Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge
Recommendations for a 14 years old intelligent boy: where can he start in PCs?
SvOlli:
Imho, the discussion of what programming language he should use is rather academic.
If he really wants to get into programming and hacking the best thing you can do, is find him some kind of tutor. A person he can turn to, if he can't figure out, what's going wrong. Someone who will also take his time not just find a missing ";", but also for example explains why you shouldn't do all the work in a gui-thread. Anyone I know ran into this trap...
The choice of OS and programming will be made by the tutor indirectly, a guy who's doing C/C++ exclusively all day just can't help with Python or Java problems.
Just my 2c,
SvOlli
floppy:
As a first poster of this question, I would like to thanks everybody for all proposal: I see that everybody here wants to do its best for making young people (and the next generation) interested in a smart actrivity (not banker.. except I would apologize if a banker is making extensions for free of charge here). So, for the people who had questions to me, wait a bit, I will answer as soo as I can.
Lee:
I certainly agree with cast-fish that there are different levels of programming just as there are strata of computer usage scenarios. Putting together a complex email filter in MS Outlook might be considered "programming" and indeed I suppose it is, but on a different level than writing a device driver or something like that.
I want to expose my kids to programming at many different levels and, remembering back to the excitement I felt when I first started (*), I want to start them out -about- the same way I started out - with a simple but useful language that (as luck would have it) translates easily to other languages as one moves on. There are probably many good choices. Basic seems to be working for us.
As for the torture part... Our home schooling routines are pretty relaxed but I worry that sometimes the kids want them to be a little -too- relaxed. I have to keep it fun, as I firmly believe that's how learning happens, but I can't let it be all "fun and games" - I'll have to guide them into the harder stuff, but only when they're ready.
(*) I was 19 or 20, not 12, when I first started to learn programming.
Lee:
I just downloaded and compiled UCB logo 6.0 and my eight-year-old daughter just loves it.
The older ones are still enjoying smallbasic - but now they want to play with logo, too. :)
grandma:
In 1983 I exited the East L.A. Gang Banger scene
and started Kids Computer Kamp - free PCs for Kids
we teach in Barrios, Ghettos, Juvenile Facilities
and even (don't faint) to straight A kids.
Over the years, we've given away several 1000 PCs - always 100% free
and always - 100% built by the kids themselves.
There are 9 basic labs starting with the really fun one:
The kid gets to rip apart a broken desktop that
won't boot anyway.
We have a pile of parts - most tested so we know what hard drives are shot
and to start the lab, after giving them a screw driver
I take a hard drive - hold it out and drop it on the floor
and tell them - YOU CAN'T BREAK THESE PCs - THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD
(donated gear we pick up)
Yes - its possible that one or 2 bits of equipment
might have had some life in them
but usually we fill these cases - the ones for the first lab
with known dead motherboards and drives
and the kids get to rip em apart - oh the joy
...then at 4pm we give them a triple espresso
tell them to keep the screwdriver - take it home
and operate on their father's PC (kidding)
Phase 2 - they put it all back in the case
and have to do it in under 20 minutes
then move on to a functional PC
repeat - and configure
BIOS
FDISK
FORMAT (old DOS 3.3 - but could use Linux as we are switching to that THANKS TO TINY CORE - YEAH TEAM)
if they get a C: prompt in under 20 minutes and pass the lab
they go to the parts pile - rustle up the ram, a CPU, motherboard etc.
a drive, CD/DVD - whatever is there
and build one and take it home.
We have a little joke: we either have to bury it as hazmat - or give it to the children.
We always serve pizza in the labs
and have served all kinds of kids.
You asked "WHERE SHOULD MY KID START?"
At Kids Computer Kamp its always that lab first
so we know - absolutely positive
they will never fear a computer repair
they will never fear any new challenge with computers
and they will often innovate and make all kinds of things
I have seen a kid take a cordless phone
and a am/fm radio and make a tracking device
and plenty of other strange things come out of those labs
We use cutting wheels to reshape cases,
coolers - name it - and the kids have a blast
AFTER the KCK 101 lab
we get em into networking
50 ways to connect 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 10 - 20 PCs
and then get them into the various applications
office, image processing, CAD/CAM etc.
Then onward to web design - html - javascript
Then on to setting up an Apache Server
buying a domain, learning to configure a little PERL CGI to get some backend processing,
selling a wifi signal to neighbors (a favorite of mine as it puts immediate cash in their pocket),
getting a paypal account, and then doing the old job search - client search because these kids are hot to trot
So...it all starts with a couple of milk crates and a sheet of plywood and a power source with a few screwdrivers
Its a great after school program - a lot of latch key kids out there
and the labs can be hosted in a garage, in a driveway, on the tailgate of a pickup
anywhere
In this century, we believe that every kid should be able to build a PC from parts in a bench in under 20 minutes and install Windows and .... oooops....that was last century
In this century they should be able to install and run Tiny Core (what was I thinking?)
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