Thoughtful thoughts for 2012

HBR article on: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/five_things_you_should_stop_do.html

Areaware

Very cool items: http://areaware.com/productlist.asp

Robotic kids

There are numerous kits available, best sources for choosing one would be http://www.pololu.com/ [pololu.com] , http://www.trossenrobotics.com/ [trossenrobotics.com] , http://www.robotshop.com/ [robotshop.com] ,http://www.lynxmotion.com/ [lynxmotion.com] , http://www.makershed.com/ [makershed.com] and a bunch of others. http://sparkfun.com/ [sparkfun.com] and http://adafruit.com/ [adafruit.com] for more general electronics components

Cant really recommend one in particular, as it depends on what you want to do. There are several categories : 2wheel differential drive bases, legged hexapods, 4wd bases, even bipeds and robotic arms.

If you get one that is designed to be Arduino-compatible, and can take any number of Arduino expansion shields, you will have endless possibilities. I'd say easiest starting point is a complete 2WD kit with some accessory sensors. This is a nice one http://www.makershed.com/product_p/mkseeed7.htm [makershed.com] , comes with motors and all. Just pick a "mainboard" and motor driver shield and you are good to go.

Fischer Technik is an absolute winner here.
Excellent for teenagers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik [wikipedia.org]

It goes well beyond what lego mindstorms has to offer.
True 6D connections, and even has stuff like pneumatics!
http://www.robotmatrix.org/Fischertechnik-Pneumatic-Robot.htm [robotmatrix.org]

Bram Stolk
http://stolk.org/HoverBiker/ [stolk.org]

I have about 10+ years of experience with the FIRST Robotics competition. For an "all inclusive robotics" kit you will need to increase your budget. However, electronics and software kits are in budget. Here's my list:

1. Innovation FIRST's Vex Robtic system. [vexrobotics.com] This is hands down the best system available. The kit is basic enough that you can get something working while also open enough that the possibilities are limitless. You can interface your own custom circuits with it. It comes with default software in source code form that you can modify to whatever you would like. It also has mechanical kits where you can build almost anything. It's also not flimsy. This is one of the most expensive options, but you can start around $300 and add on for years.

2. Lego Mindstorms [lego.com]I would reccomend this kit for someone younger (8 or so.) It's not quite as extensible mechanically or electrically but is easier to use.

With those two out of the way and actually answering your post based on the budget, I would recommend a Basic Stamp kit from Parallax [parallax.com]. The kits are aimed at learning electronics and software. They're not a lot to them mechanically, you need additional parts and know-how for that. The kits are low cost and require you to learn. I cut my teeth on the Basic Stamp 2 (BS2) and I turned out to be a successful software engineer.

Map Reduce

http://search.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/0154227/mapreduce-for-the-masses-with-common-crawl-data

Google Chrome to be #2

Google's Chrome browser is set to be #2 and what is interesting to me is Larry Page's comment in the article: "...it might not be clear how Google can make money from Chrome..." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204012004577071933883857786.html