These dog days of August can feel especially hot, and long — and
the last thing anybody wants is a house full of bored kids.
Young people interested in technology will likely get a kick out
of working with real computer hardware and software.
Fortunately, there is an array of development kits and tools out
there that will help them jump into electronics at a basic and
intermediate level. Here are two of my favorites. For young
experimenters and adults looking for some entry-level tools, I
would recommend anything from Parallax. The company supports its
kits with solid documentation written by people who understand
how to explain things clearly in a step-by-step fashion. Anyone
who can actually accomplish that automatically gets high marks
in my book! The company's BASIC Stamp kits are most interesting,
because they use the BASIC programming language and things such
as controlling I/O pins require only a single, simple
instruction such as OUT7, or INPUT6. No complicated set up of
the I/O ports needed for the B