Our tech teacher designed this type of approach 3yrs ago and its a popular class. Using Gamemaker software gets kids into the class who might not go for straight up programming. The path is: Game Design 1, Game Design 2, then Java. At that point students can continue on to advanced Java projects that they define themselves. The other neat thing we do is in the Game Design 2 class there is is 1 large project - students form into teams of 3 and then they are matched to 1 or 2 Art students. They learn to work as a team with the art students doing sprite and background design.

You grouchy old timers need to remember that back in the day '70s-'80s computers were still an uncommon and exotic thing. And I can recall being thrilled to pound out BASIC or Pascal or C programs. These days kids are surrounded by computers (and flashy programs) from birth. So naturally I don't think they would be drawn to a pure code environment immediately, but after a couple of terms of learning programing basics creating games --- they can see the possibilities.

They both passed away about 10yrs ago. Its something you are never ready for - you accept it and move on. And you always wish for one last conversation.

what the number of security / virus issues was (or wasn't ) during the period of using Linux in the office ? I do tech support for a medium sized school district and we are constantly getting pretty sophisticated phishing emails to some of our staff. And some staff still fall for them or send out emails or try to reply ... Fortunately we are 70% Mac based so most of that just blows by.

The issue with teachers is that they regularly email parents and students who may have infected PCs and their email addresses are then harvested.

and the perfect disguise above.
Under the cities lies a heart made of ground
But the humans will give no love

You see I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

La la la la la
La la la la la

The oil companies screwed you again .....

you really have no idea what you're talking about. We were in Germany for 3 weeks visiting friends in Hamburg during August. We had planned a 4 day trip to Paris via train. The German trains were nice and we rode all 3 types: a small commuter train, a medium sized inter city train, and Germany's high speed train out to the French German border (Strasbourg). But the French TGV was truly impressive and awesome. Quiet and smooth - no click-clack rail noise, seating was very comfortable - and the speed - wow. And the power -- in really open flat country you could feel a slight pressure against the seat as they opened up the juice. We arrived in Paris well ahead of schedule - and well rested. I felt totally safe during the trip.

I believe we need to start with 2 North - South corridors -- one on each coast. Something like Seattle to LA with limited stops: Tacoma/Olympia, Portland, Salem, Eugene, Redding, Bay Area, Sacramento, LA.

AND - we should partner with one of the existing high speed trains in operation to leverage at lease some of their infrastructure parts - pieces - engineering. Things are cheaper in volume and why re-invent the rail-bed and rail technology.

mid thirties and just average users -- average meaning they have actual normal lives and would never ever be inclined to look at slashdot.

I do tech support so I am always either getting questions or hearing about tech stuff from the clients I support. So a married couple (both just average Joe and Jane users) decide to upgrade to smart phones. She goes to BestBuy gets a new iPhone for her and the android model her hubby wants. That night she is busy setting up her phone - downloading some apps - taking pics and emailing them - etc. Meanwhile hubby is getting uber frustrated trying to get anything to work on the droid etc. The next day she returns the droid and buys another iPhone for hubby ...

I'm no fan boy and I have issues with many things Apple does - but they do understand the user / customer experience

- hard at work stealing our information and creative processes. People (that includes politicians + CEOs) just tend to forget that China is not some quaint country that has rules of law and enforces those laws. This is a state run government and economy - anything goes to enrich the state and acrue power. We've already sent most of our production machines over there - now they are coming back to collect any intellectual property they can grab as well.

They are starting to eat our lunch and will shortly just take our lunch money

And contrary to some comments -- Ford makes some damn fine vehicles -- I dearly miss my 2001 F-150 4x4 - great truck

A corporation serves only its self interest - it cares not about the local area(s) it operates in as long as it can get some sort of special tax treatment etc. They want full use of roadways - airports - water -etc by paying nothing or as little as possible. Yes they hire locals who have to make up the "sweetened tax deals" out of their own earnings.

I say let them move all their crap to crappy nations and see how that works out for them.

RE: The App Store

Walter Sobchak: Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.

- OffShoring. Your original job with a living wage was shipped over-seas for someone to toil at for 1/4 your wage. Now after seeing whats left of our job market you are happy to go work hard for less money - in bum-fuck junction.

Yeah - thanks to our bought and sold politicians and the uber-wealthy who fund them. Fucking shweet dreams

If you are a terrorist and you already have surface to air missiles - and are near a major airport --- then the system has already failed. Any number of simple range finding devices would be all you need to ensure your target is in range. You would not need a credit card - an ATT account - or an iTunes account.

I want to thank the Slashdot community for comments - suggestions - perspective - etc. And yes even the zingers - diatribes - and "in my opinion .." posts. I knew this could be considered a flame-bait post but i have to be honest here ... I don't even own a iPhone or smart phone or an android device. So parts of this market are not obvious to me. However I have been testing/using an iPad for our school district and it has impressed me. I'll also say Apple got as many things wrong in the iPad as they got right. And I have so far only cursory insights into the SDKs for either device.

So this was a post to help me gather more input. While I was indeed swayed towards android briefly --- I will take a serious shot this Fall - Winter - Spring coding in iOS environment. This is partially driven by my current work in K12 (Apple and i-devices have a strong pull) but also because Apple understands that average consumers don't care whats "under the hood" (open or closed environments) they just want easy to use devices and a "safe" one stop shopping place for apps. For all their faults - Apple has had the "corporate fortitude" to build the iTunes realm and foresight to make the app store. This is the part of the android ecosystem I find most concerning. There is no doubt Google could pull such things off if they focused on it, but IMHO Google doesn't want to invest the effort into it.

Thanks for the all the fish ...

I'm glad someone besides humans are watching the store. I welcome our alien masters