On Wednesday 29 July 2009, Sharpe, Sam J wrote: >2009/7/29 Aldo Foot <lunixer@xxxxxxxxx>: >> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:04 AM, john wendel<jwendel10@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> Seriously (well not really), >>> >>> http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/07/27/hannah-montana-linux/ >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> John >> >> I no longer underestimate what kids can learn these days. I see kids >> doing things >> with gadgets I never thought possible :-) >> But Linux? that's got to be the Final Frontier... > >Speaking as someone who has tried to teach modern kids some things I >learnt when I was their age, I'm still surprised at how they can fit >so much information into 160 characters, but can't master simple >mechanical operations. I think even when I was a teenager (little more >than a decade ago Gene!), life was stuffed with so much less >technology, that I had a lot more time for the simpler things in life. > >I lived in the suburbs of a major city in the UK when I was a >teenager. By day I spent my time in the woods lighting fires and >making dens, by night I spent my time trading "warez" on IRC on a 28k >modem. Occasionally I went to school. > >I've spoken to a lot of 14-18yr olds in the course of my volunteer >work and I'm still continually amazed about what has changed in the >average kid's life. Now they come home from school and spend their >time playing computer games and messaging their friends on Bebo, >MySpace and Facebook. There's no real understanding among the majority >of computer users of how it works, how you program it and how to fix >it any more - the fundamental way they are using computers is >completely different to how I was brought up. An operating system is >now a gateway to the services you use - as long as you can get the >same IM programs, p2p and websites that all your mates are using, >what's under the hood just isn't a factor any more. > >-- >Sam Which M$ knows full well is the wedge that will let linux in, and they will go to any lengths to prevent that from happening. Any lengths, legal or otherwise... I know exactly how you feel, I was building & programming computers to do jobs better than we humans could as far back as the later '70's. Memory was very expensive in those days, and I made a program to control a vcr and lay a new academy leader on a commercial, self modifying RCA 1802 code, and the whole thing fit into about 1175 bytes of a 4k static ram board we paid $418 for. This even included the character generator data to drive a character generator I built into it. Battery backup, an old off speed BC cart recorder for reloading in case the power failure was many hours. In several times a day use at KRCR for a decade or more after I left. I still have a paper copy of that program in a poly bag I can see from here. If I was forced to use winderz, I'd probably burn the machine. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) The NRA is offering FREE Associate memberships to anyone who wants them. <https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp> The most important early product on the way to developing a good product is an imperfect version. -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines