The Future of Computing

[AstonJ]

@jamiedumont

Making any money as an independent developer in that space still appears to be close to impossible - even for those that have always been “Mac/iOS developers”.

Is that what it’s really like now? I haven’t made an iOS app but did make a tiny macOS app and sold it on the App Store for 99p: Have you made or worked on a macOS app? - #2 by AstonJ From memory I was making about £50 a month for what I thought was a tiny app (all it did was pick lottery numbers for you ). Could be why you often see lots of apps from a single developer?

@jamiedumont

I also find their “on device” mantra convincing as a user.

I agree, and I think many of us feel that apps we download via the App Store are ‘safe’ - i.e if anything nefarious is going on, such as the app stealing data or accessing your photos without your specific permission (ie you upload each photo yourself) then they would boot the apps from the App Store or notify users what’s happened so we can take the appropriate legal action.

@jamiedumont

For developers that like to tinker, I think these boards are a safe haven where they can learn, explore and create in a low-pressure, low-stakes environment.

@jamiedumont

I don’t like to point fingers but I feel that DHH’s stance towards Apple after the HEY incident is a good example. Many of his criticisms of Apple the company are valid and shared by many people. But because he perhaps feels personally wronged by them, those criticisms are blended with hyperbole, straw-man arguments and vitriol that actually make his reasonable points less valid. Instead of using his voice in a reasoned manner to enact change, he’s used it to shout and create division and it’s clear that this level of extremism is good for precisely no one.

I don’t follow Twitter these days but I always thought he had valuable things to say in certain areas. What sort of stuff is he highlighting? About Apple’s fees?

@jamiedumont

Potentially. A lot of people I know are still ignorant to what their technology is actually doing behind the scenes, but certainly more and more people are aware that it’s happening, if not fully clued up on the consequences. There’s mounting pressure against shady tracking and data aggregation and I don’t think it’ll be long before this tide turns. Thats where capitalism might actually help, as market pressures will force course corrections or weed out stubborn bad-actors.

I hope you’re right but I think we may need govt intervention. A lot of the ‘successful’ startups are those who VC backing/funding. This is why I love supporting everyday devs like us lot - and languages like Ruby and Elixir, because they are powerful enablers for bootstrappers.

@Carter

Quantum computing?

I don’t see a clear path myself either tbh. It’s both exciting and frightening at the same time. Like most people though I would like to see more focus on ethics.

In the hands of decent folk it should be exciting… but yeah, very scary in the hands of others!

@Exadra37

If I am not mistaken at least one of the postmasters have committed suicide after being shamed with a conviction for something it didn’t done.

The worst of all is that they knew the Software was buggy but never admitted… they should be jailed, developers, managers and everyone involved.

The day will come, we just don’t know if will be in 25/50/75/100 years, but will arrive for sure, and in fact it seems to be needed.

I’ve been following that and I agree that it’s terrible - surely the first thing they should have checked were their systems?

The families can take action against those involved (and I hope they do) but agree there should be better laws, particularly as they had no choice or say in the matter (of using that software).