Technology
gregladen | January 25, 2017Last October I reviewed Scratch Programming Playground, by Al Sweigart.
You will recall that Scratch is a programming language that uses drag and drop elements to construct a program.
Individual objecgts, including "sprites" that can move around on the screen, as well as static graphic elements, sounds, etc. get their own code, and this code can be set up to start under various conditions, such as when something touches something, or the user hits a certain key, etc.
This allows for the development of very simple but fun programs, and vey complicated ones as well.
Scratch is normally…
gregladen | January 17, 2017My current phone, a Google Nexus made by Motorola, is still working fine. I'm much more worried about Amanda's Samsung, which is a nightmare. The storage on that phone is used up by Samsung proprietary gunk that can't be removed, and she can't insert a microSD card because the phone will not operate as an actual phone (reliably) when there is a microSD card in it. Her "deal" at Verizon is running out soon, and I'm personally hoping she goes with the Pixel. And, eventually, I'll be in the market for an upgrade as well.
One must make proper comparisons. So I did.
The bottom line:…
gregladen | January 14, 2017Ah yes, I remember it well.
"Hammurabi, Hammurabi, I beg to report to you,
In Year 1, 0 people have starved.
101 people came to the city
The population is now 124
We harvested 4.5 bushels per acre
We planted 998 acres of wheat
But rats at 300 bushels of wheat
You now have a surplus of 1443 bushels of wheat
How many acres do yo uwish to feed to the people?
How many acres do you wish to plant with seed?
Oh, and you have died of Cholera!"
Or, this one:
Remember?
I went to a special high school, in an era when individuals and high schools alike did not have computers, but we did. Since we were a…
gregladen | December 31, 2016The Makeblock mBot Add-on Pack-Six-legged Robot V1.1 is an add on for the Makeblock DIY mBot 1.1 Kit (Bluetooth Version) - STEM Education - Arduino - Scratch 2.0 - Programmable Robot Kit for Kids to Learn Coding & Robotics - Pink or any of its variants.
The makeblock robot is an arduino technology robot. It can be controlled with a supplied controller, or operated from any of several different kinds of computing devices (such as your cell phone) using an app. It can be programmed using the Arduino interface (from a Mac, Windows or Linux computer), but the robot comes with built in…
gregladen | December 13, 2016There is really no better time to get a Raspberry Pi. The new Raspberry Pi 3 has features that make it much more useful and fun, including more speed, built in bluetooth, and built in wifi.
The Raspberry Pi is a small computer that, out of the box, lacks storage drive or device, a monitor, a screen, or a mouse, but is otherwise a fully functional computer that can run a normal operating system. It costs very little, so if you happen to have a TV or monitor that can use a component or HDMI hookup, a keyboard, a mouse, and an appropriate microSD card, then you have a computer for $39.99. If…
gregladen | December 7, 2016The CS Detective: An Algorithmic Tale of Crime, Conspiracy, and Computation by Jeremy Kubica is the tory of disgraced ex-detective and hardboiled private eye Frank Runtime.
Frank Runtime knows REGEX and is not afraid to use it.
From the publishers:
When a robbery hits police headquarters, it's up to Frank Runtime and his extensive search skills to catch the culprits. In this detective story, you'll learn how to use algorithmic tools to solve the case. Runtime scours smugglers' boats with binary search, tails spies with a search tree, escapes a prison with depth-first search, and picks locks…
gregladen | November 19, 2016I've reviewed, researched, and generally looked around for a selection of gifts that could work for kids ranging from very small to High School (and beyond!?!?) that are science oriented.
(For gifts, mainly books, for adults, see THIS.)
Coding
The best kids coding books these days are probably those that use scratch. Before suggesting a couple, though, consider, especailly for older kids (middle and high school) this fairly recent Python language book that focuses on Minecraft: Learn to Program with Minecraft: Transform Your World with the Power of PythonHERE is my review.
My favorite…
gregladen | November 11, 2016I just received two books that I will be reviewing in more detail later, but wanted to let you know about now.
Coding Projects in Scratch: A step by step guide by DK Publishers is a new scratch coding book. I got a copy a couple of days ago and have been going through it, and found it to be excellent. I'll be including it in my Science Oriented Holiday Shopping Guide for Kids Stuff, which I'll have out soon, but I wanted to give you a heads up first. From the publishers:
Using fun graphics and easy-to-follow instructions, Coding Projects in Scratch is a straightforward, visual guide that…
gregladen | November 8, 2016I am shocked that this does not happen more often.
First, don't stand anywhere near the damn tracks to begin with. That should help stop you from falling or being pushed onto the tracks, unless you are a friend of Frank Underwood.
Here's what you do, these two things simultaneously.
1) Get out of the way of any oncoming train, preferably by diving under the platform if there is room for you there.
2) Stay away from the third rail.
Note that the space between trains, if two trains are coming at the same time from opposite directions, may not be sufficient for you to hide. But if I had to be…
gregladen | October 28, 2016Scratch Programming Playground: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games is a brand new offering from No Starch Press.
Never mind all the other programming books for kids, this is the best so far.
It helps that the Scratch Programming environment is so easy to use and allows such creative development, and it also helps that Scratch is likely to be a programming environment for basic robotics in the future (as I discuss briefly here). But the book itself is excellent, and works at several levels. A young kid working with an adult, a medium level kid working on their own, or an adult playing…
gregladen | October 25, 2016I had a good printer experience, and I thought I should pass it on to you.
Printers are, of course, the spawn of Satan. Especially the ink jet kind.
For a long time, I had a cheap black and white laser, which worked OK for non color stuff, and an inkjet all in one, which was handy but cost a lot to keep in ink.
When Huxley, at about age 5, figure out how to use the all in one as a photo copy machine or to print photos off an SD card (both functions I had not explored, but he figured out on his own), he incorporated the all-in-one into his artistic work flow, which involved making computer…
gregladen | October 25, 2016Lenovo makes two Phablets that are similar, the 4G and the 4G plus. The latter is not bigger (in fact, it is a little smaller) but rather, has higher specs all around, making it a fairly expensive device. But the Lenovo PHAB 4G Phablet (regular) is practically free and is actually rather Phabulous.
OK, well, not fee, but about 170 bucks or so, except now closer to $130 from Gearbest. (As far as I know this is the only place to get it. Gearbest has a very large selection of Lenovo phones and phablets, as well as a high diversity of generally very affordable tablets.)
So, I tried out the…
gregladen | October 18, 2016I have another tablet review for you. (See the bottom of the post for some followup on my last review.) This is a "tablet PC" meaning a tablet that runs a full on PC operating system, as opposed to a tablet-oriented operating system.
With the keyboard (not supplied, buy separately).
The Jumper EZpad 5SE Tablet PC is a pretty high performance tablet with an exceptionally low cost, and worth a look especially if you are a Windows user. The tablet comes with Windows 10, and a most notably, a magic "magnetic stylus."
The screen and stylus use electromagnetic technology. So, you can…
gregladen | October 13, 2016Andy Lee Robinson started the recent trend of making compelling graphics about climate change that move. He did a version of the Arctic Ice Death Spiral (a term coined by Joe Romm), which was highly acclaimed but that did not go as viral as it should have at the time. Then, a version with additive ribbon graphs about three years ago. He called that the "waterfall diagram" and it was picked up and used by the BBC at the time. Not long after, he came up with the disappearing block of ice motif. And now, Andy has an updated version, here:
This is ice VOLUME, not the oft cited surface area.…
gregladen | October 12, 2016First, for the record, I want one. But, since my current smart phone is a Nexus 6, I don't need one yet. I'm fine for a while.
Google essentially invented Android, and the Nexus phones were pretty close to being Google phones, but they were not. They were simply very well designed and powerful smart phones that generally came with unadulterated Android, and likely to work best with Android because of Google's involvement.
The new Google Pixel is an actual Google phone. So, this is a bit like the iPhone of the Android world, in the sense that there is excellent and carefully engineered…
gregladen | October 11, 2016... or furniture, or whatever.
I really needed one of these a few months ago. And I feel the need coming again soon as I do things to the walls of our new house, now and then.
The Color Muse is not a new technology or a new idea. It is a very expensive technology suddenly available for a few bucks.
The Color Muse is simply a hand held spectrometer that interfaces with your smart phone. You use it to get info about a color of wall paint (or something similar) that you can then take to the hardware store and match.
If you chunk out a bit of the wall, you can have the hardware store do it,…
gregladen | September 19, 2016Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach explores, from a scientific perspective, the gear, technologies, and methods used to keep soldiers alive, or at least less injured, overheated, starved or thirsted to death, killed by gasses, and so on.
Roach is a well known and quite funny science writer who also wrote Stiff, Bonk, and Gulp.
This is a fun book, well researched, engagingly written, and informative. Also, off beat. Does human blood really draw sharks? What is the virtue of maggots, medicinally? How does the military test dangerous devices and the protections against…
gregladen | September 16, 2016As of October 11th: Samsung is now recalling ALL Galaxy Note 7 Phones. The previous recall and replacement program failed, the phone is basically dangerous, don't use it, get rid of it, make them give you a new one.
In my view. Samsung should be providing cash back for the phones so people can buy whatever phone they want. That seems to be an option but I doubt they will actually do this for many customers. You can try, though!
Here is the latest information from Samsung.
WARNING As of October 10th or so, it is now known that Samsung phones other than those recalled are ALSO OVERHEATING…
gregladen | September 12, 2016I've been testing out the Teclast Tbook 16 Pro 2 in 1 Tablet PC. I think the emerging term for this kind of device is "2 in 1" because if configured one way it is a small notebook computer, configured the other way, it is a standard tablet.
First, a bit of philosophy. When Apple and others invented the iPod Touch and various Smart Phones, it seemed obvious that a larger version of such a device might be helpful. So they went ahead and invented tablets. And tablets are cool. But, as often happens in technology, extreme coolness came to stand in for "the next big thing" in all applications.…
gregladen | September 11, 2016This looks like a fun project. I think it works so well, or at least, seams to in the video because LEDs are so damn efficient.
I would make it somewhat differently, but this is good. For one thing, I'd probably make it out of an LED flashlight, swapping out the batteries for a motor.
And then, when you have your flashlight ready, you can do this!
(Hat tip: David Cassatt)