21 Dec
1998
21 Dec
'98
1:52 a.m.
> But worse still is the fact that back in the
early years of this century,
> it appears that boys - say about 12-15 years old - were expected to try
> woodwork, metalwork, using a lathe, wiring electric lights, bells,
> telephones, etc, making induction coils, etc, etc, etc. Things that I bet
> few boys ever try today. And yet, today, it could be made a little easier
> for them.
There's little need to make coils these days, and
wiring electric lights
isn't very fun when one can play around with things millions of times more
complex.
ANd don'T forget the safty issue - until the 30s the sensitivy
to electric danger has been very low - or to say it in another
way, electricity in toys was general unsafe - just remember old
electric toytrains, like Märklin, they operateded at 110V with
open metal connections light bulbs where used as resistors to
lower the speed (voltage). In this Context, a book, telling a
12 year old boy how to work on light equipment is understandable.
For the today thing: at least I had such manual things at school,
and, AFAIK, is still told if you ar in an aprobiate school.
> There is the secondary issue with the Mindstorms
kit that I don't like
> things that are tied to PCs, but that's another matter.
Indeed. Since when do I need to upgrade my computer to
use LEGOs? (I would
have to -- the PC software has rather hefty system requirements)
Of course you need a Pentium 2 to get the brighter colours on
you LEGO bricks :)
Ciao
Hans
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK