Minecraft

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 4:40 pm

ok, don't know how many of you have kids and in particular sons, but my son and his friends are just a bit too into this. I see in a way the angle/interest/creativity, but it's getting out of hand. So, he invites this other likeminded kid over and they are mucking around on minecraft for a couple of hours. I say go outside. they say later on. then, son says, ok, pop, we're going to watch a film. Nice. I'm happy they're atleast going to do something different.

Too much of a modern cartoon punchline....I think you can guess what "movie" they put on.

What's up with the mofos who are not exactly teenagers, maybe early 20s, but have a certain obsession in doing "let's play videos" on youtube? is it the cash or is it a proto/pre-middle-aged Peter Pan thing?

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:04 pm

Stampy Longnose, et al, in the video clip?

Raspberry Pi is apparently good for kids to learn programming on. I looked at one last Friday connected up to a motor it was driving. There are other (pure software, no additional hardware) projects you can build, such as hacking Minecraft to do various things. Follow the Education -> Resources buttons and you will see several Minecraft projects. Perhaps there is some benefit to Minecraft after all?

However, boys being boys and all that, I may start with the Fart Detector.

chiral3 · Post by **chiral3** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:32 pm

The youtoob thing freaks me out. I've asked my son not to watch the videos on youtoob. I don't know what kind of an adult man makes hours upon hours of youtoob vids for kids. There are worse ones, like the grown men that make train movies for kids and post them.

Anyway, I am really supportive of my son's minecraft addiction. He's coding. He builds these worlds and goes back and forth between the worlds and the cpp and he's starting to edit the cpp instead of using the UI. I think it's great. He's 7 (almost 8).

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:26 am

Yeah the YouTube is weird and stampy is one of them. I don't know what kind of guy but my guess is the type that was stuffed in a locker in high school. Having said that, for example Stampys channel is more popular than Justin Biebers so it could be they're doing it for the money.

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 1:07 pm

Chiral3, which mod are you using for that?

NIP247 · Post by **NIP247** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:11 pm

My son's addiction with Minecraft also got out of hand. He displayed very strong withdrawal syndromes. He's 5/6y. I started off limiting the daily dose to 15mn with a timer and he'd have to return the ipad or risk losing the 15mn of the next day. It worked initially and then collapsed. Initially, the time limit got his imagination working overtime. Knowing he only had 15mn, he would plan in his head exactly what he wanted to build, something like coding on mainframes in the 60ies I imagine...

Chiral3, got your kid coding in c++ at age 8? that's quite "hardcore" I'd say. How did he get started? My daughter is turning 8 this summer and I'm looking for a ready-to-code computer (dust off the old c64 or Amiga500 and launch ...) but was rather thinking Python as a starting language. Although there's a dutch dude who taught golang to 8 yrs old saying it was less frustrating than mucking around with indent and stuff. Would appreciate any inputs from fellow NPs on introducing kids to the world of coding.

chiral3 · Post by **chiral3** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:40 pm

Tradenator, sorry, just seeing this... It all started with code.org. I can't recall what mod graduated him to more of the Java.

NIP247, don't be too impressed. Code.org was a great drag-and-drop GUI that culminated in basic if/then/else statements. As you create more and more logic you can view the code (but not edit).

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 10:31 pm

"indent and stuff" LOL, that's my fucking issue! that's just anal retentiveness and nothing else. It is the syntax rules of guys who have an epileptic seizure if they see some dirty laundry on your living room floor. we are talking a Python complaint, right? Now, brackets make sense.

NIP247 · Post by **NIP247** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:50 pm

@Chiral, thanks - They've tried the Hour of Code ( Minecraft & Frozen ). Will have to go through the whole course and see if it sticks. I also quite like the idea of this project ( CS Unplugged )

@Nonius - yes, he was referring to Python... I never quite adjusted to high level programming, so I quit coding when I saw Ridge Racer for the first time...

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:19 am

thanks for the clarification NIP247. can anyone explain the indentation? I do understand brackets, as they are natural from an algebraic perspective. Indentation is just fucking lame and whoever invented that aspect of the syntax is just a fucking idiot. (sorry guys, I do not understand the obsession in the "industry" with Python)

by the way, that sort of strong belief has fucked up a lot of things for me in the past, but, still, just saying....