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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How would you introduce kids in rural India to computers?

Submitted by asto21
asto21 writes: A friend of mine wants to introduce school kids in rural India to computers and could use some advice.

Key questions:
- What learning material to use and how to source?
- What programming language to start with?
- What software to introduce them to?
- What games to introduce them to?

Key constraints:
- The kids don't know much English and speak a local language called Odiya. There aren't any technical publications/resources in Odiya.
- Poor internet connectivity.
- No computer experts on the school staff.

Any other advice/help would also be appreciated. A link to the full blog post: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsunayanachatrapathy.wo...
Privacy

Submission + - Indian government to track locations of all cell phone users (indianexpress.com) 1

Submitted by asto21
asto21 writes: As per amendments made to operators’ licences, beginning May 31, operators would have to provide the Department of Telecommunications real-time details of users’ locations in latitudes and longitudes.

Documents obtained by The Indian Express show that details shall initially be provided for mobile numbers specified by the government. Within three years, service providers will have to provide information on locations of all users.

The information will have some margin of error at first. But by 2013, at least 60 per cent of the calls in urban areas would have to be accurately tracked when made 100 metres away from the nearest cell tower. By 2014, the government will seek to increase the proportion to 75 per cent in cities and 50 per cent in suburban and rural areas.

Comment Re:ROFL (Score 1) 356

by asto21 (#38121088) Attached to: Pakistan Bans 1600 Words and Phrases For Texting
No, it's not. People often confuse India as some sort of homogenous territory as far as culture is concerned. Traditions can vary greatly between different areas of the country. Personally, I have yet to meet someone here who is offended by my feet. o_0

Comment Re:ROFL (Score 1) 356

by asto21 (#38121072) Attached to: Pakistan Bans 1600 Words and Phrases For Texting
Not really. Regardless of how stupid they are, Pakistanis don't really want to die. India could wipe out Pakistan in a nuclear war significantly faster than they can take us out. What is worrying though is that China is giving them a hand with their military arsenal. Without their help, I wouldn't be surprised if Pakistan blows itself up with its weapons. It is what they're usually good at, no? :-D But all speculation apart, I really hope it doesn't come down to a nuclear (or any) war.
Censorship

Submission + - Theologian attempts censorship after losing public (wordpress.com) 3

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: Theologian John Haught publicly debated prominent evolutionary scientist and atheist Jerry Coyne at the University of Kentucky back in October. Before the debate, both parties agreed to the debate being video-taped. Coyne is of the opinion that he convincingly won the debate over Haught. But we'll never know, because Haught, with the assistance of staff at University of Kentucky who sponsored the debate, is banning publication of the video of the event. They are even refusing to release the half of the debate containing Coyne's comments and questions, which is his intellectual property. And that latter is theft, plain and simple, in addition to Haught's cowardice.

Comment I say stay away from D-Link too (Score 1) 398

by asto21 (#37438104) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Good Gigabit 802.11N Home Router?
I've had only one D-Link product till now - An 803 adsl modem. They packed it with loads of features on the software side that the hardware clearly couldn't handle. It would hang randomly every few hours but got better when I disabled the firewall and some other stuff. Randomly slowed down and required a reboot to fix the issue. Finally crapped out a few days back and replaced it with a chinese adsl modem (tp-link) which works WAY better. Even the huawei (also chinese) that I had before the D-Link performed much better. I will never buy a D-Link again for the rest of my life!
Media

Submission + - Ziff Davis secretly paying sites to track users (medacity.com)

Submitted by
jonez450
jonez450 writes: "Times are tough in the advertising business. But PCWorld publisher Ziff Davis has come up with a new plan to gain a competitive edge: Paying other tech sites $1 CPM to place tracking code on their sites in return for data about their users via javascript. The company is also offering free content in return, but the "private" Ziff Davis Tech Co-Op doesn't want anyone to know what they are up to."
Science

Submission + - An $80 Open Source Chemical Analyzer (plosone.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A group of electrical engineering students at UCSB teamed up with some chemists and built an $80 gadget that can check water for arsenic, measure the level of vitamin C in orange juice, and also do simple DNA biosensor tests. The electronics in a blood sugar meter could do all of those things, but their firmware isn't easily hackable. All of the circuit schematics, gerber files, and software for this project is available on their project website. Another team, at Denver Metro College, is working to improve upon their design. Eventually, it could be used as a teaching tool in chemistry classrooms, or possibly to do blood and water tests in developing countries.
Software

Submission + - Download.com now wraps downloads in bloatware (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "At Download.com, page designs have been repeatedly tweaked over the years to push its updater software (now called TechTracker), TrialPay offers, and the site's mailing list. Bothersome, perhaps, but certainly not inexcusable. They've got to make money off the site somehow, after all, and banner ads don't always do the job. Now, things have taken a turn for the worse: Cnet has begun wrapping downloads in its own proprietary installer.

Not only will this cause the reputation of free, legitimate software to be tarred by Cnet's bloatware toolbars, homepage changes, and new default search engines — but Cnet is even claiming that their installer wrapping is 'for the users.'"

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