[Edu-sig] More preaching to the choir...

[kirby urner]

Yes, not that hard, agreed.  I think we're in the right headspace, here on
edu-sig, re teaching physics / math and so on with all this well known
content, plus adding more experimental fun around the edges, ala programming
just for the fun of it (ab attitude we highly encourage).

Given how OO makes "objects" so concrete (per Concrete Mathematics) it's not
so unrealistic to suggest adding some quaternions to the mix, just one more
animal in our zoomorphic kingdom (or queendom, not pretending to know).

Given XO is hardware with access to the cloud (by design) it's unnecessary
to map curriculum to it or any other hardware device, as this isn't about
hardware in the first place, but curriculum, and there's so much already out
there, much of it very pre-computer in flavor, yet nevertheless relevant,
Hamilton's brief included, Kepler's and so on.

That being said, I like the idea of equipment especially designed with the
needs of young children in mind.  I was gleeful that so many adults found
the XO frustrating to use because of the tiny keys.  That's the whole point
-- it's for them, not you.  Of course in this sense there's a need for Sugar
friendly apps, and/or new kinds of Sugar.  I'm eager to find out more.

All that's really needed, in terms of equipment, is a decent browser and
Python itself (if teaching Python).  In addition to writing stuff for
laptops (multiple platform), I'm aiming at the LCD (or "flatscreen") market,
piping directly to coffee shops (e.g. booths), so an intimate group might
study together without bringing any hardware whatsoever.  The same LCD plays
music and does Apple style visualizations i.e. isn't just for "study hall"
activities (these might be small screens, between HD and iPod, XO a source
of ideas).

So now that we know what the future looks like, I'm wondering how geeks will
spontaneously self-organize to deliver a quality product.  I imagine more
Rich Data Structures will be a part of it, as in canned Periodic Table
modules, with XML i/o if not natively XML -- I'm somewhat influenced by
Ruby's anti-XMLism, GIS data re cities (example @ my site), insectavora and
so on.

However, I'm not expected all the stress of development to fall on open
source developers.  Much of this stuff will be kept under wraps and niche
marketed under more restrictive licensing, simply because there's a market
for it and open source isn't the answer to every prayer, even if it is to so
many.  Several of us here wear multiple hats in that regard e.g. contribute
to open source yet support clients who don't choose to compete in that arena
-- describes my situation at least.

I'll be interested to hear more about what develops in those projects I
learned about at the most recent OSCON, as many of those *were* open source,
just not based anywhere close to Portland.  As you might imagine, I have a
hard time keeping up even just with what goes on in my home town.

Kirby Urner
Fine Grind Productions


On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 3:30 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2008/10/19 kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com>:
> >
> >
> > Here's a pointer to some related writings @ Math Forum, which I used to
> tell
> > Arthur S. (this archive) was more like "center ring" in my circus, i.e.
> > where math teachers meet irrespective of caring about geek subculture,
> > computers etc.:
> >
> > http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1845616&tstart=0
> >
> > Re planets in orbit, another interesting implementation, already field
> > tested, multiplies complex numbers of unit radius, begetting rotation,
> then
> > scales appropriately.  Of course these orbits are merely circular, so not
> > that realistic, so apply some field distortion if wanting elliptic (not
> > something we tried).
>
> I did a simulation of elliptical orbits in TutSim on the Apple II in
> 1982. It isn't that hard. I know of several different ways of
> programming it, using inverse-square gravity, Kepler's law of equal
> areas, and other equivalent mathematical representations. I set up a
> three-body simulation in which one object was thrown out and the other
> two settled into elliptical orbits around their barycenter, after a
> chaotic early period. There are such simulations in a number of
> languages, including Python and Smalltalk, where students can vary
> parameters and watch the results. Some of this is in the Sugar
> software for the OLPC XO.
>
> A. K. Dewdney's book The Planiverse describes simulations of inverse
> linear gravity in 2D, and others have done inverse cube gravity in 4D.
> You can get weird weather, seasons, and climate effects on planets in
> 4D with two independent axes of rotation, depending in particular on
> whether the rotation periods and the revolution period are close to or
> far from simple integer ratios.
>
> > Here's some code:
> > http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/python/orbits.py
> >
> > Kirby
> > 4D
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Edu-sig mailing list
> > Edu-sig at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Edward Mokurai Cherlin
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai
> http://www.amazon.com/xo
> Give One, Get One, from Nov. 17
>
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