An 11-year-old's perspective...

[Taliska]

I registered my interest with RS at 6.04am on the day of the launch, and patiently waited. In due time I placed my order, and waited. Our Raspberry Pi was due to be delivered on Wednesday, we waited. Wednesday arrived; however, I departed for New York that morning... before the Raspberry Pi was delivered.

I figured on Tuesday evening that this was bound to happen, so I prepared for it. My 11 year-old son would have to bring it to life in my absence - I could hardly let him wait until I returned. So late on Tuesday night I used Win32DiskImager to write the Debian image to an old 2GB SD card that I used to use in my camera. I left an HDMI lead, a USB keyboard and his mother's Kindle USB PSU on the lounge table with a hastily written set of instructions that ended with "email me from it when you've got it going". I crossed my fingers.

---

I've programmed several machines in my time - I was very much a BBC programmer and earned a crust with some brotherly adventure writers. In the commercial world, Windows has been the bread-winning technology of choice for many years - my exposure to Linux has only been when I've poked around inside my WD NAS. My son, well, he's used Windows since he's been able to reach the keyboard, and has recently played around with the BBC emulator - old habits die hard.

As you can see, we're perfectly qualified to use the Raspberry Pi...

---

Before the flight took off from London Heathrow, I sent a final email message home: "Has the Raspberry Pi arrived yet?"

On landing in New York, I receive the following email message when I switch on the Blackberry:

Hi dad,
Ths is from the rasperry pi!
Epic...
Internet abit slow but that doesn't matter.

I am chuffed.

I guess you can't get a more honest, unbiased and heart-warming review than that - from someone who doesn't have an axe to grind, yet.

The instructions.. well, they're at home and I don't have a copy of them with me. If anyone's interested, I'll post them up when they're scanned in.

---

Point proven - it's simple enough for use within an educational environment.

And after a brief discussion at parents' evening on Tuesday, I am beginning to see how the limited scope of the ICT course could be usefully complemented by the Raspberry Pi.

Let's see how we can squeeze the Raspberry Pi into the next homework.

Well done team, and thanks.

Taliska

[alexeames]

Awesome. Thanks for posting.

[scep]

Taliska said:


Hi dad,
Ths is from the rasperry pi!
Epic...
Internet abit slow but that doesn't matter.


Best review yet by far . Thanks!

[Forrrge]

Loved reading that.

[cross-keys]

Taliska said:

I am chuffed.
I guess you can't get a more honest, unbiased and heart-warming review than that - from someone who doesn't have an axe to grind, yet.

The instructions.. well, they're at home and I don't have a copy of them with me. If anyone's interested, I'll post them up when they're scanned in.



I would be interested, certainly. By the time my Pi arrives, my son will be 11 - I hope it will be a nice surprise for him

[mtx512]

Mycriticism of the PI, having giving it to my young daughters to trial is that current software is very sluggish for them to use it. For example my daughter reverted back to the using Scratch on the PC as it ran faster after the initial excitement of seeing a circuit board boot up had passed.

[adlambert]

mtx512 said:


Mycriticism of the PI, having giving it to my young daughters to trial is that current software is very sluggish for them to use it. For example my daughter reverted back to the using Scratch on the PC as it ran faster after the initial excitement of seeing a circuit board boot up had passed.



Yes, whatever you do, don't click the midori browser shortcut. The resource indicator will show maxed-out green and there will be an embarassing delay while it starts up. Then another one while you wait for it to respond to closing the browser down. Doesn't make a great first impression.

It's useful to remember that this is only a $25 dollar computer, and performance is impressive at that point, but still (at the moment) desperately behind any smartphone, laptop or XBOX that the children have. Not sure what hardware display acceleration will bring.

Having tried the Pi out, it is an easy decision to develop for it on a different computer and transfer completed projects across. But it's still a wonderful device for my purposes.

[Tass]

adlambert said:


mtx512 said:


Mycriticism of the PI, having giving it to my young daughters to trial is that current software is very sluggish for them to use it. For example my daughter reverted back to the using Scratch on the PC as it ran faster after the initial excitement of seeing a circuit board boot up had passed.


Yes, whatever you do, don't click the midori browser shortcut. The resource indicator will show maxed-out green and there will be an embarassing delay while it starts up. Then another one while you wait for it to respond to closing the browser down. Doesn't make a great first impression.


Try installing Chromium - it performs a lot better:

http://myraspberrypiexperience.....owser.html

[RaTTuS]

mtx512 said:


... my daughter reverted back ...


no no no ...

you cannot revert back , you revert ...

[Tass]

RaTTuS said:


mtx512 said:


... my daughter reverted back ...


no no no ...

you cannot revert back , you revert ...



Well, possibly that means they stayed with the Pi?

[Jim Manley]

Taliska said:

Hi dad,
Ths is from the rasperry pi!
Epic...
Internet abit slow but that doesn't matter.




Right up there with Samuel F. B. Morse's first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?" and Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone call, "Mr. Watson.  Come here.  I need you."

[Smartybones]

that line is the perfect point to make to anyone who is dissatisfied with the raspberry Pi...

right from the mouth of the target audience...cant argue with that...

[obarthelemy]

Plus it's great the kid got to set it up all by himself, even if everything was prepared.

[liz]

Taliska said:



Hi dad,
Ths is from the rasperry pi!
Epic...
Internet abit slow but that doesn't matter.


Stuff like this, some of the kids on Twitter, and yesterday's update from the Boreatton scout troop, give me *such* a sense of pride. Which is, I believe, a deadly sin. I don't care; it feels great.

[cashaw]

Feel happy and smug as much as you like ! This is what you guys set out to do many years ago and you have achieved it ! Congratulations !

Ignore us whinging old foggies

Congratulations to you and Eben and the other foundation members !

[max1zzz]

I want to add something to this (not to highjack this thread atall...)

I decided to take my RasPi to school today, and everyone i showed it to was fascinated by it, both kids and teachers, even those people who's idea of tech is a xbox and a laptop.

What i found even more encouraging is that both my ICT and Electronics teachers had heard of the RasPi.

I then found Scratch when showing it to one of my friends, and had allot of fun makeing the cat thing draw lines everywhere (last time i got to do that was in year 4 using LOGO)

[Taliska]

Taliska said:


The instructions.. well, they"re at home and I don"t have a copy of them with me. If anyone"s interested, I"ll post them up when they"re scanned in.


cross-keys said:


I would be interested, certainly.


Well, here they are (slightly edited):

Raspberry Pi

> Use TV in kitchen – move on to table

> Power from socket in hall, use adapter for more plugs

> Connect HDMI to TV and change TV to show HDMI

> Connect USB keyboard + mouse – use short USB extension from Gordon if connectors are tight. (Gordon is another computer)

> SD card into slot

> Plug in power using mum's Kindle PSU – must be 5V

> Wait, type

> Account is 'pi', password is 'raspberry'

> To start graphics, type 'startx'

> If it starts ok, play around

> Connect network cable from back of Sonos in kitchen into n/w connector. (Put it back afterwards so mum can hear the radio)

> Browse internet (it will be slow). Try to send me an email via your account, either EasyPost (like mum's) or GoogleMail.

! ONLY TOUCH THE EDGES OF THE BOARD !



Today he used Scratch a bit… but I really need to see it to be able to point him in the right direction from now on.

Can anyone please say how to start up Python? (Remember I've not touched or seen it yet.) I've pointed him at the tutorial in TheMagPi, but I can't make that missing link for him – how and where to start typing: print ("hello world").

Today he's found another lad at school who has one, so hopefully they'll compare notes...

Cheers,

Taliska

[Jim Manley]

To start Python in its interactive shell, just type python at a terminal prompt, and then commands can be executed line by line.  To execute a Python file (e.g., hello.py), type python hello.py at a terminal prompt and the file will be executed by the Python interpreter.  The file can be created in any text editor such as Leafpad (under the Accessories menu), the Geany integrated development environment (under the Other menu), nano (Other menu), vi (command line), etc.

There's a nice YouTube video tutorial on Geany and Python provided by Foundation volunteer Liam Fraser at:



Hope you and your son enjoy!

[cross-keys]

Taliska said:


Well, here they are (slightly edited):

Raspberry Pi

> Use TV in kitchen – move on to table



Excellent - thanks for typing that up. I will try something similar when the time comes (hopefully soon) ..

[chorlton]

Jim Manley said:


To start Python in its interactive shell, just type python at a terminal prompt, and then commands can be executed line by line.  To execute a Python file (e.g., hello.py), type python hello.py at a terminal prompt and the file will be executed by the Python interpreter.  The file can be created in any text editor such as Leafpad (under the Accessories menu), the Geany integrated development environment (under the Other menu), nano (Other menu), vi (command line), etc.


It's obvious for us, but it's probably worth mentioning to a beginner that terminal prompt is the equivalent of a dos prompt in windows, and they're looking for xterm or gnome terminal or similar in the start menu.

I think Liam's video bypasses this need as running the program is integrated with Geany.

[exartemarte]

liz said:


Stuff like this, some of the kids on Twitter, and yesterday's update from the Boreatton scout troop, give me *such* a sense of pride. Which is, I believe, a deadly sin. I don't care; it feels great.


Sin to your heart's content - you have done a Good Thing.