Comp Sci 101 for M Testing GitHub as Blogging Platform
Emma, my four year-old, is aware of the Mac "Activity Monitor" utility. Mine is set to display RAM usage as pie chart in the dock. Whenever she comes to "bother me" at the computer she usually comments on how much green I have. She also knows less green means Webkinz starts up slower. She wanted to know why. I explained:
I think she got it. I happened to have a some spare hard drives lying around so she could look at and touch one. I also pointed out the clicking noise she was hearing was the hard drive. Then I slid off my Mac Pro's cover and showed her where they were in the computer... I think she kinda got it - computers have to read programs (like Webkinz) into memory from disk. Disk is slow, RAM is fast. :)
She's starting to read a little and can do basic addition and subtraction. In a few months when she is better, I think I will introduce her to Turtle Logo. Too early?
blog comments powered by Disqus