Monday, May 29, 2006

Kid's Programming Language

KPL stands for Kid’s Programming Language. KPL makes it easy for kids to learn computer programming. KPL makes it fun, too, by making it especially easy to program computer games, with cool graphics and sound. KPL is not just for games - it can be used for teaching many different subjects. KPL's emphasis on games is based on the belief that learning is best when learning is fun. KPL's success around the world - which is substantial but still just getting started - is proof that this approach works.

-- from frwr-news

Segway to the rescue

Thieves used to break into as many as five cars a week in the parking garage at Los Angeles' Union Station. Then the Metropolitan Transportation Authority came up with a simple solution: They put a security officer on a Segway Human Transporter.

"The first day that one of the security officers was on the device was pretty much the last day there was a break-in," said Robin Blair, a transportation planning manager for the MTA, which owns about 19 Segways.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Computer Drop-off Event on hold

THE BIANNUAL Computer Drop-off Event involving the Hawaii Computers for Kids Program, CompUSA, Lenox Metals, and the City and County of Honolulu is on hold indefinitely, after the state Department of Health informed the sponsors that commercially generated cathode ray tubes no longer can be dumped into city landfills.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition

Discover the basics of digital photography with Adobe® Photoshop® Album Starter Edition software, the free software that makes it easier than ever to view, find, fix, and share your photos. It's fast, easy, and best of all — it's free!

[frwr-news, 5/2/06]

Friday, May 05, 2006

amazing water bridge!

Water Bridge in Germany.... What a feat!

Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists. Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

Remember your high school physics, and the fly in an enclosed bottle project? Similarly, the super sensitive scale proved that it didn't make any difference whether the fly was sitting on the bottom, walking up the side, or flying around. The bottle, air, and fly were a single unit of mass and always weighed the same.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

YouTube.com

Though it debuted only five months ago, YouTube.com attracts 6 million visitors each day to watch two-minute video clips that amount to the Internet's version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" meets "American Idol." Every day, users stock the site with 35,000 homemade videos of lip-syncing, dancing, silly animation and commentaries on any topic, all of which are commented on and rated by viewers.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Going Wireless With RangeMax

If you don’t already have a wireless network setup in your home or office, chances are you’re probably searching for a good solution. Throughout the years I’ve used countless wireless routers both at home and work, but my favorite, and the latest to go through Click Chick’s careful scrutiny is the NetGear RangeMax Wireless Router (Model WPN824).

As soon as I plugged everything in and configured the router and computer, I immediately noticed how powerful the signal strength was no matter where I took my laptop.

-- Alison Stewart, MidWeek, 4/14/06