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Comment by OldSchool | Hacker News Reader

Very cool! Sadly, in the US at least, I venture to guess that each generation (~5 years) of 'hackers' arrives less mentally connected to circuits and more connected to graphic design.

It wasn't -that- long ago you could buy a solderless breadboard-equipped ISA or PCI card and easily cobble together your own custom PC hardware project. Countless hours of analog fun too!

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Interestingly, I was in Taipei a few weeks ago and I noticed there was a marked decrease in computers for sale. After chatting with a guy that grew up there, he said that when he was in school everyone was into EE and hardware. Now the tables have turned and everyone's into graphic design and a lot of the stores that used to be geeky havens are now selling stuff about design tools. Moving up the food chain, I guess.

I don't know. I've been messing around with programming on computers for 25 years, and it was only until the last couple that I have gotten into hardware hacking.

Arduinos and their ilk have made hardware hacking easier these days, I think. That, along with better websites to buy supplies, have made hardware hacking even more accessible than ever.

Yeah, hardware and test equipment has certainly never been more accessible and affordable. Back when Radio Shack had more than a drawer full of components per store they were still extremely limited - now you can get whatever you want in a couple of days. Gotta love all the free hardware-related software tools yet sort of hate the end of thru-hole components!

Now they're doing it over USB and Serial and WiFi. You're being too hard on us younglings.

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