[DyslexicAtheist]

what a wild story. the first thing that came to my mind reading through wasn't a picture of a modern Mac but of TempleOS. It's amazing how we study computing changed since then as in we're focusing more on learning about all the required plumbing and duct tape than the actual machines. Not that this isn't fun too but it has essentially shifted everything. Getting into "mainstream" computers back then was such a different world than what it is now.

Suppose you could get the same type of "fun" today by playing with breadboards but you'd have to seek it out on purpose. Sitting in front of a modern machine is just so much more abstraction that gets in the way.

[someguyorother]

You can also get some of the same near-the-machine fun by going into security. Shellcode has to be short and close to the OS, and breaking the stack (stringing together gadgets, and so on) by its nature subverts the higher abstraction layers.

[eru]

Almost the same lament could have been written in the 1990s in nostalgia for the glory days of the 1960s.

[DyslexicAtheist]

I was neither idealizing nor being nostalgically "lamenting", but thanks for the negativity. I was merely pointing out the differences in how "the getting results in X" has moved up the stack.

[eru]

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be negative.

Yes, things have moved up the stack. And so have they done in the 30 years before the 90s, too.