Whenever hawk migration season comes around, my Dad says, “I want a pair of binoculars that tells you what bird you’re looking at.” Not a bad idea. I’ve heard even the most avid birders bemoan the difficulties of identifying “little brown jobs” (LBJs), a catch-all name for any of the thousands of small brown birds which are indistinguishable to the vast majority of us.
Star identification is undoubtedly astronomically more difficult than decoding the minute variations of LBJs. There are billions upon billions of stars, and unless you have access to the Giant Magellan Telescope, they’re going to look pretty darn similar to one another.
There is no longer a need to be intimidated by the million twinkling lights in the sky. The new Meade MySKY Sky Navigator is a silvery-gray gun-like apparatus with Nintendo-esque red buttons that you can point and shoot at the sky to learn about the cosmos.
It’s not a telescope; it’s a GPS system and database. You can hook it up to Meade’s computerized telescopes to have your telescope automatically align to where you point your star gun.
I would have loved this gift when I was a young’un. If you really loved your star-loving kid, you’d buy it — just don’t look at the price tag.
Through November 26, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will be handing out two XO laptops per donation – one to a child in a developing country, and one to a child of your choice. The program is called Give 1, Get 1.
Who can resist when Masi Oka is the spokesman?
Additionally, T-Mobile is rewarding donors with one year of HotSpot access, available in about 8,500 locations in the U.S., such as Starbucks, Borders, airports, and Amtrak stations.
I grew up in a household saturated with the latest in computer technology, coding books and magazines, and general gadgetry. I have reaped the rewards of that upbringing, and I want to raise my children in the same forward-looking environment.
For those of you with a similar mindset, I present to you a handful of resources to get your young ones started off on the right foot.
Lego Mindstorms - programmable Lego system that is loads of fun for kids and adults alike. Create robots, strange creatures, or automate repetitive tasks. Just remember to instill your creations with the three laws.
Young Coders - a kid-friendly forum with lots of coding advice and tips. Many topics and languages are covered, and the site has an active community behind it.
Kid Computers - hook your offspring up with a styling computer they will want to take care of, and make their friends jealous with. You can also find kid-sized mice and keyboards here, which will help their all night coding sessions be more comfortable.
Every year, I learn two new languages and write (or at least design) one; I’ve done this for four years now and I keep up my skills in each language. I usually take about a month per language. I always learn one in January and one in June (well, June 21 to the end of July actually) January, I learn a language I don’t want to know but feel like I should. My birthday is in June, so I feel like it’s a good point to reward myself with a “candy” language. Help me pick a new language to learn! Read the rest of this entry »
