http://ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/index.htm

I was hoping that HP would open source WebOS, but I don't think there's much chance of that happening if Amazon takes it over. Too bad. Of course, I can't really fault HP for trying to make money from Palm / WebOS if they can.

I have done this one: put two different colored books in the center of a table, one on top of the other (say, a blue book on top of a green book). Then tell the students that you are a robot that can follow only these instructions: 1. Move forward one step 2. Turn clockwise (90 degreees; demonstrate) 3. Turn counterclockwise (90 degrees; demonstrate) 4. Pick up a book 5. Put down a book The robot can hold only one book at a time. Tell the robot how to switch the books so that the green book ends up on top of the blue book, and the books still have to be in the center of the table. Either have the students work in teams and come up with a list of instructions and then follow them, or -- more fun -- have them give you instructions on the fly and act them out.

Yes, there are differences, but are they statistically significant? If the people who did this study are a "Psychometric Consulting Company," the very least I would have expected to see in the PDF was the result of an Analysis of Variance.

...in this comment 13 years ago; just not so eloquently.

What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? An American.

From their website: http://github.com/diaspora/diaspora "DISCLAIMER: THIS IS PRE-ALPHA SOFTWARE AND SHOULD BE TREATED ACCORDINGLY. " So if you're expecting a world-class program that clearly outshines Facebook, I think you're being a tad premature.

A short look at the Docbook element reference (about halfway down the page at http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/docbook.html ) will show some of the elements that are relevant when publishing a *book*; elements for citations, bibliographies, indexing, callouts, glossaries, etc. HTML does not provide these elements.

Yes, I remember reading an article (I think it was in Time magazine) that described lasers as "a solution in search of a problem."

I download the Free version for installation on the 30 computers in the Linux lab at the college where I work; I buy PowerPack as a way of supporting Mandriva.

+1. "The Cold Equations" is one of my all-time favorites. Unhappy ending, but the story would not have worked otherwise.

Note that the instructor wants to teach computer *literacy*, not computer *science*. Those are not one and the same. The MIT course is excellent indeed, but it does not cover such topics as "what is a database" or "what is a LAN and how do I set one up for my home" or "what is the difference between Open Source and shareware". These are topics which don't belong in an introduction to computer science, but would be appropriate for a computer literacy course.

This was the premise of "The P Factor," by Curt Siodmak, published in the September 1976 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, except the urine was used as a replacement for gasoline rather than a way to produce hydrogen.