Monday, January 16, 2012

Paranoid and Lego Mindstorm XNT programming

I notice some parents are paranoid. I am worried. Andrew Grove (former Intel CEO) says that Only Paranoid Survive, he means himself, not everyone.


Some parents notice their 5 years old kid score higher than them in Angry Bird games, they starts paranoid. Quickly enroll a whiz kid discovery program, just in case their 5 years old kid is computer genius.

They can't wait for their 5 years old kid to learn robotic programming, programming for preschoolers, like this Lego Mindstorms programming (which for 10+ years old kid). The software can be downloaded but the lego robot cost about USD 250-300, not cheap. It's cheap if you can discover a computer genius.

If the kids can not operate Windows, Mac OS X or Linux operating system properly, don't bother to send for the robotic programming.

If the kids can not answer what are the 5 (or 4) basic components that make up the computer, don't bother to send.

If the kids can not answer what are the 2 basic things that computer is good at, don't bother to send.

Send them to some basic computer course, start from the beginning, build some basic from there.

Programing is not hard, but please start from the basic. May be can start learning from the Logo programming.

I am sure robot will bring interest to the kids. Just go back to Angry Bird game, it has similar effect.