I had my interest in computing cemented when I was about 16 in the early 1980’s I volunteered that summer at a local hospital where my cousin worked running one of the test labs.

They had an apple II and some equipment they figured might be able to interface with it. Like the article author, I basically got a few manuals and just figured out how to make it work. I was able to do some simple control of one of the new instruments via the RS-232 serial connection, plus print out some it’s internal state.

I was very proud that all the other volunteers were basically candy stripers, and I was doing software development in a lab environment.

I would have gone bonkers with everything available today. But then again, in the 80s the sorting function was very strong - you were either one of those who could figure this stuff out, or you weren’t. Then of course, there were further delineations. Case in point, my apple ii basic and 6502 assembly hacks in the lab sound like child’s play compared to what this dude did!