[Edu-sig] more "Kirby's Classroom"...

[kirby urner]

"More from Kirby's Classroom... (as seen on TV)"
by K. Urner, Feb 23, 2009

Greetings math teachers, teachers of machine logic, or whatever this
is (Python etc.).  I'm continuing to apply spit and polish to various
aspects of P4E here in Portland, more meetings with geometry buffs
especially.

Just got a new client today, HarrisonStreet Studios (JimmyLott.com) --
he does my soundtrack for a CSN pilot.  Don't remember if I linked it,
tangentially related in that I use Python to brew some of those
graphics.&&

==

New E-toys like "game":  first person car view, like typical race
game, except freeway "dotted" line represents equator, left and right
margins the respective tropics of Capricorn and Cancer.  Lots of
lighting applies, in getting the sun disk to oscillate per seasons,
shadows to move, i.e. as we speed around the planet, steering between
margins, we have access to astronomical data, with toggle inset frame
showing inertial solar view, car a blip.  23 degree tilt, slight
precession (~25K cycle, pole star not always pole star).  Here's the
ballpark we're talking:
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/undergrad/Labs/precession/index.html

==

Glenn (CSO) reminds me of lore associated with "beyond flatland" (the
freeway) i.e. middle earth, i.e. what's beyond the margins?  Of course
we might talk in terms of constellations, but also geography e.g.
Alaska, Greenland, Siberia (north) Antarctica (south).  He studies the
many sagas.  In buckaneer lore (the Bucky stuff) we see the south as
"where to go to get around" i.e. the fast moving current connects the
Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans with a "hop on, hop off"
turntable, used by world class pirates of old (before jets).  Roz
Savage connects here as "action figure" (inspiring to XX engineers, a
target demographic), more in my blogs.

These kinds of high powered arcade games don't run on tiny laptops so
easily, more for "education mall" setting (coffee shops, supervisory
staff, some classrooms -- a lot like a university but with more
private sector supervision, when it comes to curriculum).  However
this isn't to discourage any open source versions on whatever
platforms (e.g. Pygame, Pyglet).  In general, I'm encouraging a Wild
West "skin" for some of these, i.e. flat board store fronts with
shacks in back, always fun to have an imposing "bank with columns"
with like a mom 'n pop parked out pack, very "ToonTown" and
historically an inspiration for the USA "mall" idea (similar to
"bazaar"):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3304392700/
http://www.disneyorama.com/2008/11/14-original-disneyland-attractions-that-are-still-around-today/
http://picasaweb.google.com/DanDiLuzio/200806WildWestCity#5220420818691462098
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/3303583889/

Random beefs (aka "dead beefs" -- esoteric allusion **):

Sometimes gmail CSS seems weird, like right now I'm stuffed in a small
Mozilla widget in FireFox, lots of screen real estate to my right, but
no way to grow the widget.  Anyone else notice that?  If there's a
ragged right indent, it might be because I'm messing up word wrap.

And on the topic of glitches, I'll search engine my own blogspot, not
get results (timeout with no error? then search again and bingo! the
2/3 posts I was expecting to get).  I'm thinking "low batteries"
sometimes.

Pycon:  might stay with Deb's cousin a night or two, still sorting it
out, couldn't see blocking in Hyatt, given my "born in Chicago should
see more of it" agenda.  Or just Crowne Plaza like last year?  Got
used to the place, fond memories.

I was thinking Dr. Chuck this morning (Umich), for letting me play in
his sandbox with O'Reilly.  I'm not saying we saw eye to eye on
everything, each author entitled to a style, plus this was more an
anthology in some ways (contributed chapters -- hence the 'et al' in
my home.py citation).

So, to edu-sig business, here's more of my usual....

=======================
from recent outbox, excerpts from some average correspondence:


<< SNIP >>

I've got this sort of trademarked way of teaching Python, insofar was
we trademark pedagogy (we don't, not if we want it to spread, though
we appreciate citations), where we say "everything is a python in
Python" (kind of like everything is a car in 'Cars'), and I can back
that up with these little diagrams or "cave paintings".

Turns out Pierce, the American Pragmatist, was getting to diagrams,
per Dr. Susan Haack, dunno if you saw my fourth blog already, Coffee
Shops Network.  Haack and I were both Rorty students, she playing
opposition, me a huge fan (he was my thesis advisor at Princeton).

<< SNIP >>

A python in Python looks like this:

class Python:

   def __init__(self):  # I am born <-- comment
        self.stomach = []

   def eat(self, food):
        self.stomach.append(food)

   def __repr___(self):
         return 'Hello, I'm a python at ", id(self)

Would this make sense to an 8th grader?  It did, but on the computer
you get to "run the blueprint" i.e. this is just a template for a
Python.  You trigger a birth event, assign the resulting object a
name, like this:

>>> cute_kathy = Python()
>>> cute_kathy.eat("something that kathy's like")

and so on.  Kids like it.  Then they make multiple pythons, have them
eat each other.  Then they make dogs and monkeys, have them inherit
from Mammal -- and they're hooked.  From then on, eating out of my
hand, per Saturday Academy.

The twisted part, but fun, is that __repr__ and __init__, very much a
part of the language, look like __ribs__, and snakes have a lot of
ribs.  I shared this in Vilnius and places.  There's even a new rib,
part of , called __missing__.
http://discorporate.us/jek/talks/defaultdict/

===

Kirby

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0xDEADBEEF#Magic_debug_values

&& http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1905517&tstart=0 (a
bit of a treasure hunt, but worth it if you want to see a cool video)