This! People aren't realizing that in a lot of countries, english classes in the normal school system are a joke. And there are many people that don't have the resources to go to college or private classes to learn this. I have some young friends in Mexico that don't even have assurance of their next meal and would like to learn some skills to help land a better job than washing cars, but they're stuck. It's a catch-22 and having programming information and curriculum in their native language would remove one more barrier to them getting out of that situation. It'd also help me teach them since I wouldn't have to translate so much.
I decided to check the prices on those cables and was surprised to find that some are even more expensive. For example, an AudioQuest "Diamond" USB to iPod cable runs $1,495! Here's the link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/audioquest-diamond-16-4-usb-a-to...
15 years?! I didn't know moderators could set arbitrary dates for a "temporary suspension". A month would be reasonable for a first offense I would think.
Keep in mind though, this transaction was nearly instantaneous. Bank Wire transfers take 3-4 days to complete (at least, as far as I know with normal-person quantities of money). Instant international money transfer is amazing!
Awesome. I've never been to Malibu, but I can definitely see this as a useful app if I ever do decide to go. If the locals have trouble finding the public beaches, I can't imagine I'd be able to do it without some help.
#4 is very true. Many americans I know live in a bubble (a very scientific survey, I know). They only get news from the "outside world" filtered by the talking heads on TV (no matter the political persuasion). When I first came to Mexico, everyone thought I'd be kidnapped and ransomed the second I set foot in the country. I've never felt in danger the 4 years I've been here. Sure, there are some places (mainly Juarez and seedy parts of the border towns) that aren't safe at all, but Mexico is so much larger than those places. It might not be for everyone, sure, but living abroad at least temporarily is an experience that is bound to teach you a lot if you take it seriously and stop being a tourist.
Edit: Sorry, replied to the wrong comment, but it still applies somewhat.
That's not always true, or maybe I'm just weird. I admit, there's a lot of feeling out of the loop with friends in a different country, speaking a different language, but it's not forever. (And no, I'm not living in one of those American colonies that always seem to form either ;)
There's also [Hackety-Hack](http://hackety.com/), which was made to help introduce kids to programming with ruby. It uses a DSL I believe. I'm sad to say though, it looks like it hasn't seen much activity recently (only 2 blog posts total and last commit was a year ago).
Khan Academy is great. I was teaching my cousin (12) when I was home for Christmas and even my niece (7) was learning writing her own snippets to draw smiley faces and such. Definitely is a good resource for teaching the basics of programing (variables, functions, syntax, etc).
Well, it's a pretty far-fetched idea anyways, but, a few things to consider:
- I never said you have to use wifi. You're right that radio would have a much greater range.
- The main advantage I can think of for a system like this would be speed of deployment. In an area with poor line of sight, they could be used to bridge the gap until a proper base-station can be positioned.
- They're more versatile. For example, they could be used as a mobile PA system.
- Of course, it's all hypothetical. Nevertheless, it'd be fun to implement and more useful than the Pirate Bay's idea of a flying datacenter.
Actually, there's some practical application for that. In an emergency situation where communication is down, a network of drones could be setup to provide a network for first-responders and aid-workers to coordinate their efforts. It could even tie-in to base stations that would have the long-range power to connect different meshes. (note: I know nothing about these drones, but looking at what's been done already, it's seems feasible).
What's interesting is the "virus" could be combined with the second-place winner ("multidrone") to make a drone botnet instead of just having the infected drones "run amok".