Flash (SWF) player written in ARM assembler (personal project). The declining usage of the former, and the unproductivity of using the latter, are cheerfully dismissed.
http://flashasm.wordpress.com/
Web-app with TAPI computer/telephony integration, for receptionists and telephone answering services (business project) Website not finished.
I am reminded of the 'Cool Cam' anecdote, in which morale was shifted from "Not only that, but everyone had grown tired enduring the stress of the weekly 'why-shouldn't-we-cancel-this-project' meetings with the executives" to "The weekly meetings got easier, more developers were brought on, and the team managed to put together one hell of a game."
Spend a day procrastinating. Contemplate how unpleasantly wasteful it was (even if it felt superficially 'fun' at the time.)
Spend time being productive. Contemplate how I enjoyed doing it, and how I enjoyed having done it.
Consider the contrast between a day spent (in my case) learning C++ versus a day messing around on Reddit.
I don't have to make an effort any more. After my allotted procrastination time is up, I lose interest, and start to feel drawn towards my studies. It's like an internal productivity timer that automatically dampens my enthusiasm for wasteful activities and makes me keen to return to my books. I guess this is what it feels like to be hypnotized into disliking chocolate and into preferring healthier snacks.
Just a friendly caution: overcoming procrastination to study is very different than overcoming procrastination to work. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because learning is more passive than producing. Perhaps because learning usually feels productive, like you're permanently gaining something, whereas a lot of work will lead you to question the purpose of the work itself, and usually doesn't compound in value of time.
"Counting 600 coins per minute, Coinstar machines detect the metal content of the coin, as well as the size to accurately identify the coin denomination - and efficiently sort out all kinds of debris typically found in consumer coin. The company has found paper clips, key chains, wedding bands, gum wrappers, even teeth, all of which are identified quickly as non-coin."
One of the operating systems that may be ported to the Pi is RISC OS, which includes a reasonably decent implementation of BASIC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_BASIC) which itself contains a built-in ARM assembler.
A student could quickly and easily start writing graphical programs (plotting randomly coloured circles onscreen, for example) or simple games, without needing to download, install and use a compiler.
We're literally returning to the world of 10 PRINT "Hello" : 20 GOTO 10... in the good "very accessible programming" sense, not the bad "...considered harmful" sense.
Web-app with TAPI computer/telephony integration, for receptionists and telephone answering services (business project) Website not finished.