Great roundup, guys. (Why only guys?) One issue I’d like to comment on is the “social media” groups that are popular – the Facebook Apple II group and Google Plus group. I too participate in just about all the online fora there are (I admit I don’t have the patience for the ephemera that pervades irc). I think that the likes of Facebook and its ilk are ill-suited to preservation of knowledge the way usenet is.

For example… if you were away from the computer during the holiday break, how easy is it to know what discussions you missed? Ok, over a weekend – you can scroll back and find stuff. Over a month? Ok, more scrolling. A year? Not really. Looking up something someone wrote about 5 years ago? Not going to happen on Facebook.

I like the pictures and the immediacy too. But just recently I wanted to look something up that I knew had come up on Facebook a few weeks ago and… nothing. No real search capability; posts were “helpfully” filtered for me based on popularity or whatever. Great for talking about what we did last weekend, but poor for archival purposes.

Just remember – on Facebook and Google Plus, we aren’t the customer. We’re the product.

Anyway… back to your regularly scheduled comments. Great show. Now get off my lawn!

Another great show guys and I’m glad Mike was inspired by Lamb Chops. I didn’t take offense to “If Brian can do it, anyone can” I actually think it’s true! I’m just an average dude that wanted to program in the same way so many others did on my favorite retro computer and it was lots of fun (mixed with a little frustration :). Using Merlin definitely gave me perspective on the slow iteration time it took back in the day. For any future games I develop, I’ll be using more modern tools, however. :)

David,

Very true! Just last night, I posted to the Facebook group a plug for this podcast episode. Fourteen hours later, I had to scroll down 18 pages to find that one post. Why? Had that much new content been posted in the meantime? No, but users’ comments on old threads cause them to bubble to the top, resulting in a disorderly timeline of content. There is also no easy way to download or even copy/paste a Facebook post for offline viewing and archiving. I hadn’t considered the lack of a search function, but you’re right, that feature is absent, too.

Hmm. Maybe I should start being more active in csa2!

-Ken

Ken –

Regarding csa2: the downside is it’s the wild-wild west; unfiltered and unfettered. Sometimes illegal. But if you want the absolute widest, strongest, most diverse audience – it’s still there. Especially now that the really divisive days are behind us (knock on wood).

Again, due to the relative permanence of the archive, I have been able to go back and read some of what the ‘csa2 wars’ were about, and to me – it seems to boil down to money. At a time when people wished they could make a living on the back of the Apple II, it was becoming increasingly unlikely. Rancor ensued. Even now, the most rancorous comments come concerning money – problems with paid product delivery, (re-)distribution of copyrighted materials, etc.

Great show. Love it more every episode. Wow. Much Apple.