29 Oct 2010
Why We Hack

I can relate ...

Sometimes disobedience is necessary and good when rules fail us, and it's at the core of why we hack. Hacking is a means of expressing dissatisfaction, confounding the mechanism, and ultimately doing better. Here's why it's so important.

(link) [Lifehacker]

06:15 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

18 Feb 2005
Writing

I once had the burning desire to be a writer, and in fact purchased my first "real" computer to whack out the great American Novel. I made it through the first chapter, and then I discovered video games. I got quite good at them, too, even if they were keeping me from my appointed task. But I couldn't beat a game called "Baghdad" on my Commodore. Couldn't get past the dreaded Purple Genie on level 5, and when I asked a friend how I could add more lives or speed to my sprite, he told me I'd have to disassemble the program.

Being an electronics tech, I grabbed my screwdriver and thought I was ready to take it apart, but my friend took me down to the local K-Mart to purchase the Commodore Assembler/Disassembler. I taught myself 6502 assembly language to get an extra life in Baghdad... and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now my software engineering career is gone, via Canada to India, and I've got the farm. I'm making one third the money I was making ten years ago, but I'm three times happier. I never have to sit through endless design meetings with my chickens, and my cows couldn't care less if I have an approved model for feed storage. And one never normalizes goats: there's nothing normal about a goat.

So here I sit, computer on my lap, writing. Perhaps I've gone full circle, and now's the time to write. Or perhaps I'll get distracted by a cow in labor. Whatever. It's a pretty good life, all things considered.

00:00 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

06 Feb 2004
Learning Computer Science via Assembly Language

It's how I learned ... I had originally purchased a Commodore 64 in order to write the Great American Novel. Then I discovered video games. I also discovered that a particular video game was virtually unbeatable - Baghdad, it was called, and I couldn't whack the dreaded purple genie on level 5 to move on.

So I taught myself 6502 assembler in order to patch the game with extra lives and kill the purple genie.

High-level languages are great, but learning them will never teach you about computers. Perhaps it's time that computer science curriculums start teaching assembly language first.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link