On Thu, Jul 03, 2014 at 04:25:25AM -0500, Richard R. Pope wrote:
> Where do you live?

Australia, about six hours drive away from a city, and many kilometres
from the nearest locality.

> Outside the US?

Last I checked, yes.  Although extraterritorial jurisdiction is
claimed, it doesn't improve the postal services.  ;-)

> You can ship books in the US for about $1 per pound after you pay
> the initial $5.

It is $20 USD for me to send about 50g to any of the first-world
countries, and it goes up from there for other countries, and goes up
with mass and cubic dimension.

> Actually I learn a lot by reading.

I'm surprised.  Maybe you've been duped.  Evidence from pedagogy shows
that people learn far more effectively by doing than by reading about
doing.

Don't waste your time, just get an Arduino and start playing with it.
As Russell shows, the price shouldn't be a concern.

> I'm leaning towards the BBLeo because it is setup to support the
> cpNode controllers. The other choice at this moment is the Leonardo
> board. I thought these boards are using the Atmel mega processors. I
> haven't bought an Arduino as of yet. I'm also kind of thinking about
> getting just the processor and building my own board. Lots of
> decisions to make. Yes, things do change but I still believe that
> the books stay relevant.

I say they do not stay relevant, and you say they do, but you don't
say why, and you haven't got them.  Well, you did ask _me_, and I know
the books I've used, and I know they have not stayed relevant enough,
and this is why I will not recommend them.  Things move too fast.

Most of my students have learned from the arduino.cc references,
tutorials, and examples alone.  They look at printed books and think
to themselves "how quaint, now how can I avoid insulting the teacher?"

--=20
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/
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