You're not too old! Embedded systems and home computers grew up together. The TI-84+ that my parents bought me in 2005 was great, especially because my parents paid for it. I feel like any device that becomes popular in schools and is repairable/hackable, will become the platform of the future. The article says "you either knew, or were, that kid" and if you think you were that kid, you probably were.
When trying to figure out when embedded systems became mainstream, I accidentally just wrote an incomplete history of embedded pocket computing.
1967: LOGO programming language developed by Seymour Papert.
1970: Sharp QT-8B calculator was the first battery-powered calculator
1972: HP-35 calculator was first scientific calculator
1974: Sinclair Scientific 1974 was affordable, programmable, moddable, repairable. 400 functions in library.
1976: PIC microcontrollers released.
1976: Zilog Z80 launched.
1977: Tandy TRS-80 released, using Zilog Z80 chip.
1977: Apple II released, with colour graphics.
1980: Epson HX-20 released, a laptop with receipt printer and screen. (my dad wrote his Ph.D. thesis on one)
1981: BBC Micro released, targeted at education.
1982: Commodore 64 released.
1984: Apple Macintosh released.
1984: Psion Organiser, 1984 added database, calculator, clock, diary, alarm clock, a-z keyboard. Programmable in OPL, became Symbian.
1985: LEGO/Logo (later Mindstorms) began, with hardware turtles drawing lines using a pen.
1989: Nintendo Game Boy released.
1989: Macintosh Portable released. First laptop with a GUI and mouse (trackball).
1990: ARM founded, as a joint venture of Apple, Acorn (BBC Micro) and VLSI.
1993: Apple Newton 1993 used handwriting recognition, custom ASIC, name PDA. Popular in medical field.
1996: Palm Pilot 1000 in 1996 brought dimensions down to 120x80x18 mm.
1996: TI-83 calculator got added to high school curriculum.
2000: Nokia 3310 mobile phone released, 126 million units sold.
2001: iPod brought 5 GB disk space, rapidly doubling. Rockbox custom firmware released for Archos in 2002,
iPodLinux in 2003.
2004: TI-84 calculator introduced, with USB OTG.
2004: OpenWRT firmware for routers.
2005: Arduino project began.
2007: iPhone decreased disk space compared to iPod but gained capacitive multi-touch screen.
2012: Raspberry Pi released, targeted at education.
2014: ESP8266 released.
2016: iPhone 7 finally exceeded storage of iPod Classic, but removed headphone jack, increased physical dimensions.
Embedded hacking involves hardware and software, which makes it hard to specialise. I took LEGO/Logo after school in 2000-2001, then extra ICT classes for IGCSE 2004-2005, then Computer Science for IB 2005-2007, and Electronic Systems Engineering in university 2007-2011. There's plenty more devices and emulators to explore!
When trying to figure out when embedded systems became mainstream, I accidentally just wrote an incomplete history of embedded pocket computing.
1967: LOGO programming language developed by Seymour Papert.
1970: Sharp QT-8B calculator was the first battery-powered calculator
1972: HP-35 calculator was first scientific calculator
1974: Sinclair Scientific 1974 was affordable, programmable, moddable, repairable. 400 functions in library.
1976: PIC microcontrollers released.
1976: Zilog Z80 launched.
1977: Tandy TRS-80 released, using Zilog Z80 chip.
1977: Apple II released, with colour graphics.
1980: Epson HX-20 released, a laptop with receipt printer and screen. (my dad wrote his Ph.D. thesis on one)
1981: BBC Micro released, targeted at education.
1982: Commodore 64 released.
1984: Apple Macintosh released.
1984: Psion Organiser, 1984 added database, calculator, clock, diary, alarm clock, a-z keyboard. Programmable in OPL, became Symbian.
1985: LEGO/Logo (later Mindstorms) began, with hardware turtles drawing lines using a pen.
1989: Nintendo Game Boy released.
1989: Macintosh Portable released. First laptop with a GUI and mouse (trackball).
1990: ARM founded, as a joint venture of Apple, Acorn (BBC Micro) and VLSI.
1993: Apple Newton 1993 used handwriting recognition, custom ASIC, name PDA. Popular in medical field.
1996: Palm Pilot 1000 in 1996 brought dimensions down to 120x80x18 mm.
1996: TI-83 calculator got added to high school curriculum.
1999: Apple iBook released, targeting education.
2000: Garmin eTrex handheld GPS device introduced.
2000: Nokia 3310 mobile phone released, 126 million units sold.
2001: iPod brought 5 GB disk space, rapidly doubling. Rockbox custom firmware released for Archos in 2002, iPodLinux in 2003.
2004: TI-84 calculator introduced, with USB OTG.
2004: OpenWRT firmware for routers.
2005: Arduino project began.
2007: iPhone decreased disk space compared to iPod but gained capacitive multi-touch screen.
2012: Raspberry Pi released, targeted at education.
2014: ESP8266 released.
2016: iPhone 7 finally exceeded storage of iPod Classic, but removed headphone jack, increased physical dimensions.
Embedded hacking involves hardware and software, which makes it hard to specialise. I took LEGO/Logo after school in 2000-2001, then extra ICT classes for IGCSE 2004-2005, then Computer Science for IB 2005-2007, and Electronic Systems Engineering in university 2007-2011. There's plenty more devices and emulators to explore!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custom_firmware#Other_devices