[sdiy] Taking a Step towards - - --((FUTURE-PREDICTIONS))-- - -

[john mahoney]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TIm Daugard" <daugard at sprintmail.com>
>
> Analog is much easier to DIY. Digital takes far more work and a wider
range of
> knowledge to get anything out. Analog is also generally easier to reverse
> engineer to understand "how did they do that?"

You are correct, regarding hardware. But, in the Paul Maddox school of SDIY,
the "S" sometimes stands for "Software" or "Softsynth." :-) Using Open
Source software running on off-the-shelf hardware (the Chameleon) is an easy
way to get into this type of SDIY, if you have programming skills. And I
suspect that I'm not the only one here who's better at programming computers
than building them.

If I may have some fun with Tim's post, here's my spun version:
    Software is much easier to DIY. Hardware takes far more work and a wider
range of tools to get anything out. Software is also generally easier to
experiment with, as you don't have to worry about blowing up your precious,
rare components.


> ... having built a computer using an 1802 processor...

Wow, the RCA 1802. Set the Wayback Machine, Sherman! Supposedly considered
one of the first RISC chips, it's from the mid 1970s. Never caught on like
the 6502 and Z-80, though.
--
john