KIDS AND COMPUTERS

RIVER BENDER - October,  2001

We visited our grandkids recently in Maryland and I discovered a New World of computing. Our twin grandsons are now 14 years old and entering a Science/Tech high school. Both have 1.0 gHz Dell computers, five times faster than my PC. Their computers are networked with dad/mom's computer and all three connect to a high-speed DSL line that enables them to use Internet at the same time. Connecting three PCs together seems like an awesome task to me but our son-in-law manages to make everything work that he tackles, which is not the way it goes for me.

The twin boys love to play games on the computer. I recall when they visited from Arizona at the age of three I asked my daughter if they used the computer at home and was told that they were too young. An hour later I had them playing shareware games like pros that I had downloaded for their visit. That was the beginning of their computer experience that has continued ever since. When they entered the first grade, my daughter mentioned that the teacher suspected that the boys used a computer at home when they asked what was on her hard drive. The teacher said that she hardly knew what a hard drive was.

A River Bend resident once told me that he was fortunate to have a "guru" move in next door to help him with his PC problems. The guru turned out to be a 12-year-old kid. Seems like all kids nowadays are becoming computer literate.

The grandkids lost me when they asked if I played multiplayer games on the web. I'm not much of a game player except for an occasional Freecell game or flying my MS Flight Simulator 98. Upon mentioning Flight Simulator the boys suggested that I could fly my Lear Jet in formation with someone else or several people remotely. I could even play checkers or chess or scrabble with other people on the web in real time. Take a look at Microsoft's Game Page at http://zone.msn.com/ then go look at a huge list of all the games at http://zone.msn.com/blog.asp?TAd=1.

To play Microsoft's multiplayer games one must first sign up at their web page (above) and enter a name and password. It takes awhile to come up with a fake name because a million or so names have already been taken. Next you download MS multiplayer software that lets your MS game software interact with others on the Web. Everything is free except the MS game that you must already have installed.

Our grandkids have MS Combat Simulator and both are World War II airplane buffs. It was amusing to see them join a World War II game in which they chose American P51 fighter planes and had dogfights with other kids (?) flying German planes. During combat they maneuvered their planes to get the enemy in sight while watching an inset screen that showed where enemy planes were. Participants send keyboard messages to each other during the action that flash across the screen while hits and the score are displayed in a corner. As in most games each participant had several "lives" and kept playing with a fresh airplane until the lives were exhausted. One grandson learned how to modify airplanes and surprised other players when they discovered his 737 passenger jet was equipped with machine guns.

My brother, a retired airline pilot, has MS Flight Simulator 98. Now I see a way that he can give me online flight instructions when I fly my 737.

I can't end this article without mentioning our granddaughter. She's 10 and a computer nut too but she's been taking violin lessons. I brought along my mandolin and began teaching her bluegrass music. But like my daughter when she was taking guitar lessons I ended up being corrected on how to read music properly. Nevertheless, she enjoyed playing bluegrass and I suppose her classical violin teacher will be shocked when she returns with her "fiddle" and wants to play a little "hoedown."