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16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

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Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#71

Post by ido »

cookiecaper wrote: post #8
bryanh wrote: post #4

Could Minecraft be that little thing that teaches kids about logic? Maybe Jeb and co. should consider adding even simpler logic based building blocks, more akin to Lego's Mindstorm as an alternative to relays and switches. I find it fascinating to think in 10-20 years many will be looking back fondly on how they learned to hack with an unassuming little game: Minecraft.

There is an unbelievable amount of potential in Minecraft that is completely untapped. It's really an amazing environment and I'm surprised it hasn't spawned "sandbox games" as a completely separate and significant genre, especially since a big reason Minecraft remains "untapped" is Notch's reticence to open the platform up and push the game forward.

    I'm surprised it hasn't spawned "sandbox games" 
    as a completely separate and significant genre
Maybe you haven't noticed, but "minecraft-like" is a a burgeoning young genre - every week I see a new one on the /r/gamedev subreddit or tigsource forums.

And there are already a dozen or so commercially successful ones on steam and XBLIG.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#72

Post by DanBC »

shantanubala wrote: post #70
ugh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are thinking about products and projects, the kid is thinking about having fun in a game. Totally different perspective. It’s totally fun to just have fun without necessarily learning any important skills or developing a product that helps you make money.

I understand that, but are there opportunities to improve upon the "fun" of Minecraft that lead to an actually useful product? I'm sure the main motivation for building a calculator was the complexity of the problem -- not the usefulness of a Minecraft calculator. Imagine if the tools were tailored to keep the same level of fun while also empowering him to create something he could use! That's what I meant by "think…

I sort of agree.

Many softwares have confusing interfaces. They are aimed at professionals who work with them all day and who will be trained to use them. Either they should have a "New to this program? Click this and we'll hide everything but the essential tools while you work through some tutorials" feature; and perhaps that could be a free version of the software.

What ideas do you have for tools to empower people?

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#73

Post by saulrh »

iwwr wrote: post #27
bryanh wrote: post #4

Could Minecraft be that little thing that teaches kids about logic? Maybe Jeb and co. should consider adding even simpler logic based building blocks, more akin to Lego's Mindstorm as an alternative to relays and switches. I find it fascinating to think in 10-20 years many will be looking back fondly on how they learned to hack with an unassuming little game: Minecraft.

That's where mods like Redpower comes in. http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/365357-123-eloraams-mods... The mods are really what set Minecraft apart.

Buildcraft[1] and Industrialcraft[2] are also good for teaching automation, logistics, and resource management. For example, buildcraft+redpower will let you build a machine that digs a giant hole in the ground, smelts the ores, incinerates the useless cobble, and sorts everything into the proper chests for easy access.

[1]: http://www.mod-buildcraft.com/ [2]: http://wiki.industrial-craft.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#74

Post by Derbasti »

LesZedCB wrote: post #66
BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> creepers So THAT'S what was causing the memory corruption.

brings a whole new understanding to "debugging"

But isn't that basically where the term came from? Actual insects frying on circuits and shorting contacts?

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#75

Post by brazzy »

Derbasti wrote: post #74
LesZedCB wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brings a whole new understanding to "debugging"

But isn't that basically where the term came from? Actual insects frying on circuits and shorting contacts?

Not really, it was always largely figurative. The famous Mark II logbook with the moth taped to it had the note "First actual case of bug being found." - so that clearly indicates that A) the term had been in use for a while (a very long while, there is a record of Edison using it) and B) Real insects were typically not involved.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#76

Post by cadab »

Derbasti wrote: post #74
LesZedCB wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brings a whole new understanding to "debugging"

But isn't that basically where the term came from? Actual insects frying on circuits and shorting contacts?

There was a article on HN a few weeks back, the link escapes me. But there was the first ever bug, an actual moth. It was taped to the error log i believe.

Edit: Brazzy explains it better and indeed seems more informed :)

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#77

Post by gaius »

Derbasti wrote: post #74
LesZedCB wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brings a whole new understanding to "debugging"

But isn't that basically where the term came from? Actual insects frying on circuits and shorting contacts?

Yes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper#Anecdotes tho' it was jamming a relay.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#78

Post by ThomPete »

bryanh wrote: post #4

Could Minecraft be that little thing that teaches kids about logic? Maybe Jeb and co. should consider adding even simpler logic based building blocks, more akin to Lego's Mindstorm as an alternative to relays and switches. I find it fascinating to think in 10-20 years many will be looking back fondly on how they learned to hack with an unassuming little game: Minecraft.

Have you read Seymour Papert's book Mindstorm? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert

You might be on to something there.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#79

Post by Zaak »

prophetjohn wrote: post #50
arethuza wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping his next step is to create a full computer and port Linux to it... :-)

It would be neat, but honestly the complexity of a modern CPU is not something that any individual would be able to recreate in a life time if they were building it piece-by-piece. I imagine that's true for any CPU capable of running recent Ubuntu releases or even something light like, I dunno, Puppy.

Actually, the complexity of a modern CPU is mainly in making things run fast. Building an in-order, no-cache, single-issue ARM capable of running uClinux doesn't seem all that difficult. The cycle time would be horrible though. You might not live long enough to watch it boot.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#80

Post by prophetjohn »

Zaak wrote: post #79
prophetjohn wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be neat, but honestly the complexity of a modern CPU is not something that any individual would be able to recreate in a life time if they were building it piece-by-piece. I imagine that's true for any CPU capable of running recent Ubuntu releases or even something light like, I dunno, Puppy.

Actually, the complexity of a modern CPU is mainly in making things run fast. Building an in-order, no-cache, single-issue ARM capable of running uClinux doesn't seem all that difficult. The cycle time would be horrible though. You might not live long enough to watch it boot.

That's kind of what I was getting at with "capable of running."
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