Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone • Hacker News Board

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#171

Post by andi999 » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 7:36 PM UTC

ansible wrote: post #54

andi999 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have difficulties understanding this. I learned Basic ard 84 on a c64. I don't understand why anybody would learn it without access to any device. I mean what would even get one interested in it/how would one know this exists?

> I have difficulties understanding this. I learned Basic ard 84 on a c64. I don't understand why anybody would learn it without access to any device. You don't understand my youthful obsession with computers? Or you don't understand that my family couldn't afford a C64 when they first came out? I hopefully don't have to explain the 2nd reason to you. As for the first, I don't quite know how to explain that. As I lea…

I understand a youthful obsession and I understand not being able to afford a computer. I can understand if there is a slight access to a computer (either in a shop selling those not minding the kids playing ard, or a distant acquaintance of an uncle allowing for 30 min screen time every month or needing to bribe the grounds keeper for access to the schools it room), but I have a hard time understanding zero access and doing pen and paper programming. I mean why chose basic and not assemble when choosing without a computer.

How did you learn what computers were? Did you see it on a TV show about computers?

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#172

Post by codethief » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 7:41 PM UTC

alecst wrote: post #131

moron4hire wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Statistically, if you know programming, you probably learned it in a tertiary education setting, most likely in your late teens or early twenties. Just like learning a foreign language at that age, you'll never be perfectly fluent. You'll always have an accent, no matter what you do. I appreciate your story, but this comment bothered me, because it's something people repeat a lot and it's actually not true. There's…

> There's no good evidence that adults have more difficulty acquiring language than children. This kind of rocked me, because in my experience, kids have a clear and obvious advantage compared to adults. They can completely passively acquire a language, phonology and grammar, with no training, in a matter of 5 years or so. And that's completely passively, no education, no effort. I totally buy that you can turn an ad…

> in my experience, kids have a clear and obvious advantage compared to adults

Their advantage is that they have almost unlimited time.

Consider how long it takes for a child to speak their first word and, then, to actually speak in well-formed sentences: Several months, even years, of complete immersion and 24/7 exposure to native speakers.

Now compare this to an adult attending a language class for the first time. Chances are, by the end of that class, they will be able to say their first words or even sentences, will understand these words' & sentences' meaning and in which contexts to apply them. Adults are orders of magnitude faster at learning new languages because they already know most of the concepts a new language's words and grammatical structures can refer to. (We all inhabit the same planet, after all.)

The only problem is: Learning all the intricacies of a language, of its grammar and vocabulary, of its melody and accent takes time and lots of continued exposure to native speakers. Adults usually don't (want to) spend that time – whether that's a conscious decision or an unconscious one.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#173

Post by Abishek_Muthian » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 7:41 PM UTC

hemanta212 wrote: post #20

Sadly, this is how things are for many of us students, I currently study bachelors in CS here in Nepal and for me and some of my friends stuck in our villages (lockdown isn't still over here yet), we have been doing C assignments using editors avalialble in the playstore. Seeing these apps have millions of downloads, we're definitely not alone and I have seen many indian and other south asian friends do the same. My…

> we're definitely not alone and I have seen many indian and other south asian friends do the same.

Thank you for considering the struggles of others while you yourself face it. I know a self made individual from Nepal like you in U.S. working in IT with green card and might be able to guide you. Contact me if you're looking for such help.

It's hard to visualize the digital divide in education induced due to the pandemic by someone who has easy access to compute, Internet and uninterrupted power supply.

[Trigger warning: Suicides]

Even middle class families in India spend more than 40% of their earnings on their children's education, So when the pandemic made education online, E-education startups with questionable practices became unicorns, their founders billionaires while children from marginalized, underrepresented communities quit their education forever in-favor of labor work.

There were numerous cases of children committing suicides because they couldn't afford a phone or because they broke the only phone shared with their siblings for education.

The hardware problem is not just because of accessibility, But also because of the lack of repairability. Many people came forward to donate their old phones, But it was often useless. Perhaps if OLPC had been successful things might have turned out differently, Maybe there's still a chance to build a OLPC using latest hardware like RPi 400. Then we need to solve the networking, Perhaps improving upon LoRAWAN could enable real time text messaging; I've been tracking this problem[1] on my platform since the start of the pandemic.

[1] https://needgap.com/problems/149-remote-education-for-underp...

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#174

Post by cute_boi » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

bmsleight_ wrote: post #165

hemanta212 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for such kind and generous gesture. Sadly, with how things are with the courier and customs dep. here they can charge 30-40% of orignal price to receive electronic items Fortunately, I have managed to get few python freelance gigs here and there and in a few months, I may be able to afford one.

FedEx are very good, the sender can choose to pay all the charges.

Nope.

In 2016 I tried fedex and told my friends to send old macbook. In insurance he had written the purchase price. And I had to pay all the taxes. And it was 40% tax.

Customs officers are thieves here.

And fedex did nothing. I supposed the would deliver to my home. But they made me run for 2-3 days and told me to go to customs and claim my items.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#175

Post by ycosynot » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

To help poor countries I was working on Arduino Nano (3$ computer) with a 2" OLED monochrome display (very very little energy required, especially if you show pixels only 1/10th of a time and use eye remanence). I don't have time to make it through, but maybe someone will be interested. It has low CPU but you can stream any kind of data through USB serial.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#176

Post by zepto » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

qmmmur wrote: post #93

zepto wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say ‘sadly’, but that is vastly better than the equipment I had when I learned these skills in 80’s and 90s.

Yes, when you were learning to develop in the 80's. This has a slight undertone of bootstrap lifting and a total lack of empathy for people who have little access to stuff that is thrown out like trash in the west. Use your brain.

> Yes, when you were learning to develop in the 80's. This has a slight undertone of bootstrap lifting and a total lack of empathy for people who have little access to stuff that is thrown out like trash in the west.

Speak for yourself. You know nothing my access to computers, which was not the privileged ‘western’ fantasy you imagine.

I was thinking about what it would be like to have a smartphone to learn on, and for someone who grew up without easy access to computers until later I think it would be amazing.

> Use your brain.

Hmmm…

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#177

Post by zepto » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 8:05 PM UTC

TimTheTinker wrote: post #113

zepto wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say ‘sadly’, but that is vastly better than the equipment I had when I learned these skills in 80’s and 90s.

Taking your comment in the best possible light, I see this as a general indicator that for would-be-developers, things are often so much better than they were, despite the fact that many OSes are locked down. Services like Azure and GitHub make it easy to get started, and combined with great documentation like MDN and Q&A on StackOverflow, so much more information and opportunity is available. I remember struggling t…

> Taking your comment in the best possible light, I see this as a general indicator that for would-be-developers, things are often so much better than they were,

That’s exactly the point - for someone who is enthusiastic, the resources a phone provides are vast.

When I was learning, not only were the computers primitive and expensive, but even access to information about them required all manner of work, travel, etc.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#178

Post by password321 » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

jiggawatts wrote: post #26

Story time! I grew up in eastern Europe in the communist era, in a country where entire factories were run using Commodore 64 computers that were smuggled in, bypassing export controls and sanctions. The programmer at one such factory was a friend of my father, and we'd go over to his place for dinner semi-regularly. He didn't have kids, and I was six, so I was bored to tears. No toys and nobody my age to play with!…

Why is a comment that makes assumptions about its readers and makes typical bragging points of meaningless things like learning syntax at a young age near the top? It felt like I was reading a parody towards the end.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#179

Post by 908B64B197 » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 8:19 PM UTC

hemanta212 wrote: post #42

mnadkvlb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, if you are interested you can reply me with your email address here, i can ship you a laptop for free (intel 5th gen i5) that i dont use anymore. it has 4gigs of ram soldered (surface pro 3). and can hopefully be used for some development.

Thank you for such kind and generous gesture. Sadly, with how things are with the courier and customs dep. here they can charge 30-40% of orignal price to receive electronic items Fortunately, I have managed to get few python freelance gigs here and there and in a few months, I may be able to afford one.

> Sadly, with how things are with the courier and customs dep. here they can charge 30-40% of orignal price to receive electronic items

Something I never really understood, when going to less developed countries, why are customs always trying to fleece everyone? Normalized bribes, byzantine bureaucracy, astronomical import duties on computers and essential products.

What's the goal with this? Is there some kind of long term strategy I'm not seeing? Do they not want investments or a tech sector?

The unemployment and brain drain these countries suffer sure paints a bleak picture.

Re: Nepalese student learns HTML, JavaScript, CSS using just a mobile phone

#180

Post by jstrieb » Wed, Jul 21, 2021, 8:21 PM UTC

For anyone reading this thread who may be in a similar situation: I wrote a script that allows you to use GitHub Actions as a computer. Any work you do can be committed to a repository and saved for later.

It can either boot up a command-line, or a complete desktop interface. Both are available entirely over the Web (and thus a smartphone). All you need is a free GitHub account. Both are also available over Tor in case you're in a situation where things might be blocked.

https://github.com/jstrieb/ctf-collab

I originally built this for doing competitive hacking challenges with a friend, but I have also used it at libraries, and from my phone. In general, it is great for when you need a desktop but don't have one, or for when you can't install things on the computer you're using.

Hopefully this helps others who need access to such resources for learning!