Great post. I also had a similar interest in tinkering. Fixing broken things and breaking working things. I remember opening old VCRs and reading the schematics glued to the inside cover. Although I didn't understand, completely, how electronics worked at the time (just basic I=V/R). I knew what a blown fuse, capacitor, or resistor looked like and could spot a cold solder joint. But eventually the devices got too complex and programming became easier.
I'd like to make a few additions:
While schematics aren't included anymore for most devices you can still get the repair manual by calling the manufacturer. A pasted schematic can't hold all the information that goes into most electronics these days.
Apple didn't need to "borrow" opensource tech. The XNU kernel is designed and developed by Apple. They gave it away. The FreeBSD userland stuff is also free to give away. Borrowing, in quotes, implies that Apple has done something underhanded which is not the case. This is the big difference between the GPL and BSD licenses. Only one is truly free. Also, the whole modern OS thing is old now. They've owned NEXT technology for 12 years. If they didn't buy them work on their next OS would have carried on anyway. But I doubt they would need 12 years to complete it.
With the development or Arduino, Beagleboard, and Bugboard getting into technical development has never been easier. This is vastly different than 20 years ago when the most you could hope for was a box with some blinky lights from a 444 chip. Now, even novices, are creating some pretty cool stuff.
Thanks, I assumed incorrectly that it was called the 444. It was common in hobby kits and I remembered it had 8 legs. Pretty simple to wire up to a 5V source, potentiometer, a few caps, and an LED to get basic blinking lights.
But what is available today goes way beyond the kits I had when growing up.
I agree, you can do that, but the description was fairly clearly a 555. Besides that an lm444 is a 14 pin dip and a 555 is 8 pins (see comment by yardie).
I do remember seeing these. They're more expensive but do look really quite polished. Certainly more attractive to look at than the tangle of wires I have hooked up to an arduino at home.
I'd like to make a few additions: While schematics aren't included anymore for most devices you can still get the repair manual by calling the manufacturer. A pasted schematic can't hold all the information that goes into most electronics these days.
Apple didn't need to "borrow" opensource tech. The XNU kernel is designed and developed by Apple. They gave it away. The FreeBSD userland stuff is also free to give away. Borrowing, in quotes, implies that Apple has done something underhanded which is not the case. This is the big difference between the GPL and BSD licenses. Only one is truly free. Also, the whole modern OS thing is old now. They've owned NEXT technology for 12 years. If they didn't buy them work on their next OS would have carried on anyway. But I doubt they would need 12 years to complete it.
With the development or Arduino, Beagleboard, and Bugboard getting into technical development has never been easier. This is vastly different than 20 years ago when the most you could hope for was a box with some blinky lights from a 444 chip. Now, even novices, are creating some pretty cool stuff.