I have a lot of the same nostalgia, but so much of this story is that necessity is the mother of invention. The author: 1. Had more time than he knew what to

I have a lot of the same nostalgia, but so much of this story is that necessity is the mother of invention. The author: 1. Had more time than he knew what to do with. 2. Didn't have money 3. Had authority figures getting in the way of what he wanted to do. A decade later, kids were 'hacking' their parents' wifi access points by logging in as admin/password to bypass "go to bed and stop using the internet" restrictions, but the author was not, because he likely had more money, less time, and most importantly, no authority to bypass :)