I learned my first snippit of programming on Logo back when I was 10 years old! It's quite easy for a kid to figure LOGO out, as it's based around BASIC-style instructions.
It's a damn good thing console gaming companies make most of their profit on the games. I would suspect Sony is actually taking a small loss on the PS2, as the hardware is insanely expensive. It makes sense that you'd sell them the first hit cheap, and take profit after they're addicted. This probably explains why Bleem is still around.
The rumor is only made more plausable because of this, but, all the same, I think I'll/ignore anything more anyone but Sega has to say about their system. My heart has stopped twice over the past week, already, upon notification that I might not be able to pick up any more great games like Jet Grind Radio.
Optimally, the school could employ someone to do this over the summer, after they were trained the previous school year on their own workstations. Gradual phase-in would take care of the time cost. Teachers, at least where I live, have been called in in previous times for an entire 4 day weekend to learn how to use new grading/attendance software.
As for students, they're students. They're supposed to learn. Getting used to a KDE desktop is not all that difficult a thing to comprehend. Most students understand directory/file structure, and pending my taking this for granted, it's not that hard to make the change from "My Computer" to "/". After all, unless they're taking Computer courses, they don't give a flying fish about/dev/null or similar.
This is where all this leads to. The students who don't care about unix won't know the difference. They'll still know how to use an office suite like KOffice or StarOffice, and can bring these skills fairly easily to Excel or Word or Wordperfect or whathaveyou. Who knows, they might even figure out how to use a shell in their spare time, and realize it can be faster for doing the job.
The students who will get the most out of this are the ones who are currently doing no more than simple hardware research, playing with Legos and making HTML documents for the first time in their Comptech 3200 classes! This is the highest course my highschool offers, and the most difficult thing I've only heard about them learning is Quickbasic! This was never covered in my CompTech 3200 class last year, and these courses are standard throughout the school board. At least, bare minimum, with linux students could learn something quasi-useful, like creating a web page on a shell, and not in Netscape Composer. At least then they'd learn basic file operation. They can't do that with Windows, because giving them a dos-prompt is dangerous. Ass backwards, indeed.
The last time schools paid this much for an OS here was, I believe, in 1998. That's two years. A ten thousand every two years (estimating both clients and servers are upgraded for a 150 workstation network) on this scale could go employ a unix-clueful technology specialist in schools instead of an NT user.
Schools are going to be using computers now until we stop using communal school systems and begin to tutor students individually or in small groups. We're talking the forseeable future in savings. Schools would not have to buy another OS, ever. This initial migration will save more than it will cost in the long run. Savings which could go to better educating interested and talented students about computer science.
Don't even get me started about graphic design, the focus of more than one course, with the Gimp vs. Adobe Photoshop.... which the school can't afford.... MS Paint it is!
No I shouldn't.
I'm 16.
The first computer I used was a Ti, not a PC.
The only reason I ended up using DOS was because my dad was given a copy of it one time.
Had he been given unix, I would have started on that.
Bill just made it so average joes could use computers. Whether or not thats a blessing or a curse is debatable amongst the people who knew what computers were before Bill.
Most anyone who has had to do customer service will tell you that's a curse.;-)
I got started on LOGO. Keep them away from basic, though.
Perhaps starting them on Lego Mindstorm or would be a good idea. I'm not entirely sure of how that language is arranged, or how hard it would be for a 7 year old to grasp, but with some coaching I think it would be interesting. Just adding that physical aspect to it, to show him that his program is _doing_ something, and not just dancing on the screen would be a great booster. It would give him the chance to be more creative with less skill, I'm sure.
How do those things do in the bathtub, anyways? I always did want my cruise boat to do more than just go in circles.
I've been to two schools because of reorganization.
In both schools I've tried to get some sort of unix education running. Both of the schools were completely Microsoft dependant.
So far, I've found a few challenging obstacles.
The school board doesn't want to train their existing tech teachers or hire new technology teachers to use any sorts of unix. They don't realize, in the long term, training staff to use unix would probably save them more then continuing to buy MS site licenses for each and every school. Really, they just haven't gotten into this whole *nix thing, and I don't see them wanting to. It's more work for them. It's just easier to spend tax dollars than to learn something new.
In my first year, I managed to get one debian box running. sshd, apache, whatnot. This is where I actually got most of my linux clue. Most students weren't all that interested in sshing to a shell to poke around like they could in DOS. Some managed to get their ~/public_html directories running with a little help. The last few classes in my Computer Technology 3200 class I was permitted to hook up a projector and take the students through a quick linux trainer. They learned how to use pico and things. The school board said all along that they didn't "support" linux, and wouldn't give us any help or resources with the project. I came away from that school when it closed fairly satisfied.
This year, my highschool has *no* intention of using any sort of unix. The NT administrator doesn't have the time to learn how to use it and doesn't seem to want to.
They feel a linux box on their network would be a security risk. I'm not sure how they've come to this conclusion. I think they've got their facts backwards. A linbox on their network would only be a problem if a student got root, while on a windows 95 box you're free to do whatever you please.
" Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" anyone?
Also worth pointing out, recently, the school had all the students participate in a chocolate-selling fundraiser to pay for Windows 2000 Advanced Server. M$'s site says it's $3,999 USD for Advanced server with 25 client access Licences. The highschool has over 150 workstations. That there is a _lot_ of money for an operating system. We're not even talking about the client OS. For the amount of money they're going to spend on Windows, I believe they could train staff to use a unix based operating system with KDE, or similar.
It's really sad that citizens don't realize millions of their tax dollars are being wasted on an operating system they could do better without.
I should clairfy.
No one owns airwaves like the cable companies own their cables.
The way airwaves are handed out could change because of this, because there would be more to hand out. People wouldn't be asking for massive chunks of bandwidth, so the FCC/CRTC/Other Government People might let smaller companies have a little bandwidth for less money than it would currently cost.
Also, whoops, the sending part, right. One could send data through another media, if need be. Web use is 99.9999% downloading for Mr. J. Average I-Want-To-Check-CNN.com. Also, I'm not JUST talking about our traditional FM band, Cell phones send data just fine, albeit through costly networks. FM is just a convenient bandwidth-space that we're using now for entertainment, so why not use it for more entertainment?
It's going to make everything faster. When this technology becomes available in widespread, just about everyone can make use of it with new hardware. Everyone will take a step up. Cable, dial-up, wireless, DSL, Sattelite users, the whole nine yards. Not just internet, too. It just means more stuff, faster. Goody! (Bets are on TV will still suck, though, even with a few thousand channels.)
Patented. Grumble.
I like! Now, how stable can we make an FM signal to a computer? This could damn well be another method of providing high-bandwidth internet access, and a good one at that.
Because No one really "owns" the airwaves, like one does a cable, you could get a lot of competition amongst providers for customers.
I can see the Laptop/Handheld owners screaming now. I have a palm, and the thought of cheap high bandwidth wireless access for it amuses me.
Slashdot Mirror
dum2007@vis:~% ed
The rain in spain...
?
Uh
?
Help?
?
Damnit.
?
Quit
?
q
dum2007@vis:~%
Here here!
I learned my first snippit of programming on Logo back when I was 10 years old! It's quite easy for a kid to figure LOGO out, as it's based around BASIC-style instructions.
Plus, that turtle is cool.
Very good point. Too bad whoever keeps making up these rumors about Micro$0ft and Sega didn't think about.
Don't forget Netbsd, DreamSNES and Bleem for DC.
It's a damn good thing console gaming companies make most of their profit on the games. I would suspect Sony is actually taking a small loss on the PS2, as the hardware is insanely expensive. It makes sense that you'd sell them the first hit cheap, and take profit after they're addicted. This probably explains why Bleem is still around.
The rumor is only made more plausable because of this, but, all the same, I think I'll /ignore anything more anyone but Sega has to say about their system. My heart has stopped twice over the past week, already, upon notification that I might not be able to pick up any more great games like Jet Grind Radio.
That's twice in 24 hours...
EMP = ElectroMagnetic Pulse
EMP Pulse = ElectroMagnetic Pulse Pulse
This has been an English lesson.
Distributed net will finally crack the RC-64 key. No one will care.
At least one person will care, whoever won the $10K.
Electromagnetic Pulse Pulse?
Woah.
Don't go there.
Optimally, the school could employ someone to do this over the summer, after they were trained the previous school year on their own workstations. Gradual phase-in would take care of the time cost. Teachers, at least where I live, have been called in in previous times for an entire 4 day weekend to learn how to use new grading/attendance software.
/dev/null or similar.
As for students, they're students. They're supposed to learn. Getting used to a KDE desktop is not all that difficult a thing to comprehend. Most students understand directory/file structure, and pending my taking this for granted, it's not that hard to make the change from "My Computer" to "/". After all, unless they're taking Computer courses, they don't give a flying fish about
This is where all this leads to. The students who don't care about unix won't know the difference. They'll still know how to use an office suite like KOffice or StarOffice, and can bring these skills fairly easily to Excel or Word or Wordperfect or whathaveyou. Who knows, they might even figure out how to use a shell in their spare time, and realize it can be faster for doing the job.
The students who will get the most out of this are the ones who are currently doing no more than simple hardware research, playing with Legos and making HTML documents for the first time in their Comptech 3200 classes! This is the highest course my highschool offers, and the most difficult thing I've only heard about them learning is Quickbasic! This was never covered in my CompTech 3200 class last year, and these courses are standard throughout the school board. At least, bare minimum, with linux students could learn something quasi-useful, like creating a web page on a shell, and not in Netscape Composer. At least then they'd learn basic file operation. They can't do that with Windows, because giving them a dos-prompt is dangerous. Ass backwards, indeed.
The last time schools paid this much for an OS here was, I believe, in 1998. That's two years. A ten thousand every two years (estimating both clients and servers are upgraded for a 150 workstation network) on this scale could go employ a unix-clueful technology specialist in schools instead of an NT user.
Schools are going to be using computers now until we stop using communal school systems and begin to tutor students individually or in small groups. We're talking the forseeable future in savings. Schools would not have to buy another OS, ever. This initial migration will save more than it will cost in the long run. Savings which could go to better educating interested and talented students about computer science.
Don't even get me started about graphic design, the focus of more than one course, with the Gimp vs. Adobe Photoshop.... which the school can't afford.... MS Paint it is!
No I shouldn't. I'm 16. The first computer I used was a Ti, not a PC. The only reason I ended up using DOS was because my dad was given a copy of it one time. Had he been given unix, I would have started on that. Bill just made it so average joes could use computers. Whether or not thats a blessing or a curse is debatable amongst the people who knew what computers were before Bill. Most anyone who has had to do customer service will tell you that's a curse. ;-)
I got started on LOGO. Keep them away from basic, though. Perhaps starting them on Lego Mindstorm or would be a good idea. I'm not entirely sure of how that language is arranged, or how hard it would be for a 7 year old to grasp, but with some coaching I think it would be interesting. Just adding that physical aspect to it, to show him that his program is _doing_ something, and not just dancing on the screen would be a great booster. It would give him the chance to be more creative with less skill, I'm sure. How do those things do in the bathtub, anyways? I always did want my cruise boat to do more than just go in circles.
Stop paying for the Windows OS.
I'm in my second year of highschool now.
I've been to two schools because of reorganization.
In both schools I've tried to get some sort of unix education running. Both of the schools were completely Microsoft dependant.
So far, I've found a few challenging obstacles.
The school board doesn't want to train their existing tech teachers or hire new technology teachers to use any sorts of unix. They don't realize, in the long term, training staff to use unix would probably save them more then continuing to buy MS site licenses for each and every school. Really, they just haven't gotten into this whole *nix thing, and I don't see them wanting to. It's more work for them. It's just easier to spend tax dollars than to learn something new.
In my first year, I managed to get one debian box running. sshd, apache, whatnot. This is where I actually got most of my linux clue. Most students weren't all that interested in sshing to a shell to poke around like they could in DOS. Some managed to get their ~/public_html directories running with a little help. The last few classes in my Computer Technology 3200 class I was permitted to hook up a projector and take the students through a quick linux trainer. They learned how to use pico and things. The school board said all along that they didn't "support" linux, and wouldn't give us any help or resources with the project. I came away from that school when it closed fairly satisfied.
This year, my highschool has *no* intention of using any sort of unix. The NT administrator doesn't have the time to learn how to use it and doesn't seem to want to.
They feel a linux box on their network would be a security risk. I'm not sure how they've come to this conclusion. I think they've got their facts backwards. A linbox on their network would only be a problem if a student got root, while on a windows 95 box you're free to do whatever you please.
" Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" anyone?
Also worth pointing out, recently, the school had all the students participate in a chocolate-selling fundraiser to pay for Windows 2000 Advanced Server. M$'s site says it's $3,999 USD for Advanced server with 25 client access Licences. The highschool has over 150 workstations. That there is a _lot_ of money for an operating system. We're not even talking about the client OS. For the amount of money they're going to spend on Windows, I believe they could train staff to use a unix based operating system with KDE, or similar.
It's really sad that citizens don't realize millions of their tax dollars are being wasted on an operating system they could do better without.
I should clairfy. No one owns airwaves like the cable companies own their cables. The way airwaves are handed out could change because of this, because there would be more to hand out. People wouldn't be asking for massive chunks of bandwidth, so the FCC/CRTC/Other Government People might let smaller companies have a little bandwidth for less money than it would currently cost. Also, whoops, the sending part, right. One could send data through another media, if need be. Web use is 99.9999% downloading for Mr. J. Average I-Want-To-Check-CNN.com. Also, I'm not JUST talking about our traditional FM band, Cell phones send data just fine, albeit through costly networks. FM is just a convenient bandwidth-space that we're using now for entertainment, so why not use it for more entertainment? It's going to make everything faster. When this technology becomes available in widespread, just about everyone can make use of it with new hardware. Everyone will take a step up. Cable, dial-up, wireless, DSL, Sattelite users, the whole nine yards. Not just internet, too. It just means more stuff, faster. Goody! (Bets are on TV will still suck, though, even with a few thousand channels.) Patented. Grumble.
I like! Now, how stable can we make an FM signal to a computer? This could damn well be another method of providing high-bandwidth internet access, and a good one at that.
Because No one really "owns" the airwaves, like one does a cable, you could get a lot of competition amongst providers for customers.
I can see the Laptop/Handheld owners screaming now. I have a palm, and the thought of cheap high bandwidth wireless access for it amuses me.