She's one of, and maybe the best explainer of vintage hardware I've ever encountered. Her entire site is so, so worth reading if you're into this kind of thing.
There's also a strange appeal, at least for me, in being able to play around with old games and hardware using far more powerful tools (and more time) than the original developers could have dreamt of.
I also like, sometimes, that we can now own hardware that would have been exorbitantly expensive in its heyday. An arcade machine was thousands of dollars in the 80s, but you can sometimes buy the board for cheap and supply your own JAMMA connector and display. Fun.
Just treat her as a human being, there's no reason whatsoever to bring up gender here.
I can assure you, as a guy who enjoys many traditionally feminine activities: when you're doing something contrary to gender norms and people constantly bring that up, even in a positive way, it feels extremely limiting and frustrating.
Just let people enjoy stuff, especially when the result is awesome and fascinating articles like this.
Rather than talking about "taboos," which sound sort of mysterious and arbitrary, let's take a look at why commenting on her gender wasn't the best thing.
First I have no doubt that the original comment up there, commenting how it's odd to see a woman involved in such a hobby, was made completely innocently!
But even if something is both correct and innocent, it's not always like... the best choice. It was off topic for sure and more to the point, it winds up simply reinforcing the stereotype.
Imagine a comment along the lines of, "oh -- a black valedictorian! don't see that often!" Awkward at best, and the fact that you're pointing out the perceived exception to a perceived stereotype is evidence that you're kinda bought into the stereotype.
