Reading the article feels like I am talking to my old neighbour who likes tell me about his good old days, which is a good thing.
Anyway, that advice at the end of the article is BS. Being older does not stop you from coding, and it does not stop you from being an engineer. Engineering is not age dependent, but practicing it as a job may be.
Well, the point is if you still want to be able to get bills paid. And if you are not inventor of XML, or inventor of Java, you have to keep your eyes open.
Seriously. Gosling says "almost every old friend of mine is screwed", and it should be a safe assumption that he bonded with equally smart and talented engineers at places such as Sun Microsystems. It's unreal.
Anyway, that advice at the end of the article is BS. Being older does not stop you from coding, and it does not stop you from being an engineer. Engineering is not age dependent, but practicing it as a job may be.