Get The Kids Hooked Early

Here's the kind of innovative ideas we should be using in the U.S.: About 175,000 French high school students (in the Paris region) will be given USB sticks containing a suite of open source software. The idea is to improve computer access for students:

The sticks will give the students, aged 15 and 16, the freedom to access their e-mail, browser bookmarks and other documents on computers at school, home, a friend's house or in an Internet café -- but at a much lower cost than providing notebook computers for all, a spokesman for the Greater Paris Regional Council said Friday.

It's a way to reduce the digital divide, said spokesman Jean-Baptiste Roger.

The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant messaging, he said.

Negative Outlook

Some people aren't happy with some major changes to Microsoft Outlook 2007. Check out the screen shots to see just how important graphic rendering is to making our e-mails look good. I know a lot of people are forced to use Outlook at work. And it is packed with features, but there really is no reason to use it at home, where Mozilla Thunderbird performs the same function and is free.