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You are 100% right in criticizing me. Actually, I wasn't expecting this to get to the frontpage.Nonetheless, I thought Slashdot was the best place to ask. Many times I've seen pieces of news about Amigas and usually they're warmly received (are they not outdated?). I'm wondering why so many people are saying stuff like "let it go", "it's useless", "learn a language." Other people are linking me to LMGTFY as if I haven't spent hours looking for working links.

Don't get me wrong, maybe they're right and I shouldn't spend/waste my time learning about a dead platform, but at least I'd like to hear their rationale.

Because Amiga, C64, Early DOS and UNIX's were great and successful. For me, all that stuff was my childhood and messing around with it is like going to a garage sale and finding my old favorite GI Joe figure or something. PalmOS5 failed right out of the gate. There's nothing to be nostalgic about.

If you want to do some cool hobby stuff (and I don't blame you, I do that sort of thing all the time) I recommend the following:
RaspberryPI or one of the several 3rd party variants out there: It's basically a small PC with a UART (hardware interface with buttons) You can turn it into a media player, an Audio DSP, a "car computer" whatever you can think of.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
http://www.pcworld.com/article...

Arduino is a micro controller. Not to be confused with the RPI. An arduino will teach you how to solder :-)
You can run scripts written in C, and control lights, relays, sensors, etc... You can build something that automatically waters your garden, turns on your lights, feeds your pets... basically anything you can script.
http://www.arduino.cc/

AX84 is a website that has a host of amplifier projects. They are all tube based. Why tube? Well a lot of us think it sounds better, but that's a long argument. Even if they don't, it's how electronics started and if you want to know how things were done originally... and why that lead to how things are done now, Tubes are a great way to start. It's like learning to build a campfire by rubbing 2 sticks together. Yea, you could just throw a road flare on a dead tree, but somethings are just worth doing the old way. If you're not a musician, there's a Stereo amp near the bottom.
http://www.ax84.com/sel.html

Then there's steam engines... There's no collective site for that, but I've done them and they are fun. No codding involved unless you count the valves ;-)
These are super fun though. Imagine a device that can generate power from any source of heat. Even mirrors reflecting the sun. I recommend starting on youtube.

Anyways, there are lots of "useless" projects you can do that will have a far larger community and be far less of a waste of time in the end. Good luck.

Vacuum tube guitar amps, anyone? There's a thriving community that includes not only kits but community driven, open source design of new amps as well as groups that clone the classics.

I highly recommend the AX84 community, with its thriving forum, good starter docs, and excellent users, There's a lot more docs on the way, and a ton of collective wisdom. You can learn a lot of low level electronic theory and practice there. There are other great communities including 18watt.com and solid state forums out there for effects, etc. There are a bunch of computer geeks and other EEs and similar types at AX84, and in the lounge anything is fair game, including topics such as htis one-- which has come up before!

http://www.ax84.com/ - Tell 'em Harrison Ford Prefect sent ya.

Finally, the USN NEETS series mentioned in another response gets a lot of traction at AX84 as well.

Other great DIY 'tinkering' sites I like are AX84.com, 18watt.com, and Byonics.

I'd post a link to my site with pictures/notes on my own hand-built tube amp project or my mini-GPS/APRS project (not yet out of planning), but I'm afraid of the /.-ing I'd take. :)

BUT... there are some things that will always get their attention. Some have bene noted already.

• video games and cool graphics
• computer controlled light and sound
• radio scontrolled cars, planes, etc
• model rockets
• things that blow up and explode
• anything really loud

Another thing to look for is the Have Nots. For instance, if you have a school where few people have computers, get businesses to donate their older computers, and either set up labs (with cool graphics and sound) at schools, or even just give them to the kids (or at least libraries and clubs). You'll want to install a variety of software to do interesting things, and have mentors available. You could have a series of computer workshops, where you learn about computers and build your own from the Big Heap O' Components, install software (FOSS looks awfully good here!), and learn certain applications. After completing all the steps or trials (don't call them lessons or tests. ``This is too much like school" is something we have learned to dread.) they get to take the system home.

You can tie in technology-lovers with the schools like the first one I mentioned. If you can get people doing video editing, or computer-controlled light and sound, or both (or whatever), to work with a dance group or band (for example) you draw both worlds, you get a certain synergy level going, and you get crossover interest from kids you wouldn't have attracted otherwise.

Speaking of bands, there's lots of opportunity with electronic instruments. Teach them how to repair and mod amps and effects, or design their own. (http://www.ax84.com/isagreatplacetolearnabouttube amps,forexample).Teachthemhowto(forexample)setupag uitar,butalsoopenitupandcleanthepots,usingthistime toexplainaboutshieldingthecavity,groundingthebridg e,shieldedwire,andthebasicsofresistanceandsignalfl ow,withapotentialbonusoflearningtodesolderandsolde r,anduseofbasicelectronicstools.Getafrequencyanaly zerandplaywithdifferentstringsetsonaguitar. A shop on how cars/motorcycles/scooters work with hands on tune ups will be a good draw. For areas near water, do the same with boats and jet skis and such. Talk to the Civil Air Patrol or a nearby air base or airport about starting a club to learn about airplanes.

Run a "job fair". Get folks to show what they do for a living (with corporate help to get the cool stuff there!) Cover teh goals, the fun of the job, and the potential eranings. (Kids spell love two ways" t-i-m-e" and "m-o-n-e-y".)

I've been involved at some level with every one of these over the last 20 years, with church youth groups, Boy Scouts, home schooling, community groups, public school groups, and others, and seen good results.

-Evyl Abrahamic Type, apparently

And an excellent use of new tech to further DIY old tech (with innovation, even!) is the AX84 tube amp guitar project. There are projects of all sizes, an excellent discussion board, and links to lots of goodies. http://www.ax84.com/ Everything from raw schematics to kits.

For some people, the construction of the equipment is the whole point. And while I'm sure some DIY hobbies are in decline, others have absolutely taken off in recent years.

I never got into building electronic stuff, but I'm interested in building guitars. Lately, I've been itching to build my own guitar amp. There is even a website devoted to it. Thanks to the numerous web resources out there, I can learn to build all sorts of crazy things that I never could have figured out on my own.

I suspect that the people that like soldering electronic gizmos together in their garage are still around, just doing different things. A surprising number of the amatuer guitar builders are techies, for instance. There's a whole lot of awesome stuff left to build, so I don't think that people are hanging up their soldering irons yet.

Steve