Or you can convert an existing pair of gloves into touchscreen-capable gloves by using a needle a little bit of conductive thread:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-A-Glove-Work-With-A-Touch-Screen/

I hate to point you elsewhere rather than provide an answer, but the GeekHack forum is a very rich source of information and reviews from people who know what to look for in a keyboard (or any input device), and they've probably reviewed every keyboard out there (and modified them). I don't use ergonomic keyboards, but I am very adamant about mechanical-switch keyboards that have just the right amount of tension and tactile/audible response.

Check out the forum here:
http://geekhack.org/forumdisplay.php?f=31

There are also some interesting vertical keyboards like the SafeType and the Kinesis Freestyle Ascent, but they're kinda expensive and might take a bit of relearning.
Here's a survey of ergonomic keyboards: http://nsx.underbase.org/db/kbd/keyboard-survey.htm

Personally I use a DSI ASK-6600 and a Scorpius M10, and I like them both very much. The DSI keys need a bit more force to push, and it has the large "Enter" key I like from old Keytronix keyboards (as opposed to a large Backspace key and a repositioned backslash character, like the Scorpius and Model M have).

These two keyboards probably don't appeal to you because they're not curved/natural keyboards. I avoid wrist problems while using a regular (straight) keyboard because I have a custom typing style, wherein my wrists are not angled when they rest on my "home row" (e.g. index fingers rest on V and N instead of F and J). This limits my upper bound of typing a bit (under 100wpm), but fast continuous typing will only get you so far in programming and sysadmin work, whereas wrists that don't hurt are quite nice... I also remap my CapsLock key to be another Ctrl, for easy one-handed reach to Ctrl+F1-F5/etc.

While you're at it -- upgrade your mouse too! I found all my wrist problems went away when I moved to a Logitech Cordless Trackman (wish it was corded, but whatever). This has a finger-operated trackball and a thumb-operated left-click, which I find MUCH more accurate and comfortable than a thumb-operated trackball (e.g. most trackball mice on the market now). Trackball mice are usually considered to be more accurate than regular mice anyways. One of the big benefits here is the fact that your wrist isn't as twisted as with a regular mouse... if that's your main goal, there are also some expensive ergonomic vertical mice that might be comfortable.

First off -- I applaud your use of open-note exams. That is the ONLY real-world way to learn and demonstrate knowledge. There is almost never a situation in the professional world where one must solve a problem with absolutely no references (and it would be stupid to do so on a production system -- when solving a critical problem, why risk everything based on what you *think* is right, when you can verify against documentation; at least if something breaks, you can point to the incorrect docs...)

Some people can simply memorize anything they look at, while others struggle at this. A proper exam should be designed to test one's ability to demonstrate processes: exams should give you all the information you need, but the questions should be designed such that only someone who has invested prior effort in practice and learning will be able to solve the questions in the allotted time.

For less-concrete subjects such as the arts, I'm not so sure how this can be accomplished. However this is a trivial design decision for exams in maths, sciences, programming, and engineering.

Furthermore, I think any physics or math exam that requires a complex calculator really has a wrong approach. Assuming everyone at this level has already demonstrated their ability to perform arithmetic several times over, the calculator should only be there to free them from making mistakes on the menial number crunching (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, squareroots, proper value of e,Pi, etc...). The exam should test for core concepts: ideas where you simply must understand the knowledge through prior practice and learning.

Sadly, I think many professors fall back on rote-memorization exams just because they can't be bothered to design proper exams each semester. These types often teach straight from the textbook-provided lesson plans, and then wonder why students cheat...

But honestly -- an exam is but one facet of demonstrating proficiency in a subject. Personally, I think projects & labs the best way: sure one can cheat, but it's easy to determine who has spent time polishing a proper unique lab report. In this respect, open-ended projects are the best, as the room for creativity limits the possibility for undetectable cheating, and lets the students show their enthusiasm for the subject. If you're really worried about cheating, a lab-practical may even be a legitimate tool: it's pretty damn hard to make stuff up as you go while you've got a one-person audience of the professor.

Short answer: let them use basic scientific calculators, the textbook, their notes, and a dictionary; design your tests so that students have all the resources they need, but don't have enough time to learn-as-they-go during the exam.

"Never memorize something that you can look up." --Albert Einstein

Hey, welcome to college! Going to an online school might have lowered the standards a bit, but it's all part of the same experience.

The truth is that academically most of college in just highschool part 2. For anyone who is getting a degree in a field that is already their passion & hobby (e.g. someone who has invested 10000+ hours of personal time into programming and then goes for a computer science degree), it's only in the final 1 or 2 years that the coursework is even worthwhile. The rest of the time is spent underachieving because the content is so rudimentary that you can't even stay focused. You think the colleges want you to just buy the quality courses at the end? Hell no, they want you for 2-4 years of tuition!... errr I mean "broadening experience!"

Furthermore there are always a few assholes in the class who think they know more than the professor, and take every opportunity to bicker with them about each point. You may know a lot about the current subject, but most of the professors are teaching way below their knowledge level anyways... So that's a check on "incompetent classmates" too (not even mentioning the ridiculous amounts of cheating that goes on to pass tests that have no practical value except testing your ability to remember things)

So yeah... welcome to college. If you want a real higher-learning environment, go for a masters and then a Ph.D with a quality advisor. First though, you need to get to that point... and a lot of us call it quits after a bachelors anyways ("it's good enough, and I can't bear another semester")

Academically and averaged out over the entire experience, college (bachelors level) is a waste of time. A lot of people don't even work in the field they got their degree in -- I learned hardly any practical knowledge in college courses that relates to my current job... Of course, it's not all bad -- you do learn how to learn (supposedly), and you learn rigor (lab reports, etc), and you do get a bit of exposure to other interesting fields. Furthermore, if you're not an hermit, you can have a great time with social life. Well maybe that last bit isn't quite applicable to you.

Summary: tough it out and get a degree, then forget the experience and get a well-paying job. You can be bitter all you want afterwards, but at least you'll have a good salary :) OR conversely, tough it out and do well, then get into a decent master program, and use your performance there to get into a top-quality Ph.D program

I keep firefox sessions open for months at a time, with 150+ tabs.

I use 64-bit firefox v3.5.9 on Debian linux, with 19 extensions, java disabled, and flash isolated using 32-bit flash + nspluginwrapper (meaning that flash runs in a separate process for compatibility, and the huge extra benefit is that flash crashing can't take down the browser).

Javascript is fully enabled, though I do have AdBlock to remove annoying ads.

I have no problems: firefox runs very fast (pages render very quickly) and it doesn't leak memory (though 150+ tabs DOES use 1GB+ memory, but I have 4GB total and lots of swap)

In short: Firefox performs remarkably well under extreme circumstances. I doubt Chrome or Safari could deal with these cases, and even if they could, they don't have the extensions that make them usable with so many tabs (mainly Tree Style Tabs -- best extension ever!).

I just watched a very good and quite relevant TED talk by Lawrence Lessig, about fair use and the freedoms that are being eroded by excessive copyright legislation

I encourage you to watch it too, even though it's a bit long (20min).

Re-examining the remix
http://www.ted.com/talks/lessig_nyed.html

It's great that schools are doing this, but I think parents are the biggest factor. Parents have a strong influence on the toys kids get at an early age, and at that early age children can show an interest in almost anything.

Want your kids to grow up with a healthy respect for / interest in engineering? Buy them Lego, Meccano (aka Erector Sets), K'Nex, etc... any toy that lets them play in a sandbox with minimal limitations, and particularly any toy that allows the creation of functioning mechanisms

Supplement this with some old hardware that they can take apart with only a screwdriver (and do it with them if they're too young to do it safely).

Computers and programming languages are also a great place to start, especially since the sandbox they provide allows easy experimentation (if you made an error, things don't blow up -- you can always reset and try again). However programming is arguably something that's best for slightly older children, whereas taking apart old mechanical/electrical hardware can be enjoyed by many children even as early as age 5 or before.

Of course this won't necessarily result in an engineer -- after all a child's interests can be largely determined by their personality, their school, and their social environment. However, by setting the foundations with these types of toys, your kid will at least have an understanding of engineering, which can only be beneficial. The fundamental point, I think, is that you can't just rely on schools -- as a parent you have to lay the foundations for learning (of any field or subject) at home, by spending time with your child and guiding them towards productive fun activities (and no, using the TV as a babysitter all the time will not accomplish this goal).

I'm not a parent yet, so I guess I'll see how well I do in this area when the time comes... However I do know what my parents did, and I think it worked pretty well

Generating SQL statements in a script is fine...

Here's a more accurate version: Anyone writing code that doesn't validate input needs to find a new line of work.

I largely agree with your post, except one little thing:

Actually you CAN get bandwidth that cheap in the datacenter, granted that all the infrastructure is easier to implement than running last-mile lines...

Here are some convenient wholesale numbers from a couple years ago:
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/07/wholesale-internet-bandwidth-prices-keep-falling/

And I personally buy bandwidth for even cheaper, though not as much of it... I buy for roughly $5.50 per Mbps (up to 10Mbps), and though the SLA is not as strong as if I purchased a wholesale connection like an ISP would, it is *effectively* 99.999% reliable and I effectively DO get all the bandwidth I pay for (e.g. if it's oversold, then someone else is subsidizing my bandwidth, because it doesn't seem oversold to me). Not to mention the fact that my cost covers maintenance of the datacenter (power, cooling, security, employees, etc) and their peering...

But.. then google would know that you're googling for a non-google google! *head explodes*

How would an experiment like this be interpreted using the consistent histories theory?

For a classic entanglement "teleportation" scenario where a measurement on one particle could cause information to be "teleported" to the state of the other particle, I think the consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics says that the second particle was always in the same state until it was measured, and that no information was exchanged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistent_histories

On another note, is there a way to test if this is correct?
Are there direct practical applications for this, if it is correct?

What people will start doing is paying for two ISPs: one locally for raw data access, and one remotely as an unfiltered endpoint onto the internet.

If Comcast really wants, all they will see from customers is one encrypted, very high throughput connection

They can't exactly block VPN connections like this, as business users are required to use VPNs more and more often

This reminds me of a perfect quote from one of my favorite shows, "Yes, Minister" -- a show that is a hilariously accurate depiction of beaurocracy...

"...but I thought we were calling the whitepaper 'Open Government'?"

"Yes, well... always dispose of the difficult bit in the title -- it does less harm there than in the text!
It's the law of inverse relevance -- the less you intend doing about something, the more you have to keep talking about it"

You must've misread or looked at the wrong app -- DroidWall works on both 2G/3G (cellular internet) AND WiFi.

http://code.google.com/p/droidwall/
For quick proof, look at the screenshot on that site; at the very top there is a network interface selection that shows that the cellular and the wifi connections are selected.

My phone came rooted, since it's an ADP (Android Developer Phone) that I own (not leased/subsidized from a phone company), so for me it was absolutely no hassle. If DroidWall helps any other ADP users, or any users who decided to root their phone, then it's a win (I never said it would help everyone). Who knows, after looking into it, a non-rooted user may decide that it's worth the hassle to root their phone. In any case, there are no downsides to pointing out this solution, and plenty of downsides to not mentioning it at all.

Anyways, my general solution was at the bottom of my post, and it IS an appropriate solution for ANY user:

This app is just another vector in the long history of internet phishing attacks

The problem isn't technical, but rather lack of user training

The internet is not a safe place. If you want to use it openly, you better not be gullible and hand out your info to anyone who asks.

One solution would be to setup the phone for your non-techie friend, and whitelist all the apps that they'll need that should have internet access. Yes, this means they'll have limited use of new apps, but if they can't figure out when not to give out her bank details, they aren't sufficiently trained to safely use the internet.