New guy

[anthony baldwin]

David Fox wrote:
> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 5:58 PM, J Bickhard <jbickhard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The problem is, I'm 13 and have raging hormones (you probably know
>> what that is like), and the computer is in my room, and my parents
>> won't let me have internet. Crud. So i'm screwed?
> 
> I think it is great to have a 13yr old interested in Ubuntu!
> 
> 

I started my nephew on linux, by gifting him a suse box set that I 
acquired, when he was about 12.
Now, at 17, he's a linux genius, hacks mad perl and other languages, has 
contributed to amarok and other foss projects, and makes me really, 
really proud.  (I can say that here, since he uses Arch Linux and 
doesn't read this list...lol)

We have little hack competitions.
He sends me scripts he's written in perl (which I don't know for 
diddley, although I sort of understand it when I read it), and I read 
them and try to outdo him by "translating" them to tcl/tk and expanding 
on them.
Fun stuff.
My program "tclscreen (http://freshmeat.net/projects/tclscreen/)" was 
the result of such a contest. (screenshot snapper and uploader)
His perl script captures the screen and uploads the shot automatigically 
via scp to his server.
I made mine with a gui, used ftp (the hosts I use don't give me a shell 
so scp wasn't an option for me), and added additional features, like 
preview of the image with the possibility of editing in gimp prior to 
uploading, saving various "profiles" for use of various servers (I have 
several hosting accounts), posting of the image's url upon upload, 
opening of the then uploaded image in your browser, etc.
I use it all the time now to post screenshots to me livejournal 
(http://tonytraductor.livejournal.com)
Ah, fun stuff...

okay, sorry...somewhat OT rambling....

But, this kid we're helping now could become a real hacker (like my 
nephew, and, unlike myself, a wannabe hacker), and write some important 
code some day.  So, it's definitely awesome to see his interest.

/tony

-- 

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art & photos | tony baldwin

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Unitarian Universalist art.