• sloonark
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    212 years ago

    I’m a high school teacher and I recently was discussing this. Protip: don’t talk to 14 year olds about how if something is in between hard and soft, it’s firm. 🙄

  • @NewAgeOldPerson@reddthat.com
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    12 years ago

    Started computer science in grade school with only an hour of actual computer time a week. A LOT of theory and history. Charles Babbage, Ada, ENIAC, etc.

    This stuff was drilled into our heads. Same with bit, byte and, halfway between bit and byte, a nibble. It’s a thing. 4 bits is a nibble.

    Funny enough, I couldn’t code to save my life now.

  • @kog@lemmy.world
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    12 years ago

    Firmware is just software that runs in a different place.

    Source: me, I write firmware sometimes at work.

  • @MarmaladeMermaid@lemm.ee
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    02 years ago

    Can someone ELI5 what firmware actually is though? I kind of knew it was half way between, but i don’t know what that looks like.

    • @fuzzybee@lemm.ee
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      12 years ago

      Hardware is the physical part of computer.

      Software is the code that runs on the computer to do the thing you want to do.

      Firmware is the code that is installed on the hardware itself, usually in some sort of permanent or semi-permanent memory to make the hardware work.

  • @jantin@lemmy.world
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    02 years ago

    Wait… It’s not “firm” as in “company that made the stuff”? FIRMware = the official software a firm pushes to patch things they make

    • @Metallibus@lemmy.world
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      02 years ago

      It’s closer to the hardware. Generally harder to update. It’s less frequently updated. And it’s less fault tolerant.

      Idk, sure, it’s technically software. But it’s pretty clearly at least a distinct subsection that deserves it’s own moniker.

    • Ends
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      02 years ago

      200+ Shareware games on a CD, played the shit outta those. And they came in magazines or were given out completely free.

      I believe demos for games should still be the norm.

      • J.M.
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        02 years ago

        And they arrived (because I don’t want to use ‘came’ given this thread already) on cereal boxes.

        • Ends
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          02 years ago

          I had never heard of that around here (Germany). Got my first PC '99, so I should have noticed; was looking everywhere for cheap Software deals. But there were some other companies which gave out free CD-ROMs as advertising with shareware and demo games. Some of those games were never finished, lol.

          The Internet Archive has those Nestlé CDs btw :)

          • J.M.
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            02 years ago

            Happened in Canada for sure. The post made me go dig through boxes in the basement and try to remember where my old cdrom drive and cable that would connect to a new Mac would be found. Good times and worth it.

  • @fubo@lemmy.world
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    02 years ago

    By the way, “joystick” was kinda rude back in the day, but nobody even notices now.