squeakland December 2009

squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org

16 participants
35 discussions

The Squeakland Tally Contest (win an RC plane with video)
by Timothy Falconer 08 Dec '09

08 Dec '09

Hi everyone, As we prepare for our two month Etoys publicity drive (starting November 1st), I'd like to make things a little more interesting. Let's have a contest. The winner gets a brand-new HobbyZone Super Cub LP with a lightweight Fly Cam One attachable video camera, shipped anywhere (that's legal) in the world. I'm personally donating both. The plane is very fun, and very easy to fly. Also, if you win, you'll be able to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiNxzXixlOc Here are the rules: 1. you must be 18 years or older to enter the contest, or have the signature of a guardian or parent. Proof will be required upon winning. 2. you must guess three tally totals as they will appear at midnight, New Year's Eve, as the Times Square ball drops in New York City. The tally totals are: a. Squeakers (number of people that have signed the squeaker list) b. Accounts (number of people that have signed up for a showcase account) c. Projects (number of publicly visible projects on the Showcase) see: http://squeakland.org/tally 3. Lowest score wins. To determine it, subtract your guesses from the corresponding new year's value for each total, then add the absolute value of the each difference. Example: squeakers ... joe's guess (5000) ... new year's value (4500) ... abs diff (500) accounts ... joe's guess (3000) ... new year's value (3500) ... abs diff (500) projects ... joes guess (1000) ... new year's value (7000) ... abs diff (6000) score = 7000 4. These bonuses will apply: a. subtract 500 from your score if you're the last publicly visible project in 2009 b. subtract 300 from your score if you're from the top NON-USA country in the list at new year's b. subtract 200 from your score if you're at the PURPLE level at new year's d. subtract 100 from your score if you're at the BLUE level at new year's see: http://squeakland.org/showcase/ranking.jsp 5. Initial guesses need to be emailed to me before November 1st starts (midnight) in New York. 6. You'll be allowed three "mulligans" before December 1st where you can change any one of your guesses (one per mulligan). 7. Each mulligan will enact a 100 point penalty, which will be added to your final score. 8. Any obvious attempts at cheating will disqualify you. (Adding Squeakers or accounts yourself, reposting duplicate projects, etc.) 9. Disputes will be decided by me. I'll try to be as fair as possible, though I suspect some will see things differently. My plane, my call. 10. The winner will hopefully agree to send some fly-by video of a "Squeak if you love Etoys" sign, that we'll send, which we'll later use on the Squeakland website. Anyway, I hope this remains friendly and fun. The trick, of course, is making good guesses. A few hints . . . * we currently average about 300 web visitors a day, some new, some returning. We've peaked at 6000 web visitors in a single day. * the peak was because of a magazine article. We *will* be seeking multiple magazine articles and other forms of publicity during this time. * the addition of multiple languages on the website will greatly increase our possible audience * we will have "tell a friend" functionality to allow for some social networking, including facebook, twitter, and blog buttons for individual projects * schools will create multiple accounts, usually in one shot (I just now saw 14 accounts from the same school create accounts). So ask yourself . . . How many people do you think like Etoys in the world? How many can we reach before the end of the year? How many new people will we reach before the end of the year? How many will create accounts, or share projects? I've already made my three guesses (though I can't win), which will remain private like everyone else's. All will be revealed on New Year's Day. Have fun! Tim -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

1 1

please join us in the Etoys chat channel
by Timothy Falconer 08 Dec '09

08 Dec '09

Hi everyone, We're in day two of our Etoys book sprint! Please spend time with us in the Etoys chat channel to help motivate everyone. Usually book sprints are done in person, so we're using our chat channel as a way to spend time together. It's a great way to meet other Etoys enthusiasts and help the writers at the same time. There are two ways to visit our chat channel . . . 1) visit http://chat.squeakland.org and put your nickname in place of "squeaker###". Simply type messages at the bottom of the screen and click Enter. 2) download and install an IRC client, then visit the Freenode network (irc.freenode.net) and channel #etoys. More instructions are located at: http://wiki.squeakland.org/display/sq/IRC+chat+channel To help us with our book sprint, you can find out more here: http://wiki.squeakland.org/display/sq/Book+Sprint Take care, Tim -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

1 0

Playfield Questions
by Steve Thomas 08 Dec '09

08 Dec '09

In the Playfield's Viewer -> Category: playfield mouse's X and mouse's Y *QUESTION*: Is this the mouses position in relation to the "Playfields" origin? Please help me distinguish - *Playfield:Viewier->Category:collections->graphic at cursor* - *Playfield:Viewier->Category:playfiled->graphic* It seems the "*Playfield:Viewier->Category:playfiled->graphic *which can be set via Halo:Paint Background and via assignment in a script is meant to be a "*Background*" - That makes sense to me but here is my concern/lack of understanding . . . *Why is it when I add a Background Image*, the Playfield:Viewier->Category:collections->graphic:*count* Increases? - IE, If I try and iterate through the items in the Playfield with the cursor and there is a background, I will get the background sketch as the first item in the list. - I would think the "Background Sketch/Graphic would not be part of the "Collection". I created a Etoys project to test this go to page 2 of Fun With Playfields<http://www.squeakland.org/launcher/?http://www.mrstevescience.com/Etoys/Fun…>(its a work in progress, suggestions welcome). Stephen

2 1

squeak if you like etoys button
by Timothy Falconer 07 Dec '09

07 Dec '09

Hi folks, Try adding this to your favorite webpage: <iframe style="border: none" src="http://squeakland.org/squeakers/squeakerButton.jsp " width="270" height="143"></iframe> We'll be promoting this, along with it's static cousin at: http://squeakland.immuexa.net/linking/ Want to make sure the flash button (the first one) works on many browsers & websites before going public with it. And yes, I know Flash doesn't work in various places. I'm asking to test this button in the places where Flash works (aka, anywhere you can see a YouTube video). Thanks, Tim -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

1 3

Re: [etoys-dev] French teachers start using EToys to teach technology in school
by Yoshiki Ohshima 07 Dec '09

07 Dec '09

At Tue, 1 Dec 2009 23:55:06 +0100, Séverin Lemaignan wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > I drop you a short mail just to report on last Saturday training > session that we've been organizing with the French Planete Sciences > association for technology teachers from the region of Toulouse. > > About 15 of them attended, including people from the Teachers college of Tarbes. > > We were using a special Squeak image based on EToys 4 with extensions > to control external electronic boards (including the Arduino board). > > People had very positive comment on their experience with Etoys and > its possible connections with the "real world", especially since > robotics is now part of the official curriculum in high-schools in > France. > > Details (in French) and a couple of pictures here: > http://www.planete-sciences.org/robot/boiteabots/index.php?option=com_conte… Very cool! What do you think that typical high school teachers teach in robotics courses? -- Yoshiki

1 0

squeakland now honors default browser language (SQ-540)
by Timothy Falconer 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Hi everyone, squeakland.org now honors your preferred browser language by default, so you don't have to choose from the drop-down at top. This only works for currently supported languages, which are English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. Let me know if it doesn't work for you, and you use these languages. This had been working, but there was a recent bug. -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

1 0

!! calling all germans
by Timothy Falconer 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Hi everyone, We've got English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and soon Japanese through most of the Squeakland website. No German! Will someone please take an hour or two and translate these two files? Simply change everything after the equal signs and email back to me. (And if you'd like your native language represented, feel free to do the same .... Karl & Milan? :) Be sure to respond to this email first to claim the task so that others will know what you're doing. THANK YOU! Take care, Tim -- Timothy Falconer Squeakland Foundation http://squeakland.org 610-797-3100 -- "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." ... piaget

1 0

How can I have text wrap around objects emded inside them
by mrsteve 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

I want to be able to include pictures (et al) inside text and have the text wrap around the picture automatically. Bert posted a project here: http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-613 In which the text wraps around the button. How did you do that? Also very clever jump animation. Thanks! -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=14485#14485 -------------------- m2f --------------------

2 1

learn more about Etoys - book sprint starting tomorrow!
by Rita Freudenberg 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Hi everyone, this is a reminder for our book sprint which is starting tomorrow, Monday, December 7th at 10 am PST, 1 pm EST. We will start with an audio chat and discuss the outline, plan for the week, tools to use, etc. For the audio chat, I will establish a conference call on Skype, so I need your skype account. Please send it to me if I don't have it already. If you cannot participate in the call tomorrow, you can still join us for the book sprint whenever you have time. Please let me know, in order to give you all the relevant information! Don't miss this opportunity to discover all the secret parts of Etoys you might not have seen yet, by explaining it for all the Etoys users all over the world! Greetings, Rita Rita Freudenberg rita(a)isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de

1 0

Re: Introductions
by jonelo 05 Dec '09

05 Dec '09

Hi all I'm new here... Well, I stumbled on this project accidently, honestly - I'm not sure how to use it (yet) , but i think it's great idea. Too bad I didn't think of it first :) Anyways, I'll stick around and learn more :) ------------------------ :) -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=14404#14404 -------------------- m2f --------------------

1 0

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

squeakland December 2009