Wow... I thought Netham45 just nuked his server for fun Apparently it's something a lot worse...

Is he planning to install some kind of DDoS protection? Also, have we figured out the culprit? Google tells nothing about any 4chan DDoS planning...

I've updated the post with your tip, thanks!

This topic demonstrates the possibility of this happening. I'm writing software as we speak to potentially test this behavior.

So where are the opportunities for the very talented people who post here? What do they tackle next? Where can they make their mark?

I guess I'll just remove the gigabytes of data on my server dedicated to doing Ndless programming, shut down my Lua2TNS bots, and buy myself a $105.77 PRIZM.

I don't know if you realize it or not, but the TI-8x programming is on a totally different level. Sure, I might program in Axe once in a while, but it's totally different from doing it in Lua or C.
Of course, if you think this pessimistically, we can all hop over to the Prizm platform... except that hardly anyone has that calculator. Plus, I don't really see the Prizm becoming a viable platform anyway. The interface is rather clunky, and the font is... well, let's just say "not good looking" The hardware is also much weaker than that of the Nspire.

You don't seem to get the reason people hack these calcs - because people own them, and want to see them do something else besides math. No one is going to buy another calc just because you can program for that other calc.
The hacker's reward? Satisfaction of seeing those programs run in front of their eyes.
There's no other motivation except seeing one's programs work.
If you're developing just to get attention, you should really consider another hobby...

You also miss the bigger point - we already have ndless3 out! Are you going to upgrade your OS just because TI said so?
If not, guess what? You can develop for the platform!

Finally... at last check, you don't even own the Nspire calculator anyway... why are you complaining about a calculator that you don't even have?

Maybe no one gives a damn about the Nspires (which might change in the future)... but no one gives a damn about TI, either!

OSLauncher can be blocked in mere seconds if they felt like it. They just don't care, that's all. (Then again, have we even showed it to them? )

As for the Prizm, I don't believe that people will get attracted because of the games and colorful screen. It all boils down to the majority and what's on the "back-to-school list". If it says that students should get a TI-83+ or TI-84+ [SE], then that's what the students can only get. No parent will get their child a different calculator, because "that's what the sheet says." What games we write will have no effect on the market. Add to the fact that the majority of textbooks are written for the TI-8x calculators, and there you have it: monopoly. Unfortunately, Casio didn't have a chance from the start.** You would need an antitrust lawsuit to fix things.

Also, a good point was mentioned - neither the CX nor the Prizm have penetrated the market much. So technically, we're only programming for ourselves - not bad either! That means that most of us (at least the Ndless fans/people) will stay on 3.1 for however long they want. Remember, TI-loving teachers are not 99% of the teachers in the United States (and those teachers should be fired on the spot). Also, most, if not all of the students, don't even know that they could update their OS! We're, in a way, quite safe from TI...

Again, I suggest we take the road where iOS jailbreaking has done - "new OS update? Great! Let's hack it again!" The JB community there doesn't even bother to convince Apple.
Sure, we're not as popular as iOS jailbreaking, maybe even less than Prizm hacking or TI-8x hacking. But who said we needed popularity to get stuff done?
We can do stuff at our own pace - this has always been the way in the TI community.
The most important thing is this: having fun. I know it sounds cheesy, but everything here is all done on a volunteer basis - we might as well have fun while doing so!

** There's definitely a more optimistic opposing viewpoint... I'm just not a fan of Casio, that's all.

What needs to be understood, is that we (the TI-Nspire community mainly) are minor minority. TI does not give a damn about us, that's the harsh reality of things but it's at the same time something very normal and comprehensible. TI's a massive corporation, and we're just surface dust next to shareholders. As I said earlier, that's how business works, that's how you keep the cash flowing. There might be some patting going on and fairy tale ideals floating in the air, but we have to be realistic: unless we are the ones to strike, we will have no effect, nada. We're just not enough for passive actions to have any kind of noticeable effect. Even if every single person on Omnimaga switched to the Prizm, it would only be a lonely, insignificant fart in the Milky Way.

This point exactly. I've been hesistent because... well, a certain community chose to jump to the Prizm for "pissing off TI" or whatever. Won't name any names, you just gotta know. (Actually, I've made this point a few times on that community's IRC, but it's dismissed as nothing to care about...)

The other thing is this: if the CASIO Prizm really does get popular, who's to say that CASIO won't come up and say, "Hey guys, we know you've been having fun, but we're going pro now, ya know? The thing that's in is locking your devices beyond belief with 512-2048 RSA keys! So, time to pull the plug!"

Which brings up another point re: that bolded word.... in. For intl. users, this expression (which is probably antiqued, I blame A Series of Unfortunate Events) means that something is considered popular and commonplace.

If you want to see change, we must begin by reversing the trend of locking. We have Apple, Sony, and maybe even Microsoft to blame for this, since they started an interesting trend of locking down hardware. If one were to invent a method of anti-piracy protection that at the same time can be open - this would cause a major industry shift, and of course invalidate Apple's argument for locking stuff down. Heck, I think that if a device that was FOSS was invented, and the company profits from it, the industry would flip upside-down overnight. (Add on FOSS hardware schematics... ehh, that'd be hard, especially with preventing Chinese clones )

The other corner of change needs to happen with the U.S. education system. Speaking as an American, I'm rather ashamed that such a country, with all of its "freedom" and whatnot (which is threatened by the likes of SOPA, NSA, etc.) can't produce a high quality educational system. I think that if I go back to China and study there with their censorship and whatnot, I will likely be smarter and much better off than 99% of Harward's grads.

The SAT (made by a silly company Collegeboard) is the broken system's forerunner. It can't predict college success, and still fails to do so today. (I have a conspiracy theory: CollegeBoard is actually for-profit, not like the "non-profit" label they have, since you see these ridiculous fees being charged for AP and SAT tests... and their description of where the money goes is quite hilarious too. They're saying that they'll donate to organizations that support the CollegeBoard cause... sounds like top executives rolling around in money all over again. Excuse my bias - I'm a pessimist when it comes to politics. Feel free to discuss such with me outside of Omni/Ceme/etc.)

Fortunately, there are colleges that are moving away from the SATs. Even better, there are states that are moving away from standardized testing altogether. I've been hearing about some "group tests" that will be administered instead, focusing on real life knowledge and collaboration, rather than bland, silly knowledge. Of course, knowledge *does* come into play, but it's not bubbling A, B, C, or D.

And as always, people laugh at the fact that kids need to buy crappy calculators at the price of $99+. (Parodies at XKCD and this year's April Fool's for Engadget - I'm too lazy to link to them here, but you can probably find them easily.)
There's plenty of momentum for change, no worries! I won't be there to experience it (SATs will still remain a burden to overcome, at least for me) but I'm optimistic that things will change.

Finally - knowing that TI/Casio/etc. could care less about us, what should we do? I wouldn't say we should start throwing knifes at the company's chest, since nothing good comes from that. It just means that we should move on, and develop for ourselves, not for TI. I don't condone things like OSLauncher for use on the ACT and such, but developing games, cool networking programs, and such? Full speed ahead!

Sure, TI may not (and maybe never will) accede to our friendly demands to allow native code execution, but there's always that glimmer of hope, which I believe in. As always, don't depend on that happening, but don't erase it out of your mind either. The world's all about apps and more apps these days, and many companies have fallen to the pressure of 3rd party app development. Want evidence of that from TI? Lua! It's important to note that Lua != BASIC. I'll repeat it again: Lua != BASIC. Some people like to belittle it because of its speed, but they don't realize its potential. It's actually pretty powerful - enough for software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to use as part of their app/plugin API. (Yup, a million dollar company loves Lua!) It has OOP, and is very much on par with modern languages. It's also not too slow either! You may not realize it, but that's a sign that TI's bending from apps insanity, and that's great! They finally realize that 3rd party development is a must to keep their platform alive.

In the end... I will believe what I want to believe, and you will believe what you want to believe. My post mess is just here to say this: we're not in a black hole; we're just on a dark, no lights beach, not realizing that there are pretty fireflies with their glows of light, and not realizing that there's a nice possibility of a beautiful sunrise around the corner.

/superlongpost

EDIT: Oops, didn't realize that we're trying to tone down the Nspire/PRIZM/etc. discussion here. I guess we could split topics into something like "The Future of the TI Community" or something, not too sure.

TI has again defeated Ndless and it is not a coincidence that interest in programming their calc's has fallen off drastically.  They got what they wanted.  Except it and move on.  We cannot go back to a previous era that no longer exists.  Again, we can not go back to a previous era that no longer exists.

So I guess we should dispose of our calculators now, close down all the calculator related forums, and move on to tinkering with iOS and Android devices?

You're right - this is not the previous era. The previous era was insanity with old TI-8x calcs. We're in the new era of modding and programming for new TI-8x, TI-Nspire, and Prizm devices!