"...The heat and power issues may also make it attractive in server environments..."
Not necessarily... perhaps during boot time. These potential savings are reserved for end-users who aren't doing anything data intensive. Last time I checked: database, web, email, and file servers are all data intensive... meaning that the drives will have to be spinning.
Hybrid drives do less in a server environment than a RAM disk. They can help boot faster, which is great for disaster recovery. If heat & power are a huge concern, flash drives, that are here now, solve those problems.
The Zend Framework is only a framework. It's not bad, but it's a tad less comprehensive than Rails. It offers database abstraction, logging, and a gang of other features that don't particularly interest me. It's far from unified and resembles a 3rd party toolkit more than anything else. That said, it's still better than rolling your own solution(s).
Speed wise, Ruby is faster than PHP development (even with the Zend Framework), but only for application types that it excels at. Otherwise, PHP is often faster. It's not so much, what's better or what's not... it's a matter of using the right tool for the job. If you're doing development that Rails is well suited, then the Zend Framework isn't going to get you excited.
Now my music player can crash just like my Windows desktop and PocketPC smart phone... or overheat like my X-Box 360... or falsely accuse me of pirating like WGA has started doing... or help spread virus outbreaks like Internet Explorer... I can't hardly wait. Damn the iPod and it's crazy similar interface.
Considering that your encoder is easier to circumvent than Adobe eBook or DVD encryption, what justifies the obscene subscription price? In light of this news, the cost is absolutely ridiculous. Who cares about obfuscation if the licensing can be cracked so easily?
Dvorak attacks... (fill in the blank here)
on
Dvorak Rants on CSS
·
· Score: 1
Dvorak likes to incite anger, possibly riots, by picking on whatever technically minded people feel passionate about. For years, he's been slamming the Macintosh, and this week he's after web standards. Don't worry open source developers, he'll probably attack you next. Anyone that hasn't been picked on lately is on his radar.
Whenever I read an article by this man, I take it with a grain of salt. I can never be sure if he's being serious or simply antagonistic. Claiming that CSS doesn't work is obviously overstating the issue. His article is as ludicrous as any of his others. CSS, for him, is apparently a chore but that doesn't make it "broken."
I really don't understand why news sites continue to syndicate his overtly biased sensationalism. For over a decade, I've read his trite musings. Not once has he ever given me insight into something profound nor has he made me stop to think. More often than not, I find myself quickly identifying his slant and turning the page. I strongly suggest everyone do the same and stop assuming that he's trying to "inform" anyone about anything.
I bet, teachers and school officials just want student's address books so they can find a wider range of students to date. This isn't about protecting anyone... not like the bathroom cams some public schools (legally) install.
It's not THAT difficult to build an auction site, and if anyone has enough weight to do it successfully, it's Google (not Amazon). Why would they want to even put this thought into their PhD heads?
A strong understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds is fundamental in learning to read, but phonics isn't used continually into adulthood to "sound things out." If kids are still sounding out words by middle-school, then there should be some concern. The "sound," by this time, should be automatic.
A quote from Wikipedia:
"The final attempt to determine what approach made the most sense was undertaken by the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2001), which examined quantitative research studies on phonics (as well as other areas of reading instruction). Their meta-analysis of hundreds of studies confirmed the findings of the National Research Council: phonics is a more effective way to teach children to read than is embedded phonics or no phonics instruction. They found that phonics had particularly strong benefits for students of low socio-economic status."
Researchers have noticed that, initially, kids read much better with whole word reading. That's what created so much excitement. After a few years, the vocabulary of some whole-word readers hits a plateau, while the phonetic reader's vocabulary continues to expand. This isn't universally true as some individuals can succeed with either method.
One of the downsides for whole-word readers are common misspellings for words that they rarely encounter. There was a study, for which I have no reference, that showed whole-word readers had a harder time in technical professions where new vocabularies had to be learned. Specifically, medicine, law, engineering, and I.T. If the words hadn't been encountered frequently, it took much longer to learn the new word. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.
Statistically, 30% (+/- 5%) of whole-word readers have troubles. Some are moved into remedial reading classes, which school districts get additional funding for. These are essentially expanded ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, which did not exist before the "big switch."
As far as the speed reading... you can learn how to speed read with either method. I don't "hear" words either and can read whole sentences. Just as I learned how to multiply 4 x 4 by adding 4, 4 times... I no longer do it this way. Had I learned my multiplication tables without the basic understanding, my math would suffer. I think the same can be said for reading. Phonics isn't so much a method, as it is a foundation.
BTW, I am not employed by hooked on phonics, nor do I use their products. I also strongly believe in reading to your kid.
I don't understand why the world's largest and most successful software company must compete with every seemingly unrelated business.
I wish they'd take some Ritalin (MS is ADHD, obviously) and focus on Vista. I have old apps I've written over the years that still need Windows. I love to hate them, but I honestly would like an upgrade to XP by now, not just service packs.
So what if they sell music online? It's pennies compared to their MS Office and Windows products. Sure, Apple's having great success, but that's only because they lead the market. They can't expect to enter late, take the lead, and profit... can they? Even so, it'll take decades before they see returns on their investment. I hope this fails and drives them to work on their core business... software.
Since schools dumped phonics-based reading in favor of whole-word memorization, it's been harder for kids to spell things. You can't "sound out" words, if you've never learned how... or use the sound of a word to guess at its correct spelling. That's what words are right? Symbols to construct sound.
The English language is already phonetic, but it takes a few years to learn. The problem with our alphabet is the way it's learned, not the complexity. Slaves, who often learned in secret, could spell and read better than kids of today. I think a big reason is that they used effective and simple learning techniques (phonics).
That said, I'd love to get rid of duplicate letters, like "c" & "k". For me, it's all about having less letters on my keyboard.
Have you ever eaten Ritalin? It's speed and it gets you high... especially if you have a low body weight. It's not as strong as Desoxyn, but similar in every conceivable way.
FYI: Aderall *IS* amphetamine (four different salts). Two of the ingredients are amphetamine sulfate and amphetamine aspartate. The other two salts are dextro-amphetamines (similar, but not as strong as methylated amphetamine / crystal meth). Saying that Adderall is different is like claiming that crack cocaine isn't cocaine. The only real difference is the bioavailibility and half-life. The mixture is supposed to be "smoother," but it's amphetamine anyway you look at it.
Ritalin was designed to be a non-addictive amphetamine-like stimulant. No, it's not "speed" in the strictest sense, but "speed" generally refers to a broad class of chemicals that all have the same psychological effect... like paramethoxyamphetamine. Only the most discerning addicts can even tell the difference.
ADD/ADHD has been treated since the 30's with stimulants. First, the famous Benzedrine inhaler, followed by amphetamine, then methamphetamine, and now Ritalin & Adderall. All of these substances have been used on kids. Only the Benzedrine inhaler is no longer prescribed. If you spent a week trying them all out, you'd have a difficult time differentiating them.
Just another excuse to tax something, if you ask me. They might as well increase taxes on batteries, since they can be used to power devices that may or may not be used to infringe on copyrights someday.
Why NOT legalize drugs for children? Many school districts require parents to medicate their kids if labeled "attention deficit disorder." That's compulsory amphetamines for kids mandated by the state. Ritalin & Aderall = amphetamine derivities = speed. I could imagine that some of these little tweakers might want to smoke a joint or two to slow down. It's not like they have any say in the matter... yet it's the "children" that drug laws are supposed to protect.
There aren't a lot of companies producing their own hardware anymore. Long gone are the days of DEC, Sun, HP, SGI, IBM, and others producing their own microprocessors and hardware. With consolodation comes fewer jobs.
I have noticed that many embedded projects I've worked on leverage FPGAs, quite heavily. While companies typically prefer to purchase premade cores, there's still a ton of integration work... memory controllers, DSP functions, and co-processors.
I didn't even consider burning PS3 titles onto standard DVDs... ala' backing up X-Box titles to single-layer discs.
I get what you're saying, however, consider the PSP. That unit was supposed to be solid against hacking attempts. New games require firmware updates and old firmware revisions (supposedly) cannot be restored. It's been hacked for months and doesn't even need a modchip.
Not three months after release, previous firmware revisions could be made to boot anything. There are now apps to install older exploitable firmware revisions, boot loaders (to load any game from any media), and emulators (to trick new titles into thinking that the old firmware is actually new). Sony only needed to make one mistake and they did!
Some engineer thought it would be a good idea to let the PSP play unprotected games off of the memory stick. Once you "fix" your firmware, you can play anything. You can copy your UMD "backup" to a memory stick and never suffer a "loading" screen ever again. Every hardware revision is vulnerable to this "firmware/software" hack.
I don't think a PS3 hack is a question of "if" so much as "when."
This reminds me of the PS1, which used CDROM. At that time, the HP SureStore burner cost me $1,200. Good blank media cost $20 per disc. Add a little bit of soldering, and I never had to pay late fees for my game rentals ever again.
Now, right before the PS3 release, Blu-ray burners are available in the same price range. Even the media is similarly priced. If history repeats itself, which it always does, you should be able "backup" your PS3 games for under $400 in about a year.
Who is this law trying to save? The children? You need a bank account or credit card to gamble online. Last I checked, most teens have neither.
C'mon... of all victimless crimes, does online gambling really need legislation? Tax it like Nevada and be done with it.
I mean... Washington has a state lottery. That means they endorse gambling. It can't be gambling that they hate... I think they hate all gambling where the state isn't the house.
Way to go Microsoft. Even if Vista is the most secure O/S on the planet, with a declaration like that... I can imagine that every security researcher, script kiddie, and hacker alike will want to prove them wrong.
About half of the engineers I've worked with have drug problems. On the up side, almost none drink alcohol. The most popular substances tend to be stimulants... ranging from cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, Ritalin, and Adderal to the more benign caffeine, ginseng, and cigarettes. Yes... these substances are taken during regular working hours to be effective.
The problem is common enough that many of my former managers look the other way if the "problem employee" can produce results. No one likes making waves. The business benefits are also understood. When you code for 36 hours without as much as a bathroom break, it's obvious that your performance has been "enhanced."
When one of my bosses exploded from a combination of coke-rage and no-sleep, the "official" explanation was related to "personality clashes." Even when after the occasional bathroom break, engineers have white powder under their nose... it's P.C. to implicate powdered donuts even if none exist.
This problem is prevalent... if one considers it a problem. Don't coders have the right to hack their own brain chemistry? People wouldn't use stimulants for working unless they actually did their job. Kids love them at school. Adults love them at work. Being that the federal government can forcably drug children in public school... it's only a matter of time before employers are granted the same rights.
If they let kids access the shell and hack away... I fully support the laptop initiative. If the idea is that kids will run board-approved educational software... this is a complete waste of time.
The suppliers of educational material are inept. My kid doesn't want a toy cell phone, he wants to play with a real one. He doesn't want a heavily restricted laptop, he wants a real one... not that Leap educational laptop-shaped abomination.
If these units are regular Linux laptops, a bit light on the hardware specs, you can use them for almost anything... albeit, light processing load. I can't help but suspect that the powers that be will restrict the heck out of these units, all in the name of "saving the children" from **fill in the blank here**.
Kids should be encouraged to code, explore, and exploit these units to their fullest potential... otherwise... these are just expensive books that will display the same mass produced content. The calculator app... awesome. Now kids with laptops don't need to learn how to add or subtract in their head. I'd much rather they let kids use calculators, if they write one themselves. When a kid graduates, he/she'd be able to take the self-made "tools" with them.
But no... these will probably be only slightly more useful than the Apple-II's, Logo, and Oregon Trail in my elementary school's computer lab. I got yelled at whenever I started coding in Basic. I can only hope the same won't happen here... that this seemingly good idea will be executed intelligently... not being restricted to book distribution and "approved" web page browsing.
Well... if the government wants to keep national ID's on every citizen... yet can't protect the identities of their own active military, reserve, veterans, and CIA agents... they better spin this news pretty quickly. do you really blame the holder of the information, rather than the supplier? kind of like blaming a kid for shooting a loaded gun, if you ask me.
Russians don't pay the same price for music as U.S. citizens... given the (pre-war) conversion rate. They can't. What sane individual would pay their month's rent for an N-Sync album? They won't, which is why prices in less able countries are adjusted according to what they'll pay.
The music industry is bothered by international sales. If Russians sold music to each other, then there'd be no problem. The objection to the business model comes when U.S. buyers make overseas purchases for pennies on the dollar. The site allows foreign citizens to overcome their regional price hike. A good example of this is U.K. movies and music... often much more expensive than U.S. versions of the exact same content. This is the only valid reason why DVD movies and video games continue to be region locked.
Keep in mind, this is the same industry that sues old women who've never owned computers for downloading songs over the Internet. They can be wrong, are often wrong, and should be looked upon with the most analytical and skeptical mind. Considering the amount of money involved, they have a vested interest in coming out on top.
Not since the time of GW Basic meets QuickBasic has the language had any real backward compatibility. Syntax and gramattical changes are common in each major version release. It's a relatively safe assumption that your code will be orphaned unless you are prepared to migrate it with each new VB release. The problem with Basic is the complete lack of standards to govern its evolution. As a result, the language has become a repository for every whim Microsoft has ever had.
It's not just Visual Basic that lacks true backward compatibility. Visual C++ will orphan your projects also. In the most recent incarnation, 2005, they don't even offer true C++ generics support (templates). I've worked on porting 1,000's of lines of code between Microsoft compiler revisions. The degree of breakage is unique to MS products.
I never liked how code in Visual Basic disappears behind modules, forms, and buttons. It makes it 10 times worse when you're porting VB 5 to VB 2005.
This reminds me of the awful "Don't copy that floppy" campaign in the 80's. It flopped... big surprise. Video is available for download on archive.org.
You CANNOT make copyright law interesting to kids... not with Captain Copyright, Bill O'Reilly, or even Geraldo Rivera as your mascott. You might as well be trying to teach kids about tax law with Captain Taxes! People should rise up whenever government tries to fill their kids' heads with garbage. They might need that space for things like... math and reading.
Slashdot Mirror
"...The heat and power issues may also make it attractive in server environments..."
Not necessarily... perhaps during boot time. These potential savings are reserved for end-users who aren't doing anything data intensive. Last time I checked: database, web, email, and file servers are all data intensive... meaning that the drives will have to be spinning.
Hybrid drives do less in a server environment than a RAM disk. They can help boot faster, which is great for disaster recovery. If heat & power are a huge concern, flash drives, that are here now, solve those problems.
The Zend Framework is only a framework. It's not bad, but it's a tad less comprehensive than Rails. It offers database abstraction, logging, and a gang of other features that don't particularly interest me. It's far from unified and resembles a 3rd party toolkit more than anything else. That said, it's still better than rolling your own solution(s).
Speed wise, Ruby is faster than PHP development (even with the Zend Framework), but only for application types that it excels at. Otherwise, PHP is often faster. It's not so much, what's better or what's not... it's a matter of using the right tool for the job. If you're doing development that Rails is well suited, then the Zend Framework isn't going to get you excited.
Now my music player can crash just like my Windows desktop and PocketPC smart phone... or overheat like my X-Box 360... or falsely accuse me of pirating like WGA has started doing... or help spread virus outbreaks like Internet Explorer... I can't hardly wait. Damn the iPod and it's crazy similar interface.
Considering that your encoder is easier to circumvent than Adobe eBook or DVD encryption, what justifies the obscene subscription price? In light of this news, the cost is absolutely ridiculous. Who cares about obfuscation if the licensing can be cracked so easily?
Dvorak likes to incite anger, possibly riots, by picking on whatever technically minded people feel passionate about. For years, he's been slamming the Macintosh, and this week he's after web standards. Don't worry open source developers, he'll probably attack you next. Anyone that hasn't been picked on lately is on his radar.
Whenever I read an article by this man, I take it with a grain of salt. I can never be sure if he's being serious or simply antagonistic. Claiming that CSS doesn't work is obviously overstating the issue. His article is as ludicrous as any of his others. CSS, for him, is apparently a chore but that doesn't make it "broken."
I really don't understand why news sites continue to syndicate his overtly biased sensationalism. For over a decade, I've read his trite musings. Not once has he ever given me insight into something profound nor has he made me stop to think. More often than not, I find myself quickly identifying his slant and turning the page. I strongly suggest everyone do the same and stop assuming that he's trying to "inform" anyone about anything.
I bet, teachers and school officials just want student's address books so they can find a wider range of students to date. This isn't about protecting anyone... not like the bathroom cams some public schools (legally) install.
It's not THAT difficult to build an auction site, and if anyone has enough weight to do it successfully, it's Google (not Amazon). Why would they want to even put this thought into their PhD heads?
A strong understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds is fundamental in learning to read, but phonics isn't used continually into adulthood to "sound things out." If kids are still sounding out words by middle-school, then there should be some concern. The "sound," by this time, should be automatic.
A quote from Wikipedia:
"The final attempt to determine what approach made the most sense was undertaken by the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2001), which examined quantitative research studies on phonics (as well as other areas of reading instruction). Their meta-analysis of hundreds of studies confirmed the findings of the National Research Council: phonics is a more effective way to teach children to read than is embedded phonics or no phonics instruction. They found that phonics had particularly strong benefits for students of low socio-economic status."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics
Researchers have noticed that, initially, kids read much better with whole word reading. That's what created so much excitement. After a few years, the vocabulary of some whole-word readers hits a plateau, while the phonetic reader's vocabulary continues to expand. This isn't universally true as some individuals can succeed with either method.
One of the downsides for whole-word readers are common misspellings for words that they rarely encounter. There was a study, for which I have no reference, that showed whole-word readers had a harder time in technical professions where new vocabularies had to be learned. Specifically, medicine, law, engineering, and I.T. If the words hadn't been encountered frequently, it took much longer to learn the new word. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.
Statistically, 30% (+/- 5%) of whole-word readers have troubles. Some are moved into remedial reading classes, which school districts get additional funding for. These are essentially expanded ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, which did not exist before the "big switch."
As far as the speed reading... you can learn how to speed read with either method. I don't "hear" words either and can read whole sentences. Just as I learned how to multiply 4 x 4 by adding 4, 4 times... I no longer do it this way. Had I learned my multiplication tables without the basic understanding, my math would suffer. I think the same can be said for reading. Phonics isn't so much a method, as it is a foundation.
BTW, I am not employed by hooked on phonics, nor do I use their products. I also strongly believe in reading to your kid.
I don't understand why the world's largest and most successful software company must compete with every seemingly unrelated business.
I wish they'd take some Ritalin (MS is ADHD, obviously) and focus on Vista. I have old apps I've written over the years that still need Windows. I love to hate them, but I honestly would like an upgrade to XP by now, not just service packs.
So what if they sell music online? It's pennies compared to their MS Office and Windows products. Sure, Apple's having great success, but that's only because they lead the market. They can't expect to enter late, take the lead, and profit... can they? Even so, it'll take decades before they see returns on their investment. I hope this fails and drives them to work on their core business... software.
Since schools dumped phonics-based reading in favor of whole-word memorization, it's been harder for kids to spell things. You can't "sound out" words, if you've never learned how... or use the sound of a word to guess at its correct spelling. That's what words are right? Symbols to construct sound.
The English language is already phonetic, but it takes a few years to learn. The problem with our alphabet is the way it's learned, not the complexity. Slaves, who often learned in secret, could spell and read better than kids of today. I think a big reason is that they used effective and simple learning techniques (phonics).
That said, I'd love to get rid of duplicate letters, like "c" & "k". For me, it's all about having less letters on my keyboard.
Have you ever eaten Ritalin? It's speed and it gets you high... especially if you have a low body weight. It's not as strong as Desoxyn, but similar in every conceivable way.
FYI: Aderall *IS* amphetamine (four different salts). Two of the ingredients are amphetamine sulfate and amphetamine aspartate. The other two salts are dextro-amphetamines (similar, but not as strong as methylated amphetamine / crystal meth). Saying that Adderall is different is like claiming that crack cocaine isn't cocaine. The only real difference is the bioavailibility and half-life. The mixture is supposed to be "smoother," but it's amphetamine anyway you look at it.
Ritalin was designed to be a non-addictive amphetamine-like stimulant. No, it's not "speed" in the strictest sense, but "speed" generally refers to a broad class of chemicals that all have the same psychological effect... like paramethoxyamphetamine. Only the most discerning addicts can even tell the difference.
ADD/ADHD has been treated since the 30's with stimulants. First, the famous Benzedrine inhaler, followed by amphetamine, then methamphetamine, and now Ritalin & Adderall. All of these substances have been used on kids. Only the Benzedrine inhaler is no longer prescribed. If you spent a week trying them all out, you'd have a difficult time differentiating them.
Just another excuse to tax something, if you ask me. They might as well increase taxes on batteries, since they can be used to power devices that may or may not be used to infringe on copyrights someday.
Just to play devil's advocate,
Why NOT legalize drugs for children? Many school districts require parents to medicate their kids if labeled "attention deficit disorder." That's compulsory amphetamines for kids mandated by the state. Ritalin & Aderall = amphetamine derivities = speed. I could imagine that some of these little tweakers might want to smoke a joint or two to slow down. It's not like they have any say in the matter... yet it's the "children" that drug laws are supposed to protect.
There aren't a lot of companies producing their own hardware anymore. Long gone are the days of DEC, Sun, HP, SGI, IBM, and others producing their own microprocessors and hardware. With consolodation comes fewer jobs.
I have noticed that many embedded projects I've worked on leverage FPGAs, quite heavily. While companies typically prefer to purchase premade cores, there's still a ton of integration work... memory controllers, DSP functions, and co-processors.
I didn't even consider burning PS3 titles onto standard DVDs... ala' backing up X-Box titles to single-layer discs.
I get what you're saying, however, consider the PSP. That unit was supposed to be solid against hacking attempts. New games require firmware updates and old firmware revisions (supposedly) cannot be restored. It's been hacked for months and doesn't even need a modchip.
Not three months after release, previous firmware revisions could be made to boot anything. There are now apps to install older exploitable firmware revisions, boot loaders (to load any game from any media), and emulators (to trick new titles into thinking that the old firmware is actually new). Sony only needed to make one mistake and they did!
Some engineer thought it would be a good idea to let the PSP play unprotected games off of the memory stick. Once you "fix" your firmware, you can play anything. You can copy your UMD "backup" to a memory stick and never suffer a "loading" screen ever again. Every hardware revision is vulnerable to this "firmware/software" hack.
I don't think a PS3 hack is a question of "if" so much as "when."
This reminds me of the PS1, which used CDROM. At that time, the HP SureStore burner cost me $1,200. Good blank media cost $20 per disc. Add a little bit of soldering, and I never had to pay late fees for my game rentals ever again.
Now, right before the PS3 release, Blu-ray burners are available in the same price range. Even the media is similarly priced. If history repeats itself, which it always does, you should be able "backup" your PS3 games for under $400 in about a year.
Who is this law trying to save? The children? You need a bank account or credit card to gamble online. Last I checked, most teens have neither.
C'mon... of all victimless crimes, does online gambling really need legislation? Tax it like Nevada and be done with it.
I mean... Washington has a state lottery. That means they endorse gambling. It can't be gambling that they hate... I think they hate all gambling where the state isn't the house.
Way to go Microsoft. Even if Vista is the most secure O/S on the planet, with a declaration like that... I can imagine that every security researcher, script kiddie, and hacker alike will want to prove them wrong.
This makes me wonder what future civilizations will think about all of these silicon squares (semiconductors) once we're gone. Jewelry?
About half of the engineers I've worked with have drug problems. On the up side, almost none drink alcohol. The most popular substances tend to be stimulants... ranging from cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, Ritalin, and Adderal to the more benign caffeine, ginseng, and cigarettes. Yes... these substances are taken during regular working hours to be effective.
The problem is common enough that many of my former managers look the other way if the "problem employee" can produce results. No one likes making waves. The business benefits are also understood. When you code for 36 hours without as much as a bathroom break, it's obvious that your performance has been "enhanced."
When one of my bosses exploded from a combination of coke-rage and no-sleep, the "official" explanation was related to "personality clashes." Even when after the occasional bathroom break, engineers have white powder under their nose... it's P.C. to implicate powdered donuts even if none exist.
This problem is prevalent... if one considers it a problem. Don't coders have the right to hack their own brain chemistry? People wouldn't use stimulants for working unless they actually did their job. Kids love them at school. Adults love them at work. Being that the federal government can forcably drug children in public school... it's only a matter of time before employers are granted the same rights.
If they let kids access the shell and hack away... I fully support the laptop initiative. If the idea is that kids will run board-approved educational software... this is a complete waste of time.
The suppliers of educational material are inept. My kid doesn't want a toy cell phone, he wants to play with a real one. He doesn't want a heavily restricted laptop, he wants a real one... not that Leap educational laptop-shaped abomination.
If these units are regular Linux laptops, a bit light on the hardware specs, you can use them for almost anything... albeit, light processing load. I can't help but suspect that the powers that be will restrict the heck out of these units, all in the name of "saving the children" from **fill in the blank here**.
Kids should be encouraged to code, explore, and exploit these units to their fullest potential... otherwise... these are just expensive books that will display the same mass produced content. The calculator app... awesome. Now kids with laptops don't need to learn how to add or subtract in their head. I'd much rather they let kids use calculators, if they write one themselves. When a kid graduates, he/she'd be able to take the self-made "tools" with them.
But no... these will probably be only slightly more useful than the Apple-II's, Logo, and Oregon Trail in my elementary school's computer lab. I got yelled at whenever I started coding in Basic. I can only hope the same won't happen here... that this seemingly good idea will be executed intelligently... not being restricted to book distribution and "approved" web page browsing.
Well... if the government wants to keep national ID's on every citizen... yet can't protect the identities of their own active military, reserve, veterans, and CIA agents... they better spin this news pretty quickly. do you really blame the holder of the information, rather than the supplier? kind of like blaming a kid for shooting a loaded gun, if you ask me.
Russians don't pay the same price for music as U.S. citizens... given the (pre-war) conversion rate. They can't. What sane individual would pay their month's rent for an N-Sync album? They won't, which is why prices in less able countries are adjusted according to what they'll pay.
The music industry is bothered by international sales. If Russians sold music to each other, then there'd be no problem. The objection to the business model comes when U.S. buyers make overseas purchases for pennies on the dollar. The site allows foreign citizens to overcome their regional price hike. A good example of this is U.K. movies and music... often much more expensive than U.S. versions of the exact same content. This is the only valid reason why DVD movies and video games continue to be region locked.
Keep in mind, this is the same industry that sues old women who've never owned computers for downloading songs over the Internet. They can be wrong, are often wrong, and should be looked upon with the most analytical and skeptical mind. Considering the amount of money involved, they have a vested interest in coming out on top.
Not since the time of GW Basic meets QuickBasic has the language had any real backward compatibility. Syntax and gramattical changes are common in each major version release. It's a relatively safe assumption that your code will be orphaned unless you are prepared to migrate it with each new VB release. The problem with Basic is the complete lack of standards to govern its evolution. As a result, the language has become a repository for every whim Microsoft has ever had.
It's not just Visual Basic that lacks true backward compatibility. Visual C++ will orphan your projects also. In the most recent incarnation, 2005, they don't even offer true C++ generics support (templates). I've worked on porting 1,000's of lines of code between Microsoft compiler revisions. The degree of breakage is unique to MS products.
I never liked how code in Visual Basic disappears behind modules, forms, and buttons. It makes it 10 times worse when you're porting VB 5 to VB 2005.
This reminds me of the awful "Don't copy that floppy" campaign in the 80's. It flopped... big surprise. Video is available for download on archive.org.
You CANNOT make copyright law interesting to kids... not with Captain Copyright, Bill O'Reilly, or even Geraldo Rivera as your mascott. You might as well be trying to teach kids about tax law with Captain Taxes! People should rise up whenever government tries to fill their kids' heads with garbage. They might need that space for things like... math and reading.