John's Technology Blog

One Laptop Per Child

Here is a great video explaining the reality of the one-laptop-per-child project and the final version of the product.  One Laptop Per Child | New York Times Video - good job David.

What I find most intriguing is that there is such a strong emphasis on programming tools and languages built-in.  With Python, Logo, and Squeak standard, many of these kids will teach themselves a lot of important programming skills.  Takes me back to my days with an Apple II... the posture was not "how can this machine entertain me" it was "what can I make this machine do?"  Add to that the collaborative nature of the platform (which the Apple II never had) and development can be greatly accelerated. 

Google Summer of Code

Google has opened the registration for this year's Summer of Code Project.  The gist is that Google will pay students $4500 to work on a approved coding challenge for a partner open source project.  Here for more info on how the program works.  This is a great resume-builder for anyone looking into application development as a career.

Link: Google Code - Summer of Code - Google Summer of Code.

Follow IP connections - VisualRoute

The folks at Visualware have a limited demo of their IP routing and mapping product Visualroute.  A main limitation of this demo is that it only traces from 2 predefined locations.  Their full product is an essential tool.

Link: VisualRoute Live Demo

Plain Text Editor: NOTEPAD++

I have been asked which is my favorite plain text editor.  I stopped searching for a tool when I found NOTEPAD++ a great open source tool.  It has the ability to highlight syntax automatically for languages such as HTML, PHP, Javascript, batch files, CSS.  The zoom and find features are great for dealing with log files.  Did I mention it is open source?