Programming One Laptop

From Slashdot:

We will support five programming environments on the laptop: (1) Python, from which we have built our user interface and our activity model; (2) Javascript for browser-based scripting; (3) Csound, a programmable music and audio environment; (4) Squeak, a version of Smalltalk embedded into a media-rich authoring environment; and (5) Logo. We will also provide some support Java and Flash.
-- One Laptop Per Child software specs

It's built on Linux, Firefox, XWindows, and many other open source projects.

You can buy an XO laptop for your kid (or yourself) and a kid in the developing world for $399, staring November 12. A low-power laptop with wifi, word processing, and high-level programming for $400 sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Unbalanced Libra

I visited my family this weekend in part because my birthday is on Wednesday. My mom gave me a natal chart made by a friend back before you could do astrology on a computer. I don't know anything substantive about astrology, nor do I take any guidance from it. But there's something aesthetically pleasing about the layout of my chart. If you dig astrology, let me know if this provides any insights into my personality.

There was also a page (unrelated) with a few lines typewritten in all capitals.
AFTER TREADING TRIUMPHANTLY THROUGH
TRAFALGAR,
TRICKY TROUBADOUR TREVOR
TRIED TRESPASSING  INTO TROUBLED
TRIPOLI.

TRA-LA TRA-LA TRA-LA

I'm pretty sure I didn't write that; even with my gifts as a youthful geographer, I didn't know where Trafalgar is until I switched from playing on typewriters to playing on computers. My dad could have written it. Maybe Paul wrote it...