Lolly Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Dd21a has to make and upload a video to YouTube for a class. (It is educationally related!) She comes scurrying over to our house tonight because her computer isn't working--something about iMovie??? She needs to use my laptop instead. She gets on it, frantic. Ds18 takes her computer, opens up some program thingy, and rewrites the code in it (just in some places). It now works. :confused1: So...Is this a normal thing for kids to do? I would never in my wildest dreams think to attempt to rewrite a computer program. I wouldn't know how to open the danged thing up either. (This is my kid who refuses to go to college. He decided to go into welding after de there last year. He hates academics. Undoubtably he has taught himself a little computer coding somewhere along the line.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 It is not expected maybe but it is normal. Volunteers teach these skills and other programming skills at free classes for 6th-12th graders at our local libraries and these classes are often oversubscribed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 My DH can pretty much find anything he needs using a Google search- you enter your problem and someone out there has posted a programming solution. Your DS might look into some of the freelance sites that pay for such services. (DH is researching this as he has learned some programming tricks that are actually sought after.) So yeah, for people who have the techie brain, hacking what you need is not uncommon. (I would not be one of those people!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 I do not believe that is normal. Sounds like the DD has an Apple product, from the name of the program, which would be even farther from "normal" for an Apple user. DD has had to submit a video for at least one Lesson (I think it was for a TTUISD Middle School English course) but we are PC users and she did it with whatever free Windows software we have available. GL to your DD with her assignment! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 I'm not a techie, but I agree with Lanny -- If your DD's computer is an Apple product it's extremely unlikely your DS rewrote any code. Apple's products are locked down tighter than Fort Knox. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 I do not believe that is normal. Sounds like the DD has an Apple product, from the name of the program, which would be even farther from "normal" for an Apple user. DD has had to submit a video for at least one Lesson (I think it was for a TTUISD Middle School English course) but we are PC users and she did it with whatever free Windows software we have available. GL to your DD with her assignment! Yes, Apple product and software. He opened some window up, showed me the gobbley-gook writing, pointed to a couple of sections and said he replaced blah blah blah with bleh bleh bleh. He is a pc guy himself, though he does have an iphone which is plans to replace soon with something else. This is the kid who at the age of three took apart my brand new vacuum cleaner while I was in the kitchen. I walked into the den, saw the pieces all over the floor, told him to put it back together, and left the room (back to adjoining kitchen). I still use that vacuum today. (I asked how he got it back together and was told that it is easy--you put the pieces back in in the opposite order that you took them out. How do you know what order you took them out, I asked--you lay them on the floor in a line.) And, he has killed a few computers. He is hard on stuff. I think because he tinkers with it... I refused to replace his last computer a few years ago, so he took all of his dead ones and made one that worked. Dd got it submitted with 30 minutes to spare. Since she had come to my house and was working in the dining room, everyone stayed up until she was finished (really late for us). I think it turned out well. The video quality was certainly good. Doubt that counts toward anything on her grade! She has about 3 more video submissions to do this semester for this class. Her professor is using them in place of in class presentations. Seems to be a good idea to me! I know dd prefers this method. She despises getting in front of people, but cameras are just fine! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 He is a pc guy himself, though he does have an iphone which is plans to replace soon with something else. It is fun to dismantle the iphone, if he doesn't intend to trade-in or sell used. I have many relatives who loves to reverse engineer things. A nephew is still happy as an airforce mechanic after more than 10 years. He gets to take parts of fighter planes apart :) It is probably the YouTube uploader program for iMovie on your daughter's macbook that needed tweaking. Someone who is used to doing his own tweaking would probably figure out how to do it because it doesn't feel like this "scary unknown territory". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 For your son it sounds normal. :D Ds does stuff like that, but he's been messing with code and those scary places in computers for a while. He also has experience with youtube uploading. He's taking a programming class at school and the homework takes him about 5 minutes so far. It's stuff he already knows, which he needs a class like that this semester. So maybe normal for kids who have been tinkering with tech for a while. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Uploading a movie to YouTube shouldn't be too difficult (I've done it) -- it should not involve changing the codes on a program, but rather, learning a program and the steps involved, which can be difficult enough sometimes! :) So if your son can do that in a moment's notice, that's great! Hopefully your daughter can find a program which works on her computer that can do the same thing. I keep waiting to hear about something my daughter can't do on her Chrome (she's a second-year college student)! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 It is fun to dismantle the iphone, if he doesn't intend to trade-in or sell used. I have many relatives who loves to reverse engineer things. A nephew is still happy as an airforce mechanic after more than 10 years. He gets to take parts of fighter planes apart :) It is probably the YouTube uploader program for iMovie on your daughter's macbook that needed tweaking. Someone who is used to doing his own tweaking would probably figure out how to do it because it doesn't feel like this "scary unknown territory". The problem was in uploading her video from her camera into imovie so she could edit it. She thought the problem was in the card reader and had purchased a new one, but it didn't work either. Something in imovie wouldn't allow it to "stick". She has had problems with uploading to YouTube in the past (taking 4 hours or more for short videos). She already knew how to use the processes/programs. She has definitely done it before many times. Something had managed to break/change. Fortunately for her, last night the upload to YouTube only took a few minutes. She didn't have hours left before it was due. Waiting until the last day to finish assignments drives me batty. Much less the last few hours! She is appreciating her little brother today. It isn't often that happens! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 For your son it sounds normal. :D Ds does stuff like that, but he's been messing with code and those scary places in computers for a while. He also has experience with youtube uploading. He's taking a programming class at school and the homework takes him about 5 minutes so far. It's stuff he already knows, which he needs a class like that this semester. So maybe normal for kids who have been tinkering with tech for a while. True! J has been messing with this stuff for years. I guess he isn't afraid to try things on them. I, on the other hand, am so afraid I will mess it up worse that I won't touch anything on it. I've had to pay for his mess ups instead of him when he was little. That might be the difference! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 It is normal. Your ds didn't rewrite any code in iMovie. He probably fixed some settings. Ds is a programmer and we have used Apple products for 25+ years. It is great he was able to figure out the issue and fix it for your dd. In our house, everyone is techie except dd. As someone above said, there is virtually nothing you can't google and find step by step instructions for fixing. Dd would have needed help with the issue. Dh, ds and I would all have fixed it ourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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