Be Brave Not Safe

Shortly after publishing “Tech Savvy Kids – Teach Dad a Valuable Lesson” our son (Evan, 17) completed the build of his own computer. Unlike the science fair or Cub Scout projects when the kids were younger, I had no hand in this one 🙂

After doing online research and funding became available (from his job) he began ordering the individual parts from newegg. Then, the anticipation began, as he awaited the arrival of the UPS and Fedex trucks in front of our house. Finally, after several days of shipments he had all the components. On the day the final part (the case) was scheduled for delivery he had to work a 3pm to 10pm shift. Prior to departing for work he said, “When I get home I am going to work on building that computer and won’t sleep until it is up and running.”

He apparently was able to get to bed just after 2am. And, while our bedroom is just across the hall from his, we heard no crashing, banging or hollering as he went through the trial and error process of putting it all together by following the YouTube instruction video from newegg and referencing the manuals that came with the individual parts.

After the build was complete he realized the only thing he had forgotten was a wireless network card. To get connected he quickly figured out how to slave the new rocket off his MacBook, as a temporary workaround to gain Internet access (which turns out to be quite reasonably fast)…

I can no longer say that our household is 100% Mac, as he built a Windows-based machine. However, with the high performance components he acquired the thing boots up in less than 15 seconds! Hopefully he will be able to maintain that performance level as he loads it up over time and with use.

When asked when he’d acquire MS Office he had a great response: “I’ll just use Google Docs.”

In case you weren’t aware Google offers FREE MS Office equivalent and compatible software! So, he hasn’t gone all the way back to the dark side after-all 🙂

Because he “did it himself” he learned a great deal in the process and his new rocket cost hundreds less than if he were to have acquired the computer pre-built and fully burdened (I mean loaded) with MS software.

One smart kid 🙂