[cctalk] Re: Thirties techies and computing history

On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 8:56 AM Tarek Hoteit via cctalk < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org&gt; wrote: I was 26 when I joined the list in 1997. I was a younger member of the crowd back then, because my experience with computers was limited to micros, whereas a lot of the discussion on the list was about minicomputers and mainframes that came well before my time, so I imagine that there were members in their 50s and 60s in the early days. Now I'm in my 50s and have observed 25 more years of invention and development in the computer field, and the growth of this hobby in terms of size and reach (it's now global). Now there are guys (and gals) in their 60s, 70s and 80s involved in the hobby, maintaining old systems, attending VCFs and reminiscing on mailing lists. It's definitely become multigenerational. I see so many parallels in the hobby currently to my time when I first got into it. The things younger folks are doing today with the benefit of coming into a world more increasingly computerized than the one I did, and having access at a younger age to the tools of technology and having a comfort and proficiency with them, can do stuff I could only dream about a quarter century ago, just as I then was able to easily and readily accomplish things with old machines--with the benefit of the internet--that those who came before me only dreamt about in their time. The most amazing thing to me about computer history back in the 1990s and early 2000s when this hobby really started to get going is that we lived at a time when many of the people who literally invented the industry were still around to be interviewed. It would be like a classic car collector being able to go meet Ford and ask him questions in person about the Model A or whatever. Sellam