributing to Linux is large in aggregate but VANISHINGLY small when it comes to any particular area of interest.

 

It's not even merely the idea that some trans dimensional being might choose to communicate with our plane, it's the manner they allegedly chose to communicate: A Ouija board.

The Ouija board is the ultimate self fulfilling prophecy. The humans who place their hands on the planchette can either consciously or subconsciously dictate the messages the purported being on the other end of the board is transmitting.

And I don't even necessarily have a problem with that, but let's be up front about it if we're all going to play a party game that amounts to recreational fiction writing with a spooky feel.

I also don't mean to take anything away from anyone who feels they have benefited from the Seth material. Inspiration can be drawn from many sources reputable and not.

I just wonder if the people in that room actually believed what they were purporting to.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Well, I sent an application email with my resume and the best proposal I could think of to volunteer@ a couple weeks back. We'll see what happens I guess :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Ooh thanks for the link that's super helpful!

 

Hi all!

I'm relatively new to the SDF in any meaningful sense.

I think I'd signed up for a shell account a year ago or so but didn't use it much.

A few months back I started to readlize how much more the SDF has to offer - an incredible community blending technology, art, and social aspects.

I find this incredibly inspiring.

One thing I've noticed is a ton of reports coming in that this or that doesn't work, and some sour grapes from folks frustrated that they're not seeing the action they'd like on the part of the maintainers.

Which leaves me wondering, who are the maintainers, and might there be mechanisms so that SDF members can pitch in and help keep the software ecosystem we maintain for members more healthy?

I know there's a ton of up front effort required to, say, train up a new maintainer for any given complex piece of server side software, but many hands make light work, and perhaps there are things "around the edges" that could help and give newer folks an opportunity to earn trust and train to be the co-maintainers of the future?

Ideas are like elbows and I know everyone has one, I'm just wondering if I can help, and given the general tech level required to even participate in SDF, wondering if others might be able to help as well.

Thanks for listening! -Chris feoh@SDF and everywhere else :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I don't think Pascal is clunky! I think it represents a point on the evolution of programming languages and is still well loved by a LOT of people! Just google Free Pascal or Lazarus Pascal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

The back catalog is amazing too. They've interviewed SO MANY amazing luminaries from the Atari's past and present.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I love how much modern computing culture has its roots in the good old Amiga, and folks who didn't own one are totally clueless about it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

One could, but I would argue that this idea pre-supposed a very ascetic class of programmer, and that depending on one's goals in learning how to program, recursion can be a useful concept but saying it should be the one litmus test for any learning platforms seems highly questionable to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Are there any off the shelf available 68K based computers these days? I wasn't aware of one but that would be cool :)

AMIGA 2023!!! :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Or maybe there are people who find working in low powered environments that behave a certain way, more like computers did in the 80s enjoyable.

It's not about boomers or what's powerful and what's not. Some things are just for fun and that's all the justification they need IMO.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Also, how would that 'weirdness' impact using the device in a teaching context?

17
Feeling this today :) (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

 

I recently transitioned back to working in academia after 6.5 years at a MegaCorp, and by the end I was pretty burned out.

I got better, and I'd like to think I learned a few things along the way. that I wanted to pass on to folks in case they might help somebody.

 

This project really showcases the power of open source and passionate people building something for the sheer joy of it :)

It's basically an EP32 chip with a tiny smidge of custom hardware that's been programmed to speak the serial protocol of quite a number of 8 bit machines.

I have one for my 800XL and that speaks Atari's SIO protocol.

The depth and breadth of software for the thing is amazing, and overall I find the whole project incredibly inspirational.

Lately, they've been on a kick of creating a project where they've instrumented classic Atari games to post high scores on the internet, with a website 'lobby' where you can sign up to play games online with others.

Totally love mine, and which I had a bigger house so I could have an Apple II and a C64 and get the Fujinet for those platforms as well :)

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