he would do it* Life is too short for proofreading, I read after and then correct. Much less time consuming. :'(

As a visual minded person I would like to say, thank you. Thank you for that image. I do think you are right though, but I do hope he doesn't slashdot, he would it just for the nerd-points.

For creative writing I use focuswriter, for the simple reason I can focus(!) better on the creative proces. All you see is your text. It's awesome. I can't do without internet, but I'm sure if I had the balls to disconnect my laptop I would become a whole lot more productive.

Listen, I develop hardware as a hobby, My current project is a nice oldschool z80 system. I need direct memory access. In the z80 project I use assembly language (hell, I wrote my bootloader in a hexeditor!) if I was to use a arm-cpu I would have used C for the most part. If you design your own systems or (toy) OS you absolutely need to use a language that let's you access everything. You can't boot a system without that access. It's impossible. What MS platform are you talking about? Is that the xbox or the x86? If the latter is true, I would call that a linux or bsd platform.

Hi, if you don't mind, I like to do with my computers what I want. Including direct memory access. If I want to be limited I would buy something from Apple. Thanks.

After reading your question this one came to my mind. Those who can do, those who can't teach. But it does makes me wonder what you are teaching these kids if you have to ask us how to get a job in the tech-world. I hope your pupils won't have to ask that same question.

Well, while I feel sorry for you. I really think every child has a right to see / speak both the parents on a regular base, we don;t know if there is a divorce. Might as well that the father is in the army overseas. Or something else. The problem with the phone is next to the fact that these devices aren't suitable for 4 year olds might as well be taken away. I agree with you, if the parent where the kid is, is unwilling, you have very little to fight back with and is something that should change, but it's also beyond the scope of the question from the poster. Anyway, I hope you also will get in touch with your kid on a regular base. You and your kid have that right. Or better, should have.

Read the article, they are being used to sense gunpowder, not drugs. For once I actually think the police has got one hell of a new co-worker, the lady that noticed the mine-sniffing rats from the army could also be used in the police force to quickly get an idea if someone had fired a gun or not. I am sure there will still be lab-tests, but at least they can go on with their investigation based on a pretty acurate source.

Yeps, they are named after famous tv-detectives. I found that rather funny.

I don't feel my tone was like that at all, but I understand your view and for some comments you are completely right. But the author of the comment I posted this comment too, chose to put his comment under mine. So I tried to explain my thoughts. Nothing more, nothing less. I really do wish the father wisdom in his decision and I really do hope he will consider other options. Like maybe regular skype-calls. But I don't think he is crazy for wanting to speak/see his kid at all. Not at all. I completely understand that. Who wouldn't?

Or just maybe you just aren't as smart as you think you are ;)

I don't think that is what most people here are saying. It's not what I'm saying. Just that there might be better ways. While we don't know if this is the case (the father might be just a hard worker, might me overseas, whatever...) if it is, the father might be able to get an agreement with the mother to do skype-talks. There might be lots of other options instead of giving a 4yo a mobile. And there are. Lots of people got divorced, lots of kids have fathers in the army. There are other options, since this is a quitte common problem.

While I don't disagree with you, there is nothing in the question of the submitter that tells me we have a such a wonderkid here. Allthough I asume the kid is exceptional, as all kids are. Regardless of development. It is however also our task as parents to give the kids a chance to be kids. It's nice that you are really gifted and could understand those books and yes, we need these 'odd' people. I do hope your case is documentend btw, because it would give us a chance to learn more about the human brain than we do now.

Dude, just don't. I understand you want to speak and see your son, but the reason 4yo don't have phones is because they are not ready for their use. Let the kid play with playmobil and later lego. Let him be a child and when he's ready for a mobile, he'll tell you by putting it on his christmas-list. I wish you wisdom with your decission and hopefully you'll find a beter way to keep in touch with your kid.

http://tech.slashdot.org/submission/2963385/california-school-district-hires-firm-to-monitor-students-social-media?sdsrc=rel