wmitty

A major factor was that early Java in the browser did not support.jar (really .zip) files. This meant every class (and every inner class) required a separate http request (on the much slower http of the day).

You used to have to put everything in one giant class to work around this.

(This situation was so frustrating)

The article wasn't entirely condescending - sometimes it was patronizing instead.

As long as you have access to a phillips screwdriver, you aren't stuck in the little ring - you can tighten the high limit screw to pick your one gear (at least from the higher ones).

Laplink had a really neat feature for when you didn't have your laplink install disk with you (or had the wrong size laplink install disk).

You could connect the two computers with a RS232 null modem cable, then type something like the following on the target computer:

mode COM1:2400,n,8,1,p

ctty COM1

This redirected the input/output for the terminal to the serial port.

Laplink on the source computer would then 'type' a series of console commands to create a simple transfer program on the target computer. It would use this simple transfer program to transfer the full laplink.

IIRC it used the msdos DEBUG.COM to build the transfer program on the target computer (but this is an old memory, so could easily be a reconstruction).

Composing this message is bringing back lots of weird memories about how we used to compute before the internet.

My (crude) version of the same thing requires that I go 1000 meters from my house to press the button to enable the DNS for another 30 min of browsing (button is on a custom phone app, distance measured using phone GPS).

One feature that I want to implement is to have the system randomly enable for 10 minutes - and to signal this by changing the color of light from a desk lamp (Phillips Hue). The idea is that when this happens, I would drop what I was doing and leap for my phone to get some bonus browsing in. Me being controlled by the system like this might be fun?, or at least illustrate something?

They tell all the Canadian banks and financial institutions that they have to ask all customers whether they are US citizens (and you lose account access if you won't answer).

The Canadian banks then have to report all the accounts of US citizens to the US gov. The banks comply with all this because otherwise they get super nasty fines against their us operations.

Also: they tell you that if you come in under the amnesty program (like I did) that their will be no big penalties - but if you wait until the amnesty program expires - and they then find you - they will treat you like a criminal.

I was born in the US to Canadian parents who promptly moved back to Canada where I have lived for the subsequent 55 years. Other than a US birth certificate I had no interaction with the US gov - we politely ignored eachother like a huge number of Canadians in the same situation. The informal status quo was that we both acted as if the "US citizenship by birth in the US" thing had not happened.

Until a few years ago when the US gov declared that I would be a criminal unless I became a full fledged US citizen. They also made this as difficult, expensive, confusing and time consuming as possible. For example having to find some paper documentation that is was living in Canada in 1967 etc. Huge costs - all of it going to specialist accountants - none to the IRS. And a huge complicated ongoing burden.

I am not even allowed to renounce until I have gone through this charade for a few years.

What has the US got out of this? They have processed lots of paperwork on my behalf and they have sent me some (unsolicited) stimulus checks which paid a tiny portion for the (Canadian) accountant fees they have saddled me with.