Brown Chris Dance Learn Like

SMART Technologies Inc, the industry pioneer and global education market segment leader in easy-to-use interactive whiteboards and other group collaboration tools, has announced its support for Windows Vista, Microsofts latest operating system, in SMART Board software 9.5. As with earlier Windows operating systems, Vista provides SMART Board interactive whiteboard users with a familiar interface and Version 9.5 now offers Windows users 36 languages.
With Vistas new support of East Asian languages, SMART customers can now use handwriting recognition for Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Version 9.5 also supports earlier versions of Windows such as XP and 2000 as well as Mac OS and Linux operating systems.
SMART Board software remains the worlds most widely used interactive whiteboard software.

Getting the Most Out of a CS Curriculum?

Henry asks: "In September I start on a CS-type degree course. I am probably a fairly typical newbie programmer, in that most of my knowledge centers around scripting and high to very high level programming. There's much to choose from: languages, concepts, mathematics, and so on. From previous stories, I know that many readers have strong opinions on the failings and weaknesses of university courses and students. Apart from all of the coding that I will do, what can I do in the coming months to maximize what I get out of this? " .

Clip: Learning Kanji Makes Kids Dance

Japan is swimming in cool self-help software. Everywhere else is not. Like the above game, Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun, which is designed to help grade schoolers master basic kanji. There are also a couple other games like Lethal Kung Fu: Kanji Dragon and Doko Demo Kanji Quiz. My favorite: Kanji Kentei DS. Some of these are good for foreigners with some Japanese knowledge, but always makes me wonder why these types of games aren't rolled out elsewhere. Think I remember McWhertor saying he'd be interested in learning Kanji. Nintendo of America, you listening? Brian Ashcraft

Mind Your Language

It has been a long time since the days when some of us imagined that major Indian languages could be like Chinese and become languages of high technology, bringing rich and poor together in a race to the top. It hasn't happened, and now it won't. It's going to be English. And that means that every child in India should have the chance to learn English, and be able to compete with the ones who can take it for granted.

The only thing that remains to be settled is strategy: how to ensure that children do learn English. It's a much-abused truism that ‘any child can learn any language'. It is true that children are genetically empowered to discern language structure from the welter of sound all around them, and by five can speak their first language, and maybe chunks of other languages around them too.

Lionsgate Announces Their May DVD Slate

Featuring a talented cast of voices including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., George Carlin, Sigourney Weaver and others, the film explores what happens to the inhabitants of FairyLand when "tried and true" stories are thrown out of whack and the fate of 'happily ever after' hangs in the balance. In keeping with the film's theme of alternate endings, the DVD features customized menus allowing viewers to pick whether to get good or evil menu screens based on their responses to a series of multiple-choice questions. The menus are all also hosted by the film's breakthrough new characters- Mambo & Monk- who provide side-splitting color commentary throughout the menus and the games. Both the DVD and Blu-ray disc cast a spell with a full slate of special features including - most appropriately, an alternate ending, 7 deleted scenes, over 40 minutes of featurettes, audio commentary, interactive games and more!Pricing: DVD $28.98; Blu-ray Disc: $39.99Envy Girls: Workouts for the Spots That Really Count:From the producers of the top-selling Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease and celebrity trainer Michael Carson, this brand new collection of workouts targets the spots that really count: Abs, Legs, Buns and Arms.

10 Things to Wow You on Today's Ships.

New (and some older) vessels offer everything from onboard spas to wine cellars to surfing pools, see below a small selection.

RCCL Freedom

Modern cruise ships bear little resemblance to the sailing vessels of old. These floating resorts are jam-packed with luxurious amenities and engaging activitiesnot to mention first-rate food and wine. If you haven't experienced a cruise ship in a few years, you'll be wowed by today's onboard offerings.

One of the most amazing innovations of recent years has been Royal Caribbean's FlowRider. This special wave pool lets guests surf and bodyboard on the ship.

It's found on the Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, and the best part is it's free to guests. (Photo: Royal Caribbean)

RCCL Voyager

For adventurous types, Royal Caribbean's Freedom- and Voyager-class ships and Norwegian's Norwegian Pearl feature onboard rock-climbing walls.

Every Kid can be Van Gogh with Cool Paint

Coolsoft (Sweden) AB today announced that Cool Paint for Kids is available as a free download and trial. Cool Paint is a painting software specially designed for kids. Kids can learn drawing and image editing with more than 40 painting tools and 1000 picture materials in Cool Paint Gallery.

It provides various kinds of paint brushes such as pencil, airbrush, watercolor brush, mark pen, crayon, and pigment tube. Besides, you can create special effects on your images and photos with many fantastic painting tools including fairy pocket, geometrical shapes, color fill, filter, and magic bar.

My Vist to the Penguicon

I thought I would share my experience at Penguicon 5.0. If you're not familiar with it, Penguicon is a combination Linux/Open Source/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Convention, with notable guests from each area. Penguicon does a good job of given you many great choices each block of time. One of these days, I'm going to book a hotel room and stay for the whole thing. This year, because of prior commitments I was only available for about half the convention. Still, I was able to see and learn many interesting things.

I have to say I'm more in tune with the Open-source crowd than the Sci-Fi crowd, but not so out of touch that it doesn't interest me. Being a writer the Sci-Fi side of things interest me, being a computer geek the Open Source side interests me. One thing that I do know is that I'm not a Con expert, or an expert on either topic.