That game looks incredibly entertaining. It is amazing that the side-scrolling games are still thoroughly enjoyed. Nintendo has been a great twist on these games by using nice graphics and throwing in 3D things from to time to. Just when you thought that Super Mario Bros was getting old like the Simpsons, they come out with games like this that redefine everything while still keeping classic aspects of the game alive. The whole reason I bought a Nintendo DS is for the New Super Mario Bros game. I was simply blown away with how entertaining that game was. It starts off nice and easy but gradually gets hard. You can rack up 99 lives quick, and you'll need every one of them when you get to World 8. But the reason I loved that game so much is because it is like they took the first Super Mario Bros for NES, and gave it all the cool functionalities that you got in later versions of Mario. Such as the Butt Slam, the Butt Slide, the ability to pick up shells and throw them, turning in to HUGE Mario and destroying everything in your path, the "double" jump thing (kinda) where you jump and grip on to a wall and boost yourself up even higher, and many other really cool things. I've been very happy with their newer Mario games and this one looks great.
that is awesome that this guy got that modem to work. I find it kind of fascinating too that something as fast as a 300 baud modem was around 40+ years ago. People were using 300 bauds in the early 80's and I'm sure were blown away when 1200, 2400, 4800, and 9600 bauds came out. I'd have to say that my oldest machine is a TRS-80 Model III that I bought at local band-boosters auction. All the participants laughed at it and of course nobody bid on it except me. Cost me only a buck, and it came with all the original documentation including a great book on TRS-BASIC. It plays Asteroids, some old Pinball game, and it still works like a dream.
haha sweet. thanks for the introduction to a WM I haven't tried yet. looks bad ass! additionally, Chrome is definitely a great browser. Now I can use it on my computer that is hooked up to my TV via svideo. The screen only looks well at 640x480 which is crazy I know, but it works great for movies and TV episodes. When I browse the web I always have to use IE because full screening is essential at such a low resolution, but not anymore. but for the love of God hurry up and release the damn Linux version already. I like Firefox and all, but I'd much rather use Chrome. Then release it for NetBSD too plz.
I'm going to say I agree with you. I'm a big OOo supporter and I encourage the use of it in the right environment. But there are so many other software developers out there that depend specifically on MS Office for certain types of integration. In particular Outlook. There are lots of service ticket oriented programs that require Exchange Servers and Outlook. Sharepoint also is widely used on the enterprise level. If anything OOo needs to collaborate more with *nix developers to make a new small/medium business solution. Something that can make using LDAP, Samba, Linux Terminal Services, an Exchange alternative (looks @ Google) and a form of sharepoint for document management and internal company collaboration. Yes I know there are individual solutions for all this stuff but standardization and ease of use is the key. It doesn't have to be easy enough for a retard to do it, but it needs to be easy enough for people to become certified professionals with a specific standard so that if your I.T. guy dies, you can find someone else. These solutions need to get to the point where companies don't have to hire a full-time Unix/Linux I.T. guy, but they need to start focusing more on small I.T. firms so that they can implement something quick and manage it easily.
the problem with television is cable. not the other way around. I remember growing up as a kid and always having cable television. flipping through tons of channels and only watching a few of them. even after living on my own for a while, moving in to new places and such, getting the cable setup was always at the top of my priorities as far as my utilities are concerned. then one day I said fuck it. I get off work at 5pm, drive 30 minutes back home, and I have a lot of shit to take care of when I get home. clean up a bit, take care of my plants, fish, cats, make dinner for my wife and I, then finally get some time to relax. after taking care of the things that need to be attended to, I can't justify spending $30, $40, $50+ on cable television. DTV has probably been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don't watch TV enough to need cable, but the television I do watch is perfectly fine and entertaining. in particular, PBS broadcasting is something I think everyone should indulge into a little bit more. yes I thought it was boring and there were too many telethons at first, but then I realized that their primetime television is of very high quality, educational, and is enjoying to watch. it is just my opinion of course, and I'd never take away people's Family Guy, Lost, Prison Break, CSI, and all the other mindless television shows, but I figure if you're going to watch TV, you might as well learn something from it and it might as well be free.
I know a lot of people have been criticizing IRC as means of getting the help you need in regards to a lot of BOFH's and just random jerks, but ever since I joined freenode I've found that there's a good portion of people very willing to help regardless of your skill level. it only starts to tick off the ops and regulars when someone has a hard time forming their question.. I've got a lot of patience with newbies, but sometimes it just gets out of hand.. if you read the manual, readme's, help documentation, and google'd your problem and still have issues, then you should easily be able to form a proper question that most anybody would be willing to lend a hand with..
regardless of all the OS/Browser partisanship out there, if you are an IE7 user, it would be wise to switch to IE8 due to known security holes in IE7, major javascript issues, plus IE8 is a lot more compliant with web standards.. if you're a Firefox user, then you really have no business on this article since you've probably been using FF since IE7 came out anyway..
ugh. i bought Slackware at a computer show for about $20 or so. installed it on a 486 with a Pentium Overdrive chip clocked at 83mhz. The first thing I did wass read howtos on how to use minicom to dialup to the internet, then use a ppp script to authenticate and negotiate. after getting the machine online, the first thing to do was to install IrcII heh. of course after an hour or so of compiling I was finally able to chat with my buddies. back then the kernel was 2.0.36 and my friends were able to teach me to use ipfwadm. at the same computer show I purchased Linux, I also purchased my first 10baseT networking hub, some network cards, and some cat5 cables. I was sharing my dialup connection with the other Windows computers in my house using Linux as the router. I remember hating XFree86 because I thought fvwm95 was my only choice. being introduced to wmaker made me very happy after that. essentially Linux was my guide to general networking and I'm very thankful for it. even though slackware sucks. that little bit of knowledge with networking helped me to get employed at a local ISP who ran Linux on some amazing Alpha 533's running 64bit Redhat.. I learned a lot about radius, authd, DNS, HTTPD, and much more.. I'd be pretty screwed today if it wasn't for slackware:-)
I couldnt agree with you more.. I've done some work for hotels in my area that used to run some really old applications up until about a year ago.. There are still records of information that needs to be accessed on that old system from time to time being that they had to start off fresh with their newer more modern booking software.. thanks to virtualization, they can access their old info with ease since their entire database and their program can literally fit on a CD and booted up using VMware Player.. I think for this particular purpose, I would almost considering getting newer more up-to-date software that can give you and your customers more.. even though the DOS stuff works, the data is what is most important.. it seems that the larger the database gets on those old systems, the more chance they have of becoming corrupt.. preserve it while you still can, keep it around for your records, and considering a full upgrade of both software and hardware with a good backup solution..
I tell ya, I came across Nexuiz a few months back by browsing through the ol' Synaptic package manager. Gave it a shot, and I was pretty impressed. I like OpenArena as well, but it crashes X sometimes for me. however, it is still incredibly tough to beat the best game on the planet, with the best graphics and runs on any system. . 0verkill....
is it just me or is anyone else getting tired of people saying that linux isn't ready for the desktop because their windows applications won't run , or that X or Y network protocol doesn't communicate well with Windows active directory and file and print sharing? I'm personally sick of people looking for a way they can emulate their Windows network and environment in Linux. It is kind of sickening how much time is devoted just so we can hack Windows crap to work in Linux.
Yes it is neat that it works, but we should be focusing on innovating Linux like we did with the whole idea of package management, insane desktop effects, the ability to run hundreds of different WMs, and of course the people who make alternative native software suites like openoffice.org, the gimp, Ardour, etc.. etc.. Of course these alternatives need some work, but we won't get anywhere if we keep trying to hack Linux so it can be more like Windows.. that is not the point of this operating system.. We shouldn't be trying to make comparisons with Windows and Linux as if they apples vs apples. Becuase Linux is a totally different fruit that should be used for totally different purposes in its own manner.
please. for the love of God. why would you want Linux to do something that Microsoft does? If you're looking for a Microsoft "alternative" simply don't use Linux. I don't understand why anybody would even bother trying to switch hundreds of computers on a network from Windows to Linux in addition to their entire domain controller??? WTF ARE YOU THINKING??? Do you WANT your company to hate you forever? This article seems to be written by someone who simply wants to point out the things a Windows AD can do that Linux can't.. We're not comparing apples to apples here.. These are two totally different operating systems that serve two totally different purposes.. If I want a Linux network then I'm going to sit down and make custom scripts, cronjobs, NFS, LDAP, maybe even LTSP or NX. If I wanted point and click pussy whipped corporate policies with pretty audit graphs to show employee efficiency then I'd use Windows. So if you're an employer is who incredibly paranoid about every minute of their employee's work day to be billable time, then use Windows. If you want to be happy at work and you boss isn't a dick, then use Linux.
Besides the point that Google is simply good at their job which is why everyone uses them since Yahoo looks like some fucking Fisher Price search engine, caring about this type of a monopoly is incredibly hypocritical. A monopoly in my eyes seems to stem down further to the local towns. For example in my area there's only ONE cable company to chose from. And you have absolutely NO CHOICE to go with another cable provider. That is the point, when you have no choice but to deal with some particular company, then it is a monopoly. Google isn't a monopoly because people have the freedom to choose whoever they hell they want to search with and to advertise with. they're just better at their job than everyone else.
It might help avoid certain exploits that penetrate holes in IE, but working in an environment where I see 30+ computers in the repair shop every week, Firefox or IE, the computers still get viruses. It bugs me a little when I hear customers say, "Well a friend of mine told me to use Firefox because it is more secure" when their computers are still heavily infected with malware. You can still easily get infected. It's not the browser's fault, it's the OS's fault..
many good times back in those days.. there was a serious feeling of accomplishment any time you successfully compiled a program even.. After looking through some of those screenshots, I shuddered when I saw the old GNOME foot menu.. so happy the decided to go with a new look.. I was definitely a wmaker and eventually an enlightenment fan back then.. going back a couple more years, 1998 in particular, it's hard to think that Slackware was actually a DECENT distro back then! nice article..
I'm a proud NetBSD user for sure. I still use 3.1 on an old HP Omnibook 800ct. It works wonders on that Pentium 133 with 16mb of RAM. Boots in about 30 seconds or so, and WiFi works too. Not only is a great learning tool for aspiring people wanting to learn a good Unix, but it has a lot of good factors that experienced users look for in a good OS. Pretty decent driver support, a super small and quick installation, powerful security, a great list of binary packages, a large/usr/pkgsrc similar to/usr/ports, not to mention an excellent community of developers that are always willing to help a brotha out. Thanks to the dudes on Freenode and the NetBSD mailing lists for all their help. I'm looking forward to this release.
I agree and disagree on a couple of things. Thinclients are very cost effective and with the proper deployment of a terminal server, AD, and a firewall, you can easily restrict access to certain applications and websites. but I agree that good computers for graphic design and Linux boxes for programming is a must.
IMO it makes sense to use a terminal services environment. Whether it be MS based (damn licensing) or a solution like the NX Server for Linux (damn licensing). In conjunction with an AD of some sort whether it MS or Linux. Of course allow some type of external access so the kids can login to their accounts from home and they don't need fancy computers to be able to access their data. Hire a good admin or IT firm that knows their AD policies and security. buy a bunch of thin clients or use old computers. One good server could easily host 20-30 clients. Be sure the server has redundant everything and you use a backup company or some type of offsite solution and you should be fine.. at the end of it, I'd expect to pay anywhere from $20k-$50k depending on what equipment and software you buy.
I would imagine the production has stopped because there's hardly any player pianos out there. man they are cool though. a buddy of mine has boxes and boxes full of thousands of rolls if there's ever anybody out here looking to purchase large lots;-D it's always a little sad when an old media dies out.. I'm surprised vinyl records have lasted this long as well.. it seems a ton of artists out there still get their music printed on vinyl for the novelty purpose.. rolls are hard to make last because of how easy paper can rip after 50+ years of sitting in an old box.. but damn if they don't sound and look super awesome.. I didn't know QRS was even still making rolls until I heard they're stopping!! well, here's to knew digital player pianos ran off MIDI and other digital data scores..
Me and my friends run a little IT firm where we also do residential repair. We just so happen to be conveniently located directly in front of a retirement community. Each elderly person learns differently.. I have some older customers that are computer whizzes, and some that call us up for a service call just because half of a window is off the screen and they have no idea how to drag it back.. setting up their desktop to make it easy for them is definitely a big step, but more importantly is how you train them.. judge what type of person they are and how quick they can learn.. focus on their strengths.. then you can determine how they should be taught.. the elderly tend to like slow, clear and friendly talkers that make the technology sound exciting.. the purpose of teaching them isn't to force technology on them, it's more-so just getting them to actually enjoy using the computer..
Slashdot Mirror
That game looks incredibly entertaining. It is amazing that the side-scrolling games are still thoroughly enjoyed. Nintendo has been a great twist on these games by using nice graphics and throwing in 3D things from to time to. Just when you thought that Super Mario Bros was getting old like the Simpsons, they come out with games like this that redefine everything while still keeping classic aspects of the game alive. The whole reason I bought a Nintendo DS is for the New Super Mario Bros game. I was simply blown away with how entertaining that game was. It starts off nice and easy but gradually gets hard. You can rack up 99 lives quick, and you'll need every one of them when you get to World 8. But the reason I loved that game so much is because it is like they took the first Super Mario Bros for NES, and gave it all the cool functionalities that you got in later versions of Mario. Such as the Butt Slam, the Butt Slide, the ability to pick up shells and throw them, turning in to HUGE Mario and destroying everything in your path, the "double" jump thing (kinda) where you jump and grip on to a wall and boost yourself up even higher, and many other really cool things. I've been very happy with their newer Mario games and this one looks great.
that is awesome that this guy got that modem to work. I find it kind of fascinating too that something as fast as a 300 baud modem was around 40+ years ago. People were using 300 bauds in the early 80's and I'm sure were blown away when 1200, 2400, 4800, and 9600 bauds came out. I'd have to say that my oldest machine is a TRS-80 Model III that I bought at local band-boosters auction. All the participants laughed at it and of course nobody bid on it except me. Cost me only a buck, and it came with all the original documentation including a great book on TRS-BASIC. It plays Asteroids, some old Pinball game, and it still works like a dream.
they hacked the gibson...
haha sweet. thanks for the introduction to a WM I haven't tried yet. looks bad ass! additionally, Chrome is definitely a great browser. Now I can use it on my computer that is hooked up to my TV via svideo. The screen only looks well at 640x480 which is crazy I know, but it works great for movies and TV episodes. When I browse the web I always have to use IE because full screening is essential at such a low resolution, but not anymore. but for the love of God hurry up and release the damn Linux version already. I like Firefox and all, but I'd much rather use Chrome. Then release it for NetBSD too plz.
I'm going to say I agree with you. I'm a big OOo supporter and I encourage the use of it in the right environment. But there are so many other software developers out there that depend specifically on MS Office for certain types of integration. In particular Outlook. There are lots of service ticket oriented programs that require Exchange Servers and Outlook. Sharepoint also is widely used on the enterprise level. If anything OOo needs to collaborate more with *nix developers to make a new small/medium business solution. Something that can make using LDAP, Samba, Linux Terminal Services, an Exchange alternative (looks @ Google) and a form of sharepoint for document management and internal company collaboration. Yes I know there are individual solutions for all this stuff but standardization and ease of use is the key. It doesn't have to be easy enough for a retard to do it, but it needs to be easy enough for people to become certified professionals with a specific standard so that if your I.T. guy dies, you can find someone else. These solutions need to get to the point where companies don't have to hire a full-time Unix/Linux I.T. guy, but they need to start focusing more on small I.T. firms so that they can implement something quick and manage it easily.
the problem with television is cable. not the other way around. I remember growing up as a kid and always having cable television. flipping through tons of channels and only watching a few of them. even after living on my own for a while, moving in to new places and such, getting the cable setup was always at the top of my priorities as far as my utilities are concerned. then one day I said fuck it. I get off work at 5pm, drive 30 minutes back home, and I have a lot of shit to take care of when I get home. clean up a bit, take care of my plants, fish, cats, make dinner for my wife and I, then finally get some time to relax. after taking care of the things that need to be attended to, I can't justify spending $30, $40, $50+ on cable television. DTV has probably been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don't watch TV enough to need cable, but the television I do watch is perfectly fine and entertaining. in particular, PBS broadcasting is something I think everyone should indulge into a little bit more. yes I thought it was boring and there were too many telethons at first, but then I realized that their primetime television is of very high quality, educational, and is enjoying to watch. it is just my opinion of course, and I'd never take away people's Family Guy, Lost, Prison Break, CSI, and all the other mindless television shows, but I figure if you're going to watch TV, you might as well learn something from it and it might as well be free.
I know a lot of people have been criticizing IRC as means of getting the help you need in regards to a lot of BOFH's and just random jerks, but ever since I joined freenode I've found that there's a good portion of people very willing to help regardless of your skill level. it only starts to tick off the ops and regulars when someone has a hard time forming their question.. I've got a lot of patience with newbies, but sometimes it just gets out of hand.. if you read the manual, readme's, help documentation, and google'd your problem and still have issues, then you should easily be able to form a proper question that most anybody would be willing to lend a hand with..
regardless of all the OS/Browser partisanship out there, if you are an IE7 user, it would be wise to switch to IE8 due to known security holes in IE7, major javascript issues, plus IE8 is a lot more compliant with web standards.. if you're a Firefox user, then you really have no business on this article since you've probably been using FF since IE7 came out anyway..
ugh. i bought Slackware at a computer show for about $20 or so. installed it on a 486 with a Pentium Overdrive chip clocked at 83mhz. The first thing I did wass read howtos on how to use minicom to dialup to the internet, then use a ppp script to authenticate and negotiate. after getting the machine online, the first thing to do was to install IrcII heh. of course after an hour or so of compiling I was finally able to chat with my buddies. back then the kernel was 2.0.36 and my friends were able to teach me to use ipfwadm. at the same computer show I purchased Linux, I also purchased my first 10baseT networking hub, some network cards, and some cat5 cables. I was sharing my dialup connection with the other Windows computers in my house using Linux as the router. I remember hating XFree86 because I thought fvwm95 was my only choice. being introduced to wmaker made me very happy after that. essentially Linux was my guide to general networking and I'm very thankful for it. even though slackware sucks. that little bit of knowledge with networking helped me to get employed at a local ISP who ran Linux on some amazing Alpha 533's running 64bit Redhat.. I learned a lot about radius, authd, DNS, HTTPD, and much more.. I'd be pretty screwed today if it wasn't for slackware :-)
I couldnt agree with you more.. I've done some work for hotels in my area that used to run some really old applications up until about a year ago.. There are still records of information that needs to be accessed on that old system from time to time being that they had to start off fresh with their newer more modern booking software.. thanks to virtualization, they can access their old info with ease since their entire database and their program can literally fit on a CD and booted up using VMware Player.. I think for this particular purpose, I would almost considering getting newer more up-to-date software that can give you and your customers more.. even though the DOS stuff works, the data is what is most important.. it seems that the larger the database gets on those old systems, the more chance they have of becoming corrupt.. preserve it while you still can, keep it around for your records, and considering a full upgrade of both software and hardware with a good backup solution..
I tell ya, I came across Nexuiz a few months back by browsing through the ol' Synaptic package manager. Gave it a shot, and I was pretty impressed. I like OpenArena as well, but it crashes X sometimes for me. however, it is still incredibly tough to beat the best game on the planet, with the best graphics and runs on any system. . 0verkill....
Yes it is neat that it works, but we should be focusing on innovating Linux like we did with the whole idea of package management, insane desktop effects, the ability to run hundreds of different WMs, and of course the people who make alternative native software suites like openoffice.org, the gimp, Ardour, etc.. etc.. Of course these alternatives need some work, but we won't get anywhere if we keep trying to hack Linux so it can be more like Windows.. that is not the point of this operating system.. We shouldn't be trying to make comparisons with Windows and Linux as if they apples vs apples. Becuase Linux is a totally different fruit that should be used for totally different purposes in its own manner.
please. for the love of God. why would you want Linux to do something that Microsoft does? If you're looking for a Microsoft "alternative" simply don't use Linux. I don't understand why anybody would even bother trying to switch hundreds of computers on a network from Windows to Linux in addition to their entire domain controller??? WTF ARE YOU THINKING??? Do you WANT your company to hate you forever? This article seems to be written by someone who simply wants to point out the things a Windows AD can do that Linux can't.. We're not comparing apples to apples here.. These are two totally different operating systems that serve two totally different purposes.. If I want a Linux network then I'm going to sit down and make custom scripts, cronjobs, NFS, LDAP, maybe even LTSP or NX. If I wanted point and click pussy whipped corporate policies with pretty audit graphs to show employee efficiency then I'd use Windows. So if you're an employer is who incredibly paranoid about every minute of their employee's work day to be billable time, then use Windows. If you want to be happy at work and you boss isn't a dick, then use Linux.
ever more the reason to use a PC for gaming instead.
Besides the point that Google is simply good at their job which is why everyone uses them since Yahoo looks like some fucking Fisher Price search engine, caring about this type of a monopoly is incredibly hypocritical. A monopoly in my eyes seems to stem down further to the local towns. For example in my area there's only ONE cable company to chose from. And you have absolutely NO CHOICE to go with another cable provider. That is the point, when you have no choice but to deal with some particular company, then it is a monopoly. Google isn't a monopoly because people have the freedom to choose whoever they hell they want to search with and to advertise with. they're just better at their job than everyone else.
It might help avoid certain exploits that penetrate holes in IE, but working in an environment where I see 30+ computers in the repair shop every week, Firefox or IE, the computers still get viruses. It bugs me a little when I hear customers say, "Well a friend of mine told me to use Firefox because it is more secure" when their computers are still heavily infected with malware. You can still easily get infected. It's not the browser's fault, it's the OS's fault..
many good times back in those days.. there was a serious feeling of accomplishment any time you successfully compiled a program even.. After looking through some of those screenshots, I shuddered when I saw the old GNOME foot menu.. so happy the decided to go with a new look.. I was definitely a wmaker and eventually an enlightenment fan back then.. going back a couple more years, 1998 in particular, it's hard to think that Slackware was actually a DECENT distro back then! nice article..
takes one to know one I guess. If we all had lives, would we even be spending time on Slashdot in the first place?
I'm a proud NetBSD user for sure. I still use 3.1 on an old HP Omnibook 800ct. It works wonders on that Pentium 133 with 16mb of RAM. Boots in about 30 seconds or so, and WiFi works too. Not only is a great learning tool for aspiring people wanting to learn a good Unix, but it has a lot of good factors that experienced users look for in a good OS. Pretty decent driver support, a super small and quick installation, powerful security, a great list of binary packages, a large /usr/pkgsrc similar to /usr/ports, not to mention an excellent community of developers that are always willing to help a brotha out. Thanks to the dudes on Freenode and the NetBSD mailing lists for all their help. I'm looking forward to this release.
I agree and disagree on a couple of things. Thinclients are very cost effective and with the proper deployment of a terminal server, AD, and a firewall, you can easily restrict access to certain applications and websites. but I agree that good computers for graphic design and Linux boxes for programming is a must.
IMO it makes sense to use a terminal services environment. Whether it be MS based (damn licensing) or a solution like the NX Server for Linux (damn licensing). In conjunction with an AD of some sort whether it MS or Linux. Of course allow some type of external access so the kids can login to their accounts from home and they don't need fancy computers to be able to access their data. Hire a good admin or IT firm that knows their AD policies and security. buy a bunch of thin clients or use old computers. One good server could easily host 20-30 clients. Be sure the server has redundant everything and you use a backup company or some type of offsite solution and you should be fine.. at the end of it, I'd expect to pay anywhere from $20k-$50k depending on what equipment and software you buy.
I would imagine the production has stopped because there's hardly any player pianos out there. man they are cool though. a buddy of mine has boxes and boxes full of thousands of rolls if there's ever anybody out here looking to purchase large lots ;-D it's always a little sad when an old media dies out.. I'm surprised vinyl records have lasted this long as well.. it seems a ton of artists out there still get their music printed on vinyl for the novelty purpose.. rolls are hard to make last because of how easy paper can rip after 50+ years of sitting in an old box.. but damn if they don't sound and look super awesome.. I didn't know QRS was even still making rolls until I heard they're stopping!! well, here's to knew digital player pianos ran off MIDI and other digital data scores..
I hear there's some internet out in Californy.
and OS X is doing what BSD has done since 1977..
Me and my friends run a little IT firm where we also do residential repair. We just so happen to be conveniently located directly in front of a retirement community. Each elderly person learns differently.. I have some older customers that are computer whizzes, and some that call us up for a service call just because half of a window is off the screen and they have no idea how to drag it back.. setting up their desktop to make it easy for them is definitely a big step, but more importantly is how you train them.. judge what type of person they are and how quick they can learn.. focus on their strengths.. then you can determine how they should be taught.. the elderly tend to like slow, clear and friendly talkers that make the technology sound exciting.. the purpose of teaching them isn't to force technology on them, it's more-so just getting them to actually enjoy using the computer..