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Today’s question is what language to use to teach programming to a bright young child? I’ve seen the question before with answers ranging from Java to VB to Squeak.

Slashdot has this MIT Media Lab Making Programming Fun For Kids. Not surprising that there are some strong opinions in the thread.

Looks like Scratch is based on Squeak which in turn is based on Smalltalk. Smalltalk sound about the right speed! I’ll have to look at both and see what I think.

Scratch is perfect for learning to program. I very much like the structuring of control, motion, sense, variable. The visual iconography of control structures wrapping statements is ingenious.

In a few hours we had a pong style game going. It is beautiful. Of course I can also see where some of the limits will occur. I don’t see any programmatic method of sprite creation or destruction.

I’d like to mount my Linux web directories on my Mac. SMB would seem appropriate.I think I have enabled SMB on linux, but I can not seem to get the finder to connect.smb://yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy which is not a valid address gets me nowhere.smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is valid and I can not connect because name or password is incorrect.smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/html where html is the share name also fails.SMBClient may be useful for debugging.Ok, it seems to be a firewall/selinux issue. When I turn those off I can connect.System Settings:Security Level:

1. Firewall Options: Disable
2. Enabled, Enforcing Current

Something broke. Ok, I needed smb://192.168.1.22/html in the dialog.

One of the most difficult data recovery tasks I’ve done in my career.

IEEE Standard Z39-18-1995 was pointed out at work today as a good standard technical report format. I should consider using it for my own reports, as I think I would benefit from a standard look to my work. Using the outline should also make it easier to get to writing the report as I need spend less time worrying about the format.

I’ve been using my Elura 100 in wide screen mode. Now the video that I capture with iMovie is squashed. What to do?

Wide-screen fans will appreciate the Elura 100’s true wide-screen CCD sensor. Though it’s not high definition, it still provides a sharper 16:9 image than sensors that crop the top and bottom to achieve this wide aspect ratio. This native 16:9 support is reflected in the camcorder’s 2.7-inch, 123,000-pixel wide-screen LCD.

The movie is capture in 4:3 and I want 16:9, the conversion is 720×480 -> 720×405.

Looks like I might be able to use Final Cut Express in ‘anamorphic’ capture mode.
Yes, this works.

Now I am dropping frames during capture. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305284

I noticed while reading a Webkit blog that the page didn’t scan as well as a Huffpo page I had been reading earlier. The difference in clarity is the font. Now I notice that my site use a font on the less than easy to scan side. Time for an update.

I keep thinking about Naur’s presentation, as well as Leonid Perlovsky’s course on neural networks and intellect. I may not be able to get a computer to think for itself, but I may be able to get a computer to help me focus on what I am thinking about. In some ways Google does something similar, but it is not very far beyond simple word association.

I miss San Fransisco very much. Second to my good friends, I miss the best restaurant choices I’ve every encountered.

My friends Timothy and Peter just opened up a new place in the Mission.

Weird Fish
2193 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94110

It is getting excellent reviews and I can not wait to get back, visit, and eat.

The Julie Amero case bothers me, and makes me wonder what can we do to incorporate better science into our legal system. It is quite possible, even likely from what I’ve read about the case, that the Windows 98 computer she had in the class room was infected long before she showed up.

Trying to set mom up with internet connection to her MacBook.

software version NEWC_01.05.0A
CDMA 1X-EVDO

Purchased Nov 2006

Settings & Tools:Connections:Bluetooth

Set up Bluetooth - Any Device - not phone

—
With the USB cable connected, my mac network dialog sees the phone as a port - Motorola V3c.

—Some links
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-185790.html