Evaluation

PART ONE: WHAT WE DID
Rating for each out of 5

Guest speaker: Rosemary about Timor Leste (was away)
Guest speak: Joel about the xo 3/5
Physics 5/5
SVG icon and Linux command line 5/5
Turtle Art 5/5

Other activity evaluation 4/5

Etoys 4/5

Scratch 4/5

Three things I learnt:

This semester I learnt some interesting skills and things such as how to control an object in Scratch and Etoys. Another thing I learnt was how to use the command line in XO to hack it and change the icon of the XO to an image of your choice. Another thing I learn was how to import new games into Sugar.

Three things I enjoyed:

Some things I enjoyed about this semester were playing with the XO command line and learning how to hack an OS for the first time. Something else I enjoyed was using Turtle Art to make shapes using a certain command, Turtle Art was very fun and made me concentrate in class more because I wanted to learn how to complete the complex shapes. The most enjoyable activity this semester was playing with the Physics activity in Sugar. It was fun because you can make your own shapes and play with them. It is also fun because it is an activity you can play with your classmates.

Three things I didn’t like:

There were three things I didn’t like in this semester they were the speeches from Joel about XO because I don’t like listening about the XO and would rather play around with the XO myself. Something else I didn’t enjoy about this semester was Scratch because it got very repetitive and boring which resulted in a lot of slacking in class. Something which I liked a little but disliked a bit is the Etoys activity because it was interesting but when I couldn’t get something to work the way I wanted it to made me frustrated and furious. It was a reason I was slack in class for one lesson.

The best thing I done this semester:

In this semester the best thing I done was command line because I learn something useful and interesting. I have always wanted to learn about hacking and now I have finally experienced it using the command line.

The worse thing I done this semester:

The worse thing I done was listening to Joel talk about the XO because it was boring I could have done something better in that one lesson.

The most interesting thing I don’t this semester:

The most interesting thing I done this semester was again the command line because it was difficult but also interesting to solve and work out. Making the XO get replaced with your own image was interesting. Something I wonder is how much can you change of the XO. I have only been able to change the XO image with mine and also change how the activities are sort out.

The most difficult part of this semester:

The most difficult part of this semester was using Etoys because it was hard to find where everything was and I stuffed up a lot. It was also hard because when I tried to save it would crash and I would have to start again. It made it hard to complete my task; therefore this was the most difficult part in this semester.

4) Is the XO and OLPC a good idea? My opinions and reasons:

The XO and OLPC is a good idea for children developing in the world because it gives them a cheap and portable computer which they can use. It is also good because they can learn to use a more simple structure of a computer before they develop to use a computer when they can afford one. It is also good because it is durable and in the developing world conditions can be harsh but the XO will be able to take it. PART TWO: USER INTERFACE
Complete a variety of labelled screenshots which illustrate the differences between these user interfaces

Part Two: User Interface

Windows (WIMP – windows, icons, menus, pointers – as in MSOffice 2003)
Windows (ribbons, contextual tabs, galleries – as in MSOffice 2007)

Sugar (Frame replaces menubar, Journal replaces file system hierarchy, Community – didn’t work for us,)

Linux command line (similar to DOS)

Which user interface do you prefer. Rate them in order. Give reasons.

Office 2007 Ribbon interface: I prefer office 2007 over 2003 because the ribbon is set out very neatly and has previews of things which you are going to use. Also it has categories which I prefer a lot because it is easy to find everything.

Office 2003 WIMP interface: I like this interface because it is nicely spread out and I had a few years in experience using it. Although it is set out neatly I prefer 2007 more.

Linux command line: This can be quite interesting if you’re interested in hacking because u can control and change everything. I was interested that is why I liked it but if you’re not into doing things like hacking it can be boring.

Sugar interface: This was very boring because it didn’t look appealing and the icons had no names to them until you moved your mouse over them. Although they have good icons I don’t really like Sugar.

PART THREE: THE FUTURE

What will the UI look like when you are 30 years old?

It would look like my picture above where u are standing/sitting and you are able to move pictures files and everything with your hand and you have no mouse or keyboard and it can be voice activated and u can move an item from one screen to another.

Scratch and Etoys challenge

Today in my control tech class, our teacher suprised us with a challenge. The challenge was to make the same activity on two seperate programs which are both complete different but use the same concept of scripts. The two programs were Etoys and Sratch. We paired up in partners and one on each program to solve the challenge.

I work with Air-Sok and I (dude) was on Scratch and Air-Sok was on Etoys. Air-Sok and I choose the activity of making a picture move towards the mouse and also glide where ever we clicked.

First ill start with what I did on scratch then later move to Air-Soks challenge.

Here is the object I used for this challenge. (Default Scratch image)
Scratch was simple to finish the activity because it was supposed to be done on scratch.
Here are my scripts that i used to make it.

The first script is used so the picture would move when I clicked on a certain spot. I used the glide because if I didn't the picture would just blink to the spot instead of slowly going there. The 0.2 seconds is used for the ammount of time it takes for the script to move to that spot.

The second script is used so the picture would follow the mouse where ever it was.

Using scratch was very easy and simple because i've already done it before, I just had to remember how to use scratch which took around 5 minutes but after that I got it all. Using Scratch to do this challenge was easy because you are able to manipulate the boxes like in script 1 where I could apply the mouse X and Y coordinates.

On etoys the task was surprisingly harder then I expected it would be. The etoys layout is quite badly set out which made it very difficult to find the correct commands to script the objects.

Below will display the scripts that I used to script the objects:

The first script makes the arrow point towards the yellow dot that appears when I click on the playfield with my mouse. The arrow will stop when it touches the yellow dot and moves again once the dot is moved to a different location on the playfield.

The second script enables the yellow dot to follow the x and y coordinates of the mouse when it is clicked on the playfield.

The biggest problem I faced during this task was that the layout and structure to link commands was very unorganised and does not provide enough assistance within the activity to help you along.

Overall the task was generally not very hard but the layout of the activity just delays your productivity while doing a project in etoys.

After assessing both of these programs Air sok and I have come to the conclusion that Scratch is a much better program due to its ease of use, well set out help page online and better adaptability to link various commands together.

New Activity

Today Wednesday the 14/11/09 my control tech tried out some new activities on Sugar OS. I tried a game called bargame, it was an easy game to play but hard to win. You had to play a certain amount of balls on the bar and make it so the computer makes the last move to win. If you made the last move then you would lose. I would recommend children/teenagers at the age of 10-12 to try this game.

Here is a Screen shot of the first level of the game.

Description of the game:
The penguin is the computer.
The amount of balls which can be played is under the penguin.
The ball and number to the right is the amount of balls you’re playing that round.
The thumb is used to play your balls.
The refresh sign is to reset the game.
The dice is used to change the background and penguin character.
The Question mark is used to go to the instructions page. ( although it was supposed to be an instruction/description page it had 1 word.) "very dissapointing"

Some good and bad points of the game:
Good:
1. It took some thinking to solve, not just luck.
2. It was hard at first and there are three levels.
3. Simple colours
4. It's free.
Bad:
1. After beating it one the same code always works.
2. Was hard to understand in beginning because there were no instructions.
3. It got boring after 5 minutes because the same code always worked for each level.
4. Graphics and instructions could be improved.

This game made me learn to think of the computers next move and its possibilities that it could make and counter them.

Although the levels are the same I enjoyed the game for the first five minutes. If that five minutes was increased to more than 30 minutes I would rate the game 5/5 but because it got boring after five minutes I rate it 3/5.

Mr. Kerr

Finally i have done it with paragraphs

The Great Race!

For the last 3 weeks my control tech class has been using Etoys an activity on Sugar XO.This activity involves making a picture move using a script such as moving forwards, turning and stopping and many other scripts.

Our task in class was to make 4 cars race around a track at a variable speed so the outcome each time would differ.

For this task to work we would need multiple scripts and pictures of cars.

Firstly we had to draw a track which included 4 cars and 4 different coloured tracks.

Then we had to make the cars follow the track. We done this by using the Test (yes/no) script which allowed us to make a colour on the car touch another colour and turn.

Then we had to apply this for each car to work. We also had to make the cars travel at different speed variations so the outcome of the race would change everytime. This required a lot of testing because the car in the middle had to go slower then the outside cars.

The next step was to include a Reset button, a Start button and a Stop button.

Then the next step was to make it so all cars would stop as one car reached the end of the track.

(here are the scripts for the following above)

The Top left is for the start button, Bottom left is for the reset button which places the cars back in their original position, the middle is for the cars to follow the track and move forwards, and the last script is for the stop button.

Here is a picture of my track and the buttons for reset,start and stop and also the timers and car speeds.

I found Etoys very troublesome for a few reasons.

1. was because whenever I tried to save it would just close the program and I would jsut simply lose all my work. this occurred to me 3 times.

2. I couldn't view the scripts while having the cars move because the scripts would get in the way of the test.

3. the scripts were always in the way of the pictures so i had to close them everytime i finished with them which was very time consuming.

4. the drawing tools on Etoys aren't the greatest tools you could get.

Although these reasons were troublesome I found Etoys interesting because there were so many scripts and other things to play with. If you were to use every script on Etoys i assume it would take at least 2-5 days.

Also I was helped by namelessurl, air sok and G.I Joe

Thanks for reading

DUDE

Sugar Turtle Art

Our Control Tech class has been doing Turtle art for around 3 weeks on Sugar.

Turtle art is a program which allows us to draw a

nd manipulate shapes. It works by using commands such as forward 100 and turn left or right a certain degree. The pen is shown as a Turtle and as the turtle moves it draws a red line under it. Our task was to create shapes using a one click method which means we had to use sets of commands such as repeat a certain step a few times + moving forwards, backwards + turning left or right and also taking our pen off and on.

There are two modes to show the movement of the turtle one called rabbit mode which is fast and turtle mode which is slow. The slow mode is so we can understand what is been drawn more carefully and the fast mode so we can see the end p

roduct.

After learning the basics of Turtle Art we were given the task of doing shapes. We had to make shapes using a 1 cl

ick rule. this meant we just clicked 1 button and the shape came out. There was a command which made the 1 button rule a lot easier, it was the repeat

command, it would repeat the steps as many times as

we want.

After completing the first task the shapes started to get harder and the teacher introduced variables. By using a command called store in box it allowed us to make a variable of our choice. This meant that we could change the size of the shape without changing every dimension and only the store in box number.

Command script using variables

Shape from command above

Variables were hard because when i first started i used plus and minus but i found out that they wont work and will only work using multiply and divide. Also when i first did it i guessed the values because i didn't know how else until i found out about maths. Using Maths saves a lot of time and is more easier then guessing and also maths makes it a lot more accurate.

My final thought about Turtle art is that it was quite fun and interesting using different things for each shape. Although Turtle was very good i was frustrated when i tried to save and it would freeze or it would lag and i would have to restart the shape.

Creating an SVG and changing Sugar XO icon

The past week my Control Tech class has been using HTML-Kit to make an svg(scalable vector graphic) picture file. The class made the pictures by using cordinates with a 55x55 graph.

Here is my original icon that i made using the cordinates and my colours.

An example of the cordinates are
These are the cordinates for my smiley face.


This was our first task. Our second task was to replace the original XO icon with our own icon ( mine is the hammer at the top ).
To change the icon we used the terminal program in Sugar, replacing the XO file with ours.

I manged to complete the task here is my icon replacing the XO

Another task we had to do was to be able to change the colour of the icon like the XO icon, i also was able to do this. To change the colour we had to change our cordinates, the stroke and fill.

Changing them to stroke="&stroke_color;" or fill="&fill_color;"

here is an example of the colour change from the first one.

Thanks for reading,
By DUDE