I've posted here before about my cousin, Michael Gardi, who has used his time in retirement to recreate several vintage computer toys from the dawn in the computing era.
Mike has been interviewed by Mark Fraunfelder, editor at Boing Boing and co-host of the Cool Tools podcast with Kevin Kelly, for his new newsletter The Magnet.
It's an interesting interview and shows the value of parents giving their kids toys that are both fun to play with and make them think.
Mark: Why are you interested in recreating classic computer-like educational devices and toys?
Michael: In 1965, I was 12 years old. And I got the Digi-Comp I from my parents as a Christmas present. And it was pretty much a perfect gift for a kid interested in computers, where computers of the day were mysterious and cost millions of dollars and lived in big rooms. It was a great gift. And I learned Boolean logic, and octal and hex notation systems, and a little bit of logical thinking. I'm not saying that was the only reason I ended up studying computer science and having a nice career writing software, but it was certainly a contributing factor.
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