Computer Frustration

There's a lot I want to put in here, or somewhere. Conceptions of mine regarding science and math, but it's frustrating because all the computer tools seem so ridiculously complicated.

For example, I used to program in BASIC (and Fortran) back in the 1980's and 90's. I loved writing programs using the Random function (RND did the trick) making simple animations. I had one I called Squirrelly or Worms. It was just differently colored circles on the black background of the computer monitor. It was probably 20-30 lines of code in all, and I ran it from DOS. Does anyone remember the good old days of DOS? To do that program today would probably take over a hundred lines of code because programs today are object-oriented bullshit (OOB), instead of what I guess they are now calling in hindsight "procedural programming."  I guess, because all these terms are like a fog to me. A fog of bullshit. (Will blogger allow 'bullshit'?  I guess I'll find out.)

So here I am with good ideas spinning around in my head, and I can get them down with good old paper and pen or pencil (GOPAPOP), but I get continually frustrated at how to simply put them online. I mean Microsoft Office doesn't even have Paint anymore! At least not on my Mac. I got a nice big-screened Mac in 2007 after getting eternally frustrated with the machinations of Microsoft and their Vista bullshit and endless upgrades. I've got to admit though, Macintosh is not the nirvana I'd hoped it might be. (Though this 24" screen is great for watching Netflix Instant Watch!)

I just put down $100 for something called "Real Studio," and I'm waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Not sure why they didn't just download it to me. I've also been considering buying a Wacom or Bamboo tablet. I use a program called "Grapher" that came with this Mac, but what I really would like is if I could program it a bit to give me hundreds of related graphs, and then stick those in an animation program. Christ, I know other people can do this, but I can't find them to tell me. And the people that work at the Apple store down the street are not that helpful.

I also had hope when I discovered gif's, and I got one to work after using a program called GIFfun, but then it stopped working.  I read somewhere that gif's are in competition with png's - something to do with copyright. Lord, I hate copyright. Check out this blog for a little on that. Originally copyright was intended to stop people from printing and selling books written by other people for a period of 14 years. Period. 14 years, no more. Now we got f'ng Mickey Mouse protected for the foreseeable (or even unforeseeable!) future, even though Uncle Walt's been worm-food for decades. Absolutely f'ng ridiculous. I'd like to shoot Mickey Mouse in the head.