The article underestimates kids -- but the sentiment is understandable given the short history of computing. These guys witnessed the birth. Now things are vastly improved, just like how you open the hood of a car and it looks like an amorphous plastic object ("Back in my day, you could see how everything worked."). So while I enjoy the nostalgia, I suspect kids will be tinkering far into the future. That kids have the web to learn from is still amazing to me (I can't imagine programming without it) -- and it is itself a great platform for tinkering.