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I learned my first BASIC programming using a teletype (a real one!) connecting to mainframe using a 110 bps modem - our school coldn't affort a high-speed 300 bps modem. All over the state, 1500 Minnesota high schools could connect to that machine, but only like 300 or 400 at a time.
Sometimes the similarities with cloud computing strikes me.
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A majority of U.S. adults can answer fewer than half the questions correctly on a digital knowledge quiz, and many struggle with certain cybersecurity and privacy questions Sadly, many did not know who created VMS... (and poor, poor Altavista)
And I'm pretty sure it's the same everywhere. Why else would we be in the situation we're in?
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The big point is IMHO that on the one side the people don't want to invest effort in understand some things and, on the other side, big companies and some (/ many) governments want to keep people dumb, because they so are easier to control and manipulate.
A "joke" that resumes the situation pretty good:
What is worst, ignorance or indifference? I don't know and I don't care
And the biggest problem: When the big % of people start to care or the "powers" start to act ethically correct... it will be far too late
Additionally... don't think this is only a problem in U.S., this is overall
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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It's a skewed survey.
I'm sure that there are plenty of people who use 2FA on a daily basis without knowing what it's called. Why do they need to know what it's called?
Similarly, I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't know the difference between http and https but do know that they need to look for a padlock symbol on their address bar.
I find the number of "not sure"s quite reassuring in some ways, it's often the most honest and least used response in this sort of survey and it suggests that people aren't necessarily putting blind faith in their cyber security.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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I must admit that I have missed out some essential professional knowledge: After believing that 35 years as a professional software developer (following a Master degree education) had taught me the essentials, I now realize that I am void of one of pieces of knowledge ranking among the top ten: I didn't even recognize the name of Jack Dorsey. Even less would I be able to identify him from a photo.
Maybe this is an indication that I should consider an early retirement. How can I claim to be a computer professional without recognizing the face of the Twitter CEO? I know understand that this is essential, not only to developing software, but even to use of any sort of digital technology.
I happen to know who owns WhatsApp and Instagram, but I never considered that essential to my role as a computer professional. You could easily pick two other companies that I wouldn't have the clue about who owns them, and I would fall further down on Digital Knowledge scale.
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I must admit that until you mentioned he was the Twitface guy, I thought he was the bloke who used to play Quincy (that was Jack Klugman, of course, but you know the memory goes when you get a bit older and start to run out of RAM ...)
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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How exactly to know what company owns which online service is a factor of 'digital knowledge'?
And what exactly 'digital knowledge' is?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Two security vulnerabilities in Microsoft's NTLM authentication protocol allow attackers to bypass the MIC (Message Integrity Code) protection and downgrade NTLM security features leading to full domain compromise. Not The Last Mistake
Fortunately patched, if you've updated with the latest.
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"Bad code" is a lazy expression. It’s not specific and means different things to everyone. Doubleplusungood?
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I will, once the author stops calling it "bad food". Let me see him eat that, while I explain how the subjective term is used to indicate quality, without communicating an entire list of specifics 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Careful now. You're going to hurt the code's feelings.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."
- Hanlon's Razor
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Ok. I'll call it "crap code!", then!! 
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Me: "So I'm working on this code that uses lots of global variables, has inconsistent naming, is quite verbose, difficult to maintain, was written with no regard to architecture or best practices, violates every SOLID rule in the book... [goes on for another minute]."
Author: "Wow, sounds like bad code."
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Wait, do I know you? Are you working on my project as well?
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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The only reason that we talk about "bad code" so often is that we're not able to use more descriptive language in an office environment.
Noting to do with laziness!
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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I work at home a lot. I got in big trouble when I saw a particular nifty piece of code garbage. There are so many short cuts instead of proper design I sound like I have Tourette's syndrome. One of the things I hate is embedding logic in data content.
For example, pass in the name of a file, and do something with the file. But, depending on what's in the filename, do something different. For God's sake we have booleans, and we can actually use meaningful names - not doing so is BAD CODE.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I don't call it "bad code". I call it a "massive pile of sh*t" and tell the people who wrote straight to their faces.
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You need to stop waffling about and be more direct with your feedback.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I just used "what unholy abomination is this?" last week after getting a glimpse of the code for an app I was deploying. It was code converted from VB6 to VB.NET. No, I did not write this thing.
The app was crashing on startup on the pilot machines but worked fine on my test machines. Turned out the code it was executing on startup was doing some sigle-instance app stuff. It starting with getting the Desktop window handle, then walking the tree, looking for a specific window title in a massive, over-the-top way to implement a single-instance app.
Somehow, in the spaghettified, "world-record length of code" to accomplish this task, someone managed to write Convert.IsDBNull(...).
Duh fuq is that doing in there?
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Three scientists have been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries. Exploding with power!
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Twenty new moons of Saturn were announced yesterday, bringing the sixth planet’s moon count to 82. Were they hidden behind the rings?
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Were they hidden behind the rings?
"One ring to rule them all"
"Five fruits and vegetables a day? What a joke!
Personally, after the third watermelon, I'm full."
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Only twenty?
I thought each of the pieces of rock constituting the rings of Saturn was a miniature moon.
modified 11-Oct-19 5:44am.
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Somewhere around 2014 I found an /etc/passwd file in some dumps of the BSD 3 source tree, containing passwords of all the old timers such as Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Brian W. Kernighan, Steve Bourne and Bill Joy. Now everyone will log in as him (dang these 'hackers')
Much better (and memorable for a subset of humanity) than any horse battery staples (correct or not)
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Quote: horse battery staples
How did you know my password? Dang! Now I'll have to change it everywhere. Do you think "password01" will work?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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