@Smurf - nice write up!
Agreed throwing the basic (as in bare metal) bits at beginners is dumb - you have to be really into it to get any benefit. Much better to start at a higher level and then suggest that people learn under the hood afterwards.
I started my interest here (when BBC Horizon did real science) :
Combined with one afternoon when a teacher filled in a session teaching us number bases - including base 2, "binary, what computers use...".
For everyone the Pi part is based on Python being the key language - there is an excellent starter course on it here
Preface
Downloadable as a PDF too.