1. Who are these app developers who care if your phone is rooted? I know quite a few and none care, so I believe the story misattributes the blame on to the developers.

2. Who are the people who install a piece of code from an advertising company and then are shocked that it behaves like an advertising company built it? I understand that there is a percentage of people who are required to for work, etc., but this should surprise nobody.

It starts Thursday in the US: (From Techdirt)

I've got an account at a small local ISP and I know that they use Cisco's IronPort spam filtering and it works great. Additionally, I pull the e-mails down and it's even got my subscriptions (newegg, local brew store, etc) categorized with some mail headers and I can procmail them into folders. I've also got Gmail (it's now $5/mo for your own domain) which works well and I have another e-mail address that I host and use spamassassin. I get a few dozen each week on the one that I host because I'm too lazy to set it up right.

I haven't seen anybody post anything about having an endorsement which indicates that the driver can talk on the phone while driving only after they pass a test. They could take an oral version of the written test while taking the driving portion and if they pass, they can talk while driving. They could also switch out all the car license plates with their primary operator's mobile phone number so that you can call them and tell them to get off the phone.

BPA has been a hot topic over at the EWG (http://ewg.org). They've got several articles about how BPA is in your canned food (http://www.ewg.org/New-Research-Fuels-Demand-for-BPA-Free-Food-Cans), and how it's been banned in Europe (http://www.ewg.org/Europe-Steps-Up-to-Protect-Babies-from-BPA) and Canada and several other countries. How can a chemical considered to be a toxic chemical in several countries be allowed to be used in food products in the US?

I've found that a trackball works very well for my toddler's hands. The larger the ball and buttons, the better. I found that the ability to hold a mouse still while clicking buttons was frustrating for my son. Also, it was not intuitive for him to pick up the mouse when it got to the edge of the mouse pad. The concept of a trackball works very well for him. He's 3-1/2 now and knows how to log in to Windows (clicks his picture, no password), click on an icon on the desktop to play his games and close the game when he's done.

Software:
We've had good luck with the JumpStart series of games. We have three of them, starting with JumpStart Toddler, which is mostly button mashing, mouse clicking. The other two have games where a picture is obscured with bubbles, for example, and he has to roll the mouse over them to 'pop' them and display the picture. We also have some Edmark Software games, like Bailey's Book House which he's starting to get into more, and Millie's Math House, which he's starting to get into more with counting and basic addition/subtraction. The software is not very well coded -- it tends to crash a lot and the clickable area on certain objects are too specific for a toddler's hands (like clicking on the fishing pole), but the things that it teaches are very age appropriate and keeps my boy interested.

Hardware:
I have a built-in desk in a common area of the house. Under the cabinets, I have a laptop on a shelf with a LCD monitor bolted to the wall. I have a Logitech Trackman Marble and an old keyboard that is easily replaced for $15.