In my opinion, the usual plumbing analogy for how conductors work does more harm than good. Electrons do not flow. They are stripped from one atom and stuffed onto its nearest neighbor, quite slowly. Since atoms are very, very close together in conductors, this means the net /charge/ flows through the wire, somewhere close to the speed of light.

Even charges are not like water in a pipe. Charges are relative. Water isn't, really. You're either wet or you ain't.

It seems to me that electronics are much, much less confusing when you learn a little of the physics involved, so you can see what the electrons /are/ doing, and what you're really measuring. Doubly so when you can think about the physics to understand more about electronics and not be led up the garden path by a bad analogy.

There are places where electrons do flow like water: inside vacuum tubes. Ironically, this is where the water analogy breaks down the worst, because the electron flow is /backwards/ to the direction the tube conducts current. It took me a long time to get my head around them.

-JRS

The Force Slumbers

In terms of story, after nearly forty years, the Star Wars franchise has passed from the hands of its savant creator, who spent the rest of his career not understanding how the original worked, to the hands of chimpanzees. Disappointing. There are good characters in there, but we hardly get to know them because the movie is paced so badly. Slow scenes where there should be fast ones, fast scenes where some character development and world building might have been good, and don't get me started on the fan service. Please JJ, let someone else direct the next one. More importantly, hire a writer who knows how to tell a coherent story.

Having now read Persig and Wilson, and in preparation for my journey into Hesse, I've begun to think that if you want to understand the culture of today, you have to first understand the counter culture of 50 years ago. (Egad).  I very much suspect that the culture of today is powered by the same dynamic tension that spawned culture and counter-culture then.

I also had no real idea that I was reading counter-culture authors, until I read that Hesse was made popular in the U.S. after his death by Colin Wilson and Timothy Leary. I probably should have guessed.

-JRS

Machine Language in video game ad terms

In order to write a program, you need variables, and objects, and memory management.
In machine language, you haven't got all that.
What you've got is bananas and underwear!
(or memory, opcodes, and data, take your pick.)

I can't find the commercial anymore, but I /think/ it was for a video game based on the Jungle Book. The narrator was a sound-alike for R. Lee Ermey.

Edit:  This commercial: 1994 Jungle Book video game ad