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Submission + - Adafruit to Teach Electronics Through Puppets in New Kids' Show (wired.com)

coop0030 writes: "Wired has an article up about how Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer and promoter of hobbyist engineering, is aiming to teach electronics to a younger demographic. So young that they’re enlisting the help of puppets. Their new online show, titled Circuit Playground, will teach the essentials of electronics and circuitry to children through kid-friendly dolls with names like Cappy the Capacitor and Hans the 555 Timer Chip. Limor “Ladyada” Fried, Adafruit’s founder and chief engineer (and 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year), will host the episodes, with her team assisting with onscreen and puppeteering duties. Episodes will premiere this March, and Fried holds hope for them to help inspire the next generation of designers and builders."
Open Source

Submission + - Open-source hardware hacker Ladyada awarded Entrepreneur of the Year (entrepreneur.com)

ptorrone writes: "Limor "Ladyada" Fried of open-source hardware company Adafruit Industries was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine. From the article — "Recognizable by her signature vivid-pink locks, Fried (or Ladyada, as she is known on the internet) is one of the dominant forces behind the maker movement--a legion of do-it-yourself-minded folks who create cool things by tweaking everyday technology. Last year New York City-based Adafruit did a booming $10 million trade in sales of DIY open-source electronic hardware kits"."

Submission + - Raspberry Pi Model A, First Photos and Video (adafruit.com)

coop0030 writes: "The first photos and videos of the Model A production samples are now available. The Raspberry Pi Model A is the newest low-cost computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Compared to the popular Model B, the Model A forgoes the Ethernet Controller, has 256MB of RAM, and has a single USB port. A benefit of the missing Ethernet controller is that power consumption is reduced. This allowed them to reach their goals of a low-cost $25 computer. The release date is for sometime early in 2013."

Submission + - USB NeXT Keyboard with an Arduino Micro (adafruit.com)

coop0030 writes: "Ladyada and pt had an old NeXT keyboard with a strong desire to get it running on a modern computer. These keyboards are durable, super clicky, and very satisfying to use! However, they are very old designs, specifically made for NeXT hardware:, pre PS/2 and definately pre-USB. That means you can't just plug the keyboard into a PS/2 port (even though it looks similar). There is no existing adapter for sale, and no code out there for getting these working, so we spent a few days and with a little research we got it working perfectly using an Arduino Micro as the go between."

Comment Re:This was stupid the first time... (Score 4, Interesting) 26

This kind of response was certainly expected, thank you for the feedback though!

We built this because we thought that we could help people start quickly to get up and running with programs to blink LED's with their Raspberry Pi, or read temperatures with sensors attached to the GPIO pins (oh, and learn a little python, ruby or what have you, in the process!). We want it to be the easiest editing environment to use and setup on the Raspberry PI (low barrier to entry). We haven't built the guided experience yet, but you can kind of see which area of programming we're focusing on by looking at the following github repository:
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Raspberry-Pi-Python-Code

Also, you have to start somewhere with someone just starting out in this quite complex, and layered environment. What better way than to have an editor that is pre-loaded with some basic scripts that will blink an LED, or read temperature and humidity off a sensor breakout, on their Raspberry Pi with little effort in an environment they're already comfortable with (a browser)?

Sure, they could start by first learning basic unix command line, then their editor of choice, and git, and python, and then interfacing with the RPi's GPIO pins, and on and on. We're just trying to remove some of these barriers.

An expert developer with loads of experience may not need this editor (but it is pretty convenient to just plug the pi into an ethernet port, and start hacking away in your browser...). But for someone that isn't sure how to navigate directories in a command line environment...well, this might help them out a bit (we even include a pretty powerful terminal emulator that may help them learn this!).

We're hoping to keep adding more advanced features as we go. We're releasing quite early in order to gather feedback to make it better suited for more people earlier in the process.

Comment Re:The cliche practically coined for this occasion (Score 2, Insightful) 271

And yet Apple's competitors are having a difficult time matching the price of the iPad, and the Macbook Air (with comparable quality). Maybe they're just a much more efficient company? Maybe it's a better run business to generate higher profits than their competitors? Nah, has to be 'fanbois' giving away their money...
Networking

Comcast Launches Broadband Meter 199

nlawalker writes "Beginning on Tuesday, January 12, Comcast high-speed internet users in Washington state will have access to an online tool that displays their bandwidth usage for the most recent three calendar (not billing) months of usage, including the current month. Washington is the second market to receive access to the tool, following its introduction in Portland. 'For the fraction of less than 1 percent of our customers who are concerned about exceeding our excessive use threshold, we believe this meter will help them monitor and calibrate their usage,' said spokesman Steve Kipp. Perhaps those who aren't using 250GB a month should take it as a challenge."

Submission + - Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget (sciencemag.org)

coop0030 writes: President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft.

Comment Re:Automatically or automagically? (Score 1) 1089

Depends on your definition of "automatically". From what I hear, there is this little prerequisite called "internet access".

If I had to take a guess, I'd imagine Google has already thought of this obvious issue. In fact, I bet Google Gears would fit in quite nicely in the Chrome OS. It seems to work well enough for offline access for a few of their apps already.

Power

Submission + - Musicians campaign to end US 'stealth nuke effort' (cnn.com)

coop0030 writes: "A group of musicians have launched a campaign to stop the stealth nuke effort that the atomic energy industry is bringing to congress. "In 1979, we helped organize five nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden and an anti-nuke rally that drew 200,000 people. These efforts and the ongoing work of many grassroots and national safe energy groups have helped to hold off the building of new nuclear reactors ever since. ... But three decades later, we're facing the same nuclear issues. And to counter this threat, we are organizing once again.""
KDE

KDE 4.0 Beta 1 Released 249

dbhost writes "Along with this morning's cup of coffee and log reviews, I discovered that the KDE team is moving forward with a long awaited beta release of KDE 4.0 beta release of KDE 4.0. The most interesting item I found in the notes is that the file manager in KDE is being separated from Konqueror into a component called Dolphin. Also, according to the announcement, konsole has been treated to a number of improvements such as split view, and history highlighting."

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