Emulation would have disadvantages compared with teaching on the actual hardware, but it also has advantages too; it's almost trivial for an emulator to provide In Circuit Emulation-like features, such as being able to snoop on IO, CPU register contents, pause execution etc. Back in the day, devices like the Multiface were the closest thing most people had to debug at the very lowest levels (though some of the POKEs hackers had access to rather more advanced semi-custom built kit).

Since 1972, we've developed the technology to be able to build autonomous robots to do our exploring for us and sent them to Mars and other bodies in the solar system, which is both cheaper and safer than sending fragile humans.

At least, that's what I tell myself to avoid feeling the doubt in progress that you apparently do. :-)

Specifically size, economies of scale/competition, and subjective value (people value restoration of their hearing more than having a teensy weensy computer they can Facebook on).

I don't advocate Open Source. I advocate Free Software.

How does the GPL help you gain access to the (trade secret, unpublished) source code for a proprietary application so you can fix a bug or enhance it?

By spotting that they've linked against or included GPL-licensed code, forcing them to stop distributing their binaries, re-write using GPL-free code, or release their own source code. Or, simply by setting an example and creating a community that they feel like contributing to and working with.

I don't propose to solve the issue of proprietary source, just that the Open Source/Free Software movement would still be known as the Public Domain movement if our laws weren't so screwed.

Sure, but by focussing on fair-use of binaries and eliminating copyright protection of GPL and similar licenses makes it possible for proprietary creators to incorporate GPLed code with impunity (which in turn will probably erode the community that developers Free software), whilst not enabling users of proprietary binaries to obtain the source for the applications they use and make use of them in the ways they wish. In other words, it'll make the current situation worse not better. Thankfully, PPUK leadership seem to understand this, these days, but it doesn't stop some of their supporters focussing solely on getting their warez without the risk of prosecution.

Ugh. I've done that, and I'd rather have the original source, thanks. Have you?

How do "realistic fair use" provisions in copyright law and practice help you gain access to the (trade secret, unpublished) source code for a proprietary application so you can fix a bug or enhance it?

Having RTFA, I fixed that for you. Doesn't look like there was any brute-forcing of the URL involved, just surfing around retrieving pages and images.

The 'discreet structures with graph theory' course sounds like it'll be more use for things like systems programming, databases, compilers and the like, whilst the other sounds like it'll be more use if you want to go into graphics or scientific programming.

To me, the term 'rip off' implies some kind of intentional deceit. From reading the article, it appears that BB's "optimization technicians" are simply incompetent and unaware of it. Now that BB have been made aware of the poor results of their "optimization", I would hope they would withdraw the service and sell remaining pre-optimized stock without the optimization premium. To continue to do otherwise would indeed be a "rip off".

To "purchase" a product with the intent from the outset of using it to fulfil some short-term need then returning it is "ripping off" the vendor (unless they're naïve/customer-focussed enough to allow 'free trials' and evaluation periods).

Sure; I used to run something like 680x276 on my 8852 monitor. No-one ever enjoyed using interlaced modes, though, even on PCs. The AA chipset also supported PC-like resolutions and there were even third-party graphics cards that mounted early PC accelerated VGA chipsets (e.g. Trident, Tseng, S3) on Zorro cards. That doesn't really change the point I was making as most people used Amigas most of the time in 320x256 (PAL), 320x200 (NTSC) with 32/64/HAM colour palettes, 640x256 (PAL) or 640x200 (NTSC) with a 4 colour palette which are all tiny resolutions by current standards; they were even kinda pokey by 1995 PC standards.

To shutdown the Amiga, you turned it off. There was no delay, no Start->Shutdown...wait possibly forever...

The Amiga didn't commit changes to disc synchronously, but it provided no sure-fire way to flush all pending write buffers.

Sliding screens. Why not give each application its own full screen and allow the user to pull down the top menu to slide between these screens.

That was a workaround for low resolution displays with small colour palettes. With 1920x1200, 24bpp displays being common place these days, it's easier to just have applications in windows. Remember that nearly 15 Amiga "hi-res" (640x256 for PAL) screens will fit in on a single desktop these days. And we have virtual desktops and multihead, if you need more than that.

Simple speech device. What could be easier than "LIST > speak:" to say a directory listing?

speechd claims to provide equivalent functionality

Bidirectional linked list filesystem. If you lose a sector or sector link, most of the file could be rebuilt by following links from both ends towards the bad sector. (Disk doctor)

On the other hand, we have RAID1(0), RAID scrubbing and SMART these days. If used correctly, you're less likely to lose a bad sector in the first place. Furthermore, Amiga floppy handling was particularly unsafe; writing a sector caused the whole track to be rewritten, without verification (unless you used TrackSalve to patch trackdisk.device, If you insist, you can always use the affs (Amiga FFS) filesystem under Linux. Thought I'm not a filesystem expert, I suspect that it's been superceded by more modern filesystems.

The keyboard garage. The 1985 Amiga 1000 keyboard tucked neatly under the computer where it didn't take up desk space, was hidden from children's fingers and was spill-proof.

USB rollable waterproof keyboards made out of rubber?

Tight integration of hardware with O.S. O.k. this works against everything we've been taught about abstracting everything but since the PC world has boiled down to little more than an O.S. monopoly, a hardware monopoly and a graphics card monopoly, why not eliminate some of the levels of abstraction that will never be used and make my 2Ghz PC perform every day tasks at least as well as my 7Mhz Amiga did?

And cement those monopolies further and make it hard to expand in the future (cf. the trouble Amigans had to go to to introduce support for 'chunky' graphics devices and 24bpp displays)? No thanks.