Google Summer of Code

Here's another great way to encourage or support Sakai OpenSource development, too!

Google's Summer of Code: http://code.google.com/soc/

Bottom line:  Student earns $5000 (and a tee-shirt!) for a successful summer project contributing to one of many open source activities. Read the FAQ at http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2011/faqs .

Student application deadline is 8 April.

From the FAQ, Google Summer of Code has several goals:

1. Create and release open source code for the benefit of all
2. Inspire young developers to begin participating in open source development
3. Help open source projects identify and bring in new developers and committers
4. Provide students the opportunity to do work related to their academic pursuits during the summer (think "flip bits, not burgers")
5. Give students more exposure to real-world software development scenarios (e.g., distributed development, software licensing questions, mailing-list etiquette)
6. If you are a student with a "geekier" nature, please consider applying.
7. If you are a professor and have a student who shows talent for making the stuff behind the stuff work, please encourage that student to consider applying.

Re-Post: Dealzmodo Hack: Make Your Old USB Stick Into a Digital Multitool

Cool idea to revive the use of (old) USB drives: http://gizmodo.com/5101651/dealzmodo-hack-make-your-old-usb-stick-into-a-digital-multitool?skyline=true&s=i

With 8GB flash drives available for under $20 and 32GB drives edging into the mainstream, nobody can blame you for shelving old USB sticks. But there are a surprising number of uses for those rickety, sub-gigabyte keychains.

There are nearly endless ways to bring a USB stick out of retirement, and they're not just gimmicks: virtually all USB sticks, 32MB USB 1.1 dinosaurs included, can be repurposed into anything from a lifesaving troubleshooting tool to an entire portable OS. Here are your best options ...

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

http://mashable.com/2008/06/18/meez-virtal-worl/

I'm not surprised. Second Life couldn't have the market share all of the time ... and it's nice to know that it's going to be more than hands typing on an invisible keyboard ...

"Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they’ve always wanted. Meez Nation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars. [...] Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there’s chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters “;” and “)” into Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in “rofl” and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing."

Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids -- and spells out 5 (and really, he's got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

This talk comes from TED University 2007, a pre-conference program where TEDsters share ideas.

MIT Sketching -- Now Technology Helps Teach!

This has got to be one of the coolest, most useful teaching tools I've seen in quite a while. It is not only a method of teaching, notetaking, and/or concept designing, but it does it in a way that is natural to that way we often describe or try to do things. Consider this, have you ever tried to explain an idea or device and ultimately just grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and drew it?

That's what this MIT professor has done. As my Mechanical Engineering boyfriend pointed out, I'm sure there are all kinds of settings that have to be set (gravity, friction, etc.) before it can be used as demonstrated, but as a relatively simple start to exploring statics (think buildings) and dynamics (think spinning wheels), it's a pretty cool way to go. The best part is that you wouldn't necessarily have to set up the room with actual carts spinning down ramps. (Which can be really time consuming and a bit chaotic!)



Le Boyfriend, has also suggested for further interest into virtual prototyping software, you'll want to check out Working Model 2D and/or Adams.

Faceresearch.org is Interesting and Interactive!

Face Research: http://www.faceresearch.org/

Per the website:

FaceResearch.org allows you to participate in short online psychology experiments looking at the traits people find attractive in faces and voices. Register to participate in experiments if this is your first time at FaceResearch.org or login if you have been here before.

Make your own average faces with our new interactive demos!

In addition to participating in facial attractiveness experiments, you can also complete lifestyle and personality questionnaires about characteristics that may be associated with face and voice preferences and see how you compare to others. We post all our study results after we have finished collecting data.

You can also learn about our computer-graphic technology and read about some of the findings of our previous studies.

Take part in an online questionnaire about Drinking Water and Soft Drinks by Moira Cruickshank, a student who is learning to program online experiments with us.

20 Tools For Creating Your Own Games

20 Tools For Creating Your Own Games

This is AWESOME! Forget Second Life! Make your own RPG or Flash-based game without any knowledge of programming necessary. I think I'm going to try to add this as an FDI workshop to the Spring/Summer roster.

The best part? The storyboarding and writing (because everyone knows that good games come from good writing).

How fun!

Are You a Righty- or a Lefty-Brain Thinker?

I don't know if this is true or not, but it's a fun little thing to try out. Here is a little test to see if you are a right-brain or left-brain thinker. Here is what you do.

1. What is your immediate reaction to whether the person is moving counter-clockwise or clockwise in the picture?








2. If your first reaction was counter-clockwise, you are a left-brain thinker. If your first reaction was clockwise, you are a right-brain thinker.

FYI: I’m a right-brain thinker, apparently. That actually surprised me, but then I thought about how I approach a lot of problems and it suddenly seemed very plausible.

I went ahead and stared at it for another 30 seconds--BINGO!--I got it moving in the other direction. It really reminded me of those autostereograms that were so popular back in the 90's; you really have to relax your mind and visual to allow for that switch to take place.

Many thanks to Ryan Bretag for the link to this little mind bender.

R U a Right Clicka' or an iBook Flippa'?

This has to be one of the best (music) videos I've seen in a long time that does a great job of highlighting and poking fun of both sides.

PC and Mac fans, R U a Right Clicka' or an iBook Flippa'?



Enjoy!