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Comment Arduino LilyPads (Score 1) 153

So they're not robots, but if the girls are into fashion it's a a great way to get them started on programming while still keeping their interests in mind, They can make funky pillows for their bedroom or keep out signs for their doors or I dunno something else that a 12 year old girl might actually want. http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad

Comment Re:No need to help your competitors (Score 4, Interesting) 325

Willow Garage open sourced the software they use to run their PR2 robot

I think Willow Garage almost had to because they were using lots of open source tools in the first place. ROS is based on playerstage, which is GPL, and a lot of the heavy computer vision stuff is OpenCv, which itself was originally open-sourced by Intel. And the deal with everyone using ROS had a lot to do with development shifting from playerstage to ROS 'cause they were similar but ROS was saner, so they became the standard in large part 'cause they improved on the existing open source standard rather then trying to create some kind of large scale shift in the community. Plus, Willow Garage is as much experimental lab as company, so I don't know if it works as a good case study 'cause it sort of has a weird mix of end goals.

Willow Garage also gained a lot of cred by taking over OpenCV from intel and actively maintaining it, which isn't something a fledgling company can do but is worth considering. They adopted the library 'cause it was critical to their business and considered something of a standard in the vision community, which meant a lot of people were already using it, so it was popular enough that maintaining it was seen as a good thing.

Comment Re:Subsidies inflate pricing. (Score 1) 1797

We need mechanics but we also need accountants.

But most people (even on student loans) don't get degrees in accounting (or engineering, or any of the fields that really need post-secondary school training), they get degrees in things like psych and business, which lead them to be qualified for all sorts of generic jobs that may not really need degrees to do.

Comment Re:Thank you Westboro (Score 1) 699

** Why is God a guy? Why can't he be a she?

Cause writers/translators had to use some pronoun and most languages use the masculine pronoun as the gender neutral? Seriously though, God is genderless because he's not a physical being is one of those things Orthodox Jewish (and probably other religious) schools cover in kindergarten.

Comment Re:Scratch (Score 1) 430

the risk is that the kids will concentrate on the pretty 3D graphics and miss the point of those funny little grey oblongs (and they probably won't be able to read the instructions if it's projected on a big screen).

So do an interactive presentation. The code being in blocks makes it really easy to have the kids code along 'cause you can point at a block and ask the room "so how many steps should he go" and "what should he do next" and run the code every time you add a block.

Comment Re:Google Kids = Legal obligation/legal minefield (Score 1) 561

I'm sure I'd like having access to some kind of sandboxed Internet service where they could access Sesame Street and Disney stuff (and whatever else) without risk of stumbling across porn.

K9 (and likely most other internet filtering software) have whitelist filtering so that the only internet accessible to the person on that account are the sites on the list. It's a bit annoying to configure and requires a few days to fine tune, but most of the filters are designed to be simple enough for none computer savvy people to use.

Comment Re:Duh! (Score 1) 115

Speaking of children's books, while they do generally give an age range, there are a number that cover topics that often get certain types of parents or 'interested adults' up in a snit.

So those parents should google the book they plan to give their child, or at the least skim it in the store, as the only books that come in plastic wrap are porn and manga (which has age ratings and a breakdown of the content/reason for the rating). Every parent I know who really cares about what their kid reads makes a deal with their child that the parent will read the book first and if it's ok, than the kid gets it (and yes, most of these people's kids bypass this censorship in one way or another-oh the wonders of the library).

Comment Re:Duh! (Score 2) 115

So to answer your question, I'd support voluntary ratings for books - but not mandatory ones.

There essentially are, or at least if you look at hardcover children's books, many of them do give an age range on the front book flap. Also, children's books tend to be separated into age categories in the actual book store. The only category that seems to not be differentiated (though I'm starting to see it) is the teen section, but I think that's also 'cause publishers tend to lump all teens (from 13 to 19) into the same broad category.

Comment Re:Isn't it obvious? (Score 1) 385

Technically, so long as you cite the exact revision of the wikipage you're using (using the link from the history) and the page you're using is well cited, it's not a terrible source. The most basic problem with using wiki as a source is the same problem with using any encyclopedia or textbook as a source-it's a tertiary source and therefore a compilation of (often uncited, though that's not the case with wiki) primary and secondary sources rather than original work.

Comment Re:Haters gonna hate (Score 1) 271

I think he just hasn't been exposed to much math and science above a high school (and sometimes undergrad) level, which *shock, horror, gasp* is to be expected of a high schooler, even one who's done some cool work and has the potential to do some really cool work in the field. I don't see the problem with saying celebrating achievements in science or math, especially considering that we readily celebrate achievements in the arts.

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