Aug 15, 2011 Posted by Bruce

EBook Innovations Needed

I have had my Nook eBook Reader for a few month, and I am really hooked – so hooked that it bothers me when I have to resort to “paper solutions” for anything.  It is so nice to be able to carry the Nook around with all kinds of books, news feeds (ala Calibre), PDFs and more. Four notable issues I’ve had seem like they could be turned into solutions by someone who has the time and resources to do... read more

Jul 6, 2011 Posted by Bruce

Nook Simple Touch Reader – First Month

For Father’s Day this year I got a new Nook “Simple Touch Reader” so I have had it for about a month – time for a review.  I figure it was time when the “battery warning” came on yesterday and it told me I was down to 20% of capacity, so I decided to charge it up.  Going for a little over a month on the original 9 hour charge is one of the best aspects of this device. Getting right to the... read more

Aug 4, 2009 Posted by Bruce

Programming for Today’s Kids

Programming for Today’s Kids: Why NXT-G, Kodu, Scratch, Alice, Small Basic, KPL / Phrogram and others can reignite the imagination and understanding of technology for today’s kids. As Kids growing up in the 70s and 80s, we did not have all the technical resources available to us as they do today.  Computers were rare, under-powered, and very difficult to use. Hand-held calculators weren’t even... read more

Jul 19, 2009 Posted by Bruce

Kodu Review and First Impressions

One of the other fortunate things we were able to spend some time on last week was Kodu for the XBox 360.  Kodu is one of those things that is difficult to describe in words or even screen shots, and really needs to be experienced to understand.  In a nutshell it is a programming environment and visual programming language that lets kids create fully functional games using just the XBox 360... read more

Jun 22, 2009 Posted by Bruce

Dell Latitude 2100 “kidbook” – Detailed First Impressions and Tips

Kidbook vs. Netbook I wrote almost a year ago of how I’ve been looking for a netbook that would meet some basic requirements for use by kids for their daily work.  There have been a lot of netbook models which are basically all the same specs, but none have really stood out as something that was designed and intended for kids, especially younger kids, to use on a daily basis.  Enter the... read more