From Heinlein's Waldo & Magic Inc, a fun and worthwhile read (and audiobook)

A classic Joel on Software article about funny backwards compatibility built into Excel: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...

I realised there is more time between now and that article, than there is between that article and the events described within.

Nice work, very cool!

I used VB 3.0 thru VB 6.0 and I echo the sentiment: those were fun and productive times. Really solid integrated development environment centered around the desktop UI / form design / UI controls like buttons, textboxes, combo boxes, etc.

I also agree that the web changed everything and that is the major reason for the shift away.

Wow this is surprising

Ha, that scene is how I learned to program. Built a shareware tool called AoLOL! (available by going to keyword "Addon"), $14.95, got paper checks from all over the country! Then I met the ICQ founders...

I am certain I've seen that one. I loved AOHell and CreditWiz... and all the associated tools around that era.

"Uh oh!" So, what happened next?

Seems nothing much continued apart from declining to join and declining UIN #007 offer: http://www.yarone.com/2011/06/blast-from-past.html

I learned about this exact exploit in my computer security class at University circa 1999 or 2000: "power LED is connected directly to the power line of the electrical circuit"

We learned about affixing a camera to the data input / output LED's on a network interface card and by doing that capturing the ENTIRE data stream.

It's like traversing a bad "mega menu."

Did you know that "double-click" on early Windows literally meant "click the same pixel twice in rapid succession"?

No, that's not what it meant. You had to click on the same icon twice, which was typically 32x32.

Very cool, great work!

Another one that came to my mind: "The Fun They Had" by Asimov

"Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She was thinking about the fun they had."

http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/ASD-S/1820/J%20Johnston/Isaac%2...

It's funny that you mention "The Fun They Had", because if you visit its Wikipedia page now, the summary looks written by a bot. It looks like "basic" English, only with a weird quality to it -- either written by someone whose grasp of language is very poor, or by ChatGPT. I'd say worse than ChatGPT actually: the sentences are short and almost mechanical. Go look at it.

The edit changing a way more human-sounding plot summary to this version was made on September 2022, in case anyone is wondering.

PS: if GPT derives much of its data from Wikipedia, and people start using GPT to write Wikipedia articles, I wonder what kind of strange feedback loop we're getting into.