In a world full of fancy development tools and sites, the kernel project’s dependence on email and mailing lists can seem quaintly dated, if not positively prehistoric. But, as Greg Kroah-Hartman pointed out in a Kernel Recipes talk titled “Patches carved into stone tablets”, there are some good reasons for the kernel community’s choices. Rather than being a holdover from an older era, email remains the best way to manage a project as large as the kernel.
A kernel is the first layer of computer, it controls everything on how the computer will work. The Linux Kernel is the most popular kernel in use today, powering over 1.5 billion Android devices, millions of Chromebooks, and millions of devices that are in use everyday (things from wireless routers to smartwatches). This doesn’t include all of the web services we depend on every day that run some version of Linux. You’re probably using something that requires Linux every day.
So what does that have to do with email? With Kernel development which involves thousands of developers around the world, email is the only technology that has proven itself to manage the process of Linux kernel development. Even if email seems old fashion, I like to point out to students that almost every service they use relies on email for account maintenance.
Different video games use failure in different ways. Some use it to shock players and teach them what not to do, while others use death as a punishment for carelessness, recklessness, or some other mistake. Super Gridland, the new mobile RPG-puzzle hybrid from Canadian developer Michael Townsend, treats failure as a journey. With each mistake, you…
Apple has partnered with Common Sense Media to curate collections of podcasts for kids in the US. The shows are picked by Common Sense Media, an organization whose editors have a long history of helping parents and educators find age-appropriate media for children. Source: Apple Launches Kid-Friendly Podcast Collections – MacStories The collections are only visible in iTunes, and…
Dale Carnegie famously called one’s own name the “sweetest, most important sound in any language.” And according to new research, knowing each other’s names might also help bring out the best in us. A study published earlier this month in the journal Science Advances examines the effects of onymity – that is, the opposite of anonymity –…
He didn’t know it, but this student was asking for his teacher to be more of a warm demander — a key strategy for creating equity in the classroom. Warm demanders are teachers who, in the words of author Lisa Delpit, “expect a great deal of their students, convince them of their own brilliance, and…
Over a period of two years, skateboarder Christian Flores fell down thousands of times, broke boards, went to the hospital twice, and cracked a rib trying to do a laser flip down a triple set of stairs. Source: Landing the hardest trick after 2 years of trying A great example to show students on how to…
With its deep roots in education, Earth Day provides a great opportunity to integrate environmental science and social activism into your classroom. We’ve rounded up five videos you can show in class to kick off your Earth Day lessons and get your students thinking about how they can make a difference in saving the planet, whether they’re…
