A fun 2D physics sandbox

But it’s really hard to describe. Checkout screenshots and the especially the video on the media page.

I could see this being a neat education tool to explore gravity, motion, etc… I’ll certainly be installing this on the kids computer (Linux download available!) so they can tinker! I originally suspected he used Flash but not according to the site:

Phun was coded in C++ using OpenGL, GLEW, SDL (for window management), SDL_image (for reading images) and boost, including boost_filesystem. Everything was coded by me, including the physics engine and user interface.

Very cool!

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• Programming For Kids - New DZone Site

I just posted my first article there titled “Getting Started - Kid Friendly Programming Software“

If you are interested in helping your kids learn programming skills check it out - and even better - contribute something so we can all learn together!

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• Time Waster - Phun (A fun 2D physics sandbox)

Both my kids got WebKinz for Christmas. They also got a new computer which I discuss here.

When we finally found some time to ‘register’ the Webkinz I found out where all the old Flash programmers who no longer program those idiotic splash screens go to die…

First - we booted up the kid’s new computer (running Edubuntu) and tried there. No go even though I had just installed the latest version of Flash. They had some form of captha going on and we couldn’t see the letters. Reading their ‘help’ section - they suggested NOT using AOL and upgrading to Internet Explorer 7.

This is when I suspected things were going to go downhill.

And indeed they did as we trundled off downstairs - the kids clutching their Webkinz and their father mumbling obscenities under his breath about Microsoft and Flash.

We cranked up my wife’s PC (Windows XP) and logged in as one of my daughters. Using IE7 we clicked through the tedious registration screens and… WTF - still no letters! I then updated Flash on my wife’s computer. Back through the registration. Still no letters! For kicks I tried Firefox. No letters.

By this time the kids had wondered off and I was mentally composing an email to WebKinz composed of nothing but 4 letter words…

Next I decided to try to login as myself as both the kid’s accounts are limited. Again, I clicked through the registration screens and this time was greeted with a hazy, difficult to read captcha. Success!

I have no idea why this didn’t work using the kid’s accounts or for that matter on Edubuntu. All in all - it was a tedious, painful experience that could have just as easily been done in HTML using a few simple forms and been cross browser/platform compatible and the only thing we would have missed was an annoying talking duck.

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I just saw on Andy Jarret’s blog that Norad has teamed up with Google this year to provide Santa tracking!! I’ve blogged about the slow Norad site before but hopefully this year Google can provide enough bandwidth for the planet

The Google Earth integration is truly awesome!

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Tonight I started to tinker with it in preparation of sticking it under the tree. The hardware seems decent. The OS it ships with ‘gOS‘ is not so hot. Out of the box the UI is really horrible and I found it completely unintuitive. I couldn’t figure out how to easily change the resolution, then I accidentally blew away the dock menu and couldn’t figure out how to restore it. Apparently this is based on the Enlightenment window manager. Why they picked this over something like Gnome or XFCE I have no idea. It is REALLY unfriendly. After about 10 minutes I finally said screw it and am downloading Edubuntu. This should provide a more ‘Windows’ like UI which they are familiar with while providing me a familiar interface.

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I got everything setup - it wasn’t too difficult but it did take some time to RTFM, experiment a bit and get everything configured correctly. Once I get it setup I thought it worked pretty good. It had news, an event calendar, etc. Nice. Or so I thought. Then one day I was talking to my wife and she politely informed me no one liked the new site.

“Everyone says the new site sucks” she said.

OK. Not really. But that’s how I interpreted it!!

She said people had mentioned it was ‘too complicated’.

So I had to backpedal a bit. What to do? Try another CMS? There are literally zillions of open source, free PHP based CMS systems.

Then I started looking at my blog and wondering why I couldn’t use WordPress? After digging through all the available plugs - I quickly made the decision to give it a shot, and once again WordPress amazed me in it’s flexibility and ease of use.

So it still took me some time - again to RTFM, find all the required plugins and get things setup and content transfered over - but in the end I’ve gotten very positive feedback about the new site. Management is also easy for me - the WordPress UI is dead simple, and if I ever need to turn the reigns over to someone else I feel comfortable knowing I can get someone up to speed on things very quickly.

If you are interested the site is here: http://www.hollygrovepta.org

Update:

Here is a quick list of plugins I used:

• cforms II - contact form
• Event Calendar (and widget) - events
• File icons - for newsletter and other uploaded docs
• Random quotes - Used to show volunteer opportunities in sidebar

There are a zillion themes out there - finding one suitable for your site is a matter of personal taste. I tried a lot of 3 column themes before settling on the current Cutline theme. Some were not widget ready. Some were poorly coded. But since switching themes in WordPress is so simple - it is very easy to try out a theme and if you don’t like it - delete it!

When looking at plugins - think outside the box. I had a huge list of volunteer opportunities I wanted to present - but wasn’t sure how best to display them without overwhelming viewers. When I was browsing through some plugins I stumbled upon the random quote plugin and discovered I could use that to display a random volunteer opportunity in the sidebar!

Otherwise some minor CSS editing and I was done. One neat thing I would check out - is how the Cutline them allows you to use a ‘custom’ CSS file so that you can customize your theme - without altering the original files. Then if you upgrade the them - you will not have to worry about overwriting the modified CSS.

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• My Old Blogs - The Wayback Machine
• Pardon The Dust
• Text Link Ads - Warning

The site is getting hammered right now as this story was on Digg and the BBC site but it looks interesting, especially if you have kids. Abby loves working on the computer - and especially likes creative programs like TuxPaint. I’m certainly going to check this out. The BBC article also mentions HacketyHack which calls itself “the Coder’s Starter Kit”. Its built around Ruby and appears targeted at slightly older kids than Scratch.

Remember the days of plugging in the old Commodore into the TV set for some late night monochromatic programming. Those were the days!

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The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges’ house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state’s “safe” level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter. The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a “low-ball” estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room.

Mercury is nasty stuff. We have a few of these bulbs in our house and I’ll probably replace more but going forward I will take into consideration the potential of the light getting broken - always a possibility with kids in the house! Floor and desk lamps, and other ‘risky’ lights will get conventional bulbs. Lights in fans, and on the ceiling will get the CFLs.

The important thing is if a bulb DOES break - take precautions when you clean up the mess!

This EPA Fact Sheet (PDF) from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association has this warning:

Safe cleanup precautions: If a CFL breaks in your home, open nearby windows to disperse any vapor that may escape, carefully sweep up the fragments (do not use your hands) and wipe the area with a disposable paper towel to remove all glass fragments. Do not use a vacuum. Place all fragments in a sealed plastic bag and follow disposal instructions above.

If you vacuum the broken bulb - the mercury will contaminate your vacuum as well as be blown all over. You don’t want to do this! The PDF above also has some resources on recycling bulbs which is going to become another issue as more and more people make the switch.

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Zoo - 1/2007

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If I were in charge of the world I’d
Make kids drive the car
Make more candy and less healthy food
No more caviteys.

If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn’t have to go to school or have any homework
You wouldn’t have to a babysitter
You wouldn’t get in trouble for writing on the wall
Or I could blame it on my sister
If I were in charge of the world.

(written by my 7 year old daughter for a homework assignment)

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