8 Apr
2001
8 Apr
'01
5:41 a.m.
Ahhhh..... young Vs. Old. As (i think) the youngest person on this list, I
would think that, although older people probably know a lot more, younger
people would be fresher and open to new ideas. As a general assumption, I
figure a lot of the younger computer junkies were probably bred up on video
games, probably either thought, "hey, i wanna know how to make these
games!!" or "Hey, i wonder if there's anything more?". I myself own a
PS2
(the new) and a C64, CoCo1, Amiga 500, and a ZX81 (the really old). I'd
rather be hacking at those than mindlessly playing PS2.
Now, from another front, the older guys (and gals) around here probably were
in the perfect spot for new technology, some witnessing the moon landing as
a kid or teenager, and being caught up in the microcomputer revolution. I'm
not one to guess, but I figure that living in Silicon Valley in the mid to
late 70s must have been utterly amazing.
- Lanny
PS And if any old, wise elder has a nice PIC programmer to pawn off on a
mindless young guru-wannabe, thou shalt contact me.
----- Original Message -----
From: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2001 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: just outta curiosity
Nope, we intend to keep everything from you young
whipper-snappers. Your
first history lesson is to understand that computers used to sit behind
big panes of glass, accessible only to the priesthood that maintained
them. You communed with them only through a small hole where you passed
your punched cards and got your results back (usually just error
messages).
So too it is with computer history. You can only have access to the
knowledge we pass to you through the little hole in the window. Do not
try to subvert our authority or we will find it fit to smite thee.
And let's just get one thing straight, you were either born to compute or
you ended up being some post-degree market-molded wannabee nerd who
couldn't get a job in your chosen profession and just jumped on the
bandwagon during the great Internet bubble economy of the late 1990s and
"became" a programmer.
So it is not true that "gurus were neophytes once". Gurus are born,
not made.
Ah, nothing like a good rabble rousing to start a Sunday morning.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
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