
Mission Bit: Non-profit in SF teaching kids how to code in after-school classes - blaurenceclark
http://blog.vueanalytics.co/post/97062684355/an-unusual-way-to-recruit-engineers
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LaikaF
Why are they asking for Macbooks? Is there some particular need for OSX? Why
not just throw them onto Linux, if they're going to learn an operating system
it might as well be something they don't have to shell out 1000+ for a
computer for.

If only there were some sort of cheap computer that is very bare bones and
small. One that can hook up to TVs by HDMI or RCA so the kids could use them
at home. Have it cost around fifty dollars (with case and power adapter), and
get people to donate extra keyboards and mice. If only.

~~~
yaur
That piece of gear is called a Raspberry Pi. It's what my 12 year old is
mainly hacking on.

~~~
ad_hominem
But Raspberry Pi is ARMv6 architecture, which makes installing certain
software complicated or impossible. You can't install Ubuntu on it, for
example, as Ubuntu only supports ARMv7+.

Better option IMO are the $199 Chromebooks Codestarter puts Ubuntu on:
[http://blog.codestarter.org/post/93985346780/how-we-
turn-199...](http://blog.codestarter.org/post/93985346780/how-we-
turn-199-chromebooks-into-ubuntu-based-code)

~~~
LaikaF
Is there any particular reason for Ubuntu?

The reason I sarcastically suggested Raspis is because this is literally what
they were meant for.

~~~
ad_hominem
Mostly it's my preference, but it seems like major software projects usually
have an easy install path for Ubuntu (oftentimes a custom PPA, which is an
Ubuntu-specific feature). But if Ubuntu is supported, Debian oftentimes is as
well, so Raspbian would probably be fine.

My bigger concern would be the ARM architecture / switch off x86 in general.
Even getting Crashplan (a Java program) working was a PITA due to that.

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Johnythree
You must offer young recruits three things: Good Training, Good Wages and Good
Employment conditions.

They must have something to believe in, and to have hope for the future.

When I was a young bloke (Australia) the Tech schools offered great training
courses, the employers were lined up on graduation day, and life-time
employment was taken for granted.

These days, no one trains, the wages are ludicrous, and permanent employment
is unheard of.

And yet employers complain that they can't get good engineers.

~~~
blaurenceclark
HUGE proponent of constant learning, if you don't invest in your employees why
would you expect them to stay.

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Swizec
I love this! As somebody who's started programming when he was 9, I have been
looking for ways to reach younger people for years now. So far I have not been
very successful.

Back home I organise javascript meetups and bloody hell, I can't even get
college students majoring in CS to attend. We manage to get a couple seniors
and such here and there, but freshmen might as well be unicorns.

But I digress. All I wanted to say was that I love this and I wish you all the
best. Getting good youth support is important for any field that doesn't want
to die.

~~~
blaurenceclark
If you ever want to talk strategies on this email us! brian@missionbit.com

~~~
zura
While we're at it, why I have to remove "blog." prefix from browser's address
bar in order to get to your company page?

~~~
blaurenceclark
We did a subdomain because our blog is hosted on tumblr, so we have to point a
specific address at it. Sorry about that!

~~~
zura
Actually, many company blogs have this problem. What I meant is that why not
have some company logo in the header which points to the company website?

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kelukelugames
I think it's a great article with an excellent idea but the title is
misleading.

~~~
dang
We changed the title to a sentence from the article in an attempt to address
this (submitted title was "An Unusual Way to Recruit Engineers").

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6nne
It'd be nice if more opportunities like this existed outside Silicon Valley.

~~~
blaurenceclark
We'd love to work with you on building this out! I'm from Detroit so I
completely agree. Email brian@missionbit.com :)

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2close4comfort
This is spectacular! What a great way to give something back.

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gdi2290
Wow this is awesome, I'd defintiely like to volunteer

~~~
dang
This comment and a couple others in this thread caused people to complain to
us about shillage on HN.

This sounds like a great program for kids and we wish it all the best, but HN
users are hyper-allergic to the tiniest traces of astroturfing and its
byproducts. For best results—including not getting downvoted, flamed, or
complained about to HN moderators—you're best off just letting the content
speak for itself. Good luck!

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hustlingsmurf
respect!

