I found it! (And I've looked a couple of other times in the past to no avail.) I did a GIS for "IBM RealCD", thinking to post a link to the picture-less archive.org copy and a separate link to some GIS results of the interface, and the RealCD pictures were from a heretofore unknown mirror of the site. (Way back in the day, I used to have this site bookmarked; I was bummed when the domain lapsed.) But enough about my google-fu...

http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/index.htm

Some relevant pages: (The rest of the site is excellent, too.)

http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/readplease.htm
http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/phone.htm
http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/realcd.htm
http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.htm

Last year I wrote a simulator of a VERY simple computer. It had four instructions, 16 bytes of memory, and 2 registers. There were no branch instructions; literally the only thing you could do was write a program to add two (8-bit) numbers together. (And it would set the error bit if the result was bigger than 255.) I gave it an interface of nothing but (simulated) LED lights for the registers and memory, and then (simulated) push buttons to select a memory address and poke a value into it. It looked like a relic from 1956.

I then explained it to my then 9 and 11 year-old sons (who both are teaching themselves to program), explained base-2 math, explained how the "computer" worked and the four instructions they had available, gave them a whiteboard, and tasked them with writing a program to add two numbers.

They went NUTS! They were discussing theories, pointing out errors in each other's ideas, and getting excited when they fixed bugs. And they were doing it with a maturity level way beyond their years. They loved it. And I think that part of it was because it was simple enough that they felt in control of it. I also had the memory lights turn green as the instruction pointer advanced, so they could watch the program running. (It was slow enough that they could follow it and watch the registers change.) Granted, my boys love history, so that may have sweetened the deal for them a bit. But I was shocked at how easily they picked it up and how much they enjoyed it.

I'd like to expand it to the point where they can watch a stack operating, and see pointers and offsets getting used, but I just haven't had the time to follow up on it. But it confirms (for me) that the idea of starting at the beginning might be the most effective way to teach programming. (I also taught programming at a local trade college for a few years, and I noticed how much harder it was for the students to pick up--say--OO programming concepts when they had never had to deal with the problems that OO concepts were designed to solve. Trying to simplify it even more for elementary school students seemed mis-guided.)

The very best part of the story was six months later touring the Mercury Redstone program blockhouse at Kennedy Space Center (I know it's not technically on the KSC property, save your breath). They had an old Sperry-Rand computer with a console full of lights, and both boys lit up and told the (confused) tour guide "I KNOW THIS! I KNOW HOW TO PROGRAM IT!". It nearly brought a nerdy tear to my eye.

P.S. If anyone is curious for more information I'd be happy to share. It wasn't very complicated, but I think it has a lot of potential.

You're absolutely correct, except it's a home network so it's not relevant.

The router is "spider" (Apollo 10 LM), because of all the wires coming out of it.
My daughter's XO is "gumdrop" (Apollo 10 CM), because she thought it was cute.
My oldest son's laptop is "libertybell7", because he's fascinated by the Mercury program.
My other son picked "odyssey" for his mac, because the hard drive blew up.
My media server is "telstar".
And so on.

My kids and I actually spent a fun morning coming up with names for all the machines, and they learned a lot about the space program in the process. But to further support your point, I hadn't realized how poorly I stuck to my own naming convention.

I'm a good father, but a bad network administrator.

Well, in fairness to the Ariane, most of my print jobs get printed. It just eats some of them. ;-)

Windows Boxes: Soviet spacecraft
Linux Boxes: American spacecraft
Mobile Devices: Space probes
Wonky Mac: Odyssey (Apollo 13 CM)
Wonky Print Server: Ariane5 (French rocket which blew up)

I used to use the phonetic alphabet, but it was too boring.

/And yes, the poll is deeply, fundamentally broken

And that card makes him look like a giant, pompous jerk with an ego the size of Jupiter.

A business card is designed to give people basic information about a person. This card works.

I can't speak for anybody else, but a lot of the time I don't *want* people to overhear what I'm asking my computer to do...

Did anybody read the comment thread in the second link? It appears to be nothing but 15-year olds, but the overwhelming sentiment is *against* George Hotz and *for* Sony. I find it depressing when I talk to normal people who cheerfully use iTunes et al with no idea what DRM is. But seeing a whole gang of young people vehemently defending Sony against those mean, mean pirates is just demoralizing.

And why are they defending Sony? Because Sony was forced (by the scurvy pirates) to issue a useless update that prevents them from using their PS3 for 30 minutes while it's downloading and installing. So Sony does something useless and annoying, and the 15-year olds blame the pirates for it.

I hate to say this, but we've lost. The public has accepted HDMI. They've accepted devices locked in firmware. They've accepted Blu-Ray. They've accepted the iOS app store. They've accepted the Kindle. In 5 years the PCs from the big vendors will have locked firmware to "protect the user experience" and to prevent "hackers and pirates" from "compromising the security of the system" so they can download child porn and terrorist handbooks. In 10 years the only way you'll be able to run FOSS software will be to buy an unlocked "corporate" PC for an absurd amount of money and possibly only after "registering" your unprotected box so the authorities can monitor you for illicit activities. For a big company this won't be any issue at all (they already have policies to prevent their employees for using the servers for non-corporate activities), but for the home user it will be an enormous barrier.

Stallman was right. I'm depressed.

Honestly your post looks like someone who was set in their ways and simply unwilling to do things differently.

Would it be unsporting to point out that you responded to an anecdotal argument ("Repeatedly my iPhone has been wiped when connecting to iTunes") with an anecdotal argument ("I have never had my phone wiped by connecting to iTunes"). If you're going to accuse the GP of being unwilling to do things differently, you might want to try doing something differently.

I have never owned an iPhone, and therefore conclude that Apple has never sold one. Did I do that right?

Isn't that what Apple did with the letter "i"?

Software patents are stupid, but I'm happy to give MS a monopoly on fontlings, if only so that I can spend the next 17 years never being subjected to a fontling. (I hope.)

My friend once told me that Apple fanbois were petulant, childish, small-minded, rude, and unable to engage in civil discussion.

My friend is apparently an apologist for fanbois.

I only got into one small edit war once and it was enough to discourage me from ever contributing to wikipedia again. The concept of deleting knowledge (not correcting or challenging it; DELETING it) just strikes me as wrong on a visceral level.

The worst part is that it probably wasn't deleted by a malicious HD Radio hater. It was probably deleted by somebody who was too lazy to be careful with his edits.

It's your own fault. You were supposed to monitor the page every hour, and get friends in different time zones to watch the page while you slept. That way as soon as somebody so much as corrected a spelling mistake you could revert it nearly instantly and discourage other hooligans from messing with your article.

Hasn't wikipedia taught you anything?

And not one of the people on this list has a US Navy warship named after him.

Amazing Grace