[Gllug] Forward of moderated message

Tue Sep 9 13:28:53 UTC 2008

> I'm not sure the original poster is actually subscribed to the list..
>
> Caroline

Thanks Caroline!

Hi Alan, two of us sent responses to the wrong list and I'm also
forwarding the responses from the correct list to you now, since you
probably aren't subscribed here yet:
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug

Cheers,
Cillian

On Mon 08 Sep, Alan Herbert wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> I have been scouring the net to find something of interest for my son.
> Whilst he is just 11 years old now he loves his computers.

  Ubuntu was based on Debian, so shares many of the same features although
Debian is a much larger distribution.
  Debian is an open organisation, anyone can view the development logs and
get involved. There is plenty of documentation, and additional help is
welcome.
  He may be well beyond the new user stage, but could find some relevant
links on my website, www.overview.demon.co.uk

--
Chris Bell NEW alternative address: chrisbell at chrisbell.org.uk
Microsoft sells you Windows ... Linux gives you the whole house.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
from: Kilaru Sambaiah <ksambaiah at gmail.com>

    I have been scouring the net to find something of interest for my
son. Whilst he is just 11 years old now he loves his computers. As
well as the macs we are now surrounded with, he has ubuntu on the go
as well. He goes to the apple store on a weekly basis but they are
running out of things to teach him as they are only allowed to teach
their applications and he is now more interested in what makes them
tick and why. There are mac user groups around but I'm not sure that
is what he needs.  I do what i can with him but i am not the source of
knowledge he needs. Whilst i love the technology i do not have the
answers. He is now playing around with the SDK for the iPhone - though
he has not managed to create anything that works yet - so i
desperately need to feed his interest. I found the UK linux user
groups page and your contact within but the hyper links for the
various groups all cycle back to the UK's home page. I Don't know if
thats intentional or if there is some error at the moment. We are in
Potters Bar so not far from you. What can you suggest for us.

Hi,
   It is nice to see 11 years old doing several things, I feel
learning GUI or related things different to learning basics.
   If I look back, I could love GCD algorithm (as it is recursive) in
say Haskell (why? no need to think about memory
   allocation etc as in C and Haskell syntax can be learned in a day).
It is interesting to look class books and try to
   write algorithms finding largest prime numbers etc. I love SICP
vidoes and book as it is mostly mathematics related
  (structure and interpretation of computer programming not remembered
where videos are there). Reading carefully
  Unix Programming Environment book and working (rather taking out KDE
or GNOME from Ubuntu rather I prefer
  going with only OpenBSD with minimal install) all the problems in
the book. I am sure opinions differ and doing these
  are slow and challenging in my opinion.
thanks,
Sam

2008/9/9 Cillian de Roiste <cillian.deroiste at gmail.com>:
>> On Mon 08 Sep, Alan Herbert wrote:
>> I have been scouring the net to find something of interest for my son.
>> Whilst he is just 11 years old now he loves his computers.
>
> There are some interesting projects designed to encourage young
> developers. I've heard great things about http://www.alice.org which
> aims to ease people into programming by using a rich gui and plenty of
> visual stimulation. Once you've mastered that you can start using the
> underlying java code. There are also some very nice books available
> such as the How to Think like a Computer Scientist series. I can
> certainly recommend the Python version and the Python programming
> language is often touted as a nice language to begin with:
> http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython . This is available for free
> or you can also buy the printed version.
>
> Both of these are cross platform, so it shouldn't make any difference
> if he's using OsX or Linux. If there's a particular area that he's
> interested in (you mention mobile phone applications) there may be
> other more suitable projects he could get involved in. Python runs on
> some mobile phones (Nokia N-series at least), and java is ubiquitous,
> so these would both be of some relevance for that too. Naturally, the
> Mac and iPhone route would inevitably be more oriented towards closed
> source.
>
> Good luck,
> Cillian

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 12:50 PM, Alistair Mann <gllug at lgeezer.net> wrote:
>> What can you
>> suggest for us.
>
> My son has just turned 10; a few years ago he learnt to use mspaint to
> change the flags in a TotalWar game, and had the Canadians battle the
> Americans at Culloden. That's developed to the point now where he spends
> time designing Doom 3 levels to look like school, or home, complete with
> DadZombie, so I know where you're coming from. Both these feed his idea
> that a computer is something which is malleable, unlike the idea from
> modern schools where a computer is like a big TV.
>
> Looking back, I started around the same age and spent hours in local
> departments stores and libraries voraciously reading everything I could
> lay my hands on, playing with ZX81s, Spectrums, Commodores, Ataris ... I
> have alot to thank Robin Bradbeer for making everthing he could lay his
> hands on available to us mortals.
>
> This is by way of saying that self-direction was the key to my interest,
> rather than being fed interesting stuff by my parents -- what was best
> for me was that I felt able to explore whatever I wanted. When that ran
> up against obvious obstacles (such as the limits of my parent's
> finances), I learnt more and deeper about what I did have access to.
> Boundaries, then, were as important as open fields.
>
> I'm not ready as a dad to have my 10 year old go unaccompanied to the
> kind of social spaces where he can start sharing ideas with peers, but
> that point is rapidly approaching, and will do him good both
> competitively driving forward what he's aiming for, and allowing him to
> start specialising, and finding a niche. You might suggest taking him to
> a variety of different clubs over a few months, and see which he likes best.
>
> Another thing which will likely happen in the very near term is his
> desire to make and upload videos to youtube, /teaching/ what he's
> learned. Having to explain what's happened to someone else is a
> fantastic way to discover holes in one's own thinking and avenues as yet
> unexplored.
>
> Good luck,
> --
> Alistair Mann
>
>
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