Grab one of the open source LMS packages - Moodle, Sakai, Canvas - and check their feature request lists, and implement a feature or three.

Form your teams, have them elect a "project manager", etc. Structured just like a "Real Job" but with a short deadline.

Here in Fl. AC is considered a MUST for hurricane season. Our plan includes a generator like yours, but sealing off the living room using sleeping bags over doorways, and then hooking up a $75 "window shaker" AC unit. Have to unplug the fridge and such, but it could be run for an hour or two out of every 4 hours or so ...

Last few hurricanes we've had here in N Florida the wife got canned stuff, I got a few extra boxes of birdshot and 22lr ammo... Rabbit, squirrel, turkey, quail, dove and thats just from my front yard... the woods across the street would provide more turkeys, pigs, deer, and a "wild" flock of guinea fowl should it really get bad ... 15k gallons of water set aside (pool), plus a well w/ pump that I can run off a generator.

Please don't paint us all with such a large brush. We've just had a similar disclaimer automagically added to our emails (only one per mail, so replies, etc. don't have multiple copies on them), but according to our college's lawyer, it is state mandated.....

According to RMS in "Revolution OS" the difficulties with their attempt at the microkernel is in the timing of messages back and forth to all the little sub processes/daemons/whatevers

All my life I've learned with "pirated" material: throughout school, my teachers copied all kinds of materials regardless of whether or not it was copyrighted - including my primary school teachers hand-copying entire pages of grammar or math books and giving away dittoed copies, photocopies of of all kinds... whatever was necessary to learn. Learning was considered "fair use" when I was young. Nobody in their right mind thought twice before copying something for education purposes.

Then when I started dabbling in computers, I started "pirating" software all by myself. I knew what I was doing was illegal, yet it didn't feel wrong. I learned C with an illegal copy of Turbo C. I learned CAD with an illegal copy of AutoCAD. I learned everything I know with an illegal copy of something.

Sure I shafted Borland, AutoDesk and all the others, but then I bet they made a whole lot of money afterwards, when I and all the others like me hit the job market and started using their products professionally - on seats paid by the companies I worked for to the tune of many thousands more than a single user seat.

I don't know how I would have gotten an education without pirated material. I don't know how kids today get an education if their teachers should fear jail when they use pirated material. What a sorry state society is in...

Unless your employer is automagically adding it to each outgoing email...

But there is a difference between cutting costs just for the sake of cutting costs, and being wasteful....

Well, guns are pretty much banned in Chicago, New York City, etc. And yet, dozens of shootings every day....

This image has a nice take on it... apparently cold weather causes violence.

http://danieljmitchell.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/houston-chicago-guns-weather.jpg?w=500&h=500

This is rather interesting I'd say: considering that BG has vowed to give away 95% of his wealth to charities, and already does give away a shitload of money every year, I find it interesting that his net worth should increase rather than decrease.

Me, when I give money to a charity, I find myself poorer afterward. Not him. That seems like a nerdy enough phenomenon to be worth mentioning.

Use the tools that make you happy and keep you productive.

Lots of us drive old cars - manual transmission, dim lights due to old corroded 6v electricals, always hunting for a good supplier for non-E added gas (eats the gaskets, etc), hunting for parts, living with 0 to 60 times measured in the 15-20 second range, hard starting on cold mornings, no AC, no radio, or AM only radio (or AM, FM, and Shortwave, which is kinda cool). No seatbelts, or lap belts only.

But with out all the mod cons, the old cars are still fun to drive and driving them puts a smile on our faces.

But... when it comes to work place... do what the paycheck signers want you to do. Keep others productive, don't let your enjoyment of the old stuff get in the way of getting the company's business done.

stdio functions often lead to stack overflows. News at ten...
What next? Null pointers are bad, m'kay...?

From just one bit of traffic snippet, I can predict that the machine has networking capabilities. Beat that!

Back In The Old Days, we'd have to wait outside for our pizza delivery. Otherwise one of our many fellow student neighbors would claim it as theirs just to get one *now* instead of calling themselves...

Yup, right along with the first (or maybe second?) programming class - how to really test code, set ups, etc.