For the most part the adults of America are not very knowledgable about history and politics. Very few people have a deep enough understanding of anything to do anything outside of their daily lives and their field of interest, whether it be plumbing or tellamarketing.
As as far as the statement, "They are smart, creative, and know the inner workings of the the Net and the Web better than any other sub-set of the species", I think this is true for a very small subset of the kids of the subset of kids that know more then how to use aol and check their mail on hotmail. Very few could program the router or design a packet switch network. . . as far as being able to download some songs from each other and stuff like that, wooop-d-doooo, they can run a client that someone else wrote that allows them to do something nifty.
Sure some kids are advanced, some really are hackers, even back in the 60's there were kids at the MIT lab between the ages of 14 and 17 that were hacking on PDP machines and being brilliant, but a couple hundred years ago those were the same kids that would be doing it in math or blacksmith'ing'.
Whatever though, I agree with the first guys reply.
Why is it that 15 year olds are treated as if they are young, naive, and adolecent. Before the 20th century a 15 year old could very well be in college, on his own, finishing up her study on how to become a blacksmith. . . the responsibilities of being an adult nowadays are even less than what they were back then. ..how many times do you have to worry about famine or if you 'break your leg you will die' type situations? Not often. This idea that is floating around that kids are being forced to grow up faster and faster is nonsense, if anything over the past 100 years a 15 year old has been sheltered. A female at fifteen may have very well been married and had a few kids in the 1750's, and a male may have been opening his own shop at the time. I don't see how the world has changed THAT MUCH that people grow up so much slower. . ..blah blah, I am ranting on and on about something I don't know nearly enough about, but anyway, I think it is a good observation and just because we have a larger quantity of knowledge then we did a hundred years ago, it doesn't mean that the quality of knowledge should be effecting a 15 year old in a more difficult or challenging way then a hundred or a thousand years ago. . . anyway, i'll shut up now:-)
I agree. Furthermore, having it open source can completely prevent any "bad" people doing "bad things", because, it is not like a the government will just take anyones source code, and implement it. They would take suggestions to the source, and review any source which would be worth incorporating, or would fix some flaw in the system.
Furthermore, if you are going to have technical software such as air traffic control systems, by having it open source would allow, if not for anything else,
Just because it is open source, doesn't mean it is written by the public, or just by anyone, it just means that people can view it. Perhaps a useful application of this would be if someone did have a suggestion to change it or found a flaw or potential flaw in the code, they could notify someone of it. Furthermore, the if the government is going to put large amounts of money in developing something like that, then they mine as well make it available, even if it is no more then letting people educate themeselves.
Slashdot Mirror
For the most part the adults of America are not very knowledgable about history and politics. Very few people have a deep enough understanding of anything to do anything outside of their daily lives and their field of interest, whether it be plumbing or tellamarketing. As as far as the statement, "They are smart, creative, and know the inner workings of the the Net and the Web better than any other sub-set of the species", I think this is true for a very small subset of the kids of the subset of kids that know more then how to use aol and check their mail on hotmail. Very few could program the router or design a packet switch network. . . as far as being able to download some songs from each other and stuff like that, wooop-d-doooo, they can run a client that someone else wrote that allows them to do something nifty. Sure some kids are advanced, some really are hackers, even back in the 60's there were kids at the MIT lab between the ages of 14 and 17 that were hacking on PDP machines and being brilliant, but a couple hundred years ago those were the same kids that would be doing it in math or blacksmith'ing'. Whatever though, I agree with the first guys reply.
Why is it that 15 year olds are treated as if they are young, naive, and adolecent. Before the 20th century a 15 year old could very well be in college, on his own, finishing up her study on how to become a blacksmith. . . the responsibilities of being an adult nowadays are even less than what they were back then. . .how many times do you have to worry about famine or if you 'break your leg you will die' type situations? Not often. This idea that is floating around that kids are being forced to grow up faster and faster is nonsense, if anything over the past 100 years a 15 year old has been sheltered. A female at fifteen may have very well been married and had a few kids in the 1750's, and a male may have been opening his own shop at the time. I don't see how the world has changed THAT MUCH that people grow up so much slower. . . .blah blah, I am ranting on and on about something I don't know nearly enough about, but anyway, I think it is a good observation and just because we have a larger quantity of knowledge then we did a hundred years ago, it doesn't mean that the quality of knowledge should be effecting a 15 year old in a more difficult or challenging way then a hundred or a thousand years ago. . . anyway, i'll shut up now :-)
Yeah, I remember micromachines. I used to have a tons of them. And the carwash, and lots of other stuff. They rocked! ;-]
Logo isn't exactly coding. It was pretty much invented to show that programming could be done by children.
Furthermore, if you are going to have technical software such as air traffic control systems, by having it open source would allow, if not for anything else,
- free education
.Just because it is open source, doesn't mean it is written by the public, or just by anyone, it just means that people can view it. Perhaps a useful application of this would be if someone did have a suggestion to change it or found a flaw or potential flaw in the code, they could notify someone of it. Furthermore, the if the government is going to put large amounts of money in developing something like that, then they mine as well make it available, even if it is no more then letting people educate themeselves.