[floppydisk]

Peeling back the exterior and getting at the meat of the argument, I think the author is really arguing that the future "makers" of things are having their perception of the internet and computing shaped by their interactions with walled garden devices and controlled environments. Building off of this, they will proceed to continue perpetuating a world emphasized by unique apps and walled gardens instead of the creativity of current and prior hacker generations. What would be really interesting is if the author did a study looking at past generations and how their initial perception of connectivity shaped what they built using it. I.E. all the phone phreakers and hardware hackers in the 70s and 80s laying the foundation for modern computing.

[zanny]

A more concise argument is that your Android tablet that is Junior's first computing experience is significantly less hackable than your Commodore 64, which was more hackable than your DOS machine, which was more hackable than your Windows 95 machine, which was more hackable than your XP machine, et. cetera.

Devices provide higher levels of abstraction from the tweak and tunables on the system, but only now are we seeing devices where there is no easy way to actually write code for them, on them. You can't write an iphone app on an actual iphone, and I don't know if you can compile an apk on Android (I know Java ides on Android exist, though).

About the only thing you can do is write web pages you can open locally. That still works. And I don't see walled apps overtaking the expanse of the internet - there is just too much content and experience only found surfing old crummy html documents you won't get on your walled garden facebook app experience. And Android is taking the smartphone market, while being relatively open for a platform with the rooting and loading of any apk you want (if you set the option).

[dromidas]

Really good (long) summary, zanny. That was what I had garnered from the article's musings. It's something I've thought about a lot myself actually. How would I give a child the opportunity to learn to hack or program if they wanted to? For me it started with c-64 basic cause it wasn't compiled, then visual basic when I was like 13... I guess C# or Java could probably be taught very easily, but it feels like starting out learning martial arts by teaching them advanced maneuvers. It feels like the wax on, wax off approach really is the wise course but showing them QBasic or something hardly seems like a step forward.

[zanny]

I'm sure if they have the right interest, they will investigate how these devices work. It isn't as nice as being forced into learning a lot of it by necessity of the tech (think TTY only devices) but I'm sure most who possess the correct spark might end up writing web apps instead of bash scripts.

[jiggy2011]

Maybe something like Lua? Has the added advantage for kids that it is used extensively in games as a scripting system.

[woodchuck64]

> but only now are we seeing devices where there is no easy way to actually write code for them, on them

Ah, very good point.

Well, today's devices still lack the hacking essentials: pointer/mouse/variant, keyboard, large screen ; maybe a decade of advance will give us usable virtual keyboards/pointers/what-have-you, projection displays on all handhelds and THEN no manufacturer will able to hold back the onslaught of development environments that penetrate the walled gardens.

[zanny]

Honestly, those are just ease of use constraints - people with the right mentality will break through barriers to manipulate the device. A bluetooth keyboard and mouse are sufficient, and you can plug a tablet into a bigger display (though that is definitely not the new-hacker use case).

The real breakpoint is that you can't build software for the device on the device anymore, with the exception of web apps.

[woodchuck64]

> The real breakpoint is that you can't build software for the device on the device anymore

Right, but that's because the open source programmers don't see the point; if it's already a hassle to find and buy the proper hardware to turn your device into a full-blown ergonomic development environment, they figure it's not worth the effort to even think about software.

But if devices already come with easy to use virtual interfaces -- Google Glasses seems to solve the big screen problem, now we just need a virtual keyboard and mouse idea -- it's only a matter of time before veteran hackers say "This is ripe for a community, let's crack this baby open".

[jiggy2011]

The next generation of hackers will certainly be working one abstraction level up.

Most likely they will do creative stuff involving grabbing some remote VMs and building systems where the underlying computer is not so relevant.

Trying to fit all media and information into one giant walled garden would be far too challenging for a single entity.

[camus]

you could write your app with a web app ,get a quick preview , compile it and deliver it through a cloud service so you can test localy directly ( it already exists ) , applicationcraft .