The Wiring platform (from which Arduino is a fork of) is a great option for getting started.

http://wiring.org.co/

Code wise, It's about 99% the same as Arduino, so all the libraries and code you can find out there is usable, (you just have to tweak the pin numbers)
You can program Arduino boards, wiring boards, AND Atmel chips with the wiring software.
The Wiring S board is slightly cheaper.

And, best of all, the help system is just a lot of commented out descriptions above the code - and it links to a schematic so you know EXACTLY what to build to make the code in the example work.

It's not that factory jobs are for stupid people, it's that factory jobs are boring as hell.

Given the chance, I would (and do) earn half as much doing something that I enjoy far more.

Perhaps you should try selling service or support on top of free software, instead of re-inventing the wheel each time?

"Open Source" is often called "Open Sores" for a reason.

As more countries adopt English as a second language, they are adopting not our convoluted ambiguous mess of a language, but a simplified, neater version of the language that is more suited for clearly expressing technical instructions - eg. close (not open) vs. close (adjacent too)

Unlike languages like French or Korean which have centralized linguistics planning authorities to determine what is and is not correct, English is more of an "anything goes" system where lexiconographers look at what words we use and how we use them, *then* put them in the dictionary.
When 1 billion Chinese, 1 Billion Indians and 1 Billion Africans all start using a standardized "Simple English" over the 350 million of us who speak what we think of as "real English", (and the 70-odd million who speak that odd variant of the language over in Britain) one side will have to make a change, and numbers aren't on our side.

Whenever I ship something big to the US, I make a point to attach a note to the outside of the crate warning them about the Robertson screws, and informing them that for their convenience, I have included a pack of Robertson bits inside the crate.

That sounds like something that will require a lot of work, and will require hiring a lot of people to do that work.
If only there was an unemployment problem in America...

Is there a video game he is particularly fond of?

Games that are easy to hack and mod are a great start - they are tweaking something they already love. I wasted many hours of my elementary school days tweaking the rules.ini file to make command and conquer's AI a more capable opponent. That lead to scripting one player levels in an attempt to make my own campaign. That lead to...nothing at all....but it might be a start.

The tools available today seem a lot more complex, but also a lot more open than they were when I was young.

Good luck.

I've never used medicinal marijuana (or other prescription pain killers) first hand, but the general consensus I get from people who have is that when they are in genuine pain, the substances make them feel better. When the substances start making them feel high instead of better, they know they are on the road to recovery and can cut back the dosage until it hurts again.

Considering how overdosing on marijuana is impossible in practice, I don't see the lack of precision in dose measurements is a problem. Even if marijuana use turned out to be completely useless medically, it is harmless enough that it's use as a placebo should not be infringed upon.

Does this work backwards?

Does this mean that a 3db reduction in volume won't really be noticeably quieter, but would make the music about 8 times less damaging to my ears?

I'd start with the TNG episode I, Borg. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Borg)

Recap: The Enterprise adopts a stray young borgling and raises it aboard their ship, giving it a sense of individuality.

I've had 3 female roommates fall in love with this adorable character, and spark enough interest in them to watch a few more episodes - 2 of them are now hooked on Trek.

I don't want to make this sound like I am disagreeing with you in principle, because I do value software freedom, but when I get a tablet or a smartphone, I expect it to just work out-of-the-box. These things excel at being consumption machines, not production machines.

The target audience isn't necessarily a tech savvy one. The more the user is allowed to do, the higher the potential for mishaps. When you promise a customer a fancy piece of shiny hardware and advertise it like a high-tech toaster - "press here, then magic happens" they aren't expecting a full blown PC with all the associated quirks, tweaks, gradual cluttering/slowing down/ buggyness, etc. They are expecting a magic little plastic box that does all the things that were printed on the outside of the big cardboard box it arrived in.

Every additional copy of whatever-it-is is more junk, more clutter, more slowdowns, and the device will not run as advertised for long, by locking things down, it lets the manufacturer ensure the device works the way they want it to until they make it obsolete.
If I want a device that works the way I want it to, I stay away from Apple, tablets and smart phones, and get a real computer.

What about the part where he says Nokia is the largest phone manufacturer? Wasn't there just an article posted less than a week ago about Samsung taking the top spot from Nokia?

Harper is working real hard to change a lot of this.

I don't know if this is true elsewhere, but In Southern Ontario, Canada, the crime rate per capita is actually much lower in densely popular areas than it is in rural areas.

You are more likely to be a victim of crime if you live out in the country than if you are an urban dweller.

Of course, you are going to hear about far more crime happening in the big cities, because when you have 4 million people living in one place vs. 10,000, there is a higher total number of crimes occurring, but people can't do math (myself included) and fear the city and move out the country (I did the opposite)

I thought Bush was only actually elected once, for his second term... (As a non-American, I can't complain about his presidency too much, as his decisions made my country's economy much stronger by comparison.)

Same thing when I was living in South Korea. So much attention is paid to American politics. There were massive protests in the streets during August's protest season over some American policy.

I find it odd how defensive Americans get when we talk about their politics. Just because you happen live in an isolated bubble where other countries don't exist doesn't mean the rest of the world lives like that. We are saturated with your news, movies, music, tv, radio, products, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if a good number of foreigners were more knowledgeable about American politics than many Americans are.