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User: puddles

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  1. Physical computing ... on Ask Slashdot: How Do I Engage 5th-8th Graders In Computing? · · Score: 2

    The approach that I used, and it seemed to have worked out, for 6th grade students was to introduce them to physical computing. You need a microcontroller (Arduino, ARM, etc.) and basic sensors and output devices (LED, motor driver, LEGO interface, etc.) and you write very basic code to make things happen in the real world.

    I find that this approach is more effective than over-promising and under-delivering (e.g, "you'll soon learn to make great arcade games in this class!") because the gap between writing a few lines of codes, and seeing things happen in the real world, is quite small. Kids get that. It's much more immediate and gratifying.

  2. Re:Suddenly Southern California ... on AT Black Knight Transformer Hits the Road and Takes a Hop · · Score: 1

    Well, knowing that it's Southern California narrows it down to a few deserts: Death Valley, Anza Borrego, Mojave or somewhere in the Hungry Valley region. OK, each of those is still pretty huge but you've ruled out other deserts in the US.

    The terrain doesn't look like Death Valley. Advanced Tactics being based in El Segundo ... I bet they just hopped on to the 405 and went south to Anza Borrego.

    That's just a guess :-)

  3. Re:I have an incredibly low UID on Graphene Conducts Electricity Ten Times Better Than Expected · · Score: 1

    Didn't quite sign on early back in the days, but yeah, beta sucks.

  4. My choices are LMMono10 or Monaco on Adobe Releases New Openly Licensed Coding Font · · Score: 1

    I keep going back to LMMono10 or Monaco. My reasons for preferring them over the others are the usual distinction between similar-looking letters like o, O, 0, i and so on. I use Monaco for the terminals because I prefer the slashed zero and the general look of Monaco. I use LMMono10 for gvim because it has distinctive italic version that looks great with syntax highlighting. Check it out!

  5. They each have their respective niche on Adafruit's Open-source Wearable Platform, Flora · · Score: 2

    Saying that there's one solution that's clearly superior to others show a profound lack of understanding. The MSP430 LaunchPad you speak of may cost only $4.30, but there is a price --- very small amount of RAM (512 bytes) for the Valueline.

    While the Android phones are good platform if you need all the fancy hardware and touch screen, they are lousy if you have to deploy more than one or two, price-wise. On the other hand, if you need some of the features that are already available on Android (or, STM32, for example) for much lower price, it would make little sense to add those features (Ethernet or wifi, for example) to Arduino unless you have legitimate reasons.

    It all depends on what your target applications, man.

  6. It really depends on which company you work for .. on Do Companies Punish Workers Who Take Vacations? · · Score: 1

    Ours has 160 hours of vacation time for new hires, up to 240 hours per year after a few years. PTO is separate from vacation time. Sabbatical (twenty business days) every four years. And we're still productive.

  7. Now we're gonna die ... on North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il Dead at 70 · · Score: 1

    The US is going to come and kill our babies too (among other propaganda, no doubt).

  8. Re:Beside PXE and automated backup, on Ask Slashdot: Networked Back-Up/Wipe Process? · · Score: 1

    Yep. I had in my mind that he's doing this as part of a de-inventory process where the machines will then be sent off somewhere for disposal and the backup is just to cover cases where data might be needed later. You're right though that there's no recovery from this process. If he wants to re-use the machine then no, this is not the way to go. (But if he wants to re-use the machine then why bother with wiping the drive several times? It's practically impossible to recover data from, e.g., 'dd /dev/zero' anyway)

  9. Beside PXE and automated backup, on Ask Slashdot: Networked Back-Up/Wipe Process? · · Score: 1

    look into degaussing the hard drives with a dedicated unit. You can buy them anywhere from $2000 and up. They're usually good for hard drives and tapes as well and will erase everything including the factory servo tracks. This works regardless of the condition of the drive (bad controllers, no problem). It's good solution if you want accountability for audits, for example.

  10. They could have gone one step further on Belgian Newspapers Delisted On Google · · Score: 1

    and remove all past references to all editorial staffs working for those newspapers as well. This would actually be in full spirit of compliance with the court order too, as Google could be fined for each reference to articles written and copyrighted by the papers and the staffs working for them.

  11. It took me even longer on Sun Produces First Cycle 24 X-Class Solar Flare · · Score: 1

    since I thought "flare" was another marketing buzzword, used to organize classes of multicore server offerings. "24 cores!" I thought ... it took me until the word "observatory" to realize they're talking about our Sun, not Oracle's.

  12. Re:Progress on 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness · · Score: 1

    Agreed. Black Bear Pass in Telluride will kill you just as easily if you're inexperienced. Paper map or GPS matters not.

  13. Re:Please take responsibility for your life. on 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness · · Score: 1

    If you're a Jeeper, you will :-)

  14. It gets a little more complicated on 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness · · Score: 1

    We usually carry 5 extra gallons of gas when going into Death Valley. In calculating how much gas you need to cover your trip, you also need to factor in the lower tire pressure you're going to be running (if you're going to go over rocky terrains and washboard roads) --- that takes more gas than normal.

  15. GPS is not the problem on 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness · · Score: 1

    I use GPS and paper maps (Delorme) when I go in to Death Valley. GPS is not the problem. Uninformed, inexperienced, and unprepared drivers are the problem. Death Valley is unforgiving if you make too many mistakes.

  16. Could you stop screwing with the font / size ? on Slashdot Launches Re-Design · · Score: 1

    I like the new redesign. I just wish that you would leave my font and size preferences alone. I set my display DPI to get the best looking font shapes for my main task, which is programming. At this DPI (100, by the way), the slashdot physical font size is small and I have to compensate by setting the browser base font size to 16 or bigger. This apparently doesn't work any longer.

  17. Rotate the screen 90 degrees on Why Are We Losing Vertical Pixels? · · Score: 1

    I have two 1680x1050 monitors in portrait mode. Works great. Lets me see long blocks of code nicely.

  18. Re:News for nerds. on How Do You Handle Your Keys? · · Score: 1

    Keep the set of keys next to your front pocket so when they get too jingly you can just swing them into the pocket.

  19. Re:Carabiner. Belt Loop. Several keyrings. on How Do You Handle Your Keys? · · Score: 1

    Same here :-) There should be a poll so we can see how the popular methods compare.

  20. Carabiner with screw gate on How Do You Handle Your Keys? · · Score: 1

    That's the way I keep my keys. Hook to one of the belt loops near the pocket and I can swing the keys into the pocket if they get too jingly.

  21. Move along, nothing to see here on Open Source Is Not a Democracy · · Score: 1

    1. It's a theme. If you don't like it, use a different theme, or edit it to do what you want it to do.

    2. I agree with Shuttleworth. If everybody is allowed input into the process, the result will be like this one,

    "What if a corporation created the STOP sign", linked to at various places, like this one

    http://www.directcreative.com/blog/stop-sign

  22. You make it sound so harsh on Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000 · · Score: 1

    We used to go out to Death Valley regularly. It's not a big deal if you carry enough water and food, and don't take silly risks (or do, if you carry spare parts and tools). My five year old son went out to DV with me when he was nine months old. Camped out in the old Indian summering ground at 9000ft :-)

  23. Re:Uh, but you can't drop off the grid... on Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000 · · Score: 1

    I didn't see where they actually said you can't drop off the grid, but they do ask that you list five activities or so that you would commit to, without spelling out what those activities may be.

    The three things I can't live without? Easy, air, water, food :-)

    I'm with you on the wilderness trek thing.

  24. What's to stop someone from ... on Stay Off the Grid, Win $10,000 · · Score: 1

    disappearing into Death Valley for a month. Good luck finding me :-)

  25. This could well backfire on Danish DRM Breaker Turns Himself In To Test Backup Law · · Score: 1

    He could have made the copies but retained the DRM. Or, he could have made exact DVD copies with the DRM in place. OK, so it's not possible to make exact copies of dual-layered DVD but that's a technological issue, not legal.

    I don't understand how the two laws are contradictory.