Or better yet, use Minecraft to teach them the basics of logic and programming.

A modpack with ComputerCraft, RedLogic, and possibly a couple of "just for fun" mods like Thermal Expansion or RailCraft would be a solid starting point...if you want to put together something more complex, contact me on IRC (esper.net, #minechem channel) or via Twitter and I'd be more than happy to help you out.

Disclosure: I develop the Minechem mod, and help maintain a couple of different modpacks.

Where's the "Would be funny if it didn't hurt so much" moderation option?

So...what you're saying is "people who aren't security conscious continue to be vulnerable to attacks that exploit their sloppiness and/or lack of attention"?

Shocker.

*citation needed

Suggestion: Everyone go report this as a HIPAA violation.

Suggestion: Everyone go report this as a HIPAA violation.

*citation needed

I figured the best way to hammer this out was to poke it myself.

I agree that the trend is upwards. What I'm not so certain is to why its upwards. Given how much crap we've pumped into the atmosphere, and how much we've changed the surface of the earth, it would seem to me that the trend should have been fairly "level" before...I dunno, about the mid 1920s, when cars first started being sold en-masse. But the rate of change doesn't seem to have spiked (or curved) all that much in the next 20-30 years as industrialization took over the world.

Like I said in my first comment, I think global warming happens. I just don't think we understand why it happens. I'm actually familiar with statistical outliers. Part of what interested me about that blogpost was the observation of differences between the actual trend and the models predicting change. Emphasis again on the fact that I don't think we understand global warming yet.

I actually wasn't referring to the WatsUpWithThat blog, although it does have an interesting analysis of the U.S. Climate Reference Network data, which is what I was referring to, and the raw data, which is also what I'm referring to.

As I said in my first comment, I'm just curious why some data is used, and other data is ignored.

As to that last comment...in general, if there's adjustment happening to something like research data, it has to be disclosed in findings reports. Eg, "I adjusted the weight readings by 10.5 grams, because I forgot to tare my scale with the crucible on it". I don't think that all unadjusted data is better. I think that if data is adjusted, the reasons for doing so and the method should also be fully disclosed.

Have to admit, I'm curious about this as well. I'm in the "I think there's global warming, but I'm not sure if we actually understand why" camp, but it kinda annoys me when global warming fanatics froth about "the science", when the best data (eg, stuff that hasn't been adjusted or tweaked) is showing something else entirely.

I'm not saying global warming isn't a thing...just curious about why nobody ever addresses the data.

They're commiserating with both of the Blackberry users about it.

This.

4.98 / 100 = 0.0498

Last I checked, 0.0498 > 0.45 > 0.035

That nitpick aside...I agree that a Raspberry Pi is way overkill for making an LED blink...unless you're trying to teach rather than accomplish something (eg low cost blinking light). If you need to produce a thousand blinking widgets, the process is far different than if you're trying to teach kids (or adults...) about programming and software driven hardware.

Given how insanely important this particular statement is to the whole conversation, I'm surprised I had to scroll almost all the way down to the bottom before someone brought it up.

This bit is why I personally think it's an excellent idea...they aren't trying to produce fully fledged senior developers ready to lead a team of developers in building/maintaining/re-purposing a fortune 500 company's mission critical systems.

They're trying to jumpstart the beginnings of that...the mindset that will, one day far down the road (if the individual is motivated to continue learning) will produce an exceptional programmer.

Question...where are you finding prices below $0.035 (or $0.045 if we're counting shipping) for the parts to make an LED blink?