A Reddit thread discussing a lack of basic computer skills that "shocked" users has made its rounds with over 43,000 upvotes and another 23,000-plus comments.

AVR microcontrollers can do pretty much anything nowadays. Blinking LEDs, handling sensor inputs, engine control modules, and now, thanks to [Dan], a small single chip BASIC computer with only ten … ...

One such learner is Sotheavy Chev. She began attending computer literacy classes in spring 2023, nearly 20 years after taking a typing class and learning basic Excel in her native Cambodia.

When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued us enough to have a good look at [Stan6314]’s TinyBasRV computer. It’s a small PCB that for… ...

BASIC [. . .] both sped up the process and demystified it. You told the computer to do something by typing words and math statements, and it did it, right away.

A brochure for the GE 210 computer from 1964. BASIC's creators used a similar computer four years later to develop the programming language. Credit: GE / Wikipedia ...