Childhood Computing
9 points by i_lost_my_bagel
9 points by i_lost_my_bagel
I love computers. I have all my life.
I am two decades older than you and, like you, I love computers. I have all my life.
When I was about eight years old, my parents decided to transfer me to a new school because of its curriculum. They did not know it then, and it probably did not even matter to them, but this new school had a computer lab. That was quite remarkable for its time.
I grew up in a very tiny industrial township and this new school was part of the township. The computers in the lab were hand-me-downs from the silica factory around which the township was built. We got only about two hours of time per month in the computer lab but the little time I got there opened up new worlds for me.
Before entering the lab, we had to leave our shoes at the door. 'These are expensive machines. We must keep them free of dust', our teacher would say. It was a ritual. The computers were very old IBM PC compatible machines, mostly with monochrome displays. They had no hard disks at all. They had a few hundred kilobytes of RAM. Every time, we would perform the same ritual. Insert a 5ΒΌ-inch floppy disk to load MS-DOS into memory. Then insert another disk to load LOGO. Then write small LOGO programs and watch the turtle move. I have written more about that early LOGO programming experience here: https://susam.net/fd-100.html
It has been over 30 years since then, but the memories and the feelings still remain fresh in my mind. There are times when I can close my eyes and recall the buzzing sound of the dozen or so CPUs running in the lab, the beeps from the power-on self-test (POST) and the distinctive, strangely pleasant smell of the closed air-conditioned room. For some reason, that smell is one of the strongest memories I have from those days. I have never been able to describe it well, but once in a while I encounter it in very unexpected places, like a corridor somewhere, or a store, and it takes me right back to those early days of childhood computing.
Childhood computing forms some of my strongest and most vivid memories. It is such a wonderful experience, full of wonder and exploration. It is very hard to capture that magic again once you grow up.