i'm happy that we've moved beyond those days, though i miss the black art of coding in machine language...those guys were the wizards.
Unfortunately, the arthritis has taken away a lot of the dexterity that is needed for octal coding these days. Some days it's all i can do to form a decent C chord on a guitar.
I'm still pounding on a keyboard to make a living. Much of my work is on UNIX/Linux/Windows, but there is still plenty of good stuff to do with embedded microcontrollers. It is still fun to pack a bunch of functionality into a little PIC18F to perform data acquisition and control. Digital signal processing is fun as well. I love the ability to build filters that do exactly what I need and don't suffer from degradation as components age. Consistent, configurable, controllable.
I've passed my guitar along to my youngest son. He plays it beautifully. It would do nothing but damage the tendons in my fingers. Ibuprofen keeps me functional. Arthritis sucks...and hurts too.