baka

Not really, I'm emphasizing that not only did things get cheaper but the market also moved. Things went from having different capabilities to were a netbook could essentially do the same things as a server farm or a workstation. Electronics hardware "always" existed in the form of game consoles, just not as personal computers. With many of these new things the premium segment is the market. Something custom is never going to be cheaper than the alternative. Once you've established a brand and market share you're probably even going to want to up the price.

Unfortunately, and to a large extent why people listen to "open source advocates", the community of security professionals has a surprisingly bad record when it come to things like risk analysis, legal matters, understanding how law enforcement or intelligence agencies work and other ”soft skills”. I trust security professionals when it comes to crypto. Anything else I'm not convinced they aren’t as incompetent as everyone else in software and maybe even more so.

Yes, that was essentially my point. If something goes on your record you will presumably have a harder time getting jobs or renting rooms, especially if your already have low status. Presumably the reason to make these punishments "more harsh" than the damage of the crime is to enforce social behavior. In some way that seem more harsh then the Chinese version. Even if China is worse in most ways, it's sometimes more relaxed than the US when it comes to personal freedoms.

(As written now) I think it can be legitimate critic. Google really grew out of making a better search engine algorithm and all. Some of these businesses are essentially reselling things and not really focused on innovating the substantial part of the business. That can also work of course, but I can see why it's less interesting.

From at least the late 90s to recently you were consistently getting more for less with hardware. Things were expensive as they came out, but then got cheaper than the previous alternative. The market moved from a school having a couple of slow computers to everyone having multiple supercomputers. Not only did they become faster but you could do more things with them. These days many things seem to be getting slightly better, but more premium and almost less capable. Upgrading a couple of year old smart phone or computer today isn't exactly a mind blowing experience.

"[...] formerly for the super-rich and making it accessible to the upper-middle class (eg: a private driver, a personal chef, custom-tailored clothing, custom paintings)"

Don't really buy it. Before it was only for the rich it was for everyone. You go to rural places that's how it works. The latest incarnation of modern society is, for better or worse, based on people having their own car, camera, kitchen and being able to buy the latest fashions.

Well, correct my if I'm wrong, but in some states the US you can also get a criminal record from public intoxication or urination and in the later case be required to register as a sex offender?

"I remember reading some of ID's engine code and admiring how well I could follow it and know what's going on."

Npte though that id hasn't really created an influential game in 15 years and arguably the game of the century (Minecraft) was programmed, badly from what I hear, in Java. People often say that "you can write good C code" without considering what you're giving up in terms of architecture and creativity.

As far as I know most space software these days, and embedded in general, is in (at least a sub/superset of) C.