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Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#131

Post by mattmoose21 »

AlanYx wrote: post #120

It's too bad there's no open source version of something like Print Shop Pro. I find LibreOffice to be very buggy when trying to design signs and banners (at least on the Raspberry Pi, some features don't work properly with huge fonts, and the option to print a large banner spread across multiple pages doesn't seem to work properly). Inkscape is okay but is a little too advanced for kids and doesn't come with clip ar…

Don't think it is open source but I thought this was pretty neat. https://theprintshop.club/

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#132

Post by lariati »

warrenm wrote: post #116

I love all these "back in my day.." and "how do I replicate my [very limited, and - no doubt - wildly incorrect memory of] childhood for my kids" type posts Because they all-too-often display a vicarious hubris that some how some way my [limited] memory of childhood is the Only True Way™ to experience childhood, and must be replicated for every successive generation Nostalgia is great - but I do not want to force my…

Love the Socrates quote.

I would take the opposite approach if I had kids. Build a really baddass PC with KDE Plasma, great monitor, just a perfect workstation then tell the kid they can't use it. This is what grownups use to build Youtube and all the apps you love, you aren't old enough to use this.

Build the most simple youtube search app with vanilla js/html/css and then act like the code is almost pornographic and they can't even look at it. Finally at some point give in to them begging to see what is going on.

Emulating basic on an Apple IIe is like forcing the kid to learn trombone and play Count Basie tunes because that was what was cool back in the day. They will despise trombone by the time they are teenagers.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#133

Post by flatiron »

dfxm12 wrote: post #130

It looks like there's an Apple II core for Mister if you want to recreate the experience. I've never used Mister before, but setting it up could be fun, too, or it might be over most people's heads. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Apple-II_MiSTer I also think a slightly different way to go here is an arduino kit. Even as an adult, I got some kind of ardunio kit with a bunch of parts that got me more interested in wir…

i have 3 kids, an Apple IIe, a MAME arcade box, and a MiSTER as well. I would have died and gone to heaven as a kid with all that stuff.

They just want to watch youtube videos, ipad games and minecraft. every now and then my oldest wants to play ms pacman or puzzle bobble (she just turned 8). i think there's just stuff that is specifically designed now-a-days to instantly reward the kids its hard to compete with.

even my friend who is also into computers asked i boot up an apple 2 game. he was slamming enter after 10 seconds asking if it was stuck. people want some instant gratification now-a-days!

mister is great btw, i got in before they raised the price a few times and the stock depleted. if anyone can get a hand on one i highly recommend it

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#134

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

jasode wrote: post #56

>When I was a kid, I had an Apple II with a BASIC interpreter, [...] a computer like that, where there are a lot of open-ended ways to create. I think your particular childhood memories that understandably left an imprint on you have inadvertently affected your idea of what "open-ended" creation means. >, and great creative experiences don't seem available on desktop I also grew up with those 8-bit computers and I do…

However, restrained environment may inspire creativity. For sure today's kids have way more choices and the almost unlimited resources (as long as the family is not poor), but I wouldn't say it's a benefit without harm, from my exp having way more choices than one can digest is always bad. Plus most of the choices out there do not give you the benefit to build from the bottom -- a very important skill for engineering.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#136

Post by itomato »

bigiain wrote: post #5

I think the problem here is that the world has moved on a lot since some of us kids were amazed at what we could make machines like an AppleII do with basic (and assembler and peek and poke). I remember being amazingly proud of myself for getting an ascii version of Space Invaders working. I could, as a 10 or 12 year old, make something for myself that kinda looked like and was way more fun (for me) to play that _lit…

Kids like having power. Computers - even old ones - give them power.

Even if it's the power to say "wow, we've really come a long way, and what I think I would prefer to pursue is..."

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#137

Post by whalesalad »

I earned my stripes continuously installing various Linux distributions and breaking MBR on the shared family computer. There is an infinite amount of things to explore, from the different distro’s and window managers, to all the various open source apps. Lots of open source graphics tools and games.

Old hardware is fun too. You can build a “top of the line” rig from hardware that’s a few years old and continue to iterate and play with it. Then again, I find things like setting up a ZFS pool to be fun and therapeutic, most kids might not share this sentiment :)

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#138

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

em500 wrote: post #54

I think this is a lost cause. Other have already mentioned this, but I'll state it again. The computers themselves are the trivial part, both the hardware and the software. You can buy a budget 11- or 13-inch laptop, new for $300 or used for $100, load them with emulators of all the 1980s and 1990s machines, and have literally the same software and much better hardware than we did back then. If you give that to them,…

Agreed. As I said in an above comment, getting 100X of resources and choices is NOT a good thing. You need VERY knowledgeable adults to guide the kids. TBH most parents are not prepared for this, let alone many of them are deep into the rabit hole themselves.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#139

Post by stef_841 »

I grew up the same - just replace the AppleII with a C64. A box just just switch on and another world is instantly waiting for your your input. Tried to figure out something similar in our days, using it to teach our kids. The closest I could find - and I am perfectly happy with it - is a Rasperry Pi with Pythons Idle programming environment. Just start it up, type anything and get instant gratification. Cheers from Germany

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#140

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

sebastianconcpt wrote: post #92
em500 wrote: post #54

I think this is a lost cause. Other have already mentioned this, but I'll state it again. The computers themselves are the trivial part, both the hardware and the software. You can buy a budget 11- or 13-inch laptop, new for $300 or used for $100, load them with emulators of all the 1980s and 1990s machines, and have literally the same software and much better hardware than we did back then. If you give that to them,…

Good observation. This generation has the problem of abundance of resources and attention competition which we didn't have in the Apple II years. Worst, you have TikTok kind of content contaminating them with futility that makes them get dopamine shots in exchange of "short exciting things" that will make them A) loose time and B) raise expectations on what will make them trigger dopamine hits in the future.

And once the dopamine shots are done, there is no way back unless the parents are very mindful. It would be only decades later, when they are at our age (30/40) that they realized that something could be changed back then.

In reality I see many parents actively feed kids with dopamine shots because it "quiets the kids".

TBH I don't know what I can do. Even as both my wife and I are aware of the situation, in daycares and schools they simply feed those stuffs too, maybe with an educational bent, but still dopamine shots underlied.

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