So old to learn? Serious problem

[Mr. Scram]

Well as a fact I can tell you that 10 years ago at 54 years old I could hold 27 moves in a 9x9 sudoku in my head. I could hold a full 6x6 Sudoku without writing anything down for any 6x6. I can now only hold around 17 for a 9x9 and cannot hold all 6X6 though I can do most of them.

I don't give a rats ass what research says. I know my brain does not work as well as it did ten years ago. Above is just an example, there are other things I can't do particularly to do with visualisations like vector diagrams / phase shifts etc.

That's all true, and science know the brain deteriorates after the age of about 25. You luckily get to compensate that for a long time by experience. However, that doesn't mean you should give up learning new things to being with. Accept it for what it is, then throw yourself at a problem.

If it makes you feel any better, a lot of younger people have a memory that's a lot worse.

[Richard Crowley]

You might want to take a look at the videos on Andreas Spiess' YouTube channel.
If you go back and start from the early videos, he makes a nice progression from basic stuff to some pretty nifty IoT projects.
Both hardware and software.  And using inexpensive parts and gear.   Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7_D0o48KbfhpEohoP7YSQ

[StillTrying]

I agree an Arduino would be a good cheap start to digital, analogue and programming, and all things being equal, don't worry if you're still totally confused after 2 or 3 weeks because, you'll already have learnt a lot but not realised it yet. 

[bson]

Well as a fact I can tell you that 10 years ago at 54 years old I could hold 27 moves in a 9x9 sudoku in my head. I could hold a full 6x6 Sudoku without writing anything down for any 6x6. I can now only hold around 17 for a 9x9 and cannot hold all 6X6 though I can do most of them.

I don't think puzzle solving ability is a particularly good indicator of learning ability.  Even if it takes twice as long to learn something it's still only twice as long and isn't much of an obstacle.  The major obstacle actually is sitting around complaining how difficult it is - but it wasn't easy at age 20 either, it's just we've forgotten how hard it was then too.  The sooner we hop to it, the sooner it's done - and if it's something we gain with age it's the ability to start attacking big problems sooner rather than later, and patiently work them to an acceptable conclusion where many younger give up or shelve it.  Apply this persistence to your learning process.

[cdev]

There are physical changes in the brain as people get older, but in some things, people get better as they get older.  Some of the deleterious changes are chemical and respond to interventions.

 I posted a link up a bit higher about acetyl-l-carnitine and the minds of aged beagles.
 
Old dogs can learn new tricks. Part of a long series of research.

Also, n-3 fatty acids (DHA, EPA, i.e. fish oil) and many other things, antioxidants like NAC, vitamins C and E, B-complex vitamins, lipoic acid , neurotransmitter precursors like choline, phytonutrients like resveratrol, curcumin, etc. all are good bets for fighting neuroinflammation and preserving or even restoring one's cognitive ability as we age.

[rhb]

@001

You have skills the kids don't have.  They have skills you don't have.  You *can* do anything you want.  The only question is how hard you are prepared to work and how many failures you're prepared to endure.  The PhD is mostly about learning to accept repeated failures.

I heartily agree with the suggestions to get an Arduino.  Treat it just as you would any new electronic device.  Get the datasheet, study the schematic.  Make up a task and try to do it.

I'm new to MCUs, but an old hand at computing and programming.  I always found computing very easy because long before I ever touched a computer I played with electronics.  Not at your level, but enough to understand computers at the level of the wires.

Get a cheap Arduino kit and have fun.

[thermistor-guy]

Hi!
...
Can I learn? I want to realise few my simple and funny projects. but how to begin?
All info in the internet is not complex/ But how schoolboys do it?
...

Learn by doing. Take your simplest project and start there.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the stuff you can't do yet and don't understand yet. Don't get overwhelmed. Get started on a project that you want to do. Have a reason - have a *drive* - to try something new.

Kids get exposed to so much these days. They grow up with it. I bought my first PC as an adult. My 12y.o. has been using computers since he was 4.

There are physical changes in the brain as people get older, but in some things, people get better as they get older.  Some of the deleterious changes are chemical and respond to interventions.

 I posed a link up a bit higher about acetyl-l-carnitine and the minds of aged beagles. Old dogs can learn new tricks. Part of a long series of research.

Also, n-3 fatty acids (DHA, EPA, i.e. fish oil) and many other things, antioxidants like NAC, vitamins C and E, B-complex vitamins, lipoic acid , neurotransmitter precursors like choline, phytonutrients like resveratrol, curcumin, etc. all are good bets for fighting neuroinflammation and preserving or even restoring one's cognitive ability as we age.

Creatine and Carnitine are neuroprotective, but also promote recovery from physical hard work. Good for muscle tissue and brain tissue (what do they have in common? mitochondria). Everyone over 50 should be on them, unless of course you're a fan of cognitive and physical impairment. Adult athletes of any age should be on them (and are). They work because just about everyone has shortages (unless you're already supplementing).

To the original poster:  Learn by doing. Get started. Just start.

[cdev]

I agree with you about creatine. Its a good thing to be taking. I wanted to clarify something about Carnitine vs acylcarnitine. - Acetyl-l-carnitine is quite different than plain carnitine.

let me see if I can find a good link on it.

This will bring up "everything" on pubmed about it    Too much..

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=acetyl-l-carnitine

I like the series of old dogs new tricks papers on alcar and ALA..
I posted the most recent one up above.. there are a bunch of others you will find them on pubmed.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Vol. 95, pp. 9562–9566, August 1998
Medical Sciences
Acetyl- L -carnitine fed to old rats partially restores mitochondrial function and ambulatory activity
TORY M. HAGEN * † , RUSSELL T. INGERSOLL *, CAROL M. W EHR *, JENS LYKKESFELDT ‡ , VLADIMIR VINARSKY *,
JAMES C. BARTHOLOMEW § , M I -HYE SONG *, AND BRUCE N. AMES *
*Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and § Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
Contributed by Bruce N. Ames, June 3, 1998

ABSTRACT
Mitochondrial function and ambulatory ac-
tivity were monitored after feeding old rats acetyl- L -carnitine
(ALCAR). Young (3–5 mo) and old (22–28 mo) rats were given
a 1.5% (wtyvol) solution of ALCAR in their drinking water for
1 mo, were sacrificed, and their liver parenchymal cells were
isolated. ALCAR supplementation significantly reverses the
age-associated decline of mitochondrial membrane potential,
as assessed by rhodamine 123 staining. Cardiolipin, which
declines significantly with age, is also restored. ALCAR
increases cellular oxygen consumption, which declines with
age, to the level of young rats. However, the oxidant production
per oxygen consumed, as measured by 2*,7*-dichlorof luores-
cin f luorescence levels, is '30% higher than in untreated old
rats. Cellular glutathione and ascorbate levels were nearly
30% and 50% lower, respectively, in cells from ALCAR-
supplemented old rats than in untreated old rats, further
indicating that ALCAR supplementation might increase oxi-
dative stress. Ambulatory activity in young and old rats was
quantified as a general measure of metabolic activity. Ambu-
latory activity, defined as mean total distance traveled, in old
rats is almost 3-fold lower than in young animals. ALCAR
supplementation increases ambulatory activity significantly
in both young and old rats, with the increase being larger in
old rats. Thus, ALCAR supplementation to old rats markedly
reverses the age-associated decline in many indices of mito-
chondrial function and general metabolic activity, but may
increase oxidative stress.

So it should be combined with antioxidants like NAC or ALA. (Lipoic acid or its old name is "thioctic acid" Both are thiols.. they contain sulfur)

IMHO NAC is preferable.

Deficient synthesis of glutathione underlies oxidative stress in aging and can be corrected by dietary cysteine and glycine supplementation

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/94/3/847.full

Glycine will also improve the quality of your sleep.

[Mr. Scram]

How do you guys feel about regularly quitting creatine to prevent dependence versus just keeping at it?

[Alex Eisenhut]

I feel like I'm listening to an episode of Joe Rogan with Dr Rhonda Patrick as a guest.

[xrunner]

Can I learn?

Yep.

I want to realise few my simple and funny projects. but how to begin?

Get a new device and play with it. Really. Get an Arduino like others have said and set it down in front of you. You'll look at it and say "WTF do I do now?"

You go to a basic tutorial and try the simplest thing first. Read the instructions and try it. You will succeed. Then you will gain confidence. Try the next experiment. One after the other. Young people can do it faster but you can do it at your own pace. Take your time and before you know it you will understand. Keep going from there.

 You WILL be able to do it!

[retrolefty]

?? C++? C#? 

Not C++ or for gods sake C#. Just plain C. Arduino is based on C. Start with easy to replicate projects and you will become used to C programming language. Sorry, you cannot build modern electronics w/o learning how to code it.

[edit] http://www.dummies.com/store/product/C-For-Dummies-2nd-Edition.productCd-0764570684.html

Obviously there's ton of more books... and google too.

 Actually the Arduino compiler used is the open source gcc C++ compiler.

[thermistor-guy]

I agree with you about creatine. Its a good thing to be taking. I wanted to clarify something about Carnitine vs acylcarnitine. - Acetyl-l-carnitine is quite different than plain carnitine.
...

I seem to recall (can't find the link) that your body can convert one form of carnitine into other forms. So I prefer to take ALCAR. In principle you could take both.

How do you guys feel about regularly quitting creatine to prevent dependence versus just keeping at it?

.

My understanding is that there is no need to cycle Creatine, as there is no dependence mechanism. IIRC, the way dependence works is that high levels of an active substance (e.g. insulin, dopamine) cause its receptors to get down-regulated. So you need to take more and more of the substance to activate fewer, less active receptors. Definitely applies to insulin, hence sugar addiction. Doesn't apply to Creatine, as far as I know.

In the case of Creatine, I take 3-5g just after a hard gym workout or aerobics session, along with ALCAR, choline, and whey protein concentrate. Your body is primed to absorb these immediately after workouts. There's a field called recovery nutrition that deals with this. But I've designed my supplement stack so that it has neuroprotective properties as well. A two-fer.

We're straying off-topic I guess, but in a way we're not. "Use it or lose it" applies to cognitive and to physical performance. Stay active, physically and mentally. Keep learning, whether that's electronics or olympic lifting (just started).

[cdev]

Whey is the 2nd best source of cysteine besides NAC. So:very good for your redox status.

[ogden]

Actually the Arduino compiler used is the open source gcc C++ compiler.

Indeed. GCC C++ is obvious choice when you are looking for free C compiler and it is very good at compiling C code. One of the best actually. Note that C is subset of C++ (in general).

[Fungus]

EasyPIC7 bundle ...

"EasyPIC" is a bit of an oxymoron.

?? C++? C#? 

Not C++ or for gods sake C#. Just plain C. Arduino is based on C.

Really? So when I type "Serial.print(x)" or "SPI.begin()", that's C, is it?

I agree an Arduino would be a good cheap start to digital, analogue and programming

Yep, and it's far from a "Black Box". An Arduino is just an AVR chip on a breakout board, no mystery there.

The reason the kids are so smart is that a) they use Google and b) they keep poking at things until they work.

And ... they only show their successes on Youtube, not the failures. You also don't get to mess with the device in person and find all places where it doesn't work so well.

[Fungus]

Besides, if you understand the basics of one language, you pretty much know the basics of all the languages. The exact syntax, or words used, may change, but the mechanism is the same in almost all of the higher languages.

Knowing the syntax doesn't make you proficient. Each language has a set of features you should use, features you should avoid, coding styles that work better than others, etc.

People who think they can code one language using another language's compiler are the source of most of the awful code out there.

[Mjolinor]

There is no need to go Arduino or anything else. Just install a C compiler and write some programmes to do stuff.

No amount of fancy hardware will get you away from the fact that you need to learn to write software for it, that software is exactly the same on your PC as it is on a million different micros that are available. Buying an Arduino and learning how to power it and learning how to programme it is a lot of steps before you see any results at all. If you write some "hello world" programmes just to run on your PC you are half way there and you will be able to then take the next step by getting some dedicated hardware without getting bogged down in too much at once.

[Fungus]

There is no need to go Arduino or anything else. Just install a C compiler and write some programmes to do stuff.

I'm fairly sure that "install a C compiler" isn't easier than installing the Arduino IDE.

Buying an Arduino and learning how to power it and learning how to programme it is a lot of steps before you see any results at all.

a) Connect USB cable.
b) Upload "Blink"

[001]

 Sorry for stupid question. Well, i'm going to study some arduinos. What "brick" to learn first? I want use my c2d notebook with serial port onboard for this purpose only. And what more suitable for atmel - windows or some linux? I see holywar at kids forums.

[Mjolinor]

Sorry for stupid question. Well, i'm going to study some arduinos. What "brick" to learn first? I want use my c2d notebook with serial port onboard for this purpose only. And what more suitable for atmel - windows or some linux? I see holywar at kids forums.

This is why I suggested starting with C only. It is a necessary brick and is probably better being the first brick you address.

If you go to Arduino first then you are learning two things at once, if it works that is all fine and good but if you struggle with something your path to finding the problem is at least twice as difficult because you do not know if you are looking at a programming problem or some hardware problem.

If I were starting then first step would be an Ubuntu computer and learn C. There are a lot of things you can do after the first "hello world", parse some text files and extract all the X characters for example or count the words, rearrange the words to be alphabetical. You can learn so much that you will need without having to go to external devices and adding another level of complexity.

[woody]

Starting with C on a PC has the disadvantage that it remains pretty abstract. There is no substitution (IMO) for a led that does nothing at first and then starts to blink because you made it blink by entering a couple of lines of code. Far more rewarding than yet another palindrome detector written in C.

And yes, there are a couple of hurdles to take before you get this led to blink but with all those integrated IDE's and howtos available that seems not a real problem. And if you want to start out in (programmable) electronics, you'll have to take those anyway.

[tszaboo]

?? C++? C#? 

Not C++ or for gods sake C#. Just plain C. Arduino is based on C. Start with easy to replicate projects and you will become used to C programming language. Sorry, you cannot build modern electronics w/o learning how to code it.

[edit] http://www.dummies.com/store/product/C-For-Dummies-2nd-Edition.productCd-0764570684.html

Obviously there's ton of more books... and google too.

Serial.print("Hello world.")  <- Does this look like C to you, or C++?

[mjkuwp]

Another Vote for Arduino, specifically UNO or a variant of that.  However more important than that board is to choose a project : )

slightly off topic but the Arduino libraries are written in C++.  Interestingly one doesn't need to know C++ to use the Arduino assuming you read the reference information.  When searching for help you are most likely going to want C programming references if you are new to programming.

https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/

[Fungus]

Sorry for stupid question. Well, i'm going to study some arduinos. What "brick" to learn first? I want use my c2d notebook with serial port onboard for this purpose only. And what more suitable for atmel - windows or some linux? I see holywar at kids forums.

Arduinos tend to be USB, not serial port. There are some serial-only Arduinos (eg. Pro mini) but your serial port won't be able to power them without a +5V line.

If it's just for Arduino then the OS doesn't really matter. The official IDE is written in Java and runs the same.