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There was a sense of wonder and awe around those machines that is no where to be found these days, even though we have so much power computational power. Indee

There was a sense of wonder and awe around those machines that is no where to be found these days, even though we have so much power computational power. Indeed. After I saw this sad news and your comment, I was reminded of an earlier HN comment¹ I had written about the joy I experienced as a young child learning to program on a ZX81 and my regret that my children’s generation are not growing up with the same opportunities. I’m not sure there is any analogous device I could give my kids when they reach the same age any more. Any device they do eventually get when they’re older seems more likely to have preinstalled social media apps and regular security updates than a preinstalled programming environment and a line in the manual reassuring you that nothing you type will break your computer. Something certainly has been lost. ¹ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21119236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21119236

tcbawo 5y ago
What a great learning tool the early personal computers were. It's a pipe dream, but I would have loved to have given my children a simpler device and restricted the internet until they were capable of assembling the hardware/software to get connected. These devices exist today as VMs. But, what I think we've lost is the boredom and free time that drives that type of learning and discovery.
iso1210 5y ago
People have different expectations to computers nowadays. They aren't isolated curiosities any more, you can't capture the environment of the 1980s home computer revolution. If you do want a similar experience (at least superficially) to a spectrum 48k, get a Pi 400, don't connect it to a network, but don't expect the same outcome as you had -- the world is different, there are very different things competing for attention, and different rewards for time spent.
jay_kyburz 5y ago
My 8 and 10 year old kids have just discovered the Roblox editor. They are building mutiplayer 3d worlds. The 8 year old is the most enthusiastic about it. He is second grade at school and knows addition, and subtraction, and his times tables but has not started multiplying more than single digit numbers. Right now they are mostly placing blocks around and decorating the world, but they are very interested in the lua scripting. I have no doubt that they will soon be attempting to read that read the Roblox API docs. Actually, they'll be watching youtube video tutorials. Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that while the old 8 bit days are gone, there are plenty of ways kids can build things and tinker with computers and software. PS: buy your kids a Steam Deck.
marcus_holmes 5y ago
I had to give a talk on coding a few years back. I brought in my Acorn Atom to show people what I started on. 12Kb of memory, no hard drive, no sound card, no network, monochrome display. The BASIC language it knew had maybe 10 keywords, and the Assember had another couple dozen commands. Everything in the computer was simple, easily understood, and robust (turning the computer off wiped everything except the ROM - essentially a factory reset every time). I compared that to my phone - 256Gb of storage, 32Gb of memory, plus sound, graphics, wifi, and the kitchen sink. Learning on the Atom was easy because it was so simple. And as I mastered it, so computers became more complicated. It was, in many ways, the perfect method of teaching tech. A new programmer nowadays has to learn so much so quickly to be able to write anything useful, it's often overwhelming. Trying to teach my gf how to code was painful because we were always bumping into rabbit holes of complexity, which we could either go down and waste whole days, or avoid and leave an area of ignorance that would bite later. I never had that problem. It's humbling - I wonder if I would even be a dev if I hadn't had that advantage?
- Wildgoose 5y ago
  Agreed. I taught myself to program on my Acorn Atom, I still remember the "Aha!" moment when I finally understood what I needed to make a simple "Space Invaders" program on my (minimal) 2K Acorn Atom, (later sold by "Bug Byte" software).
  - marcus_holmes 5y ago
    I wrote a version of Missile Command that I got reasonably working, until we got called down for tea and my cousin "helpfully" turned the computer off. I still give him shit for it

tcbawo 5y ago

What a great learning tool the early personal computers were. It's a pipe dream, but I would have loved to have given my children a simpler device and restricted the internet until they were capable of assembling the hardware/software to get connected. These devices exist today as VMs. But, what I think we've lost is the boredom and free time that drives that type of learning and discovery.

iso1210 5y ago

People have different expectations to computers nowadays. They aren't isolated curiosities any more, you can't capture the environment of the 1980s home computer revolution. If you do want a similar experience (at least superficially) to a spectrum 48k, get a Pi 400, don't connect it to a network, but don't expect the same outcome as you had -- the world is different, there are very different things competing for attention, and different rewards for time spent.

jay_kyburz 5y ago

My 8 and 10 year old kids have just discovered the Roblox editor. They are building mutiplayer 3d worlds. The 8 year old is the most enthusiastic about it. He is second grade at school and knows addition, and subtraction, and his times tables but has not started multiplying more than single digit numbers. Right now they are mostly placing blocks around and decorating the world, but they are very interested in the lua scripting. I have no doubt that they will soon be attempting to read that read the Roblox API docs. Actually, they'll be watching youtube video tutorials. Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that while the old 8 bit days are gone, there are plenty of ways kids can build things and tinker with computers and software. PS: buy your kids a Steam Deck.

marcus_holmes 5y ago

I had to give a talk on coding a few years back. I brought in my Acorn Atom to show people what I started on. 12Kb of memory, no hard drive, no sound card, no network, monochrome display. The BASIC language it knew had maybe 10 keywords, and the Assember had another couple dozen commands. Everything in the computer was simple, easily understood, and robust (turning the computer off wiped everything except the ROM - essentially a factory reset every time). I compared that to my phone - 256Gb of storage, 32Gb of memory, plus sound, graphics, wifi, and the kitchen sink. Learning on the Atom was easy because it was so simple. And as I mastered it, so computers became more complicated. It was, in many ways, the perfect method of teaching tech. A new programmer nowadays has to learn so much so quickly to be able to write anything useful, it's often overwhelming. Trying to teach my gf how to code was painful because we were always bumping into rabbit holes of complexity, which we could either go down and waste whole days, or avoid and leave an area of ignorance that would bite later. I never had that problem. It's humbling - I wonder if I would even be a dev if I hadn't had that advantage?

Wildgoose 5y ago
Agreed. I taught myself to program on my Acorn Atom, I still remember the "Aha!" moment when I finally understood what I needed to make a simple "Space Invaders" program on my (minimal) 2K Acorn Atom, (later sold by "Bug Byte" software).
- marcus_holmes 5y ago
  I wrote a version of Missile Command that I got reasonably working, until we got called down for tea and my cousin "helpfully" turned the computer off. I still give him shit for it