bryansum

Isn't Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) made exactly for this scenario? I used it with PicoCrickets (http://www.picocricket.com/), which is tiny programmable brick like LEGO Mindstorms. I find GUI-based programming a lot easier to use when starting; otherwise you're trying to not only learn how to write a program but you're dealing with learning an IDE / text editor, running programs, etc.

Or, perhaps more likely is that the distinction between what's mobile and a desktop app begins to blur.

Looks like there's still a lot of work to be done: http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html

I think the real genius of Homebrew is in integrating it with git & Github and in turn making it something social. In my experience, sometimes a formula wasn't available in the main repository and I could easily merge in another Github fork's changes.

I find it highly ironic that their criticism implores that Google "stop launching surprise attacks against China." Also very interesting is how Google's recent actions are viewed as some sort of US government-sponsored attempt to export US values.

Agreed. I think Tufte would be proud of that diagram.

Reading this article reminds me of a small company in Ann Arbor, MI called Menlo Innovations (http://www.menloinnovations.com/), which pair programs exclusively. Their founder has spoken at our university a number of times about the effectiveness their methods. In my eyes this article quantifies to some extent what he's said.

A much more recent version of this is available @ http://beej.us/guide/bgipc/output/html/multipage/index.html

Tufte calls it the "Lie factor": size of graphic / size in data.

For graph 2, the lie factor for each bar graph is:

IE: .25 / .62 = .403

FF: .25 / .2383 = 1.04

Safari: .25 / .0417 = ~6

Chrome: .25 / .034 = 7.35

The video mentions the problem of always having one's hands in the way with a direct interface. This could also be alleviated by moving the hands underneath the display ala the capacitive mouse from Microsoft Research: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/10/video-microsoft...