How did so many of you learn assembly in high school? What kind of computer Hogwarts did you attend?

— bletchley punk (@alicegoldfuss) February 14, 2019

I was lucky to have a computer in the house, even though we were dirt poor and lived in a trailer with holes in the floor. Fortunately, my dad was completely obsessed with computers despite being a shade-tree mechanic for a living (along with other jobs, none that paid well), so I am not sure you’d really describe me as “privileged,” exactly. Certainly lucky, though.

Sometimes, there’d be nothing in the fridge (and I mean NOTHING), and the car would be repossessed, but the computer always stayed. At the time it made my mom supremely angry but I’m glad for it. Without that computer I likely wouldn’t have my current career and my life would be much different and worse.

I never did much with assembly, though. Played with it a little when I was 6-12, but mainly copied BASIC and programs in hex out of computer magazines, tediously and by hand, and wrote some of my own.

Just not sure how useful it is to scream “privileged” all the time as some kind of invalidation of experiences. Without actually changing the systems in place, I don’t think it helps much.