Post #3143613
2026-05-21 21:11 UTC
Replies (1)
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@aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au 2026-05-21 23:03
@gabriel@fedi.gvisoc.com @odr_k4tana@infosec.exchange @Gargron@mastodon.social In the '80s, early home computers booted straight into BASIC. To do anything, even load your space invaders clone off cassette, you had to learn a BASIC command. And to make it do anything really fancy, you had to peek and poke around chip registers on the bare metal hardware. The printed manuals included BASIC commands and programs. Seriously, the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum and the Apple 2 were the best kids' coding teaching tools in history. Kids learnt to code. In the '90s, computers had a graphical representation of a file system. And with PCs, open PCs meant you could upgrade your computer's CPU or RAM or graphics card or sound card or hard disk. Kids learnt about computer hardware and data storage. In the 2000s, building your own website meant learning HTML. And there were sites like GeoCities, Angrlfire, and Tripod where you could build a website for free. Kids learnt how to code websites. So even before they got to university, those Gen X and Millennial IT kids already had a practical knowledge of the basics. How software works. Hardware basics. Data storage basics. Coding basics. Kids got technically proficient because they typed in the game that was printed in the magazine about their home micro this month. Or they installed a better graphics card and more RAM to play Quake. Or they created a Blink 182 fan page on GeoCities. These days? Here's your sealed box. Here's your app. Here's where you enter your prompt. You can't see how it works, upgrade it, you can't modify it, you can't tinker with it. Let's see how that works out long term.