Mailman 3 March 2012 - Edu-sig

xturtle online via processing.js !?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis Sept. 27, 2012

Sept. 27, 2012

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 March 29, 2012

March 29, 2012

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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Raspberry Pi?
by kirby urner March 29, 2012

March 29, 2012

Lots of buzz on PSF list about Python and Raspberry Pi. I know from independent sources that Python has attracted considerable attention in the UK education community. Also, the BBC Micro also came out around this time and our PSF chairman is in the UK to help celebrate its anniversary (50th? -- getting there). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro In having a public charter, unlike private advertiser based broadcasters such as Fox, the BBC is rather different from any USA channels, including PBS. Its forays into public policy and initiatives, such as the Computer Literacy Project of the 1980s, out of which the BBC Micro was born, is not mirrored in the USA. Raspberry Pi doesn't currently run Python but there is some thought that it should. I haven't researched the GNU / Stallman take yet, though I know he's unhappy about the sell-out of Linux distros to closed source video drivers, which appear as proprietary blobs (already compiled binaries) with no source. The Raspberry Pi uses secret code to drive its GPU so is not technically a purely FLOSS project (as of today anyway). Debian has a long history of working with not-free annexes so this will feel like home to most Debian developers. I'm glad the BBC has a mandate to serve the public in the UK with interesting and innovative gadgets. That's the kind of R&D we like to see, including with closed source components (I have access to closed source games galore). Even if the UK versions seem obsolete more quickly, because leading edge (like the XO), the follow-on products have the BBC to thank for opening world markets ( = the human imagination) to these new concepts. Kirby

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a snippet about Pycon 2012
by kirby urner March 19, 2012

March 19, 2012

Here's an excerpt from a post to a bfi.org related group in follow-up to Pycon: """ In other news, related in that micro-engineering is at the basis of all of this, I have recently returned from PyCon 2012, more technically the US Pycon of that year, but which will be moving to Montreal in 2014, so North American more than just US. Brazil and Argentina have their own Pycons. Chairman Steve, my close neighbor in Portland, was at both of those in 2011. I need new passport pictures if I'm to be going anywhere far away like that. David Koski, our list owner, phoned me around the time he was getting these most excellent shots of the TC Howard dome in Ohio. http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/6834704198/in/set-721576292062994… I was in the meantime sparring (in a friendly way) with the ESRI guy about why we'd call the Fuller Map "crazy" (he had it on screen) when as geeks we're always gawking at how big Greenland really isn't. This was during Q&A in a well attended session on the basics of GIS. I'd heard similar content at a Portland Barcamp, and also at Metro (Food Not Bombs on my nametag). http://pyvideo.org/video/887/a-gentle-introduction-to-gis (start around 26 minutes to get the background leading up to my question -- I come in at 29 mins 10 secs or so, to 30 mins 30 secs). Portlanders are fairly adept with these tools. """ Lots about Bucky Fuller (RBF) related stuff because I'm bfi.org's first web master, long ago (Drupal not even invented yet). ( not news to folks here -- like I've been writing about rbf.py and sundries -- e.g. hypertoons -- for like decades ) Anyway, the above was from a report back to that little readership. Barry Warsaw's talk on the future of mailman was of interest, given that's what drives our little list here. Did we want something besides plaintext for edu-sig? On mathfuture we're using all kinds of colors. "Listservs" still rule (mail groups have a lot going for them) -- I had some new links on that, but where'd they go? Next time perhaps. Kirby

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Bof, dinner, meeting... at PyCon
by Andrew Harrington March 6, 2012

March 6, 2012

I just looked for Bof stuff on the Pycon pages, and only found the Open space page. I made an entry for edu-sig at the conventional time, Saturday night. I did *not* see how to instantiate the page that I refer to there. I do not understand the system this year. Hopefully someone will actually create and give open editing access to the page I refer to: https://us.pycon.org/2012/community/openspaces/edu-sig Are people up for dinner and conversation back at the venue afterward? I liked it on the wiki page in past years where educators signed in and gave a bit of info about themselves. I hope that works out this year. if not, at least I would like to here from folks on the listserv. I am not familiar with the area. In the past a reservation for dinner well ahead of time was a good thing. Anyone more knowledgeable? -- Dr. Andrew N. Harrington Computer Science Department Loyola University Chicago Lakeshore office in the Math Department: 205 Loyola Hall http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh Phone: 773-915-7999 Fax: 312-915-7998 aharrin(a)luc.edu

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