I'm glad Hackspace culture is still very much alive in the UK. It feels like people are starting to become interested in such things again. I'm hoping the growing right-to-repair/modify movement will steer more people in this direction.
Joining a hackspace/makerspace suddenly introduced me to a high quality real-life social network. It's an excuse to engage with your hobbies but also hangout with like minds and pick up new skills.
This won't be an option for everyone. I have to travel for an hour each way to get to mine, but it's worth it. If I had more energy I would start one in the city where I live.
This is really bluring the line between implementation and specification. You may think you're writing the implementation but it is really a proxy for the specification. In other words, the compiler creating an illusion of an imperative machine.
Completely agree. Something like Project Treble, but for PC hardware.
Thinking about it, this is what the BIOS was originally for: to provide a bare minimum abstraction to the hardware. I hoped that UEFI would extend this abstraction in a meaningful way, making OS development easier. Instead it has made it even more complex.
https://www.hackspace.org.uk/