Mailman 3 September 2011 - Edu-sig

xturtle online via processing.js !?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 27 Sep '12

27 Sep '12

Hi, I am struggling around with interactive online py tutorials with https://launchpad.net/projects/intro-to-code (ith might become securely sandboxed soon, as pypy made it possible http://blog.sandbox.lt/en/WSGI%20and%20PyPy%20sandbox :) but one more thing is I'd like to let access xturtle functionality online - one possible way could be triggering tkinter to save its canvas to ps, and then convert them with imagemagic and show via web (animated gif or static) - but if pyjamas can render GUI for js (http://www.google.lt/search?&q=pyjamas+python ), mayby there is a way to **translate turtle commands to processing.js analogues** http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/ would it be difficult -- how do you think? -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; jabber: jurgis(a)akl.lt; skype: dz0rdzas; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://sagemath.visiems.lt

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OO and story problems
by kirby urner 29 Mar '12

29 Mar '12

I've been haunting the math-teach list, as usual, suggesting we take a page from AP computer science and build our math around an interlinked, themed, consistent set of story problems -- rather than making these "meaningless" (deliberately). The opponents in this debate bring up the specter of political manipulation, propaganda, tainted "pure math" with someone's good ideas about applications. My approach to math teaching, as readers here know (some of 'em), is to bake OO into the matrix pretty early, meaning the idea of "math objects" (vectors, polyhedrons, rational numbers) connects to our Pythonic notion of types. Here's some background reading for any wanting to sample the more detailed nuances of this thread (on-going, and for over a decade for sure). http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2289577&tstart=0 (most posters long time veterans of this list, with carved out positions) I also take it a step further in that the story problems under consideration often have a strong "off your duff" component, in that your mathematical reasoning translates into physical expenditure of energy. Yes, sounds a lot like summer camp (the "self quantification movement" also syncs up). http://fastwonderblog.com/2011/07/30/crunching-the-numbers-open-source-comm… http://hashtags.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtag-analytics.php?hashtag=Q… http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/urnermindstorm.pdf Kirby

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re Python's "batteries included" meme
by kirby urner 10 Oct '11

10 Oct '11

As I watch students struggle with the: if __name__ == "__main__": concept (where to put it, what it does), it occurs to me we could be doing more to leverage the already well-worn "batteries included." What's different about Python? The rich libraries it comes with, including a cross-platform GUI IDE. That's one meaning of "batteries included". But in another sense we could speak of the generic module as a "battery" with the "if run top-level" logic having to do with battery *testing*. ==== python module ==== [ BATTERIES ] (functions, classes, global-to-module names...) if __name__ == "__main__": [ BATTERY TESTERS ] ==================== That changes the meaning a little more, to where each Python module is like "a battery pack" with its own set of "testers". One thing we do with battery packs is we "import" (promote) their internals within a top-level namespace that starts off in some other (alien) module. Another thing we do with battery packs is run them top-level namespaces on their own, perhaps depending on imports (outsourced resources). I'm not suggesting harping on this too much, just another slide that goes by, but a fun mnemonic, and reinforcing of an already approved / useful design pattern (see my previous post in this edu-sig archive for an example of this self-testing style, relying on doctest for services). Kirby

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notes from a User Group meeting... (Urner in Portland)
by kirby urner 29 Sep '11

29 Sep '11

I've been enjoying repartee with the math-teach irregulars over on Math Forum, an old haunt of mine, approaching 6K postings over the years, maybe more if we count lost dialogs (had a good one with J.H. Conway when MF was still with Swarthmore). The thread includes some commentary on OLPC and some early mistakes. I should have more links to back me up on some of this stuff. Wikipedia would likely sweep it out the door in its present form, but then I wasn't intending to write the veridical history. Our recent PPUG meeting at Produce Row included Michelle Rowley's proposal to do a Pycon talk centered around posture, ergonomics, yoga, all those tricks you need to know to stay buff in your cubicle. Reasonably, she was concerned this topic would be deemed too froo froo by the ambient serious-minded engineering culture, however she had solutions for that, namely software services, written in Python, that would encourage self-awareness while working. Your phone might have a few words to say about your posture occasionally, thanks to a tickler file you threw together in some DIY hack job, latter ported to github and turned into a community service enterprise, complete with forking branches. We talked about the self quantification movement springing from athletics mixing with cloud services. This'd make work in a cubicle a little more like a gym class. The next generation of cubicle may have more "monkey bar" features, letting you hang upside down while coding. I could see a whole office doing that, maybe at Marvel Comics. Urban Airship. Michelle is an accomplished Djangsta and systems architect, with an earlier background in PHP. She's working on a yoga-related web site for teachers, a kind of Khan Academy for yogis, minus most of those Youtubes (that's not how she describes it, and I'm not doing her business model justice, just giving some more background on our User Group leader). I brought a laptop to the meeting and showcased some of my Tractor Graphics, simple Python generators ploughing in 2D fields of ASCII. I've written a lot about that here before. I've got some sample slides in my Photostream, clearly early draft in that the spellchecker is turned on and giving wavy lines in Powerpoint. I've pointed math-thinking-l to the thread, so far without sparking any commentary. That's a sleepy-head list these days. Kirby Thread on Math Forum: http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=2299146&tstart=0

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Re: [Edu-sig] ANN: Intro+Intermediate Python course, SF, Oct 18-20
by wesley chun 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

** FINAL CALL ** http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cls/2495963854.html significant discount for primary/secondary teachers. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: wesley chun <wescpy(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 12:32 PM Subject: ANN: Intro+Intermediate Python course, SF, Oct 18-20 Need to get up-to-speed with Python as quickly and as in-depth as possible? Already coding Python but still have areas of uncertainty you need to fill? Then come join me, Wesley Chun, author of Prentice-Hall's bestseller "Core Python" for a comprehensive intro/intermediate course coming up this May in Northern California, then enjoy a beautiful Fall weekend afterwards in San Francisco, the beautiful city by the bay. Please pass on this note to whomever you think may be interested. I look forward to meeting you and your colleagues! Feel free to pass around the PDF flyer linked down below. Write if you have questions. Since I hate spam, I'll only send out one reminder as the date gets closer. (Comprehensive) Intro+Intermediate Python Tue-Thu, 2011 Oct 18-20, 9am-5pm Hope to meet you soon! -Wesley - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (COMPREHENSIVE) INTRO+INTERMEDIATE PYTHON Although this course may appear to those new to Python, it is also perfect for those who have tinkered with it and want to "fill in the gaps" and/or want to get more in-depth formal training. It combines the best of both an introduction to the language as well as a "Python Internals" training course. We will immerse you in the world of Python in only a few days, showing you more than just its syntax (which you don't really need a book to learn, right?). Knowing more about how Python works under the covers, including the relationship between data objects and memory management, will make you a much more effective Python programmer coming out of the gate. 3 hands-on labs each day will help hammer the concepts home. Come find out why Google, Yahoo!, Disney, ILM/LucasFilm, VMware, NASA, Ubuntu, YouTube, and Red Hat all use Python. Users supporting or jumping to Plone, Zope, TurboGears, Pylons, Django, Google App Engine, Jython, IronPython, and Mailman will also benefit! PREVIEW 1: you will find (and can download) a video clip of a class session recorded live to get an idea of my lecture style and the interactive classroom environment (as well as sign-up) at: http://cyberwebconsulting.com PREVIEW 2: Partnering with O'Reilly and Pearson, Safari Books Online has asked me to deliver a 1-hour webcast a couple of years ago called "What is Python?". This was an online seminar based on a session that I've delivered at numerous conferences in the past. It will give you an idea of lecture style as well as an overview of the material covered in the course. info:http://www.safaribooksonline.com/events/WhatIsPython.html download (reg req'd): http://www.safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/DownloadAndResources/webcastInfo… - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHERE: near the San Francisco Airport (SFO/San Bruno), CA, USA WEB: http://cyberwebconsulting.com FLYER: http://cyberwebconsulting.com/flyerPP1.pdf LOCALS: easy freeway (101/280/380) with lots of parking plus public transit (BART and CalTrain) access via the San Bruno stations, easily accessible from all parts of the Bay Area VISITORS: free shuttle to/from the airport, free high-speed internet, free breakfast and regular evening receptions; fully-equipped suites See website for costs, venue info, and registration. There is a significant discounts available for full-time students, secondary teachers, and others. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001 "Python Fundamentals", Prentice Hall, (c)2009 http://corepython.com wesley.chun : wescpy-gmail.com : @wescpy python training and technical consulting cyberweb.consulting : silicon valley, ca http://cyberwebconsulting.com

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CfP: 2nd Workshop on Model-driven Approaches for Simulation Engineering (Mod4Sim), in Symposium on Theory of Modeling and Simulation, SCS Spring Sim 2012
by Daniele Gianni 23 Sep '11

23 Sep '11

##################################################################### CALL FOR PAPERS 2nd International Workshop on Model-driven Approaches for Simulation Engineering part of the Symposium on Theory of Modeling and Simulation (SCS SpringSim 2012) ##################################################################### March 26-29, 2012, Orlando, FL (USA) http://www.sel.uniroma2.it/Mod4Sim12 ##################################################################### # Papers Due: *** November 15, 2011 *** # Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and archived # in the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplorer and IEEE CS Digital Library. # The Symposium is co-sponsored by IEEE. ##################################################################### The workshop aims to bring together experts in model-based, model-driven and software engineering with experts in simulation methods and simulation practitioners, with the objective to advance the state of the art in model-driven simulation engineering. Model-driven engineering approaches provide considerable advantages to software systems engineering activities through the provision of consistent and coherent models at different abstraction levels. As these models are in a machine readable form, model-driven engineering approaches can also support the exploitation of computing capabilities for model reuse, programming code generation, and model checking, for example. The definition of a simulation model, its software implementation and its execution platform form what is known as simulation engineering. As simulation systems are mainly based on software, these systems can similarly benefit from model-driven approaches to support automatic software generation, enhance software quality, and reduce costs, development effort and time-to-market. Similarly to systems and software engineering, simulation engineering can exploit the capabilities of model-driven approaches by increasing the abstraction level in simulation model specifications and by automating the derivation of simulator code. Further advantages can be gained by using modeling languages, such as UML and SysML – but not exclusively those. For example, modeling languages can be used for descriptive modeling (to describe the system to be simulated), for analytical modeling (to specify analytically the simulation of the same system), and for implementation modeling (to define the respective simulator). A partial list of topics of interest includes: * model-driven simulation engineering processes * requirements modeling for simulation * domain specific languages for modeling and simulation * model transformations for simulation model building * model transformations for simulation model implementation * model-driven engineering of distributed simulation systems * relationship between metamodeling standards (e.g., MOF, Ecore) and distributed simulation standards (e.g., HLA, DIS) * metamodels for simulation reuse and interoperability * model-driven technologies for different simulation paradigms (discrete event simulation, multi-agent simulation, sketch-based * simulation, etc.) * model-driven methods and tools for performance engineering of simulation systems * simulation tools for model-driven software performance engineering * model-driven technologies for simulation verification and validation * model-driven technologies for data collection and analysis * model-driven technologies for simulation visualization * Executable UML * Executable Architectures * SysML / Modelica integration * Simulation Model Portability and reuse * model-based systems verification and validation * simulation for model-based systems engineering To stimulate creativity, however, the workshop maintains a wider scope and welcomes contributions offering original perspectives on model-driven engineering of simulation systems. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ On-Line Submissions and Publication +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ We invite paper submissions in three forms: 1. Full paper (max 8 pages), describing innovative research results. These papers are eligible for the best paper award and may be invited for an extended version in a special issue of the SCS SIMULATION journal. 2. Work-in-progress paper (max 6 pages), describing novel research ideas and promising work that have not yet been fully evaluated. 3. Short paper (max 6 pages), describing industrial and hands-on experience on any relevant area (i.e. military, government, space, etc.). All the papers must be submitted through the SCS conference management systems (http://www.softconf.com/scs/DEVS12/), selecting the Mod4Sim track in the "Submission Categories" section. All the submitted papers must be in PDF format and must conform to the SCS conference template (Word template is available at http://www.scs.org/upload/documents/templates/ConferenceSubmissionWORDTempl…, guidelines are available at http://www.scs.org/PDFs/formattingkit.pdf). All the submitted papers must be original and not submitted else where. Submitted papers will be peer reviewed with respect to their quality, originality and relevance. The authors of the accepted papers must register in advance for inclusion of their paper in the conference proceedings. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to update their papers basing on the reviews, before providing the camera ready. All accepted papers will be included in the conference proceedings and archived in the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplorer and IEEE CS Digital Library. However, **only** accepted **full papers** will be printed in hard copy. Authors may contact the organizers for expression of interest and content appropriateness at any time. +++++++++++++++ Important Dates +++++++++++++++ * Submission deadline: November 15, 2011 * Acceptance notification: January 1, 2012 * Camera ready due: January 15, 2012 * Conference dates: March 26 - 29, 2012 ++++++++++++++++++++ Organizing Committee ++++++++++++++++++++ * Daniele Gianni - European Space Agency, The Netherlands * Nicolas Rouquette - NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA +++++++++++++++++ Program Committee +++++++++++++++++ * Steffen Becker - University of Paderborn, Germany * David Chen - Univeristy of Bordeaux I, France * Andrea D'Ambrogio - University of Rome TorVergata, Italy * Juan De Lara - Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain * Hans-Peter De Koning - European Space Agency, The Netherlands * Christopher Delp - NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA * Dov Dori - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA * Howard Eisen - NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA * Huascar Espinoza - European Software Institute and Tecnalia, Spain * Paul A. Fishwick - University of Florida, USA * Joachim Fuchs - European Space Agency, The Netherlands * Carlos Juiz - University of Balearic Islands, Spain * Cristiano Leorato - Rhea, The Netherlands * Steve McKeever - University of Oxford, UK * Halit Oğuztüzün - Middle East Technical University, Turkey * Chris Paredis - Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * Andreas Tolk - Old Dominion University, USA * Hans Vangheluwe - University of Antwerp, Belgium and McGill University, Canada * Anthony Walsh - European Space Agency, Germany * Heming Zhang - Tsinghua University, China *** Contact Information *** Daniele Gianni and Nicolas Rouquette (workshop co-chairs) Emails: daniele.gianni(a)esa.int and nicolas.f.rouquette(a)jpl.nasa.gov

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Re: [Edu-sig] Inexpensive robot teaching platforms
by Andy Judkis 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

Here's another possibility, 100 bucks, programmable in Jython along with several other languages: http://www.finchrobot.com/ Temp sensor, accelerometer, two IR sensors, two photodetectors. No batteries, it's powered off it's 15 foot USB cable, not sure if that's a bug or a feature. I haven't actually seen or used one. Cheers, Andy

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[ANNC] pynguin-0.12 (fixes problems running on Windows)
by Lee Harr 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

Pynguin is a python-based turtle graphics application. It combines an editor, interactive interpreter, and graphics display area. It is meant to be an easy environment for introducing some programming concepts to beginning programmers. http://pynguin.googlecode.com/ This release fixes problems which prevented the program from working properly on Windows systems. Pynguin is tested with Python 2.7.1 and PyQt 4.8.3 and will use Pygments syntax highlighting if available. Pynguin is released under GPLv3. Changes in pynguin-0.12: Important fixes - Fixed menu items and dialogs not working on Windows - Fixed error on Windows when trying to write backup files Pynguin API - bgcolor() - raise exception if using color component outside of 0-255 - make util.nudge_color() API match util.choose_color() Canvas - allow setting background color - fix custom svg avatars to allow any size avatar Integrated Editor - comment / uncomment line / region Integrated Console - added command to clear history - clears line before writing commands selected in menu Examples - added fractals example file

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What do you use for making presentations of a scatterplot of data
by Laura Creighton 15 Sep '11

15 Sep '11

I'd like to make a presentation where I have a series of (informational) points to make, each of which is associated with a cartesian (x, y) coordinate in a scatter plot. (It's Charles Perrow's graph from 'Normal Accidents' that plots 'coupling (from loose to tight)' vs 'complexity of interactions'. In the graph 'loose' is -y, tight is +y, while complexity increases not from 0 to some maximum value but from -x to +x. This gives you a separation of data into 4 quadrants, which is how Perrow wants to talk about them. So, ideally I would like to show an empty x and y axis, then click the button of my mouse, have one point show up, which I talk about for a bit, and then with successive clicks I can add more and more points to the graph. I would have thought that software to do this was common, but either I am picking the wrong words to search for, or this is not the case. Are any of you doing this already? and in that case, what do you use? Laura

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djangsta rap
by kirby urner 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

Greetings from Portlandia. DjangoCon 2011 has just ended. This is a pretty deep community with some excellent leadership, and the size of conference (under 400) is comfortable and intimate for many people. Here's a link to some fun pix from Yarko that I just got from "Chairman Steve" (as in Steve Holden): https://plus.google.com/photos/112974129603800923888/albums/565050373830663… My own folder has tended to focus on branding and ad agency kinds of stuff, perhaps thanks the W + K meeting re LimeSurvey (per Wikipedia), which was used for post-conference psychometrics by one Patrick Barton. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/sets/72157627512153141/ (ads etc.) http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2011/08/blue-house-news.html (mentions LimeSurvey) I had some good talks with the GeoDjango people especially. We had a geographer from Philly, several others drawn to this community via the GIS world. As someone who has presented twice at GIS in Action, once as a quasi-keynote, I had some interesting perspectives for them. http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/gis_2009_workshop.pdf (where is Pythonia = Python Nation?). Yarko and I talked more about my Radical Math curriculum, a combination of OO, group theory (elementary) and newfangled (fringe) geometry. He even started sounding upbeat about the idea of "demented cartoons" on Python.tv (one of Steve's domains). I'm big into getting more animated cartoon characters lined up to teach Python. Speaking of which, check out this "Djangsta" pony the PyLadies came up with: [ technical glitch, will post later to Diversity ] I did my usual chauffeuring and schlepping for this conference (same as last year), working for Open Bastion (a sponsor / producer). Quite a few people at the conference knew me from the Diversity list in particular. Kirby

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