Hacker Scouts teaches children Linux, robotics, and welding • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacker Scouts teaches children Linux, robotics, and welding

#31

Post by LanceH » Fri, Oct 04, 2013, 3:12 AM UTC

judk wrote: post #30

pratik661 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. The "make an iPad app" camps have a very narrow focus and appeal. Are we really changing the world with an iPad app? I just had a cursory glance at the website and saw one kid claim that he wanted to build an autonomous go-kart. Goals like that are exciting and interesting. Even if he fails at that he will learn a lot of useful skills. An iPad app, no matter how widely adopted it is not going to change the w…

A go kart, no matter how widely adopted it is not going to change the world.

It depends, that blue shell can be life changing.

Re: Hacker Scouts teaches children Linux, robotics, and welding

#32

Post by titaniu » Fri, Oct 04, 2013, 4:25 AM UTC

gridspy wrote: post #26

rrouse wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already did. Hacker Scouts is going to change their name. I don't know to what though http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/09/25/1854257/boy-scouts-b...

Hacker Scouts own post on this (plaintext as actual site is overloaded): Dear Hacker Scouts Community, We have good news and bad news. The bad news , which should always be delivered first, is that we have received another letter from the BSA refusing to compromise or consider a licensing agreement and reaffirming their demand that we change our name or they will take legal action. This disappointed us, but it gave u…

BSA can't take the name Skouts, could it? Has a K in it for hacKer, and the name is hacked- so it's a double whammy.

BTW- I like Maker Skouts, too. Considering most of the stuff listed is Maker and not Hacker oriented, and Maker has no bad connotations to the uninformed.

BTW2- the first badge stemming from welding == awesome.

Re: Hacker Scouts teaches children Linux, robotics, and welding

#33

Post by __david__ » Fri, Oct 04, 2013, 9:23 AM UTC

Interestingly, when I was growing up my dad was involved with the "explorer" program of the BSA. They had an "explorer post" which was similar to a scout troop except that it was focused on all things computer/electronic (explorers could focus on whatever trades they wanted--there were a lot of fire and police explorer posts). It sounds really similar to what this is all about.

A couple examples of the cool stuff they did:

In the late 70s before cable TV, an over-the-air pay TV service launched called "OnTV" [1]. The Post got together the night it came out and had the NTSC scrambling (think analog DRM) broken in a couple hours, with the scouts going home with their own descramblers.

They pooled money and ought a bunch of bootleg Apple II circuit boards and put together their own computers. I was lucky enough to participate in that.

Other alumni went on to do interesting things [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontv

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Rose_Bowl#Scoreboard_pran...

Re: Hacker Scouts teaches children Linux, robotics, and welding

#34

Post by Havoc » Fri, Oct 04, 2013, 4:13 PM UTC

isolated wrote: post #22

Havoc wrote: post #13

I like the welding thing in particular. Its of little use to me in my life, but just the learning process was of benefit. Its a different kind of focus when you know that a wrong move will electrocute you. (230V AC arc welding). I learned a lot about my own learning style that day.

My experience welding left me with a phobia of all things electric. A mild phobia, but irrational as any risk blown out of proportion by the panicked human mind. Power lines trail the countryside and cityscape, competing in ubiquity only with roads and fast food restaurants. In this I am also mildly agoraphobic, as one cannot leave the homestead without being stared down by the thick black cables, taunting and intimi…

I'm sorry to hear that. I guess experiences affect people very differently.

Maybe give NLP a shot?