13-year old to address Linux conference

[davisfactor]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39186360,00.htm


I think this is really cool! This girl has been running Debian since she was 9!

[JayMan8081]

Wow, and to think that I gave up on my install of Debian after a couple days of trying. That was at age 22. I definitely feel like a newbie now. :p

[hard candy]

Why do people post things about 13 year olds who can do things better than I can? It's depressing. There is one thing I can do better thanks to being on the right side of puberty. :)



(And that's hitting those low notes while singing-what did you think I was talking about anyway? You should be ashamed). :)

[Icarus]

One thing you have over those pre-teens hardcandy, is experiance! Nobody knows how to be immature more then you :p

Hmmm, since she was 9 when she started...I think I'll have to start my daughter up on it now, gotta get a 2 year head start on that!

Yeah! Have here install Debian now and she can't goto barbie.com until she gets the network up and running! THEN she needs to install Flash before I even touch the thing! :D

Ok, that's a little too much to ask...I'll tell her what the things mean during the install :p

[hard candy]

Nobody knows how to be immature more then you

No, that is not immaturity, my therapist calls it "selective maturity" and, you can't see it but I'm sticking my tongue out right now, so there.

[raz0rblade]

I started using Linux when I was 8. I win! :p

[cybertron]

Originally posted by hard candy
No, that is not immaturity, my therapist calls it "selective maturity" and, you can't see it but I'm sticking my tongue out right now, so there.
Ah, but we could see you sticking your tongue out. You just need a proper application of smilies:p

Edit: And in the spirit of immaturity: dummyhead:D

[templest]

Er... beat me by 5 years. That's when I did my first slackware install. :) And I'm still a newb...

:rolleyes:

... beaten by a girl!

[blackbelt_jones]

So is there a thread where people compete to be the oldest to start Linux? I have a shot at that one!

Wow, if she installed Debian at the age of ten, she must be talking about Woody, right? Or maybe Potato? If it was Woody, color me impressed; that Woody install is a mother! I always felt like I was bluffing my way through it.

[irlandes]

I started Linux after I retired. I think it was 1999 and I am 62 now. My registration date for this URL under its original name is the correct year in any case. Were you older than that, BlackBelt?

I am sure there are others older by far than I am.

[rocketpcguy]

although it should be noted that "Dad is around to answer questions" if trouble hits.

Elizabeth will be speaking on "Extending Tuxracer – Learning by Playing", a seminar which Chair of the 2005 organising committee Steven Handley has said will revolve around making modifications to Tuxracer (a popular open source game involving Linux’s cuddly mascot) with the aim of making the game more fun.

dont over estimate her

[The Linux Kid]

I've been using linux since I was 7 or 8 :D

I'm 15 now.....

<edit>But it was only redhat... put cd in, remove cd, play with linux</edit>

But still, addressing a linux conference :eek:

The Linux Kid

[mrBen]

Hmmm - Linux was but a twinkle in Linus' eye when I was 9. Mind you - I was already programming in BASIC on an Amstrad CPC464......

[Icarus]

When I was 9....

BladeRunner hit the theaters
The Apple Lisa was the 'next big thing' while I was messing with the Apple2e
The first luggable computer is introduced. (30lbs laptops)
The Commodore 64 begins to be sold with 64 kilobytes of random-access memory (w00t!)
The Intel 80286 processor is announced

And Linus Torvalds was 13 :p

[Parcival]

When I was 9 years old...

I saw the first computer of my life, a Commodore Pet 2001 (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=191) at a friend's house. Soon afterwards, however, they got an IBM 286 with a color display! OMFG!!!!

[hard candy]

When I was 13, I didn't give a hoot about computers, I had discovered females, got my first prolonged kiss and for the next 5 years, chased females and felt sorry for the guys who stayed at home with only a computer to keep them company. Now here I am chasing computers and feeling sorry for the guys who have only a female to keep them company.
Computer+female+remote control=paradise. :D

[XiaoKJ]

what has age got to do with expertise?

this is funny.

Anyway, when I was 9, my school still had macs, but pentium 1~2 was the newest in town.

[Icarus]

Originally posted by XiaoKJ
what has age got to do with expertise?

this is funny.

Anyway, when I was 9, my school still had macs, but pentium 1~2 was the newest in town. Not expertise, but experiance...there is a small difference.

But even though I have been using computers for over 20 years does NOT mean I'm an expert...just that I've seen a lot

[knute]

This is cool.

However, my kids at the ripe old ages of 4 (my son) and 2 (my daughter) had favorite games in both windows and linux, and knew the difference! (mainly it was my son that chose, btw)

When they wanted to play on my computer my question was always the same, "Windows or linux?" And they made the choice depending upon whether they wanted to play one of the Disney Story Books (didn't know about wine at the time), or one of the kids games that I had installed (lletters, same gnome, etc...).

[templest]

What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him "Money" for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You've gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the Internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem, tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller

Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got 'em printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operation system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor forty inches wide wide
I believe that your says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, "alt.total-loser"
Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What? What? What? What? What?


:D For some reason reading this topic reminded me of that song.

[Parcival]

Originally posted by Icarus
But even though I have been using computers for over 20 years does NOT mean I'm an expert...just that I've seen a lot

Not that many years in my case, but that's exactly how I feel.

Hard Candy, what do you use the remote control for - the computer or the female? :D Well, I hope, it's the first, the second would be boring. :)

[The Linux Kid]

Originally posted by templest
What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him "Money" for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You've gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're usin' a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the Internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem, tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Hellen Keller

Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got 'em printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique
Your laptop is a month old? Well that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operation system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor forty inches wide wide
I believe that your says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, "alt.total-loser"
Your motherboard melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What? What? What? What? What?


:D For some reason reading this topic reminded me of that song.

Good song :D

The Linux Kid

[Parcival]

Originally posted by The Linux Kid
Good song :D

The Linux Kid

From Weird Al Yankovic, of course. :)

http://www.weirdal.com/

[bs_texas]

I'm not a real oldie, like irlandes, but when I was 13, we were still using chisels and stone tablets.

Man... actually, that was 1967. I can't remember if we even had electricity back then.... ;)

[o0zi]

Hey, if we're going for youngest Linux guru...
Well, I started using Red Hat when I was seven, and currently (fourteen) I have my own Linux distro :)

[Thorn3x3]

When my son Andrew was 18 months old, I had him sit in his high-chair next to me while using AutoCAD (R14). He kept reaching for the keyboard. I gave him his own keyboard and mouse on his high-chair table. He tried it, looked at my screen and discovered that his tools did nothing! So, he pushed them off his little table and reached again for mine. I then started keeping him in my lap while using CAD. At age two, when I purchased AutoCAD 2000, his favorite thing to do was to play the instructional CD. By time he was 3, I would ask him for help! Really! He memorized the entire instructional CD! If I could not remember a certain step, he would be right there to help me out. He would repeat the associated instructions word for word, as detailed in the instructional CD. Simply amazing! By age 8 (now) he is in second grade and reads on a college level. He uses my AutoCAD 2004, generating complex polygons. When it comes to Linux, which I just got into (SUSE 9.2) he prefers it over Windblows. When he boots his computer up in the morning, he always chooses Linux.
Kids are amazing! My youngest son Mark, at age 2, would "help" me in the lab. He would watch me develop mechanical devices. He learned to use the hand tools. He payed attention so well, he took apart the baby gate with a screwdriver to get into the kitchen and all the goodies. LOL... kids are great! I eventually had to get him to stop taking all of our stuff apart. Sigh.. if only MY learning curve is still as sharp as theirs! LOL.. One day I went to file a sharp edge with a hand file. Well, Mark, in his infinite wisdom had determined at some earlier moment, that my files had sharp edges on them and thus needed to be smoothed. He took my dremel with the grinding stone and ground all the teeth off of all of my files! Smart boy! The idea was right... but.. my files? Ah, they needed replacing anyway!
Now, Andrew is the teachers computer assistant (helping the teacher learn to use them better). Mark is my lab assistant. It really DOES help a child to get them started in the tech world at an early age. Think about the old days, when children watched their parents run their daily business. By time the kids were five or so, they were actively helping out in the business. I think most modern children however are deprived of such learning abilities, simply because their daily learning is being replaced by cartoons on the TV.
It is not that children just want to go running around playing. Much of their time is spent watching us, their parents and what WE are doing. Let them be a part of what we are doing. After all, what cute thing do children say when they see us doing things? "Dad, I want to be just like you". Well, let them! Don't just tell them "go away and stop bothering me!" NO NO NO! Let them do what you are doing! Always!
I have learned by watching my own children, that technical "interests" are NOT learned! They are born with their interests pre-installed. Such can be seen in the differences between Andrew and Mark. Andrew is computer oriented and Mark is mechanical. They each have half of what I do. I will be promoting each of their skills and teaching them to work together. Andrew can do software and computer use and Mark can be the engineer that designs the devices. Can you imagine what they can do together when they get older?
To the young girl and Linux, "Way to go!".