>> I’ve been very lucky, by the way. First, I had the fortune to be born into a middle-class family that through the influence of family friends, bought a used

>> I’ve been very lucky, by the way. First, I had the fortune to be born into a middle-class family that through the influence of family friends, bought a used home computer in the 1980s and then a PC in the 1990s. Me too. Only bit-shifted by 10 years (OK, not possible in the binary world so let's settle for 8 years). But DARPA did have an impact in my case. The communist regime in Romania implemented a DARPA-like system where each and every village center (commune in French organization) was given a commputer. I had intermittent access to that since my gymnasium years, then in my high school years and after the fall and dissolution of the communist regime, I simply requested and was allowed moving said computer to my home on the promise that should anyone request or desire access to it, I will immediately return the computer to school. Never happened. Several years later standard of living increased enough after the hyperinflation crash when the average salary became $78 (luckily there was two of my parents so we were making $150) that I was able to return the borrowed DARPA computer and buy my own. From that on it's history. Or future, depending on the vantage point. Also, have I ever mentioned that I had my IQ taken once in not so ideal conditions (waking up from drunken stupor) and got 125. Adjusted for age and situation, 135, I was let go. Definitely privileged. Genetically.