squeakland September 2009

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20 participants
48 discussions

Sierpinski
by Hilaire Fernandes 27 Sep '09

27 Sep '09

If you drop the following changeset in an Etoys image preloaded with DrGeo, you can compute "interactive" arbitrary Sierpinski triangle. I found this example in a Math textbook about exponentiation. Mini user guide: - Drag and drop latest DrGeo http://www.squeaksource.com/DrGeoII/DrGeoII-HilaireFernandes.155.mcz in Etoys - Drag and drop enclosed Sierpinski.st changeset in the same Etoys - Alt+Shift+W to save enhanced image - Open worksapce with Ctrl+k, and evaluate 'Sierpinski n: 4' -- http://blog.ofset.org/hilaire

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Re: [squeakland] ranking system is live
by Timothy Falconer 25 Sep '09

25 Sep '09

Hi everyone, The term "mojo" has been removed from the website, replaced by "points". Sorry folks, I did ask about about a dozen people and none of them thought mojo meant more than the sixties meaning. One did mention Austin Powers. Tim On Sep 25, 2009, at 4:58 AM, Cathleen Galas wrote: > Hi everyone, > > Although I was going to be out of touch this week, I do feel > compelled to weigh-in on the use of "mojo" on a children's site. I > agree with Rita that it has no place here. > > Here is the definition from the urban dictionary: > Mojo 797 up, 114 down <thumbsup.gif> <thumbsdown.gif> > The word originally means a charm or a spell. But now its more > commonly said meaning sex appeal or talent. > "I can get any girl if I just use a bit of the old mojo" > > "Man, that girl has MOJO!" > > "God help me, I think I've lost my mojo!" > When I put "mojo" in a thesarus search, it came up with two entries: > cocaine and heroin. > > I think this says it all. Is this the image we want EToys to > project to the world? I think there might be a few naive teachers > who don't know the meanings, but will soon when bombarded with > parents upset by the use of the word. > > Even though karma is being used by unix geeks, I wouldn't use that > word either, but would certainly prefer it to mojo. I think it is > entirely inappropriate to use mojo on this site. Please send me a > ballot so that I can vote No on mojo! > > Cathie > > On Sep 23, 2009, at 10:02 PM, Timothy Falconer wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> The "mojo filter" ranking system is live. There are likely still >> kinks. >> >> A brief description can be found here: >> >> http://squeakland.org/showcase/mojo.jsp >> >> To receive ballots, you must have an account and you must click >> "send me ballots". >> >> For those that received the first wave of ballots, the screenshot >> link was bad, but is hopefully now fixed. >> >> Have fun, >> Tim >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> squeakland mailing list >> squeakland(a)squeakland.org >> http://lists.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland > > Cathleen Galas > Galas Consulting > www.cathleengalas.com > 7960B Soquel Drive, #296 > Aptos, California 95003 > (831) 688-4144 > cathleengalas(a)cathleengalas.com > cgalas(a)comcast.net > > <Picture 12.png> >

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Re: Introductions
by mrsteve 25 Sep '09

25 Sep '09

I have always been fascinated by how kids learn and think. I studied Mathematics Education (because they did not offer a course Computer Education) and had the pleasure of learning from Bob Davis, while he was at Rutgers. I am teaching courses to kids (from ages 8 to 12) on how to program. After looking at Python, eToys, Alice, and Scratch, I finally chose eToys as the best vehicle. As the kids get older, I plan to transition them to Squeak and perhaps some Python. I am interested in: Helping kids develop "Tools to Think With" Discovering interesting problems that can be used with eToys to teach kids to think and introduce them to programming Using games as a vehicle to motivate kids to learn (I tell the kids we are going to play games and learn to create games, and tell the parents they are learning programming) I have four kids that we homeschool, so I get plenty of practice. During the day I support my wife and four kids by working as a Software Consultant and ran my own Software Consulting company for 10+ years. I also attempted and failed at starting a Not-for-Profit, that was based on a business model where we actually made our own money to support our causes. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot, including what I am not good at. I have a love science and math and have a strong faith in God, its one of the many seeming paradoxes I have learned to live with, but I keep questioning and seeking while having a lot of fun along the way. -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11328#11328 -------------------- m2f --------------------

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ranking system suggestions (from kathleen)
by Timothy Falconer 24 Sep '09

24 Sep '09

Kathleen, Thanks for your questions and suggestions! Comments below... On Sep 24, 2009, at 10:11 AM, <kharness(a)illinois.edu> wrote: > Good Morning All, > I have been trying to wade through all of these ballots and I have > several comments and questions. > 1. Tim's note below said 20 projects but I have 46 and some are > duplicates so, can the flow be adjusted to eliminate the duplicates? This is likely a bug. I've logged it as http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-436 After this initial "big bang", you'll receive ballots one at a time, so the "flow" will be lessened (though we still need to prevent duplicates). > 2. The voting page in a project is not clear, those little up/down > arrows lead to a page that says page redirect not available. This is also a bug ... http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-432. For now, click more slowly on the arrows. > 3. I thought region meant the region where the author lives and it > does not seem like something we should vote on or change. And why > would I 'approve' with a number the Subject category someone has > already selected for their project? See my comment to Cherry on the squeakland mailing list. Ultimately region ranking may be discarded, but I put it in to be consistent. Sometimes people come up with new uses for things that we can't anticipate. At any rate, it governs how things are sorted within a region, which may yet be useful when we have sub-regions, like "Brasil". Approve means "allow people to see the project on the website". It's a filter for inappropriate content, not a voting mechanism. This will be made clearer. > 4. How will this ranking work over time, the people who have been > 'approved' will 'approve' others will similar interests and styles > and it will skew the results so that for example, war games creators > give higher marks to other war game creators who in turn have more > influence. What checks and balances are there? Please explain the > algorithm sooner rather than later to all at one time. Rankers are chosen randomly, with a bias towards people with higher "mojo", which is an indication of their contributions to the showcase (both projects and taking the time to rank) > 5. When I was looking at Bert's Farbkunsts and clicked on the up > arrow by Region, it took me to Karl's Snake project launch page. Why > did this happen and what does it mean? I really do need help to > understand how to use the tools. Please explain in detail, as I am > unfamiliar with all of this. You found another of my late night bugs ... http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-431 I'll be making a screencast to explain the ranking system soon. For now, this is a family test :) > 6. What are the criteria for the points awarded? How high many can I > award? 10? 100? I am not sure this is useful, nor how the points are > used and used by whom? If the points just accumulated by the > 'approve' vote wouldn't that be enough. Will the points show beside > the project name or picture or flash inside the project so people > know they are looking at a very POPULAR project or one that only a > few liked? How many people need to approve a project? How many need > to un-approve and does this mean my vote would cancel that of > someone who had already approved. Maybe showing the number of times > a project is accessed by visitors could help people choose a project > to look at. Even this though denigrates ideas that are worthy, but > just not popular. Projects that model bio-medical-engineering topics > will have their audience as will the ones that are about the Braatz > and how will the rankings account for the range of ages and interests? Ten rankers are chosen for each new project, based upon previous effort, so it's not based on popularity. Each criteria can be given points ranging from 10 to -10. No evidence of a projects rank is shown on the website, except its relative position on "view by rank" and within the individual categories and tags. Authors are never even told of their project ranks, though there is an indicator of an accounts "relative mojo", though this isn't tied to projects entirely ... mojo is also given to rankers and commenters for simply contributing. > 7. I have qualms about popularity contests see #4 above. I have also > noticed that when we start ranking winners with children that there > are a few who are winners, first place, second place, third place, > that's three people and now what about the work of the other > thousand children who didn't win. Do we teach them to label > themselves Not-a-Winner? I am not a winner, say that enough times to > yourself and feel it inside. I remember your point of view from the Waveplace Awards, and factored your thoughts into the ranking system. This is one of the chief reasons that accounts cannot see their own project ranks. It's a filter, not a contest. > 8. Some of the screens did not let me Approve but only offered the > Un-Approve option. So does this mean someone else has already > approved this one and no one else can, or does it mean I can > unapprove/cancel another person's vote? It's a toggle button. If you see "Un-Approve", then someone has already approved it for view on the website. I'll make this clearer. > 9. The comments so far lead me to think that the comment-ors believe > they are offering constructive criticisms that the project designer > will then use to revise and 'improve' to meet the suggestions. If I > upload a project to the site, it will be one I have finished and it > says what I meant it to say. Comments will not be useful. This is > not a teaching moment. Besides which, there are giants among us > whose skills are far beyond mine and it would be presumptuous to > comment on projects I can only marvel at and wish like fury that I > knew enough to do something so wonderful. The commenting system on Scratch is used very effectively for offering tips on how to make projects better. The education team did suggest a "don't give me feedback" checkbox, but we didn't have time to put it into Etoys. Maybe next time. > 10. If I click the up/down arrows by Points, I don't see a change > just a message Could not find redirect page. This is the bug I mentioned up in #2. > 11. Where will the Tags show and is there a search box so all these > fields can be accessed? You can click "view by tags" to see tags, or you can click a tag on a project page to see other projects with that tag. > Is this just a trial run, or is this how it is going out to the > general public? This whole process is very complicated and I want to > participate but I really do not know what to do. What if nobody > approves my projects does that mean I am not part of this anymore? My apologies, I should have made the screencast before turning the system on. If no one clicks "Approve" on your project, than it won't show on the showcase. At least one human must say, "This is good to show." That was a decision by the ed team, to screen all content before going public with it. We can revisit that decision if it's deemed too cumbersome. Our thinking was that it's more important to prevent inappropriate content than to get a quicker response. Users can still see their projects when logged in, and soon, "groups" and "friends" will be able to see un-approved projects as well. "Approve" really means "Make Public". Thank you very much for your detailed comments and willingness to help. Take care, Tim

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ranking system suggestions
by Timothy Falconer 24 Sep '09

24 Sep '09

Cherry, thank you for your suggestions! Comments below. On Sep 24, 2009, at 3:35 AM, Cherry Withers wrote: > Hi Tim, > > Initial feedback: > > - When I hit the project ranking arrows for Karl's "Snake Game" it > opens up the project file itself. I would have to then > close the entire window, go back to "sure I'll help" and see the > ranking. This happened a couple of times before I can finally just > change the ranking "on the fly" without it opening up the project > file itself. This might be related to a bug I found late last night: http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-431 You can "watch" the issue if you'd like to see when it's fixed. > - Is there a way to just type in the number? With proper guidance on > the side for what the min and max are. The screen seems to refresh > each time I click the arrows. I considered that . . . ultimately we'll have multiple categories for subject, etc. Having that many fields would complicate things. I might be able to do a drop-down. My goal was to have the numbers change in the database without the user needing to submit the form each time. I can get fancier with something called Ajax, but chose not to spend the time now. I've logged your suggestion as: http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-433 > - For projects that have global use, do we rank the regional portion > zero? I honestly don't know. I suspect most people will leave region alone, but I put in the vote thing to be consistent. This will likely make more sense when we get sub-regions added to the database. > - Can you possibly provide guidance on what a "fair" rating for each > number means? For instance: > > 0-2 : Means the project meets an education requirement but is > lacking adequate instructions for use. > 3-5: The project meets several education requirements/standards but > needs improvement on ease of use, etc. > etc. etc. Sounds like a good task for the squeakland education team, or the larger community. I can include whatever people come up with in the ballot emails. What do you think everyone? The numbers all go from -10 to 10 .... what should we suggest as criteria for rankers? By the way, other known showcase bugs: http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-430 ... error doesn't show when someone clicks through another's ballot http://tracker.squeakland.org/browse/SQ-432 .. clicking rank arrows too quickly gives error I'll be taking a break for a bit, but these should be easy fixes on Monday. Take care, Tim

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ranking system is live
by Timothy Falconer 24 Sep '09

24 Sep '09

Hi everyone, The "mojo filter" ranking system is live. There are likely still kinks. A brief description can be found here: http://squeakland.org/showcase/mojo.jsp To receive ballots, you must have an account and you must click "send me ballots". For those that received the first wave of ballots, the screenshot link was bad, but is hopefully now fixed. Have fun, Tim

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oops (bad ballots)
by Timothy Falconer 23 Sep '09

23 Sep '09

Hi everyone, Just made a mistake going live with the ranking system. Forgot which box I was on, so several of you got bad ballots. Please ignore them. Thanks, Tim

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Callling all Northern CA Etoys users/practitioners
by CherryW 22 Sep '09

22 Sep '09

Hi guys, Isn't it time we get something started in NorCal? Anyone interested in meeting up? E-mail me at: cherry.withers(a)gmail.com Cheers, Cherry San Jose, CA -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11256#11256 -------------------- m2f --------------------

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Apple Iphone 3G-s 32gb/Nokia N97/N95/N93i and more F/sale
by chrisduno 21 Sep '09

21 Sep '09

CORBIN-STORE has now become one of the fastest growing retailers of all kind of electronics products on the WEB.We have list of mobile available for sale brand new orginal. Specifically, we can supply Mobile phones (GSM and CDMA), Video Games ,Apple I pods , Iphone , HTC, Nokia / Sony Ericsson and many more. Location:- USA and UK Warehouse:- USA and UK Shipment Courier Service:- UPS,Fedex and USPS Payment Mode:- (Please Contact) (Our Apple Iphone 3G-s 32gb) Size Dimensions 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm Weight 135 g Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors Size 320 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches Multi-touch input method Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate Proximity sensor for auto turn-off Scratch-resistant surface Sound Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones Speakerphone Yes 3.5 mm headset jack Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall Call records 100 received, dialed and missed calls Internal 16 GB/ 32 GB storage, 256 MB RAM Card slot No Data GPRS Yes HSCSD No EDGE Yes 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, headset support only Infrared port No USB Yes, v2.0 Camera Primary 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus Features Touch focus, geo-tagging Video Yes, VGA@30fps, video geo-tagging Secondary No Features OS iPhone OS (based on Mac OS) CPU ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email Browser HTML (Safari) Radio No Games Downloadable, incl.. motion-based Colors Black, White GPS Yes, with A-GPS support Java No Digital compass Google Maps Audio/video player TV-out Voice command/dial Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion Stand-by Up to 300 h Talk time Up to 12 h (2G) / Up to 5 h (3G) Music play Up to 30 h Price- $400 (negotiable when buying more than one unit) We also have some other list of products we have so if you need any other mobile just send us an email we can give you the details including price. Note:- We sell only brand new mobiles. Sales Manager. Chris (Email Address:- chriscorbinstore(a)hotmail.com also on MSN. chriscorbinstore(a)yahoo.com also on YM Send us an email today or come online and chatt for your enquiries. -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11196#11196 -------------------- m2f --------------------

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Re: Existing English Language Dictionary Project?
by Torkuato38 19 Sep '09

19 Sep '09

When we talk about the Squeak programming language it is a Smalltalk implementation, derived directly from Smalltalk-80 by a group at Apple Computer that included some of the original Smalltalk-80 developers. Its development was continued by the same group at Walt Disney Imagineering, where it was intended for use in internal Disney projects. Some Squeak users[who?] refer to Squeak as a programming language rather than as a Smalltalk implementation. It is object-oriented, class-based, and reflective. You can use it but you'll using other sites not the squeakland. :o ________________ Freelance writing (http://www.suite101.com/freelance_writing_jobs/) -------------------- m2f -------------------- (from forum) http://squeakland.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11186#11186 -------------------- m2f --------------------

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squeakland September 2009