By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/07/2026In the mid-1970s, my dad - then a budding computer scientist, subsequently a math teacher - brought home my first computer: the CARDiac, a Turing-complete, all-cardboard *papercraft* computer that you could write and execute programs on: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboa... 1/ 710618
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/07/2026If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/07/03/r... 2/pluralistic.netPluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period. 180
Ben Tye @bentye.bsky.social · 03/07/20261979’ish, my Dad bought home a Commodore PET as he worked in the electrical engineering dept. of Manchester Uni. It’s what I learned to program BASIC on. For my next birthday I got a box of components and a small green monitor to build my own computer and had to learn machine code, aged 10 🤯 2181
ajparkes.bsky.social @ajparkes.bsky.social · 03/07/2026I took Basic in 1974 as a high school sophomore. I ended up spending nearly 40 years as an IBM systems programmer. I was the only woman in most places I worked at for a long time. I would bring my 2 girls to work late at night for IPLs and they would draw on greenbar paper while I worked. 2503
Mndrew @mndrew.bsky.social · 03/07/2026A friend of the family built an actual Heathkit computer around '80 that as far as I recall ran CPM. Played many a game of Othello on it. 😄 010
Jan Gray @jangray.bsky.social · 03/07/20261978. We sent FORTRAN punched card / optical mark card program decks to run offsite on the one IBM-1130 shared by all high schools in the county. Turnaround time, cards to printout, was 2+ days, so mistakes, debugging, resubmitting was painful. You learned to run substantial programs in your head. 3352