- I have a seven year old nephew who I would like to find some computing activities that we could do together. Any ideas?

  • Randelung@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    8 days ago

    Minecraft server. Then Pufferpanel, then modding. Tons to learn.

    Put it in a VM for him and take snapshots for easy recovery.

  • IanTwenty@piefed.socialEnglish
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    8 days ago

    Hedy is an open source programming language that is broken into levels for easy learning. As you progress the language gains more capabilities, so they are never overwhelmed with too much

    In contrast to block based languages like scratch its goal is to leave students ready to switch to Python by the end.

    Each level has small tasks to complete so you can tackle it piece by piece and get a sense of progression.

    https://hedy.org/

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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    8 days ago

    A Minecraft server is the classic.

    Don’t discount just putting together a basic webpage that can be accessed at home too- something he could put together in a basic HTML editor (drag and drop) and put his favorite things on or whatever he may be focusing on (cars, animals, space, you name it).

    • MedievalPresent@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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      7 days ago

      I definitely agree on a vanilla Minecraft server.

      It’s really simple but you can go very deep in what you could do with it. Also it’s a game and brings a playful fun aspect into the technical world.

      It’s pretty much how I started to learn everything about networking years ago.

  • eli@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    8 days ago

    I showed interest at around this age and my dad showed me CentOS and building basic webpages. I didn’t take too much interest in that, but I asked him if we could build a Counter Strike server and he obliged. He’s a nerd himself so we had a static IP for the server and everything. Worked well!

    Anyway, I would recommend getting an old desktop and installing Ubuntu server or desktop edition with a desktop environment. Show him how to navigate the command line and what that means if you follow the file explorer at the same time. And then hosting very basic things(webpages, local game servers, etc.).

    He might really latch onto it, or might not be interested whatsoever. I latched onto it, ended up building my own PCs soon after, and have my own homelab and I work as a full time Linux sysadmin now.

    • abeorch@friendica.ginestes.esOP
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      8 days ago

      @eli I have an old Windows laptop. I need to figure out how to do dual boot with Linux … and get my vpn sorted (again) so he can use VMs on my Proxmox box

      • eli@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        3 days ago

        I have an old Windows laptop. I need to figure out how to do dual boot with Linux

        For this I would recommend:

        1. Install Windows first
        2. In Windows, partition the disk drive to how much storage you want. So if you have a 1TB, then maybe do 500GB for Windows and 500GB for Linux? Leave the new partition as unformatted/unallocated
        3. Boot up your linux installer and select the unformatted/unallocated partition for Linux to install to. Don’t erase whole disk. But let Linux setup all of it’s own formatting and partitions on the empty space

        Now why do it this way? Because Windows does NOT like the boot manager being replaced and does NOT like disk space go “missing” unless it allocates it itself. If you install Windows first it’ll setup the boot manager for Windows and then when you install Linux grub will get installed and that can manage Windows pretty well.

        And if you let Windows partition off the blank space for Linux then Windows knows that that empty partition isn’t owned by Windows anymore and it won’t freak out seeing the space go missing when Linux takes it over.

        This article covers most: https://linuxblog.io/dual-boot-linux-windows-install-guide/

        If you have two individual disk drives then I would do the same thing, install Windows on one of the drives, boot into Windows, and make sure the second drive shows up in disk utility, but it isn’t formatted for use in Windows, just unallocated/blank. Then when you install Linux you just tell it to install onto the second drive.

        and get my vpn sorted (again) so he can use VMs on my Proxmox box

        I would 100% recommend Tailscale for this. You can install Tailscale on the Proxmox host and then have your nephew have his own Tailscale account where you can give him access to only the Proxmox box.

        I do this with my Proxmox boxes so I can remotely manage them wherever I am. When you first install Tailscale on Proxmox it may require a reboot, so I would recommend being nearby the server so you can login physically if needed, but after it has been smooth sailing for me. Been using it like this for a year or two now.

        Of course just a suggestion.

        • abeorch@friendica.ginestes.esOP
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          3 days ago

          @eli Thanks. Appreciate it. I have a VPN configured between the different locations and subnets I have at the moment with a bit if policy based routing to control what can access what… I just bring the remote location back online

  • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
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    8 days ago

    HTML Website is cool. A child of that age might be able to write basic HTML. I wasn’t much older when I made my own site

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
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    8 days ago

    I think educational activities work best once they have some application to someones life. So it’d be something within the realm of a 7yo. And it’s not fun unless there’s a sense of achievement every now and then, along with all the stuff to learn. So probably not too steep of a learning curve.

    Sadly they discontinued Lego Mindstorms. I think robotics is a great hands-on topic. People can grasp what they’re currently doing, why they do it, and what it’s good for. It has a tactile aspect, so you’ll train dexterity as well and gently connect the physical realm with the maths.

    But other than that, I bet there’s a lot of things you can try. Design a website (and deploy a small webserver). Maybe some easy to use photo gallery if they have a tablet or camera. Maybe a Wordpress for them to write a Blog? They should be familiar with the concept of a diary. Kids love Minecraft, so maybe a Luanti server if you’re into Free Software. But learn how to add NPCs and animals, that is (or used to be?) a complicated process in Luanti and the world feels boring and empty without. A chat server to their loved ones could motivate them to read and write text (messages). Or skip the selfhosting aspect and do the kids games available for Linux. Paint, LibreOffice…

    I like the recommendations from other people as well. Sadly I don’t know which kids programming language works best. I think I heard you can just go straight for Python as well. Not sure if that’s true or what age group that applies to. It’s a bit more involved to learn the syntax and why you need brackets around certain things etc but at least they get to learn the real deal and something properly useful. 7 might be a bit young, though. And there might be a language barrier. But that applies to all the computer stuff behind the scenes, unless you’re a native English speaker.

  • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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    8 days ago

    My kid is 9, and it’s all Minecraft and I just installed a non federated synapse server so they can text family without having to deal with parental controls. At that age, I figure it’s more about having fun, and if they learn typing skills on the way, big win

    • ewigkaiwelo@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      7 days ago

      Hi how hard is it for a complete beginner to setup a nonfederated synapse server at hardware at home? I am looking for a FOSS solution for a selfhosted messenger for family and friends to stay away from the corporations and governments and people recommend mostly either xmpp or matrix but the guides seem too complicated( Can you share the guide(s) that you’ve followed?

      • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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        6 days ago

        Honestly? It was a pain, I used several different guides and they were all out of date in different ways. Unfortunately, it looks like external users are having connectivity problems, that I’ll try to solve next week when I have time.

      • justme@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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        7 days ago

        I recommend to read a tutorial of docker and docker compose. Then the setup of stuff like synapse is a few minutes task. (Non-federation is a simple option in the config file).

        • ewigkaiwelo@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          6 days ago

          After watching Luke Smith I’ve got an impression that docker and containerization is not a way to go, but maybe would be good for a start

    • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      8 days ago

      That project looks pretty nice, I’ve seen it before. When I ran a MineCraft server, I was heavy into shaders, plugins, addons, etc. I would say that the draw to MineCraft is that there are just endless things to integrate, almost infinitely if you have the resources to run it. As heavy into MineCraft as I got, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even come close to exhausting it’s possibilities.

    • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      7 days ago

      This is confusing. So, Luanti is basically a clone of Minecraft? The docs say how to download the basic platform, and then to download any game.

      But where do you start? There’s no recommended or default game or world?

      • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
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        7 days ago

        No, Luanti is a platform for Minecraft like games, like a place to find lots of user generated games and such, I guess Roblox is a bit similar to that (I never tried Roblox, so I am guessing). It is also fairly easy to make your own games with it.

        There are however games for Luanti that are very similar to Minecraft such as Voxelibre and Minecloina.

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.caEnglish
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    8 days ago

    I’d argue home assistant with some smart LEDs and a few sensors would be great.

    Having a bulb that let’s you know the outside temperature/weather when you’re getting dressed in the morning is neat. Having a dimming pattern for sleeping time. Tons of other really simple stuff available too.

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    7 days ago

    OP, just wanted to say that involving your young nephew in constructive computer projects/activities is super cool. You get a Good Noodle star on your chart.