[gxs]

My very first exposure to Linux was in 2000, my school was about to throw away an old gateway computer and I took it home and turned it into router

As a kid with no AI, no google, it was quite a feat and I’m still very proud of it

Was my introduction into how the internet works and I’ll never forget working with ipchains

I remember enduring a lot of people in forums calling me a noob, but only after spending collective hours answering my dumb questions

I credit a big part of my moderate success in tech, to being familiar with stuff at just a tad bit lower of a level than the average bear

To my friend Sam who I haven’t talked to in 20 years, thanks for the idea

[vaylian]

Stories like these make me sad when I think about chat control and age verification. Kids in the future may no longer be allowed to talk to random helpful strangers on the internet about computers and other technical topics, because apparently the internet is too dangerous for children.

[pphysch]

Suppose the age verification checks stopped. Where exactly are these kids supposed to find "random helpful strangers" on the Internet that isn't also a major vector for predation or nonsensical AI spam?

The open friendly ~safe Internet died long ago.

[gxs]

Reddit? Discord? Other niche forums like the Subaru owner forums or the various audiophile forums? HN?

There are so many places where no one even thinks to ask your age, they just help/troll/etc

If age verification were in place, you may be forbidden from posting to those places which is mind boggling stupid to me

I just don’t see the argument for age verification, it’s just yet another government overreach. It’s a well known thing to use children for any privacy reasons encroaching bills and they are always called “the save the children from online predators and other evil doers” so that you can be easily vilified if you oppose them

[s0rce]

Around the same time I set up an old pentium 80 that booted linux off a floppy to be a router. It ran for a few years later until Linksys wifi routers got cheaper.