Comment Re:Don't try (Score 1) 726
Discworld, period, good for anyone of any age. You might have to do some research into which books are more appropriate for an 8 year old, but the whole series is phenomenal.
Comment Re:The Hobbit (Score 1) 726
LOTR tends to be too dense for most young kids...in fact even as an adult I have issues with it. It's also very long and sometimes younger kids want to move on to the next story. I would start with The Hobbit as it flows nicely and you can lead into LOTR better with it than vice versa.
Comment Re:A wrinkle in time (Score 1) 726
Absolutely yes, all of Madeline L'Engle's books are amazing for children. I grew up with the Time Quartet (A Wrinkle In Time, A Wind in the Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet [my personal fave]) and they're intelligent, easy to follow, exciting sci-fi books with great characters and original stories.
Comment Re:Ext3 (Score 1) 484
Yep, this is my experience too. The ntfs-3g module is definitely the way to go, let's you read, write, create new files, do whatever you want. The only limitation I've come across with it is if you try to access a drive that was turned off with hibernate (ie you hibernate your windows and then load up *nix and try to read the drive...doesn't work) but I feel like that's an obvious limitation.
Comment Why not... (Score 1) 376
Just let Dell keep it's images, but next time it upgrades or changes the images in any way, Word will have to be removed? Or is that too much bureaucracy?
Triangular Buttons Make On-Screen Keyboards More Usable 287
As someone targeted for perpetual failure by the designers of most keyboards, I'm happy to read
The Register's report that "A British inventor has submitted a patent application for a wacky touchscreen keyboard design which, he claims, could spell the end for accidental key presses."
Comment old.. (Score 1) 264
i remember reading about this several years ago in a magazine in a doctors office...
Comment The real question is... (Score 3, Insightful) 73
Is it still insanely counter-intuitive and hard to learn? The blender i used for rendering was nigh-impossible to figure out without at least three tutorials.
HD Video Editing with Blender 73
Posthis writes "While the VSE sequence module has been part of Blender for a while, the upcoming version v2.46 comes with some new powerful video editing features, like Proxy editing, optimized FFmpeg support, and more. Not many use Blender strictly as a video editor because it's not very straight-forward, but given the fact that it now deals with HDV and 24p footage much more comfortably compared to other OSS video editors, it makes it a sound contender. This new tutorial shows the basics of how to use it as a video editor and put your masterpiece together."
WiiMan, the Nintendo Wii Super Hero 46
rafaelmizrahi writes "WiiMan the Super Hero is a full action figure costume of a super hero that functions as a Nintendo WiiMote remote. Having trouble playing Wii? WiiMan to the rescue. This GarageGeeks project combines Gaming, Technology and Useless Activity to the extreme. Rafael Mizrahi, an artificial vision and experience explorer at Feng-GUI and a GarageGeeks member along with Yael Hertzog built this custom costume that acts as a fully functional Nintendo WiiMote remote with buttons, bluetooth, accelerometers, and an IR cam. BTW, last year, they built another hero, The Guitar Hero Noid, a robot built with Tal Chalozin that plays the PlayStation game Guitar Hero." (You might have better luck reaching the GarageGeeks site's Google cache.)
British Police Use Facebook to Gather Evidence 128
Amy Bennett writes "Move over police scanner and most-wanted poster. The Greater Manchester Police force has created a Facebook application to collect leads for investigations. The application delivers a real-time feed of police news and appeals for information. A 'Submit Intelligence' link takes a Facebook user to the police Web site where they can anonymously submit tips. Another link leads to the videos on YouTube featuring information on the police force, ongoing investigations and other advisories." As reader groschke writes, though, "Their access to user data raises significant civil liberties problems. They may be able to see more of your data than your friends or network members can — and you also expose your friends' data when you add the application. All without needing a subpoena or warrant."
