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I think I typed in the terminal program from the book to start. That’s the day I learned that not every computer agreed what number “a” is.

An older peer quickly set me up with a better terminal on a floppy.

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tangentially related - I remember my Dad bringing home a Vic-20, pecking in a sample program and then nothing but syntax errors, despite it being entered exactly the same as the printed manual. Turns out the number 0 and the letter O are not the same thing to a computer.

I learned very quickly that computers are simultaneously really smart and really dumb. That's served me well over the years.

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