I had to find this. This explains on an atomic level how semiconductors work. For me this was important for me to gain an intrinsic understanding of what is going on in computers.
https://youtu.be/33vbFFFn04k?si=5W_ymFgYJByXf3sR
It is simple and fascinating and brilliantly clever.
I think you’re asking all the right questions and I think knowledge of these things makes you much more capable.
I think a good answer that you will understand is too long for this format. I gave a brief answer but then I went off looking for better information. Sorry to offend you.
I think this course from Ben eater on how he built his own CPU from logic gates might explain a lot.
I think it also covers how transistors work which is fundamental to how gates work.
Flashing code to a chip doesn’t really involve light.
you used switches on the front panel to load code into the computer by setting individual bits high or low. Typically you toggled in the bootstrap loader, which was a program that read a sequence of number directly into a spot in memory. The first program loaded by the bootstrap loader was usually the absolute loader. This was another program that loaded data from some peripheral, similar to the bootstrap loader, but it could do error checking and also load to non- sequential locations.
3-the Internet isn’t light. It’s electricity. On fiber the bits may be temporarily encoded as light, but overall it is electric.
4- You can understand it all if you want. It depends on the depth to which you want to understand it. You can understand a mouse has a plastic shell. You need some organic chemistry and chemical engineering to understand how to design plastic.
5- I recommend Ben Eaters YouTube channel to get a good overview of the basics.
I give them credit for not rushing this.
Im not saying I would ever ride on it.
I have been talking to a friend who lives in a mobile home near Albuquerque. He is thinking about installing a roof above the home to keep it a little cooler in the summer. To that end I am recommending he use decommissioned panels as the roof and connecting them through a transfer switch to a mini split ac. This has the advantage of using cheap panels from Santan solar (which cannot be grid tied) for free cooling during the hotest hours of the day, while retaining the ability to run the ac at night.
Can you tell me what city this is? For me this would be reason enough to move.
That is great! Thanks for all you do for others.
I don’t know where you are located. I am in the US and a co-op is just a corporation so all the things that apply to a private corporation apply to a co-op. When applying for grants there are no differentiators that I can think of. One advantage for a co-op here is that there are no passive investors.
This is kinda off the subject but do you live this life? Would you like to code something for no money that would help people?
To me the opposite appears true. Beyond economy -of-scale can you give me some examples?
That’s a much higher percentage than I expected.
Benevolent capital is out there, especially in the startup phase. I find it arrogant and ignorant, but available. It does require risk-sharing which I find doesn’t fit the vision of the borrower.
I’m a better bookkeeper than I am a coder. I would join.
So many roles can be fractionalized that it seems doable.
Strategic leadership and consensus might be difficult. Design by committee could be the biggest enemy.
What can be done to change this?
I think a lot of people need someone to blame for their own unhappiness, too. I would like to see this change, but I am not sure how it can be done.
This might be tangentially relevant https://fed.dyne.org/post/146187
So what I am now hearing is it is hard for them to get seed money.
You are the hero we need
So you are saying employees in employee owned companies are rent seeking social parasites?
Beyond just game studios, why aren’t there more employee owned companies?
When Starbucks was unionizing I made the comment that if I were the corporation I would just get out and let the employees run it. I got flamed for this attitude. What is so terrible about employee owned companies?
You will need to watch the next one to see how a transistor works. It to, is very simple and very clever. I do know how these guys figured it out.
If you have questions I am very happy to try and help. Someone did it for me decades ago.