oilbagz

I think in this case, it was inevitable that the shop was going to be inundated with rich schoolkids from the neighborhood, and the sales guy as I remember him seemed to understand, intrinsically, that these computers were going to sell if the kids could convince their parents to buy it for them...

Not saying I didn't get chased out of the other computer shops of Perth in the 80's, but those are other tales of joyous mirth, for another time ..

Yeah, I guess they sold quite a few VERY expensive machines in that neighborhood, and there were raging arcade game controversies going along at the same time, so seeing kids do 'productive' things with computers - like program simulated galactic war games - seemed like a responsible thing to do.

In my case, that guy gave me a raging passion for computers that has led, 40 years later, to ridiculous things happening.

The "Computer Age" place stuck around for only a few years afterwards .. the cognescenti of my hacker club at school discovered TANDY and Dick Smith as places to test new hilarious routines .. and, meanwhile, some of us got modems.

Good times. I think my Mum still had that floppy disk around in her memoirs, somewhere. Something about how she righteously retrieved it from an old, much loathed, school principle, who had zero idea what it was, or what it would ever mean for the world that a 10 year old kid had simulated galactic war games on his person, in lieu of math homework, or so.

Anyway, yeah. Great sales guy, would time-travel and witness again.

It was 1981, and the first "Computer Age" shop had opened up in my town, a place called Claremont - more of a suburb, really, of Perth, Australia. A lucky place, for it meant there was .. inside an air-conditioned cube .. a row of Atari and Apple computers.

Two school-kids are sitting there, tapping away, at something from a magazine. It looks immensely interesting, but they scowl at me as I get closer as if not to interrupt. So I go poke on an Atari, and immediately dislike its membrane.

The sales guy, probably only a few years beyond his teens, unlike me not yet begun, grins and nods over at another Apple II machine, newly set up. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I bang away at it "HELLO" this and "dO somehting" this and whatever, until the sales guy swoops in, wangs in a floppy, hits the reset combo and lets me play SABOTAGE for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day, after an interminably long day at school, I arrive with a freshly purloined magazine of my own. The same kids from before are there, just minutes before me probably but seemingly there all night, and are having a blast. They proudly, this time, beckon me over to 'have a go' at their game, TREK, wherein I am an "+" and there are "*"'s and . and #'s all over the place.

After witnessing me fail miserably, yet nevertheless programmatically successfully, these older kids chortle themselves out into the heat .. and I stick around to learn how to copy it to another floppy disk. The sales guy obliges, and gives me my first 5.4" floppy disk to save things on, "as long as you come back tomorrow and type a few more programs in, from those magazines you kids have..."

So, I did. What a summer it was.

I'll never forget those older nerds.

All well and good, but the EU (and especially now the UK) is in no position to be dictating moral platitudes from some position of authority, that is for sure - especially on the issue of the repression of journalists, extrajudicial murder/assassinations launched from EU/UK territory, and so on.

It takes a certain kind of disingenuous authoritarianism to claim that Russia is committing heinous acts which preclude its participation in the world order, when the majority of the world order is just fine with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and extrajudicial assassinations being performed for the criminal purposes of the "Coalition of the Willing".

How about, don't be so eager to rush to judgement of other nations, when your nation (UK/USA) clearly has extant history with the same kinds of issues.

More like a tit-for-tat show of support for Belarus on the part of the Russians.

I saw a televised meeting between Putin and Lukashenko yesterday that ended with Lukashenko making the statement that went something like "the Bolsheviks rose to great heights, and we will match them", to which Putin chuckled, demurely. Its maybe not obvious to Westerners, but they are trying to rebuild a "Union of ex-Soviet States" in the region these days .. one by one, preparing a Bloc that can be an attractive partner to the EU, I suppose.

With these kinds of tit-for-tat responses, though, I guess its a shrewd strategy. "If we are allowed into the EU econo-bloc, such re-routes won't be necessary", seems to be the planned negotiating point ..

>how do you find out whether your soil quality is still good enough?

The plants will tell you. But the answer always, always is: how good is your compost?

Until you get composting right, gardening can be very frustrating. But it all starts with a proper compost. You can fix almost any soil issue with composting techniques.

The curious thing about that, though, is that your compost, if its a house compost (based on output from your household) is only going to be as healthy as you, yourself eat. So that is a factor as well ..

How's your compost? I've reached the point where thats my first question for every gardener I meet.

Gardening is one of those subjects that brings me as much joy and satisfaction as developing and shipping productive software to real customers.

There is no greater feeling than to have fed ones family direct from the house garden, or to have raised ones children to understand and appreciate the rewards of cultivation of renewable resources, plants, in their own lives.

Every single human being should have a plant that they take care of, regularly, and participate in its life. No matter if its an avocado pit growing in the window, or a field of leafy greens, the care of plant life is a very rewarding activity.

We eat from our garden daily for 9 months of the year, and this year had the pleasure of seeing our last season's crop of mangold survive winter, rejuvenate, and provide us with ample harvest.

Gardening is a lot like programming, though. If you don't take care of the base layers, you may find yourself with a broken framework and need to refactor.

Just like programmers should know their compiler - gardeners should know their compost. The better the compost, the better the garden ..

I think the DevTerm is more supposed to be hung around your neck like a hipster. ;) Or, duct-taped to the datacenter wall for when its time to minicom the hell out of things.

He's imprisoned for violating state law. Why else?

Same as Julian Assange.