I'm 10 years older than the author, and I spent a lot of my career wishing that I was 10 years younger -- mostly because of the lack of available resources in the CS and electronics fields when I was in my 20's. IMHO, the most significant contribution of the Internet to humanity has been the increased availability of information to all. I envy my children because they grew up with access to incredible resources that weren't available to me.

On the other hand, I was blessed to experience first-hand, incredible advances in technology. During my career, I've witnessed a roughly 10^3 improvement in speed, storage capacity, and signal processing algorithm efficiency.