[gregknicholson]

> even your aunt

I think you may be making a couple of unsavoury assumptions there.

> A lot of people ended up learning programming because of these simple languages/tools, and I used to love playing with their projects I'd download from Geocities and the like.

But I do agree wholeheartedly with your point. I'd love to see more people embrace hackability over shininess, and become more than just consumers again.