[Edu-sig] The end is near :)

[kirby urner]

For example, I don't buy that it's an either/or situation.  You seem
to think a Klein-reading Euclid-drawing subgenius, properly suspicious
of Bucky (maybe armed with a few Bucky jokes) can't suddenly jump up
and run over to an Alice workstation, there to play with cute skiing
bunnies and other programmable (scriptable) cartoon figures.  Just
because you seem to buy into the impossibility of such kids, why
should I?  I say there's plenty of room for both PyGeo and Alice, that
it has *never* been an either/or equation (hence a tremendous waste of
time in the archives -- feel free to never read it folks).

I do understand that you don't want a vapid flouncy curriculum that
trades away all command line hardness for fuzzy wuzzy bunny wunny
cartoons.  Sure, fine.  I'm with ya.  But I'm not ready to pull out my
big guns at the drop of a hat and celebrate my ascendency over all
GUI-based animation APIs, including the ones with Python bindings I'm
hoping for (Blender is already one of them).  I'll sooner go after
neocons or nazis than cute bunny wunny APIs.  You seem to have a
misplaced sense of priorities.

So then I have to wonder if it's just jealously.  You've accomplished
something with PyGeo and now, in order to attract attention, indulge
in Voodoo with little bunny dolls, making a spectacle of yourself in
the process.  I think that's a misappropriation of the fame PyGeo
could win you.  You should write that book about Klein, as applied in
this modern world, show how PyGeo could work its way into various
curricula, brainstorm various ways forward.  Throwing stones at your
glass-housed neighbors is just not a way to attract new friends and
influence people.

And so your influence wanes.

I say turn that around.  Be the big friendly Arthur who will show us
the hard stuff and make it seem easy.  But don't be afraid to dress up
in a bunny suit over the weekends, if it helps pay the bills.  You
don't need to see this as a war.  We're both manifestations of What
Python Is Doing (lots more than you or I will ever live to appreciate,
no? -- that's how I feel about it).

Kirby