I'll second this. Flash may be a proprietary technology that has the ability to irritate the hell out of people on websites, but it's probably the best learning tool for budding programmers out there at the moment. As well as the basic animation, graphics, tweening, etc, there's real programming depth there now. With the newer versions of Flash and Actionscript 2.0, Flash has become more or less completely object-oriented, and most of the syntax is similar to that of C++ or Java. So not only is it a commercial skill that is viable in the jobs marketplace, it also teaches the basics of how to use fully-fledged object-oriented programming languages. The trick, of course, is to have it accessible to all without having to acquire it through warez channels... Macromedia, are you listening?
Martial arts can help with the bullying and self-esteem issues (it worked for me when I laid the school bully who used to give me lots of shit on his arse), but here's what really helped me...
Give the kid an electric guitar. And some CDs with some technically good guitarists (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, etc are a good bet). A good guitar multi-effects is a good thing too, as there's lots of buttons to press and things to programme in.
He'll have something new to learn technically, he'll become "cool" amongst a peer group, gain a new interest, he can join a band, do live shows, and end up attracting women by the butt-load.:-)
DON'T buy him a keyboard or MIDI gear, as this just enourages more bedroom boy behaviour.
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I'll second this. Flash may be a proprietary technology that has the ability to irritate the hell out of people on websites, but it's probably the best learning tool for budding programmers out there at the moment. As well as the basic animation, graphics, tweening, etc, there's real programming depth there now. With the newer versions of Flash and Actionscript 2.0, Flash has become more or less completely object-oriented, and most of the syntax is similar to that of C++ or Java. So not only is it a commercial skill that is viable in the jobs marketplace, it also teaches the basics of how to use fully-fledged object-oriented programming languages. The trick, of course, is to have it accessible to all without having to acquire it through warez channels... Macromedia, are you listening?
Martial arts can help with the bullying and self-esteem issues (it worked for me when I laid the school bully who used to give me lots of shit on his arse), but here's what really helped me... Give the kid an electric guitar. And some CDs with some technically good guitarists (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, etc are a good bet). A good guitar multi-effects is a good thing too, as there's lots of buttons to press and things to programme in. He'll have something new to learn technically, he'll become "cool" amongst a peer group, gain a new interest, he can join a band, do live shows, and end up attracting women by the butt-load. :-)
DON'T buy him a keyboard or MIDI gear, as this just enourages more bedroom boy behaviour.