Yep, those were the days. I still have the Thunderbird CPU that I overclocked using the pencil method sitting on my desk because it was such an awesome CPU.
Tangible progress every year that made it worth upgrading your parts and tech news were actually exciting back then (I still remember upgrading from my 386 with 33MHz to a 486 DX4 with 100MHz). Now the tech media is making a big deal about 10% improvements. :/
I almost want to blame it on how old I was in 2000, but it really was an exciting time for computing. A lot of things that weren't quite ready for prime time were finally ready. 3D games became playable, Windows graduated to a "real" OS when XP put NT in the home, chips were still getting faster...
The internet was still being figured out and wouldn't really be ready until ~2005 with widespread broadband adoption.
The other big thing that didn't happen until later was SSDs.
My wife is a researcher in Germany and because of something called the "Wissenschaftszeitgesetz", she is looking for a job outside of Germany for her next research project.
With having 2 kids, the US is definitely on our blacklist despite both of us having gone to school there, still keeping in touch with friends from that time and even professors actually offering her a position. We know many others who feel the same, so my impression is that for most Europeans, the US is not a desirable place to live anymore.
Yep, I totally agree. I took a long break from C++ after I learned the basics at university. I got into it again one and a half years ago when I needed really fast code and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is. I'm exclusively using smartpointers and I very rarely run into scenarios where I have problems with memory leakage, etc.
Since I had written the prototype in Java and now interface with Javascript/Typescript, I'm really amazed how clean and well-reasoned my C++ side of the program is. So yeah, I'm also really happy with the state C++ is in right now.
Hmm, while I was an exchange student in the US, I got that exact speach house from a friend's father ("hands on the wheel unless asked to do otherwise, stay friendly, no sudden moves"). However, I was very white (a geek who didn't get out much) and he was a white Mormon. That was in 1997 and since my friend had obviously heard that speech many times before, I just assumed that's what all kids are taught over there...
Did he tell you about how you shouldn't act suspicious when you walk into a convenience store lest the employees stalk you? Did he warn you that attempting to sell a house in this country will automatically result in a lower sale price from your own agent than if you were white? There are literally hundreds of these examples.
> shouldn't act suspicious when you walk into a convenience store lest the employees stalk you
I understand it's tempting to blame it on racism, but please go talk to non-white store owners. They do the same thing, it's not about the race.
You have to pick which battle you're going to fight.
Either racism today is the major problem. Or there's racism in the past that lead to poverty in the present. Those are two different lenses dictating two different strategies.
You can choose to feel righteous and fight ever-elusive racism.
Or you can chose to be pragmatic and fight poverty.
Being righteous is definitely more pleasant and convincing to the masses, but it rarely produces better results than being pragmatic.
I understand your point but it is time for the system to change. Most writers in traditional publishing get 50 cents or a dollar for every sold book. My wife wrote a chapter in a science book that is being sold for over $100 and she received...nothing!
Everybody deserves to be paid for their work and I would argue that this is more about preserving knowledge than it is about not having the writers get what they deserve.
Thank you for that! Not that I was questioning my skill beforehand, now I have to reconsider all my life choices. :)