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Things I do and don't like, relating to the computer hobbyist  (I'd be surprised if you agree with all of it!)

Do like:

• simple serial communications protocols:
  • SPI.  On 6502.org, we devised a very flexible external serial bus called 65SIB (for "6502.org Serial Interface Bus") which is based on SPI but extends it in several directions at once.  I show a way to interface to it with a 65c22 VIA on my circuit potpourri page, with code linked.  We have a connector standard for tiny SPI plug-in modules on the 6502.org forum, called SPI-10, shown here.

  • Microwire.  Very similar to SPI, and can go on 65SIB.

  • I²C.  I propose a connector standard called I2C-6 for tiny I²C plug-in modules, and show how to interface to I²C with a 65c22 VIA on my circuit potpourri page, with code linked.

  • dumb shift registers (like 74HC595, 74HC165, etc.)  I show how to use them for tons of I/O extensions from a 65c22 VIA on my circuit potpourri page, with code linked.

  • RS-232/422/485, as they are easily understood (unlike USB), can go long distances (unlike USB), and can even dramatically outperform USB for very small data packets and where very quick back-and-forths are required.  You can make up the cables yourself with common tools (unlike USB).  I have an RS-232 primer here on this site.  It has some discussion at the end regarding RS-422 and RS-485 as well.

• Linux and open-source software.  I'm tired of MS's bugs, big-brother tactics, security holes, instability, and high prices.

• stack-oriented languages
  • RPN, as used on the HP-41 calculator/computer
  • Forth  (See forum topic "What is Forth?" and Brodie's book "Starting Forth")

• assembly language with program structures and diagrams and good commenting (all of which are too rare)

• scaled-integer math  (Note that I did not say "fixed-point" which is a limited subset of scaled-integer.)

• simple multitasking without a multitasking OS

• software survivalism  (If that link ever goes down, the article is cached here on this site, with the author's permission.)

• HP-IL, basically a serial implementation of IEEE-488 (HP-IB) with some advantages.  There's a brief description in the 2nd-to-last paragraph of this post of mine.

• HP-41cx calculator/computer  Not fast, but way ahead of its time in many ways, and arguably the best calculator HP ever made.  It was the controller in the first automated test setup I ever did at work.  See my related links.  The 42 and other later HP's (except the 71) were unable to do this.

Do not like:  (I know, very opinionated!)

• github.  It has several characteristics I heavily dislike, and I can never find what I want.  I don't know if the latter part is just the way github works, or if it's because users don't organize and name their folders appropriately; but I wander around their folders and pages, and finally give up and move on.

• Windows.  I use Linux instead, and in fact I still use DOS for a few things in my work.  When I used Windows, I was always angry with the computer.  It wasn't worth my health.  I will say however that Ubuntu has been getting harder to use in recent years, rather than easier.  I think I should have stayed with version 14.04.

• bloatware (see the article "Low-Fat Computing") and the careless prevailing philosophy of just throwing gigaHertz or gigabytes at a problem just because it's cheap and we want to get to market sooner

• Google, because of its sensorship, tracking, surveillance, fake "fact-checking," political bias & agenda, and more.  Even in health matters, in 2016 Google started censoring health-related search results that run contrary to the profits of the very corrupt pharmaceutical industry.  I do not have any Google accounts of any kind, and I do not use its search engine nor others that refer their searches to Google.  I do not use any Google services except watching YouTube videos, and I don't have a YouTube account, and I block all ads.

• algebraic programming languages, including C and its many relatives

• how the consumer electronics market changes too quickly to latch onto.  Remember how long Zip discs lasted?  PCMCIA?  MMC memory cards?

• USB.  It does have its place in consumer electronics where for example you want to connect your digital camera to your PC; but its name is misleading.  How can you call it "universal" if there are eleven kinds of connectors (22 if you include male & female of each)?  or "bus" when normally one port goes to only one device?  The spec also does not allow a battery-powered hand-held device to be an actual controller.  Regardless, the complexity is too great for quickly making your projects communicate by USB, other than to use black-box accessories.  You cannot make up your own cables at the workbench either.  USB tops out at 16 feet, whereas RS-485 can do 35Mbps at 33 feet, and both RS-422 and RS-485 can go at least 90kbps at 3/4 mile and allow you to make up your own cables and use the same UARTs that RS-232 does, without RS-232's higher voltages.

• bluetooth, and misapplications of wireless (no, I do not want a wireless mouse, a wireless connection from my HP-41 to a printer,...)  There are quite a few videos available of Dr. Devra Davis giving lots on information from studies showing the health hazards, and on the dishonest things the cell-phone industry has done to suppress the truth, as they stand to lose a lot of money if people knew what they're doing to themselves.  Here is one of them, not too long.

• websites that try to be too cute (especially if they make something move on the screen when I didn't ask for a video—and I absolutely HATE viscosity effects!)

• gray writing on websites.  Supposedly the softer look is more attractive, and the proponents say black on white on the monitor is a much greater contrast than black ink on white paper; but even when I had some clouding in one eye (fixed in 2015 by diet), I never had trouble reading black ink on white paper, but gray writing on the screen dramatically reduces my reading speed and comprehension.  Please don't do it.

• touchscreens, because of their grime, parallax, lack of accuracy, lack of tactile feel

• color on ATM screens, which makes them unreadable when the sun is low and shining on them

• color in source code (syntax highlighting), except in html

• voice-recognition on automated phone systems.  I've had to call from outdoors with wind on the mic, and the voice recognition could not understand me at all, no matter how long I tried.

• autodialers and the solicitors that go with them.  If you have to say "hello" a few times before the caller picks up, you know it's solicitation, so just hang up.  I don't make financial decisions on the phone anyway, so even organizations that we support by mail won't get a penny out of me by calling.

• smartphone culture!
  • A cell phone, especially a smartphone, is the prime surveillance device.  Much of the surveillance cannot be turned off.
  • People would rather talk to someone on the phone than to the person right in front of them.
  • People would rather look at their phone than look where they're going.
  • Radiation from cell phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. is slowly doing a lot of damage to people's health.  I can provide loads of documentation of this.  It does single- and double-strand DNA breaks, even though it's not ionizing or heating.
  • Smartphones only last two or three years before major portions quit working right, according to the experience of my family members who do use smartphones.  I have electronics from 60 years ago that still work.

  I do carry a tiny cell phone that's not a smartphone, but it's only for emergencies, and I go months at a time without even putting the battery in it.  (It just takes a few seconds to install or remove the battery, unlike smartphones, and I keep it out because before I did, the phone turned itself on a couple of times without my permission.)  Young people may have a hard time believing this, but there really was life before smartphones, and in some ways, it was better.

• wallpaper  (Woops— now we're really off-topic!  :D )

last updated Mar 2, 2023