If we just throw more money at the problem we can fix it. Giving an iPad 2 to every student is just that kind of a "solution". Until our culture and our parenting change, we will continue to produce kids who aren't interested in school and learning.

Successful immigrants show us what is really important. I can think of 2 Chinese women who I know very well. They came to New York City at age 7 and age 12. Parents were dirt poor, didn't speak English, could only afford the rent in the worst part of town or a housing project. Never had a computer or a fancy graphing calculator. Parents worked upwards of 100 hours a week to put food on the table. But what these parents did was fairly simple, they actually looked at their children's homework every night and made them correct their mistakes. And if the essay had sloppy penmanship, it was torn up and they had to re-write it. The parents kept track of when tests were and made sure their kids studied for them. They were involved, they cared, and their kids both made it into the Ivy League and eventually graduate school.

I know this is a bit of rambling post, but I hope you get my point. No magic gadget is going to fix the problems our culture faces. No bag of money is either.

How secure is the BlackBerry? So secure, the world's leading police states have forbidden its use within their borders. If you need to keep your communications confidential, only BlackBerry can guarantee it.

Makes you wonder about iPhone, Android, etc.

For my last job, I had to interview about 15-20 candidates offshore. I found the most effective technique was to give each of them a 5 question take home test for them to return with answers in 24 hours. If all the answers looked good, followup with a 30 minute phone interview to make sure they didn't just get a friend to do the work. Almost all of the candidates failed the test miserably and thus I didn't have to waste much time with them. Finally, the right guy showed up, did great in the 30 minute followup phone interview and had an offer within a day. When I finally met him in person, he struck me as a humble quiet kinda guy. He probably wouldn't have done well in a traditional phone interview where he had to just sell himself (i.e. oversell himself). But with the take home test, he could objectively prove that he knew what he was doing.