Me too. I still have mine.

Google Voice will transcribe voicemail and send it via email and text. Transcription is not perfect but usually good enough so I know I can ignore or delay the response or if I need to call back soon or immediately. Yes, Google is evil and will spy on your voicemail.

I was hired last year right after I turned 50. I am on contract with AT&T and am probably the oldest person on my team. I work 100% remote, all interaction is via phone, text, and email. I do Javascript UI stuff. I rate myself is an average programmer with lots of experience and a varied background. I am not superstar or a slacker. None of the people that I work with sound/act/perform like fossilized old farts or inexperienced young hotshots. We all just do our jobs and get the work done. I don't socialize with these people beyond witty IM banter and sarcasm over the phone - sometimes I get laughs. There is no office politics or managerial BS. Ideal world for me.

This seems useful. http://enablingthefuture.org/

I have had accounts at Bank of America and Chase and only gave them my PO box for an address. No problem.

I've got 7-9 year old kids writing games after a few hours of introduction to Scratch. Programming itself *is* easy (and which doesn't require extensive training and education).

I took a free intro course on iphone development on Udemy. I wrote C years ago and do PHP and Javascript now. Until I took the course I had never used X-Code or written any Objective-C. So not a total newbie, but still starting from almost zero. I was shocked at how good the course is and how easy it was to get an ipad app working. There are plenty of free courses of all types available on Udemy so you can test the water to see if you think paying for a course is worth it.

Should have said, 'Hacking is not exclusive to computers.'

I started hacking well before I had access to a computer. I took apart almost all of my toys and anything else that I was allowed to. Hacking has nothing to do with computers. It's all about the desire to understand and possibly improve on systems. Fortunately computers became accessible and affordable at the right time in history for me. Today I program and play with microcontrollers for fun and profit.

People Cannot Memorize Computer Industry Acronymns

I use my Raspberry Pi for a PBX. http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/

RPN for the Win!

I am a bit shy of 50 and still love to code. I have done a lot of different things over the years. Mostly back end stuff, a lot of PHP.

A couple of years ago I jumped on the Javascript/AJAX wave. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. Not because Javascript is the perfect language, but because the environment around it is evolving at a rapid pace and there is always something new and exciting to play with. It's hot and marketable now will be for years to come.

I dropped out of the job market about 4 years ago to try some solo gigs. That's when I had the time to really get into Javascript. I did a couple of gigs with Javascript and PHP. The last gig was pure Javascript. I was able to ignore the backend completely and just got to deal with webservices and JSON. The paradigm shifts has been very stimulating/energiziing.

I've been job searching for the past 2 months. Not crazy about the prospects of competing with the young new hotshots. Turned out not to be of problem. I just got hired to do PHP and Javascript and will be paid well to do it. The work will be challenging and exciting, and the company is a great place to work.

You could probably do the same thing. Learn something new and hot and combine it with your deep experience base and use the combination as a force multiplier.

Deathworld and some of his other works are available at LibriVox. https://catalog.librivox.org/search.php?title=&author=harry+harrison&status=all&action=Search

In my opinion Forward's writing is terrible, but his concepts/stories are fantastic.