Come on, people, enough of the 'just search Google, n00b' mentality - I mean, sure, any one can go search Google for "custom linux boot cd" and get a hundred possible options, just like anyone can search the yellow pages for a doctor and get a list of a hundred names; But people post questions here to see what experiences real, tech-savvy people have had with potential solutions, much like one might ask friends/family members about their experiences w/ certain doctors, in order to make a more educated decision. So next time you see a question like this, don't scorn the poster for wasting your time - be flattered that they have come to seek your personal expertise!
The Knoppix live CD distro comes with a script for installing to the hard drive that works pretty well, just go to a root console after booting off the cd and type 'knx-hdinstall'. It probably wouldn't be too hard to customize the disk so that it does this automatically.
Gee, this is the most exciting idea for a game since they started making games based on... fishing!!!
But why stop there? I hear EA is working on something even more groundbreaking: SimPaint!! That's right, a realtime simulation of actual paint a wall, first drying, then aging, and finally flaking and peeling off!
While I agree with you that basic computer literacy in general needs to be increased in our society, I think you're setting the bar a little too high in terms of what that basic literacy should consist of.
"Simple" scripting and programming is a much higher-level ability on a PC then basic driving knowledge is on a car. Heck, even basic operating knowledge on a PC is higher-level. Why? Because a car is much simpler in terms of what it is designed to do than a PC is.
A car has basically one task to perform - move driver/passengers/cargo from point A to point B along the ground - which in PC terms makes it more like your basic standalone word processor, which is designed for the one task of creating printed documents. But by the same token, today's basic PC's are designed to print documents, play games, organize people's personal schedules, send faxes, play music/movies, etc... and I'm only scratching the surface. In car terms, this makes the PC more like combination car/helicopter/bulldozer/crane/etc. vehicle.
Therefore, basic operating knowledge on a pc is more like having basic operation/maintenance knowledge of several types of vehicles, *plus* the additional overhead knowledge of operating a device designed to convert between the functions of these various devices (i.e., the OS). If I were told, as a basic 'end user' of my car, that I were expected to learn all this, *plus* have to learn how to manually reconfigure some of the simpler wiring mechanisms under the hood (which is kind of what even 'simple' scripting/programming is like) I'd think it was absurd. Yet that is what you're proposing should be the expected level of knowledge should be for PC's.
My point is, it's easy for those of us who are naturals at using computers to lose sight of just how complex they really are. As they become a more and more integral part of our world, we're going to have to be careful to avoid making them too difficult to use, because most people will just not be able to keep up with them.
My company recently adopted a similar policy - 12 times late in one year and you're suspended without pay (though we do admittedly get a more generous grace period of 4 minutes - start at 7:30 and you're not late until 7:35). Prior to this, one had to be late 5 times or more in a period of 2 weeks to even get a warning, and several warnings were required before any real disciplinary action was taken. Seems that with the job market the way it is, employers are finding they can get away with squeezing more and more time out of their employees; They know we've got nowhere to go and, more importantly, that they'll have no problems finding qualified replacements should a few of us happen to walk out anyway. Sad times for the workin' man.
Unlike with the Apollo project, we're not involved in a war (cold or otherwise) with an arch-rival racing to accomplish the same thing; Hence less fool-hardy patriotic motivation exists for the powers that be to mindlessly dump billions of dollars into such a project. (unless, of course, there's a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists somewhere secretly plotting the same thing? Imagine the potential of a sweet l'il Haley Joel Osment look-alike robot walkin' into a crowded American city w/ a plutonium warhead embedded in its stomach... hmm...)
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Come on, people, enough of the 'just search Google, n00b' mentality - I mean, sure, any one can go search Google for "custom linux boot cd" and get a hundred possible options, just like anyone can search the yellow pages for a doctor and get a list of a hundred names; But people post questions here to see what experiences real, tech-savvy people have had with potential solutions, much like one might ask friends/family members about their experiences w/ certain doctors, in order to make a more educated decision. So next time you see a question like this, don't scorn the poster for wasting your time - be flattered that they have come to seek your personal expertise!
The Knoppix live CD distro comes with a script for installing to the hard drive that works pretty well, just go to a root console after booting off the cd and type 'knx-hdinstall'. It probably wouldn't be too hard to customize the disk so that it does this automatically.
Gee, this is the most exciting idea for a game since they started making games based on... fishing!!!
But why stop there? I hear EA is working on something even more groundbreaking: SimPaint!! That's right, a realtime simulation of actual paint a wall, first drying, then aging, and finally flaking and peeling off!
Can you stand the EXCITEMENT?
snore...Even though they've officially discontinued it on the website, you can still download it from their FTP server, as of this writing:
0 -NonCommercial.exe 0 -NonCommercial.bz2
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/non-commercial/QtWin23
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/non-commercial/QtWin23
"Simple" scripting and programming is a much higher-level ability on a PC then basic driving knowledge is on a car. Heck, even basic operating knowledge on a PC is higher-level. Why? Because a car is much simpler in terms of what it is designed to do than a PC is.
A car has basically one task to perform - move driver/passengers/cargo from point A to point B along the ground - which in PC terms makes it more like your basic standalone word processor, which is designed for the one task of creating printed documents. But by the same token, today's basic PC's are designed to print documents, play games, organize people's personal schedules, send faxes, play music/movies, etc... and I'm only scratching the surface. In car terms, this makes the PC more like combination car/helicopter/bulldozer/crane/etc. vehicle. Therefore, basic operating knowledge on a pc is more like having basic operation/maintenance knowledge of several types of vehicles, *plus* the additional overhead knowledge of operating a device designed to convert between the functions of these various devices (i.e., the OS). If I were told, as a basic 'end user' of my car, that I were expected to learn all this, *plus* have to learn how to manually reconfigure some of the simpler wiring mechanisms under the hood (which is kind of what even 'simple' scripting/programming is like) I'd think it was absurd. Yet that is what you're proposing should be the expected level of knowledge should be for PC's.
My point is, it's easy for those of us who are naturals at using computers to lose sight of just how complex they really are. As they become a more and more integral part of our world, we're going to have to be careful to avoid making them too difficult to use, because most people will just not be able to keep up with them.
My company recently adopted a similar policy - 12 times late in one year and you're suspended without pay (though we do admittedly get a more generous grace period of 4 minutes - start at 7:30 and you're not late until 7:35). Prior to this, one had to be late 5 times or more in a period of 2 weeks to even get a warning, and several warnings were required before any real disciplinary action was taken. Seems that with the job market the way it is, employers are finding they can get away with squeezing more and more time out of their employees; They know we've got nowhere to go and, more importantly, that they'll have no problems finding qualified replacements should a few of us happen to walk out anyway. Sad times for the workin' man.
Unlike with the Apollo project, we're not involved in a war (cold or otherwise) with an arch-rival racing to accomplish the same thing; Hence less fool-hardy patriotic motivation exists for the powers that be to mindlessly dump billions of dollars into such a project. (unless, of course, there's a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists somewhere secretly plotting the same thing? Imagine the potential of a sweet l'il Haley Joel Osment look-alike robot walkin' into a crowded American city w/ a plutonium warhead embedded in its stomach... hmm...)