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On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 11:09:58AM +1200, Jinx wrote:
> > open source
> 
> Gadgets threaten to unravel the world wide web, says expert
> 
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10509015
> 
> Professor Jonathan Zittrain says the latest must-have devices are
> sealed, "sterile" boxes that stifle creativity and turn consumers into
> passive users of technology

The readers of MAKE might disagree: http://makezine.com/

Frankly I think due to the internet, and the hugely increasing usage of
software in devices, the ability for people to become active users of
technology is far greater than ever before. Sure changing the hardware
side of, say, a cellphone is daunting, but the software is increasingly
hackable and the tools, and information resources, to make your own
hardware are more accessible than ever. Also I really think people in
general are more excited about the types of projects you can do these
days, electronics constrains you to the sort of things electronics is
good for, input and output. But software can do anything given an
appropriate IO device.

Electronic art for instance has exploded ever since microprocessors
became available to the general public, especially stuff like PICAXEs
and Arduino boards.

- -- 
http://petertodd.org 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org 
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