Raspberry Pi: Computer on a stick for only $25
end quotes.
I think this is a really great idea to introduce children, teenagers and young adults to computer programming and to better understand how the internet and software actually function. I started by learning Fortran and Cobol in college in 1966 and eventually learned the Basic language which I taught my children to program their own games with as early as the TRS-80 in 1978 and after. Then came MS-DOS (microsoft disc operating system) which was a precursor to Windows in which one could easily create one's own programs or alter programming on one's own computer and modify it in any way one wished. Over time (MS-DOS) and other access to Basic Language programming of one's own programs on PC's became either very limited or non-existent. So, today, a user is completely shut out of exactly how his or her programs are directly and indirectly affecting his or her life.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that at least up until (MS-Dos) became Windows the User was also the programmer of what was actually going on in his or her computer and since that time the user has become more and more the victim to large software companies and hackers from around the world. So, I'm happy to see an effort to return the control to the people of the world so they won't be the computer and internet victims that the users of the world have basically become now.
The capacity to write your own code is a very powerful thing. For example, a few years ago if you clicked on the "View" button above at the top of the page under view there was a "Source" button below. I taught myself about HTTP or Hypertext markup language that the early web was based upon by going into a Yahoo start page at the time and saving it and then playing with the HTTP programming code to see what it did. I didn't become a professional web page maker but I learned some stuff this way. But "View Source" isn't there anymore and neither is "MSDOS" or BASIC in most operating systems so users are mostly treated as victims of the system now without any power unless they study it as Computer Science engineers in college. But in the 1980s almost anyone with a computer knew how to program in at least Basic and knew how to use MSDOS because there wasn't Windows everywhere yet. And there was a way to go into MSDOS and program in Basic up through about Windows 95 I believe or somewhere around there. However, now it is much harder to get into programming modes while using operating systems than it once was. I suppose you could still use Windows 95 or before but mostly every part of the web has moved on beyond that now so it likely wouldn't work right or fast enough to run movies when you stream them from netflix or youtube. But understanding all this better empowers users to be more in control of their lives and less victims of large companies and their programmers. As they say, "Knowledge is power" So don't leave home without it!"
The capacity to write your own code is a very powerful thing. For example, a few years ago if you clicked on the "View" button above at the top of the page under view there was a "Source" button below. I taught myself about HTTP or Hypertext markup language that the early web was based upon by going into a Yahoo start page at the time and saving it and then playing with the HTTP programming code to see what it did. I didn't become a professional web page maker but I learned some stuff this way. But "View Source" isn't there anymore and neither is "MSDOS" or BASIC in most operating systems so users are mostly treated as victims of the system now without any power unless they study it as Computer Science engineers in college. But in the 1980s almost anyone with a computer knew how to program in at least Basic and knew how to use MSDOS because there wasn't Windows everywhere yet. And there was a way to go into MSDOS and program in Basic up through about Windows 95 I believe or somewhere around there. However, now it is much harder to get into programming modes while using operating systems than it once was. I suppose you could still use Windows 95 or before but mostly every part of the web has moved on beyond that now so it likely wouldn't work right or fast enough to run movies when you stream them from netflix or youtube. But understanding all this better empowers users to be more in control of their lives and less victims of large companies and their programmers. As they say, "Knowledge is power" So don't leave home without it!"
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