On Dec 29, 2009, at 5:42 PM, Slack-Moehrle <mailinglists at mailnewsrss.com> wrote: > Hi Tim, > >>> My 12 year old wants to learn more about servers and has memorized a >>> lot of commands like ls, chmod, du, etc. >>> He wants to have his own domain and server on the web and I have >>> enough Static IP's, so why not foster this interest. > >> Fantastic! Nothing helps creativity and exploration like the >> support of a parent. > > He is really into the command-line. His mac is always open to a > terminal and he explores how to use each command, practices and > memorizes every switch. The other day he reminded me that the -h for > du was human readable. Little did he know I can easily convert in my > head without using -h...but. Mac's run FreeBSD underneath, he has more power in his MacBook pro then that old sparc5. Introduce him to MacPorts. > Also, when you catch him ssh'ing into your production web-server and > notice he has all of your passwords written in a text file called > 'dont show dad', he is ready for his own server. Also, I had to tell > him that 'dont show dad' was not the best name and draws attention > from a dad....he he.. Maybe time to pick some new passwords... >>> He also says that ZFS rules all and is pissed Apple did not adopt >>> it. >>> Kids will be kids! > >> You should go into a rant about "When I was your age... we didn't >> have ZFS, or Reiserfs, or even ext2/3. We had FAT. And we >liked >> it. And nobody complained. Not like you young punks have it with >> your 'journaling' this and 'snapshots' that." > > ha ha, great idea. I am only 32, but still it is true. He things > that his MacBook pro with 4gb RAM, 500gb hd is sub-par these days. > He can only run a 'few' virtual machines and insists on dual NICS... You can do a lot on a MacBook. Boot camp can setup multiple OS partitions to boot from. I typically have a Windows and Linux partition. > Is he a geek? Does he bite the heads off chickens? If not then, no he isn't a geek. All children these days will have computer skills that dwarf those of our generation and the "geeks" will be those that can do things with the machines that we could never dream of. -Ross