Have I turned my sister into a computer Geek?

[Quillz]

My sister is around 13 years old, and has been using Computers for school stuff for around 5 years.

She is not what I would call a geek. She loves studying and school, but she used to hate computers. She never got anywhere with Windows...and I ended up being tech support all day.

She used to have quite an old Windows Xp machine (intel celeron 333 mhz, 192 mb of RAM...slow as molasses and a v. small harddrive 6 gb)

She began occasionally using my pc for small stuff, and when I was not around. It was faster, and it used Ubuntu.

I noticed she liked using it, and she didn't have half as many questions as she had previously. I made a useraccount for her....didn't show her anything, but she learned how to change the wallpaper herself.

Then I played a trick on her. She likes using Amarok for playing music. So I hid it from the menus and from the desktop. Then I found her launching the terminal to launch amarok from there.

On Windows, if I had done the same thing with Windows Media Player, she would have had a tantrum.

She then learned how to download Ares and installed it with Wine.

The biggest deal was when we got a new pc for her..and she insisted that I remove the preinstalled Xp and make it Linux...as she couldn't understand Windows, even though she had the ECDL and stuff.

Have I turned her into a geek?

You didn't make her a geek, she just got more familiar with computers. It happens naturally over time.

[macogw]

Yes, that's a plus. What I also like is that all issues I run into have already been solved, it seems.

Linux easier than Windows...well...don't forget that my sister is living with a linux geek. I wonder what the situation would have been otherwise.

I wish I was learning to use Linux for the first time.

I don't live with my mom, but she started using Linux at Thanksgiving (after I installed it) and says it's easier for her than Windows is.

[seijuro]

She is not what I would call a geek. She loves studying and school, but she used to hate computers. She never got anywhere with Windows...and I ended up being tech support all day.
Have I turned her into a geek?

Nope she chose the path herself.
But I have to say good on ya for supporting her decision.

Cheers!

[gus sett]

not likely. she is fortunate to have a conscientious sibling in you. When
my sis was about your sis's age, I got her her 1st professional haircut as
a gift. not that that changed her life. she was next to be a high school
valedictorian, won homecoming queen at a private college in a coin toss
against the populist woman athlete nominee, and went on to become a
marketing executive for a dbms company.

here's a prank you may want to try. The US advanced placement college
board asked students back when I was a high school junior, to provide a
self-rating of themselves in the following areas as top 1%/10%/above avg/
avg/below avg:
acting..................................mechanical
artistic..................................music
athletic.................................organizat ion of work
creative writing......................sales
getting along with others........scientific
leadership..............................spoken expression
math....................................written expression
It also asked about participation in the following extracurricular activities and
plans to do so in college:
athletics................................preprofes sional clubs
ethnic...................................religious
journalism..............................social
art, music, dance....................student government
get her to fill it out when she's ready.

wonderful that you asked. sounds like she was already protege material.
because you are circumspect, you'll find the good ways.

That's true. In my CS classes, out of some 20, only 2 are girls. We need more of em...lessons wouldn't be the same without em



My sister likes webgames too...but she uses flash 9 on linux.
She doesn't use AIM though.

About grandma...hmm....go slower, what can I say? I have this problem too...you need to be patient when you know so much more than the other.

[picpak]

My sister got a laptop from college, part of the package so to speak. she's easily swayed peers when it comes to software. so at one point gaim didn't offer custom smilies so while I installed it for her she wouldn't use it because her firends would send her custom smilies that would appear as plain text. a moving goal post so it seems for IM developers. alas when will these stupid general publicans use open standards instead of wrecklessly using any old garbage.

2.0.0beta6 doesn't let you add custom smilies, but it lets you see them. I suggest you let her try that.

My sister loves Linux. She's not very familiar with the terminal but she thinks copying and pasting things is a lot easier than getting lost through a menu. Using Trevino's repo I've also got her with the latest SVN of aMSN, so she's happy. She still has Windows for the little things, though.

[Choad]

My sister is around 13 years old, and has been using Computers for school stuff for around 5 years.

She is not what I would call a geek. She loves studying and school, but she used to hate computers. She never got anywhere with Windows...and I ended up being tech support all day.

She used to have quite an old Windows Xp machine (intel celeron 333 mhz, 192 mb of RAM...slow as molasses and a v. small harddrive 6 gb)

She began occasionally using my pc for small stuff, and when I was not around. It was faster, and it used Ubuntu.

I noticed she liked using it, and she didn't have half as many questions as she had previously. I made a useraccount for her....didn't show her anything, but she learned how to change the wallpaper herself.

Then I played a trick on her. She likes using Amarok for playing music. So I hid it from the menus and from the desktop. Then I found her launching the terminal to launch amarok from there.

On Windows, if I had done the same thing with Windows Media Player, she would have had a tantrum.

She then learned how to download Ares and installed it with Wine.

The biggest deal was when we got a new pc for her..and she insisted that I remove the preinstalled Xp and make it Linux...as she couldn't understand Windows, even though she had the ECDL and stuff.

Have I turned her into a geek?

that is frickin hardcore.

your sister is a legend

[xioumik]

Hey, I'm a 13-year old that uses ubuntu....

[jariku]

Hey, I'm a 13-year old that uses ubuntu....

And we need more people like you.

[bastiegast]

Your sister is pretty smart My friends (16-17 yrs old ) get scared and feel intimidated as soon as they see a terminal and they use computers all day for games, youtube, etc.

[xioumik]

And we need more people like you.

lol. One is enough for the moment.