• Rob T Firefly@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This is reminding me of a talk I had with a mechanic friend in the early 1990s, when integrated electronics started showing up in basic functions of a lot of new cars. People like him, who didn’t know crap about computers but were really good at the mechanical concerns when cars were pretty much mechanical devices - fuel goes in here, controlled explosions in that box there turn other things which make wheels go, and a bunch of cords and plumbing to connect it all up and levers and gears to direct the mechanical energy - were having to confront what to do when that mysterious circuit board began to need work.

    This talk happened when I was visiting to set up a new cassette-based telephone answering machine for his auto workshop’s office and tutor him in its use, because he was that hopeless with electronics.