Modulating & Deriving

Software. When I was just a wee little lad, my father gave to me a Commodore 64 computer. In those days, there existed a different kind of internet. Sure there were telecommunications, but I wasn’t privy to data over telephone until I was eleven. That was in 1988. The internet has been around since before my time.

I was a pretty clever kid – naïve and too trusting, perhaps. I haven’t changed much. I loved that computer. The software it brought to life was nothing short of astonishing. I remember waking up early before school just to load some silly new game into memory… my Dad, on his way to work, scolding me for being so helplessly beholden to the pixels and programming.

In those days, programmers were my rock stars. They were all male. Men made computers, and women were more comfortable with a Rolodex.   

It’s easy to laugh at some of the dense graphics inhabiting the software showpieces of yesteryear, but as a layman I must say that even a barely functional computer program takes a certain level of genius to conjure. My hat is off to those programmers of yore. Thank you for bringing a little magic into this drunk’s childhood. Keep on modulating and deriving, ye overlooked mages of bits and bytes!