{"id":64950,"date":"2024-09-25T08:39:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pappp.net\/?guid=0964ba559a60e232e53945ca0b9cfdee"},"modified":"2024-09-25T08:39:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:39:45","slug":"being-raised-by-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pappp.net\/?p=64950","title":{"rendered":"Being Raised by the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Hacker News<\/a><\/p>\n

Article note: I've told this story many times, but posts like this always make me reflect on it.\n\nI grew up comfortable, but one of the most consequential things that ever happened to me was the series of computers my parents kept me supplied with when I was young. \nThey weren't (mostly) nice, recent, or high-end machines, and most of them weren't new, but I had a little Pentium MMX Winbook XL, and a whole assortment of aging Macs, and some junker old PCs that I could play with fearlessly, and it set the course of my life. \nThere were some nicer machines that I could use and later bought for me, but the ones that _mattered_ were the ones I could play with. \n\nI learned more about computers fixing and hacking on those machines than I did from college. That Winbook ran like a dozen operating systems over its life (Windows 98, 2000, and Server 2003. SuSE 7.2 from the physical boxed media. Debian. Slackware. BeOS. At least one of the BSDs but I honestly don't remember which. Some truly weird stuff like Syllable). I cobbled internet access in various cheap-to-free ways before having broadband (mostly from UK nearby). I ran an Appletalk network along one wall of my room. Sure, I played a lot of video games, but I learned networking, and systems administration, and repair, and deeply how computers work. \n\nThe same story come up last week because one of the folks I lunch with was asking everyone what the best gift they've ever received is; there's your answer. \n\nI hear similar stories from a many of the really engaged students I work with. Most of them naming some specific old dumpster-dive Dell tower or repurposed Chromebook or whatever that was _the_ machine that was their education.\nI wish I knew a reliable way to create an experience like that for every kid that shows any sort of proclivity.<\/div>Comments<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comments<\/p>\n

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