Painless Technology

Not Gone....Just Missing

2010-05-14T10:41:00.000-06:00

Still here. I'm having some health issues along with the extra stuff that comes up with ending a school year. I should be back soon. Thanks for asking.

Funny: Respect

2010-04-30T05:00:00.002-06:00

Amazing SuperPowers.com

Subscribing to YouTube RSS feed

2010-04-29T05:00:00.001-06:00

Handy reference from David Warlick on how to create a YouTube RSS feed. Someone asked me this the other day and I didn't know. This saved me some search time. Might save you a few steps too.

The Learner's Journey

2010-04-28T05:00:00.001-06:00

While searching for a picture of a Head First book for yesterday's post, I stumbled across this description of the learning process by one of the Head First editors, Brian Sawyer.

They use a slightly different metaphor to describe the learning process. They call it a Journey. He describes a basic outline in the slideshow below.

Learner's Journey from Brian Sawyer on Vimeo.

In the footnote to this post, Brian describes the reasoning behind the Journey process:

"While this post focuses on the construction of what we call the Learner's Journey, the concepts behind the idea really warrant a post of their own. In brief, though this particular approach and visualization was developed in house, the ideas behind it are loosely modeled on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, combining teaching elements with a compelling scenario to create a rewarding quest for the protagonist (the learner) to accomplish."

How cool is that! I would have loved it if my EDU 100 instructor had come in with a copy of the Hero's with a Thousand Faces and said, "Before we get any further with this teaching stuff, I want you to read this book." Education as a journey. As a quest. I love this. In the slide show he covered many of the same concepts we did in education. I like this metaphor better than the one we used. While it was never stated as such, I think what I got was the factory metaphor. Raw materials in. Finished competent citizen out.

[Image: Flickr: "The JLC - keeping the Piedmont safe since 2006"; Uploaded on July 4, 2006 by Cryptonaut;http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptonaut/181707052/ (CC:Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)]

Creating Passionate Users

2010-04-27T05:03:00.002-06:00

Creating Passionate Users is a website created by Kathy Sierra, one of the people responsible for developing the Head First Style of books available from O'reilly. Head First takes difficult subjects and presents them in an engaging way. I have several of the Head First books and enjoyed them thoroughly. I think many of the techniques used in the books would be beneficial in any classroom: use of pictures, redundancy, emotional content, conversational style, challenging activities, and hitting multiple learning styles.

Creating Passionate Users has all kinds of useful ideas and examples based on her experiences and feedback from the Head First books. Unfortunately, she stopped posting to the blog in 2007, but the posts are still valuable.

[Image captured from Head First Labs: http://headfirstlabs.com/books/hfwd/]

Creative Commons Music

2010-04-26T05:00:00.067-06:00

My multimedia students are creating some simple music videos in MovieMaker this week. Finding music to use can be a issue. Kids want to download copyrighted materials and I am trying to get them to think about what is OK to use and what is not. Especially if they want to post their work online for the world to see. The following three sites are ones I am going to list this year as a source for music with Creative Common licenses.

Free Music Archive

Jemendo

ccmixter

Warning! I have run across album covers that have pictures inappropriate for school in Jemendo. I can also assume there will be language on some of these songs in all these sites that are not school appropriate as well. So, before I send my kids off to search in class, I will have "the talk" with them. Same talk I have when they are doing image searches.

[Image: "An era passed";Flickr:Uploaded on November 17, 2008 by Olivander:http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivander/3038572409/ (CC:Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)]

Chryler Turbo Encabulator

2010-04-23T05:00:00.000-06:00

What I fear many of my students experience during my lectures.

Teacher Accountability

2010-04-21T05:00:00.014-06:00

Friend sent me the link to this article, Teacher Accountability? It's About Time!
Here is one short quote from the piece about how we've stopped trusting teachers to evaluate our kids and turned to standardized tests instead.

"About a generation ago, acceptance of teacher judgment about the quality of student work began to disappear. Waving the "standards and accountability!" banner, leaders of business and industry convinced politicians that this generation's teachers (unlike those they remembered from their own schooling) couldn't be trusted to evaluate learner performance. Today's teachers, they were sure, suffered from "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

An interesting read. Don't forget to read the comments for and against the author's point of view at the bottom.

70 tools 70 minutes

2010-04-20T05:00:00.010-06:00

Just ran across this slideshow today and am still exploring the many resources listed.

70 Tools 70 Minutes

View more presentations from Silvia Tolisano.

[via Just Pondering]

Chariot Skates

2010-04-19T05:00:00.003-06:00

I saw something that looked similar to these Chariot Skates at a Cirque de Soleil performance a few years back. I came home that day and sketched out a few diagrams of how I might build a pair for myself. My thought was they would work better off the bike paths and on gravel or dirt paths then inline skates. I never pursued the design and those diagrams are buried in a notebook somewhere. Never even thought of it again until I saw this post on dVice.

"According to creator Michael Jenkins, Chariot Skates are faster, handle rough terrain better, retain momentum longer and offer a more fluid and comfortable experience. We'll believe faster right off the bat, as these odd-looking skates boast a top speed of 24 miles an hour. "

Unfortunately, the cost will be around $1100 and so I won't be getting a pair anytime soon. I like the concept though and am looking forward to hearing about some real world testing and results.

Check out the Chariot Skates home page for more details.

Testing 1st samples from new moulds in Sydney & China from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

The second video shows how you can stop. Always a good skill if you are traveling at speeds above 20mph.

Stopping from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

[via dVice]

[Image captured from dVice:http://dvice.com/archives/2010/04/chariot-skates.php]

Funny: Website feedback

2010-04-16T05:00:00.009-06:00

The Collapse of Complex Business Models

2010-04-13T05:00:00.016-06:00

The Collapse of Complex Business Models by Clay Shirky discusses how complex systems collapse and relates this idea to industries being changed by the internet and technology. He closes with this paragraph.

When ecosystems change and inflexible institutions collapse, their members disperse, abandoning old beliefs, trying new things, making their living in different ways than they used to. It’s easy to see the ways in which collapse to simplicity wrecks the glories of old. But there is one compensating advantage for the people who escape the old system: when the ecosystem stops rewarding complexity, it is the people who figure out how to work simply in the present, rather than the people who mastered the complexities of the past, who get to say what happens in the future.

Shirky doesn't talk about education but my thoughts have been on Scott McLeod's recent talk about education and the premise that schools are becoming irrelevant. I look at the reforms and suggestions around me and they all seem to be aimed at making our educational system more complex. More rules. More forms. More tests. At what point does our educational system become too complex? Too unwieldly? To the point where some group of different thinking folks just make an end run around "how things have always been done" and leave us cleaning the chalk dust off our trousers wondering what just happened.

[Image: "Theatre Entrance"; Flickr: Uploaded on October 19, 2007 by iamtheh; http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamtheh/1640228985/ (creative commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)]

TED Talk: Dennis Hong on Robots

2010-04-12T06:07:00.000-06:00

Dennis Hong from ReMeLa gives a facinating talk on robot research. Lot's of good clips of some of the various robots under development. I like how Hong describes (around 12:30) keeping a notebook by his bed to capture thoughts and images that he gets as he falls asleep. He then types these up into something intelligible in the morning. These images have been the basis of some of his grants and proposals.

Juggling Tutorials

2010-04-11T08:39:00.000-06:00

OK...I know that juggling is a little out of place on this blog. Unless you stretch a little bit and think of it from a learning standpoint... and I've always wanted to learn to be a juggler.

Just Your Average Joggler had a post about a series of juggling tutorials from a contest sponsered by the International Jugglers Association. Lots of fun stuff here.

I've watched several now and am working on the Three Ball Mills Mess by Tony Steinbach. (embeded below)

[Image: Captured from the video]

Funny: Muppets sing Stand by Me

2010-04-09T05:00:00.000-06:00

[via Neatorama]

Funny: The Process

2010-04-02T05:00:00.003-06:00

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Hiding the Litter Box

2010-03-30T05:00:00.015-06:00

My wife and I lived in a tiny apartment many, many years ago. We suddenly went from one cat to three and the litter box couldn't be hidden away in a basement or back room. I dug an old box out from the trash and using some leftover contact paper, I created the stylish litter box cover shown here. It helped the cats with their modesty and helped control the smell. Not completely....but some. (I believe that is an air freshener on top of the box.)

I had just found this old picture of my litter box creation when I stumbled on the modern day version shown below.

Much more stylish. Probably a lot more expensive. Cat probably doesn't care. My wife probably does.

[via Freshome]

[Image captured from Freshome: http://freshome.com/2010/03/26/kitty-litter-box-cover-that-looks-like-a-small-dresser/]

Breadboard to Protoboard

2010-03-29T05:00:00.001-06:00

My electronic skills are still in the infant stage. I am still working on holding a soldering iron without scorching anything important on myself or my project. Yet, someday I will move my creations from the breadboard to a permanent protoboard. Evil Mad Scientist has a short post about a protoboard that is built like a breadboard so soldering your creation is a bit easier.

I'll let you know if and when I get to that point.

[Image captured from Evil Mad Scientist: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/breadboardproto]

Funny: Why you want to be an engineer!

2010-03-26T05:00:00.001-06:00

Are Schools Dangerously Irrelevant?

2010-03-24T05:00:00.000-06:00

Interesting talk by Scott McLeod. He says the economic and information landscape is changing:
1. Jobs that can be relocated where labor is cheaper will be relocated.
2. Move from content consumer to content creator where we are hyper-connected with each other.

He then asks what are we doing about it in our schools? To which he answers, for the most part, nothing.

Ends by asking the audience, "How do we prepare our kids for the next 50 years instead of the last 50 years?"

Good question!

Follow this up with a slideshow given by Scott to the NEA. Elaborates on some of the previous points. Also some good slides showing the shifts in jobs.

How to Solder (Instructables)

2010-03-23T05:00:00.001-06:00

Good tutorial on How to Solder over at Instructables. Never hurts to have several resources/references on a topic when you are first learning.

Lots of nice closeup shots and some video to boot.

[Image captured from How to Solder: Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder/step3/Soldering-wire/]

How to Save a Wet Cell Phone

2010-03-22T05:00:00.005-06:00

One of my students spilled some bottled water on her electronic keyboard. She asked me if she could save it and I told here what I knew which was basically let it dry out before you turned it on again. Found this little visual that gives some better ideas. (Tina this is for you!)

[Image from GeekSauad: http://www.geeksquad.com/intelligence/blog/tips-to-save-your-cell-phone-this-st-patricks-day/]

Employers: Look to gaming to motivate staff

2010-03-20T18:01:00.000-06:00

Recent article in itNews that discusses Lee Sheldon's idea of using game design to evaluate the students in his class instead of grades. (Mentioned in this previous post)

Funny: Foolishly Seeking Love

2010-03-19T05:00:00.000-06:00

Foolishly Seeking True Love from Jarrett Lee Conaway on Vimeo.

Entertainment vs Engagement

2010-03-18T05:00:00.016-06:00

Talk by Doug Johnson titled, Entertainment vs Engagement.

"I think too often we confuse those two terms (entertain and engage), when we think we should be entertaining, we should be engaging."

"Engagement has a learning component that goes with it."

Rube Goldberg Music Video (This too shall pass/OkGo)

2010-03-17T05:00:00.001-06:00

Here's a music video set to a fantastically elaborate Rube Goldberg setup. I've watched the video so many times now, that I felt compelled to go buy the mp3.

Way to market to 50+ year old geeks!

Reasons for teaching Facebook in School

2010-03-16T05:00:00.009-06:00

Stumbled on this short post by Ewan MacIntosh titled, "Two reasons for 'teaching Facebook'in school". He wrote a response to this parents complaint about social media in the classroom:

“Our students don’t need to be a part of a classroom experiment with all this technology stuff. They need to have a real teacher with real textbooks and real tests.”

Head over to his blog to see his response.

[Image captured from facebook homepage: http://www.facebook.com/facebook?ref=pf]

New template features in Blogger

2010-03-15T05:00:00.019-06:00

Blogger in Draft announced some new capabilities in terms of the layout of your Blogger template. I played around with my own layout a bit this past weekend and liked what I saw.

I still think Blogger is one of the easiest ways to set up and run a blog. Occasionally, I get frustrated with some of the layout features, but overall, I like it. I use it. I recommend it people who want to get started blogging.

Only problem I had with Template Designer was it kept crashing in Firefox. I switched over to Chrome and it seemed to run just fine.

Funny: Lost Promo Parody

2010-03-12T05:00:00.006-07:00

Building a Treadmill Desk

2010-03-11T05:00:00.021-07:00

Wrote about treadmill desks back in September 2008. Here is a handy tutorial at Instructables on how to build one or around $150. I sold my treadmill last year to gain a little elbow room in my house so I can't try this one out. Still think it's a good idea though.

Here's a link to one study done with school age children and treadmills: Physical Activity May Strengthen Children's Ability To Pay Attention. (This was not the one I was looking for originally, I think there is one other study out there somewhere that looked at eighth graders, but can't find it. Anyone?)

The authors three recomendations:

scheduling outdoor recess as a part of each school day;
offering formal physical education 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, 225 minutes at the secondary level;
encouraging classroom teachers to integrate physical activity into learning.

Wonder what a study looking at teachers and the amount of exercise they get during a day might reveal about their health? Their stress levels? Their ability to think and plan?

[Image captured from Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Treadmill-Desk/]

Game-ified Life

2010-03-10T05:00:00.002-07:00

Interesting article over at The Technium. Kevin Kelly recommends a talk by Jesse Schell that speculates on the future of games. He gave this quote that had me hooked:

"He offers a vision where ordinary life is gameified. Cheap tracking technology turns whatever you do into a "game" that accumulates points. As the gameification of life becomes ubiquitous, you go through your day racking up points and "getting to the next level." Instead of getting grades in school you graduate to the next level. It's a head spinning scenario, with lots to love and hate, but well worth considering."

I watched the video and can't stop thinking about the implications. Worth the 29 minutes.

At 19:30 in the video he mentions Lee Sheldon who teaches a class and instead of grading uses the accumulation of game points to determine grades. I tried to find more information on this, but no luck. Anyone else out there have info on this?

[Image: "I lost the game"; Flickr; Uploaded on July 29, 2008

by scragz; http://www.flickr.com/photos/scragz/2715186206/ (CC:Attribution Generic)]

Diane Ravitch on the American School System

2010-03-09T16:35:00.005-07:00

Haven't read The Death and Life of the Great American School System yet but the following quote got me interested:

Over several decades, Ravitch says, American schools have essentially lost their way, forgetting to focus on giving students a solid curriculum and strong teachers. Instead, she says, we've bumbled through a series of crises that have left us with "vague and meaningless standards," an odd, antagonistic public-private competition and an "obsession" with test scores.

Just stumbled across this quote in a USA Today article. Think it will go on my "to read" list.

Anybody else read it? Like it? Hate it?

Moon Base Designs

2010-03-09T05:00:00.016-07:00

Looking for some pictures that might get the creative juices flowing? Here are 15 designs for Moon Base habitats.

Use them as a jumping off point for a design challenge for your students. Or just use them to fuel your own daydreams.

[Image captured from Dvice: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/02/10-mind-blowing.php]

Sleeveface

2010-03-08T05:00:00.002-07:00

I'd love to do this with my students if any of them understood it when I refer to an album or record cover. Usually I get, "Are you talking about CD's Mr. G?" or "Album? You mean like a picture album?" This conversation usually then degenerates into me calling them "young and ignorant" and them responding with taunts about me being "ancient and senile".

Click on over to Accidental Mysteries to see a whole series of these shots.

[Image captured from Sleeveshot: Accidental Mysteries: http://accidentalmysteries.blogspot.com/2010/02/sleeveface.html]

Funny: Man Cold

2010-03-05T05:00:00.012-07:00

My wife thinks this is comedy. I think it's a documentary. You decide...

Roombas join the Navy

2010-03-04T05:00:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about buying a Roomba to help keep my floors clean.

Now that I know the Navy uses them on the USS Freedom, how can I not?

[Via BotJunkie]

[Image captured from BotJunkie: http://www.botjunkie.com/2010/02/19/navy-gives-up-swabbing-decks-uses-roombas-instead/]

Honor the Famous with Breakfast

2010-03-03T17:00:00.006-07:00

Friend of mine recently commented that the school cafeteria offered Green Eggs and Ham in honor of Dr. Suess's birthday. She was grossed out. I got to thinking it could have been worse, they could have been honoring H.R. Giger, the guy who designed the creepy monster for Alien. My imagination took over and the following four breakfast dishes flowed out of me before I could stop.

There may be a lesson in here somewhere....just not sure where?

(3/4/2010)

Update: Had a friend ask, "What about Warhol?" So one more breakfast dish.

[Images all mashed up from bits and pieces of other pictures. Use them as you will]

Epigenitics: New insights into Nature vs Nurture

2010-03-03T05:00:00.054-07:00

I vaguely knew about epigenetics but ran across this explanation on a blog I read occasionally. The author embedded two Nova videos (me too...below) that give some insight into what is meant by an epigenome. Each of our thousands of genes needs instructions on how to do what they do. The epigenomes give our genes instructions. Doctor Jirtle in the video says “the epigenome would be like the software that tells the computer when to work, how to work and how much.” It is believed that epigenomes are strongly influenced by diet and lifestyle. So, what you eat and how you live can not only effect your health but possibly that of your children and grandchildren. Fascinating stuff.

I did a little more digging and found this Nova website that compliments the videos. There is an extended interview with Dr. Jirtle, a slide show about the mice shown in the film and some other materials including a teacher's guide.

Part 1: Epigenetics

Part 2: Epigenetics

[via Mark's Daily Apple]

[Image captured from the slide show off the Nova Site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/02-tale-flash.html]

Beautiful Robot Art

2010-03-02T05:00:00.010-07:00

My Red Tie

Click over to 30 Beautiful Artworks of Robots to get a great sampling of some beautiful robot themed graphics. Never know when a good robot picture might come in handy?

[Image: "My Red Tie" by arcipello captured from Six Revisions: 30 Beautiful Artworks of Robots; http://sixrevisions.com/digital-art/30-beautiful-artworks-of-robots/]

Household Rube Goldberg Machine

2010-03-01T05:00:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I posted any new Rube Goldberg type machines. Found this one via Neatorama.

Rube Goldberg - Contraption - LE best
by e-boueur

Make: Electronics Parts Packs

2010-02-28T19:12:00.007-07:00

Saw this on Hands On: Make Electronics and quickly went over to Make to get the details. My biggest complaint, and pretty much only one, about the Make:Electronics book up to this point is having to stop and order parts.

Maker Shed is in the process of creating two component packs to go along with the book. The first one will available mid march and the second one shortly after that. The cost of the first is $99. I probably won't be buying this one since I've already purchased most of the items included already. As soon as they list the parts in the second component kit, I'll make a decision regarding that one.

I figure I've dropped over $300 so far including the book and the tool kit. Being able to buy the components like this won't be any more expensive. You do miss out on the opportunity to figure out how to buy components, but that will come sooner or later.

Funny: Nolan Cheese Commercial

2010-02-26T05:04:00.009-07:00

I know I'm sick....but this commercial makes me cringe and laugh every time.

Quick Soldering Guide

2010-02-25T05:00:00.001-07:00

Stumbled across this one page cartoon giving basic instructions on soldering. The cartoonist, Andie Nordgren, has the pdf she created as a handy reference available for download from her blog, Andie's Log. Click here to see the full comic.

[Image captured from Andie's Log: http://log.andie.se/post/397677855/soldering-is-easy]

Worth 1000

2010-02-24T05:00:00.008-07:00

Worth 1000 is a website where folks compete in photography and photo manipulation. I haven't been here for a while, and it looks like they've redesigned the site. It also looks like they are more closely associated with the Aviary online tools.

I often come here when I am trying to come up with ideas for my Multimedia classes. I've adapted some of the contests I've seen here into classroom lessons. I don't usually visit the site live during class, as there can be inappropriate for school content. They've also added a multimedia section that I don't remember seeing before that includes other media such as sound. Use your judgment on using in the classroom based on the level of your students.

Here is a recent illustration contest: Literary Scenes - Worth1000 Contests. The scene above was taken from this slide show and is called "The House of Usher" by bajazet.

Animation Club and iStopMotion

2010-02-23T05:00:00.089-07:00

Most of my students don't like to animate. They all think they are going to like it. They beg to do it. Then roughly a 100 frames later, with only 4 seconds of their project done, the begging changes to, "How much longer do we HAVE to do this?" So, most of my animation lessons are short with quick results.

There are a few hardy souls in every class though who love it. Who enjoy the detail. Who love the magic of movement created out of still shots. Those kids want more.

What to do?

I started an after school club. I wasn't sure how many students would show up but after about a month, we have a steady group of six with a few curious friends and girlfriends who show up each week. I wanted to do something that was accessible to all levels yet challenging enough to keep them interested. I usually have to call it quits and throw them out after two hours.

I decided to teach stop motion using Boinx iStopmotion. It was easy to teach kids the basics and get up and running. Within minutes, I stood back and they were doing all the work. So far, we've animated toy figures, chairs and high school students. The story lines up until recently, tend towards sword fights and battles but I convinced the group to come up with a story we could animate for a film festival held in our building at the end of the year. I managed to get across that there needed to be a real story with more plot than two guys meet, they fight and someone wins. There is a fight sequence on the storyboard, but it's part of the story, not the whole story. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Boinx iStopMotion is a good choice if you have a Mac and are looking for software to help you create stop motion type animation. It allows you to onion skin your work. Has worked fine with the Sony video camera we are using in the club and also a Canon still camera I've used on a few occasions. It has a variety of features not usually found on inexpensive animation software. I can easily recommend it. I think Middle School level kids could easily learn and use it with a minimum of supervision. Elementary kids would probably need some help with setup, but the interface is simple enough for them to run once it is set up.

[Image: "Kinder Egg toy figure and Lotte Joint Robo figure"; Uploaded on September 8, 2008 by MicroBry; http://www.flickr.com/photos/microbry/2838882763/]

Wordle plus

2010-02-22T05:00:00.062-07:00

I use Wordle in my classroom and have blogged about it before. I was getting ready to introduce it to my Multimedia kids next week and thought I'd look around on the web and see what other folks were doing with it. Came across this presentation by Tom Barrett showing 43 ways you can use Wordle in the classroom

I love the idea of creating a wordle of your syllabus to show at the beginning of the term. (slide #7) Plan on doing this and maybe have it be the first graphic on my projector when they walk in on the first day.

Found this in a post "12 Word Cloud Resources, Tips, & Tools" on Teacher Reboot Camp. She mentions a program called Tagul that lets you create links from each word in your word cloud. I'll be testing this one out in the near future. The article ists other resources and ideas. Good resource.

One last bit about Wordle. If you have concerns about students seeing inappropriate content when they visit the site, the author gives a fix that will work for most districts.

[via: Teacher Reboot Camp]

[Image captured from Tom Barrett's presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5]

Running a marathon in Kangoo Jumps

2010-02-21T05:00:00.004-07:00

Here's a post by Kyna Rosen about her recent experience running a half marathon wearing Kangoo Jumps.

[Image captured from Get Fit with Kyna: http://getfitwkyna.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-ran-pf-changs-half-marathon-in-kangoo.html]

Funny: Intel ad...Ajay Bhatt

2010-02-19T05:00:00.001-07:00

Make Electronics (10) Capacitator

2010-02-18T05:00:00.080-07:00

This is the second part of my sketching/thought process for understanding the oscillator circuit in Experiment 8 in Make: Electronics.

I sketched out a simple oscillator circuit using a relay and a button. When the button is pushed, the circuit is completed which pulls the switch up which then breaks the circuit letting the switch go back down again. This process repeats very quickly until the button is released.

Here is the same circuit shown on a breadboard. (Note. The relay I'm using here is still the one that I carved up earlier.)

The relay is opening and closing so fast it sounds like a buzzer.

Next part of the experiment is to slow down the speed at which the relay opens and closes by adding a capacitor.

I put the capacitor in the circuit first without the LEDs to help keep it simple. This is how I sketched it out.

This is what it looked like on the breadboard. Push the button and I could hear the relay opening and closing at a slower rate.

Time to add in the lights.

Here's the sketch (same as the book) of the completed circuit. LEDs added in along with a resistor to keep them from burning out.

Picture of the completed circuit. The capacitor slows things down enough that you can see the lights blink.

I'm writing this several days after I worked it all out and I find I am still a little fuzzy on how the capacitator is hooked into the cirucit. I need to go back and play a bit more with this setup to cement it in my mind.

Bear with me....my mind isn't as nimble as it once was. If you are following along in the book and moving at a faster pace, check out Jim Kelly's Blog, he is much further along than I am.

[Images: All taken by Al Gunn: (CC: Attribution)]

Most Recent Image

2010-02-17T05:00:00.005-07:00

I usually use Google Image search when I am in a hurry to find a picture. This post over at digital inspiration, The Problem with Google Image Search, basically says that Google isn't the best at bringing you the most recent photos out there. Pictures of "Real Time Events". He compared Google, Bing and Yahoo and Yahoo won in terms of bringing the most recent pictures.

I tried a couple of different searches on breaking news stories and got similar results. Interesting. I don't often need the most recent picture on the web, but this might be handy to know on those times I do.

[Image: "Binoculars"; Uploaded on February 14, 2010 by tunnelarmr; http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelarmr/4356244277/ (CC: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)

Make Electronics(9) Sketching to Understand

2010-02-16T05:00:00.140-07:00

Finally got my order from JameCo, including the capacitor I was waiting for to move on in Make: Electronics.

My pesky teaching job kept me from getting back to my new hobby for a while. When I finally did open up my storage box and started fiddling around, I realized I could build the relay from the last activity (Experiment 8) but I didn't really understand what I was doing. I followed the diagram and it worked, but when I tried to explain it out loud to my dog, we both soon realized I didn't really get it.

I'm a visual thinker. I doodle during meetings. I doodle when I make lessons. My principal picked up some of my plans for teaching last week and just shook her head. It was a page of quickly sketched out web pages that I wanted to talk about with my kids. Very few words....just lots of badly drawn images.

When I realized my lack of understanding regarding what I was doing, I grabbed a pencil and paper and started drawing out the circuits. I broke up the entire circuit into it's separate parts. Once I sketched it out, then I built it on the breadboard.

This first circuit just turns on the magnetic switch inside the relay.

I built it on the breadboard and when I pushed the button, I could hear it click as the switch engaged.

So far so good. I understand this!

In the second circuit, I added an LED to the closed portion of the relay switch. It should be lit, until I break the circuit by pushing the button.

It also worked.

For the third circuit, I wanted it to do just the opposite. I wanted the light to be off until I pushed the button.

(The picture for this one looks pretty much the same as the previous one, so I left it out.)

For the fourth circuit, I added both LED lights. Now when you push the button, one light goes out while the other is on.

One light is always on.

It also worked.

This takes me up through experiment 7 in the book. The next one had to do with creating a circuit that automatically opens and closes. I'll show the same step by step process I went through to understand that circuit too....along with some more snazzy pencil sketches!

I found drawing out the circuits really helped me to understand what was going on. It also helped to cement the different symbols into my memory. By the time I hit the fourth sketch, I was drawing the components without looking at the book.

[All images taken by Al Gunn: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.]

Protecting your email address

2010-02-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

I have multiple email addresses. I've evolved into this multiple mailbox strategy over the years mainly to avoid spam. I have an email address I give out to family and friends. One for work. One for my students that's on a district Gmail account. A yahoo account that I used in accessing some of their services. Plus several others including one that is a throw away I use whenever an email address is required to enter a site or get information.

This post at digital inspiration, GiveYour Email Address Online in a Safe Way, gives some options other than having a million accounts. He has suggestions for temporary email accounts that you use once. Several ways to put an email on your blog/website using a CAPTCHA. And one that I should have known about, changing the settings in Gmail so that other Gmail users can send you a message but not see your email address.

[Image: "A blue lock for George"; Uploaded on February 28, 2007
by Darwin Bell; http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/406208791/ (CC: attritbution-noncommercial)

BOING with Kangoo

2010-02-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

Found this nice video of an areobics class using Kangoo Jumps in New York. The class is called "BOING with Kangoo and is taught by Mario Green: Mario the Trainer

(After close to a year of owning a pair. I find that I enjoy using them doing aerobic type routines more than running...anybody else feel this way.)

Here is Mario on the Today Show in January. (Kangoo segment at very beginning.)

valentines song

2010-02-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

Little ditty from the Flight of the Conchords called Business Time.

Funny: Beauty without Brains

2010-02-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Make Electronics (8) Relays

2010-02-11T05:00:00.002-07:00

All but one of my orders came in over the past few days and I decided to tackle the next few experiments in Make: Electronics. I worked my way through switches. No problem other than hooking everything up with alligator clips.

The author, Charles Platt, has you tear apart one of the relays to see how they work, as shown to the left.

Essentially a relay is a switch that turns on another switch. It has a small electro-magnet that closes another circuit when it gets a little juice. After I played around with this for a bit, I remembered making one of these using a nail with wire wrapped around it for the electro-magnet part when I was in 5th or 6th grade. When you turned the magnet on, it attracted another bit of metal that then closed a switch which turned on a light bulb. Almost the same experiment as shown in the Make: Electronics, only using nails, wire and a block of wood to hold it all together. How many classrooms today allow elementary kids hunks of wood, nails, hammers, real cutting utensils (not safety scissors) and dry cell batteries?

As you can see here, I have the first part of Experiment 7 using the relay switch put together using alligator clips. It works, but shake the table and it all falls apart. Thankfully, the next step is to start using a breadboard to build circuits.

Here is the completed circuit built on a breadboard. Push the red button and one LED goes off and the other turns on.

Unfortunately, the next experiment called for a capacitor and it's in the one order that hasn't arrived as of yet.

So I spent another thirty minutes just messing around building different circuits on the breadboard. I bought a box of pre-cut wires on the advice of the author and that makes throwing things together much easier. You could cut a bunch of wires to different lengths, but for around $5 someone else did that for me. Lazy....yes. Useful....oh yes!

[Images all taken by Al Gunn]

What Teachers Make

2010-02-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Feeling a little down about the district budget cuts we are looking at for next year. I think we are going to see a
some teachers let go. That's always a hard thing.

This piece always makes me feel better about my career choices and I need a little cheering up.

[via TED Blog]

[Image captured from the video]

Make Electronics (7) Soldering

2010-02-09T05:00:00.009-07:00

I decided to practice my soldering skills while waiting for my electronic parts to arrive. Gives me a chance to break in the new soldering iron and practice some of the joints mentioned in the book. Right away let me say after trying to hold pieces of wire together, the solder and the iron, I'm glad I ordered a Helping Hands stand the other day. I ended up using some alligator clips to help me keep everything together. I remember this being much easier when I was a teenager. Although the first joint shown here turned out pretty good. Nice and shiny. Uniform. Rounded shape.

It went downhill from there.

I kept adding joints to my wire until I'd done about six different connections. My first was my best.

Think I'll wait for the helping hands before I do anymore.

Found this video tutorial on Make for the beginner.

[Images: Photographed by Al Gunn (CC: Attribution)]

Make Great Minds

2010-02-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Great website sponsored by Make called Elements of Humanity. They went out and interviewed prominent people in science and technology about what they find interesting. The resulting videos are fascinating.

The one embedded is an interview with Rebecca Moore who manages the Google Outreach Program.

[Image captured from Elements of Humanity: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/quick_and_easy_pumpkin_cutter.html]

Funny: Rock Climbing

2010-02-05T05:00:00.001-07:00

Make Electronics (6) More parts...More Money

2010-02-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Spent all morning shopping online electronic companies to find the parts I need for the next set of experiments in Make: Electronics by Charles Platt. Must say this was not as easy as I thought. Might be that I'm not familiar with electronic components as of yet, but it took me about three hours of comparison shopping to find what I needed. I think if I was willing to spend a little more time I could have got everything from two companies and saved some shipping costs. At this point though, I just want the parts. Really wish MakerShed had put together a more complete set of components to go along with the book.

Ended up using these four online companies today.
Radio Shack $30.52
This was the hardest site to use unless you know the exact order number. Doing a general search just gives too much to sort through.

JameCo $28.78
This company seemed to have the best grab-bag kind of deals. Spent a little more here just to get an assortment of LEDs, capacitators, and resistors.

All Electronics $23.70
Found a few items cheaper here than the other sites. Good selection.

Mouser Electronics $26.54
Felt like I needed to know more to be able to use this site more efficiently. Huge selection, but I got overwhelmed several times as I was trying to find a specific component.

Surfed around eBay a bit and once again just didn't feel like I knew enough to make a reasonable purchase. Saw some good prices on bulk items and might have bought here if the shipping had been faster from some of the oversea suppliers. I will definitely be looking more closely at this location for future purchases.

Total cost of my online shopping today: $109.54
Total amount I've spent on my new hobby so far: $303.30
(I'm thinking this is the last big purchase I will need to make for a while.....I hope!)

[Image: "Money Grab"; Steve Wampler; Uploaded on September 27, 2008;http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgw/2892058635/ (CC:Attribution)]

Filming a Fight Scene

2010-02-03T05:11:00.031-07:00

Staging a punch in video came up in my media class the other day. I was trying to explain how a punch is faked in film and that most fight scenes are blocked out and practiced like a dance routine. We pulled out the camera and filmed a few punches and they all discovered that it was a little harder than they imagined. I remembered a YouTube video that demoed how a scene was blocked out in the movie Serenity.

I brought these two clips in the next day.
First the stunt group working it all out. (Main stunt woman is Bridget Riley)

Second, watch the actual scene from the movie with Summer Glau.

[Image: "Punch:Day2"; http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaparral/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Make Electronics (5) My first experiements

2010-02-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Worked my way through the first five experiments in Make: Electronics tonight and had a great time. Some things I already knew. Some stuff I am still working to clarify in my own mind. Up to this point, I am still pleased with my purchase. I was wishing I had a kid in the house who could share this with me. Too bad my nephews all live so far away. My wife says we aren't going to start a family in our late fifties just so I can have a playmate. She can be stern that way sometimes.

The author has you burn up a couple of things to see what happens. This includes putting too much power through a LED that stops working with a satisfying little pop. I also burnt up two more accidentally while I was messing around a bit with some of my own circuits.

Learning through destruction! My kind of lesson.

The picture is of Experiment 3 in the book. Various resistors and an LED are hooked to a battery to see what happens. Directions are also given on how to check a resister with your multimeter to determine it's resistance rating. This is something that frustrated me tremendously in high school. I was always reading the stripes incorrectly. For those of you not in the know, a series of colored stripes tell you the rating of your component. This is all fine and dandy unless you are color blind, a disability I didn't even know I had until my physical for college.

My instructor and I in high school both assumed I was a lost cause when it came to electronics. I felt a great deal of satisfaction tonight as some thirty years later as I figured out the ratings on each resistor without having to figure out the colors. This is going to be fun.

Went as far as I could today with the components on hand. I skipped ahead a bit and messed around with the breadboard. Set up the same circuit from Experiment 3. Later tonight, I'll be going online to buy what I need for the next few lessons. While I'm waiting, I am going to practice soldering.

[Image: Photographed by Al Gunn (CC:Attribution)]

Soldering Kits

2010-02-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been lurking around various electronic sites and have found alternatives to the kit you get with Make: Electronics through MakerShed. (Shown to the left) If you bought the kit alone without the book, it would cost a $114.

Here are a couple of different choices.

Spark Electronics
Tool Kit - Intermediate
$69.95

I like this one because it has a Third hand with a magnifier and a nicer set of wire strippers. Both items I bought shortly after starting this whole electronics thing.

I'm thinking for the $30 you save, you could buy the spools of wire, a set of screwdrivers and a Panvise and still come in around $100.

They also had two other packages available. One cheaper. One more expensive.

Adafruit Industries
Ladyada's Electronic Toolkit
$100

This setup is very similar to the MakerShed kit. Has a small breadboard and parts to build a power supply. Doesn't have the screwdrivers and Maker's log. It's $14 cheaper.

(Note: The multimeter shown here is not the one that comes with the kit)

I saw lots of kits that included a soldering iron and minimal tools in the 15-25 dollar range. I tried to find a list somewhere of the essential tools every beginner should have, but to no avail. If anyone has a link to such an animal, let me know. Or links to other beginners start-up kits.

[Image: MakerShed Kit: Captured from Makershedsite: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKEE1]

[Image: Spark Kit: Captured from Spark site: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9466]

A Blog about MAKE:Electronics

2010-01-31T13:30:00.001-07:00

Found someone else who is blogging about their experience with the MAKE: Electronics book. James Floyd Kelly has created a blog, Hands On - Make:Electronics.

His blog will take you step-by-step through the whole book....or at least he has done this so far. He has lots of pictures and some videos of his progress through the book. He also lists prices of items as he purchases them for the various projects.

He is much more detailed than I am in regards to the various experiments from the book. Good blog to follow if you are interested in the book or want to see how someone else is doing while you work through the chapters yourself.

[Image captured from Hands On - Make:Electronics; http://handsonelectronics.blogspot.com/]

Compatibility of iPad Books

2010-01-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

Had some fun discussions with my multimedia students after the announcement of the iPad last Wednesday. Earlier in the week I had challenged them to come up with their own tablet design. Then we looked at the Apple product and and compared our features to the ones released in Cupertino.

One of the discussion topics that came up was how compatible would a book you bought for the iPad be with say, a Kindle? We couldn't quickly find an answer to this but I stumbled on this article by Steven Sanders on TUAW this weekend that answered a lot of our questions. It's worth a read if you are interested.

My wife and I were talking about the iPad over dinner. We both own iPods and own a lot of music. We were never drawn to any of the music subscription schemes out there and always wanted to own what we bought. I listen to songs over and over and over. Not true for most books though. I would willingly join a service that let me keep a book, read it and then go onto the next one. For a monthly fee, I could read as many or as few books as I wanted. Be curious to see where this technology ends up.

[Image captured from http://www.apple.com/ipad/gallery/]

funny: How to cope with Death

2010-01-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Make Electronics (4): New Tool Box

2010-01-28T05:00:00.004-07:00

One little detour today in my study of electronics. I have been keeping all my stuff in a cardboard box. I don't really have a place to set up a permanent work bench at the current moment. So, I decided to go buy a big toolbox to hold everything neatly and let me stow it out of site in the garage when I wasn't messing around.

I figure this would be a useful addition and help maintain a healthy and happy marriage. My wife is patient but she does like to use the kitchen table for meals occasionally.

I headed down to a nearby Lowes to see what I could find. This toolbox caught my eye because it had the small parts bin built into the top of the box. That seemed like a good idea and would let me hold off on buying some small parts containers to hold all the components I am sure I will end up with eventually.

I also splurged and bought a better wire stripper than came with my kit for $8. The original is adjustable but you have to tighten/re-tighten a screw for the different gauges of wire. I decided to keep that one set up for 22 gauge wire and keep this one handy for other sizes. It may end up being a frivolous purchase....I'll let you know.

All the bigger tools fit into the main body of the toolbox. I may cut down a few small boxes to organize things a bit better in the bottom compartment, but for now it all works out nicely.

A feature that I didn't plan on was how the wire spools sit so nicely in the top compartment.

The parts bin works great with one possible problem. You have to be sure to close it tightly before opening the main box. If not, you could spill all your tiny little pieces all over the floor. I had looked at another box ($15 more expensive) that let you remove the small parts bin off the top. I think that may have been a better choice, but until I do a few projects, not really sure about my workflow.

Tool box and wire strippers cost: $27.08
Total cost up to this point: $193.76

[Images: Photographed by Al Gunn (CC: Attribution)]

Safe Drinking Water

2010-01-27T05:02:00.024-07:00

Here is an invention that seems way past due. A portable water filtration system that can filter out bacteria and virus. Hand these out to folks who don't have access to clean water where they live or during a disaster and suddenly they aren't as dependent on rescue agencies delivering drinkable water.

It's called the Lifesaver Bottle and was invented by Michael Pritchard. Watch the TED video below and be amazed.

[Image Captured from the Lifesaver Web Site: http://www.lifesaversystems.com/techinfo.html]

Make Electronics (3): The Shack

2010-01-26T05:00:00.001-07:00

Went down to my local Radio Shack to buy some of the parts I needed for my Make: Electronics experiments. It's been a while since I was in Radio Shack and the walls of electronic components have been reduced to a small corner of the store. They are more efficiently organized but you can no longer stand around looking at the various bits and pieces. Now you have to open a drawer labeled resisters or LEDs. Luckily, I had a list of things I needed and didn't feel intimidated. The bad news is they didn't have everything I was looking for and some of the items had to be purchased in different configurations than stated in the book.

For Example. The author recommended an assortment of resisters in a bulk pack that are usually cheaper when purchased this way. The Shack didn't have anything like this in their store and I ended buying three packages of specific resistors for 99 cents a package.

I will be doing most of my purchases online from this point on. The book lists several online vendors along with Radio Shack. They could have ordered the items for me at the store but once again, I wanted to get home to play. I didn't want to wait another couple of days before actually getting my hands dirty.

I bought:

(10)Mini Aligator Clips
(20)Assorted LEDs
(15) Resistors (three packages)
(2) Potentiometers
(5) 9volt battery clips (they didn't sell them individually)
(1) 4 AA battery holder
(1) Breadboard

Total cost: $42.68 with tax. The largest cost item was the breadboard which set me back $19. I could have bought a slightly cheaper one for $16, but instead opted for one that included terminals to hook up your power source. Seemed like a convenience that might come in handy. I'll let you know.

Total cost of initial kit and supplies up to this point: $166.68

Related Posts

[Image: Photos by Al Gunn (CC:Attribution)]

Presentation Zen

2010-01-25T05:00:00.034-07:00

I stumbled across Garr Reynold's blog Presentation Zen about a year ago and then bought his book Presentation Zen when it came out at the beginning of 2008. It's a good read and gave me lots of ideas for improving my own style in front of the classroom.

In a recent post he gave his recommendations for ten books that would help improve presentation skills. Not one is a how-to book on using Powerpoint or Keynote. They are all books on design or speaking. Since his book has been such a big influence on me, I will be checking out several of these titles.

So many books I want to read. So many projects to grade. Alas, no one pays me to read books.

[Image captured of Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263140178&sr=8-1]

Funny: March of the Emporers

2010-01-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

The movie March of the Penguins was called March of the Emperors when it was released in France.

Make: Electronics (2)

2010-01-21T05:00:00.002-07:00

My Deluxe Make Electronics Tool Kit arrived and at first glance I am very pleased. I spent a couple of hours this evening reading the first couple of chapters of the book and skimming the rest. The tools and parts that came with the kit are acceptable. I probably could have got most of the tools and items for about the same price, but it was nice to get them all at once as I wouldn't have known what to look for in some of the items. Hopefully this will help me skip some of the bumbling around that occurs when you start a new hobby.

My first complaint about the kit is that I don't have the parts I need to do the first couple of experiments. It's a minor thing, but I would have liked to have started tonight. This means I need to shlep on down to my local Radio Shack to pick up a few things tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted.

[Image: photographed by Al Gunn (creative commons: attribution)]

Making an Igloo

2010-01-20T05:00:00.013-07:00

I've run across several posts about building igloos with all the snow we are getting this winter in various parts of the country. Cool Tools have reviewed several igloo making tools and resources in the past. Including the documentary on igloo building embedded below.

The Toy Report had a fun post recently about building an igloo as a family project. They ended up using a plastic storage container to shape the blocks as they found the "toy" forms pretty much useless. Their igloo is shown to the left. One item I thought was interesting was that they discovered that they needed someone inside to build the walls stating:

"Do not attempt to get in or out of the igloo or build a doorway until the igloo is complete. One person stays inside to place the blocks, the other makes the blocks."

If you watch the documentary below, that's exactly how the Eskimos built their igloos. Including the last two pieces of the roof that were fitted from the inside out.

[Image: Captured from Toy Report: http://toyreport.org/family-life/building-kids-igloo/]

kangoos and barefoot running

2010-01-19T06:00:00.010-07:00

Recently finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and in it there is a reference to Barefoot Ted buying a pair of Kangoos before he stumbled upon running barefoot (pg155). I went online to Ted's website and found one reference to this event.

This got me to thinking about running in the Kangoos. When I first started running in them I tried to come down more on my heels. That never did feel all that stable. I finally started to come down more flatfooted and concentrated on lifting my feet off the ground rather than trying to push off. The spring in the boots helps you to lift naturally and as it turns out I've since seen several references advocating this technique when you run. Lift your foot off the ground. Don't push off. (PACE and Chi Running).

When running barefoot, you land more on the ball of your foot which allows the arch to act as a natural spring. So now I am wondering if one of the reasons I can run without pain in my Kangoos is because it is forcing me to run correctly? As soon as it warms up some, I'm going out to try some short barefoot runs to see how it feels.

No answers here only questions. Not retiring my Kangoos as of yet.

[Image: Flickr: "Barefoot"; frigginacky: uploaded-July 7, 2008:http://www.flickr.com/photos/frigginacky/ / CC BY-NC 2.0]

Make: Electronics (1)

2010-01-19T05:00:00.003-07:00

I bought an electronics book a couple of years ago with the idea that I'd teach myself enough so I could tinker around with simple projects in my free time. It was a failure and I never built that killer robot I had rolling around in my daydreams.

Make published a new book, Make: Electronics, just before Christmas and I thought, maybe it was time to try again. I committed all the way and bought their Deluxe Electronics Tool Kit so I would have most of the basic items I needed to get started. The kit included (along with the book):

(1) 30w adjustable soldering iron
(1) Deluxe Solder Stand & sponge
(1) 1/4 lb Spool of rosin core solder .031" (60/40)
(1) 5ft Solder wick
(1) Digital Multimeter
(1) Wire strippers
(1) Deluxe Wire cutters
(3) 25ft spools of solid core 22AWG wire
(1) Deluxe Needle nose pliers
(1) 5 piece miniature screwdrivers kit
(1) Desolder pump
(1) Panavise Jr for holding PCBs
(1) WeeBlinky Kit - Requires soldering
(1) Maker's Notebook

Total Cost: $124 (I got free shipping because of a promotion at the time)

This was my Christmas present to myself this year and am hoping that by this time next year, I will be on my way to building that world dominating robot.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[Image from MakerShed: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKEE2&Show=ExtInfo]

I Have A Dream Speech

2010-01-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

A great man.

A great speech.

[Image: Captured from National Archives: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking.] on 08/28/1963; Miscellaneous Subjects, Staff and Stringer Photographs, 1961-1974; Records of the U.S. Information Agency; Record Group 306; National Archives - Still Picture Branch, College Park, MD(Local Identifier: NWDNS-306-SSM-4D(107)8; http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/northeast/nyc/exhibits/images/mlk-speech-l.gif&c=/northeast/nyc/exhibits/images/mlk-speech.caption.html]

Instructables Ultimate Parts Storage

2010-01-18T05:00:00.011-07:00

I don't have an office at work. I have a cubicle that is woefully too small for all the books and stuff I collect over a school year. Being a technology teacher, I have all kinds of cables and connectors. I don't have anyplace to really put these in an organized fashion, so they end up in a box or in the bottom of my drawer. Once there, they disappear until the end of year when I clean everything and say with joyful surprise when I find something I thought I had lost, "Hello little lost friend."

This Instructables "Ultimate Parts Storage" looks like a clever way to deal with some of these little bits and pieces I need to keep around. Essentially, you buy zip lock binder pockets. Then buy some smaller ziplock bags that can help you further organize your stuff into labeled organizational heaven rather than clutter stuff-falls-on-your-head hell.

I'll try it out and let you know.

[Image captured from Instructables: Ultimate Parts Storage: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultimate-Parts-Storage/step3/Organise-Everything/]

Funny: Ode to Forgetfulness

2009-11-13T05:00:00.001-07:00

One last bit of foolishness...

Last post for a while...

2009-11-10T05:00:00.005-07:00

Due to some health issues, I won't be updating for a while. Not sure how long but I don't expect it to be permanent. My apologies to everyone who checks in on my ramblings on a regular basis.

-al

Explaining Differential Gears with YouTube Videos

2009-11-09T05:00:00.002-07:00

I've always had a hard time visualizing how a differential works. This hampers my ability to explain the concept to my students. Here are some videos that may help others who, like me, are differentially impaired.

How Differential Gears Work (instructional film from the 30's)

LEGO - Differential Gear

[Via Neatorama: This is the post that got me started...]

Funny: DIY Car Jack

2009-11-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

[via There I Fixed It]

Ira Glass on Storytelling

2009-11-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

The other media production teacher and I often talk about how our kids technical abilities are ahead of their storytelling skills. We can teach them to set up a shot, improve their sound and edit what they shoot. We haven't been as successful at teaching them to tell a story.

Often our best storytellers are our best writers. The students who have done well in Creative Writing or their English classes. These typically are not the kids attracted to our program though.

I've been putting some thought into this and doing a little reading and web surfing on the topic. Came across these videos on YouTube of Ira Glass, This American Life, talking about storytelling as it relates to video and radio. He has some good information here.

Storytelling #1: Two Building Blocks of a good story.

Storytelling #2: Finding a Good Story is time consuming.

Storytelling #3: It takes time to get good at your craft.

Storytelling #4: The pitfalls for beginners

[Image captured from This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/About_Staff.aspx]

TED: Modeling the Brain

2009-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Fascinating talk on how we are mapping the brain and the plans to eventually model how it works by Harry Markram. Also below are a couple of links I found at the TED bio on Markram and his Blue Brain project.

Seed Article: Can a Thinking, Remembering, Decision-Making, Biological Accurate Brain Be Built From a SuperComputer?

Blue Brain Project Website

Cardboard Animations--followup

2009-11-02T05:15:00.000-07:00

After watching the cardboard animation by Sjors Vervoort I did some searching and came up with some other cool animations along the same lines. Roger Wieland has several cardboard animations available online. The first one is called "The Stand Up Comedian".

Take a look at his YouTube Channel for lots of examples of his work including the second one below, a great music video: Whatcha Got.

[Image captured from the video: The Stand Up Comedian]

Zombie Make-up Results

2009-11-01T06:28:00.004-07:00

In between trick-0r-treaters last night, I decided to mess around with the zombie makeup trick I posted about earlier this week. I had none of the materials but I did have some white glue.

The results were OK.

Main problem was trying to get a good look with my wife's makeup. She just doesn't have a good selection of stage makeup. The white glue worked but I think latex would look more like skin when you tear it?

In good lighting, it looked pretty fake. Turn the lights down some and the results were much more creepy. Of course, isn't everything just a little more creepy when you turn down the lights?

Pumpkin Saw

2009-10-31T14:00:00.002-06:00

My wife bought one of those pumpkin carving kits with cutting blades included. Everytime I use the plastic handled tools, I usually say something along the lines of, "Next year, I will make my own saws. These things are awful."

But I never do. I'm a big Halloween talker. But, I'm all talk and no-do.

Saw this post on Make and am now thinking I could whip up a simple pumpkin saw with just a scroll saw blade laying around in my garage and some duct tape. Minimalist. Workable. Better than the plastic junk that hurts my delicate fingers.

Next year I will be ready!

[via Make]

[Image captured from Make: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/quick_and_easy_pumpkin_cutter.html]

Zombie Make-Up

2009-10-31T13:00:00.000-06:00

Quick easy tutorial on how to create a Zombie using liquid latex, toilet paper and some makeup (about $20 worth of materials). They say you can substitute white glue for the liquid latex if you are in a hurry or can't find the latex.

Halloween Math Lecture

2009-10-31T12:00:00.000-06:00

Wonder if I could pull this off?

[via Neatorama]

Space Wolf

2009-10-31T11:00:00.000-06:00

Check out this Graham Annable's other animations at his YouTube channel.

[via Miss Cellania]

Funny: Trick or Treat

2009-10-31T07:39:00.002-06:00

A bunch Halloween Projects

2009-10-31T05:00:00.002-06:00

HauntProject.com many projects you can build. Some easy. Some hard. Directions vary from easy to follow to pretty obscure but all of it pretty interesting and inspiring. Site is essentially a link dump to many other project sites.

Never knew you could use a wiper motor to create so many cool things. Including this ghoulish groundbreaker corpse found at the Garage of Evil.

I had a ton of Halloween fun looking at all the projects.

[via Make]

Funny: Glassy Eyed Automatons

2009-10-30T05:00:00.002-06:00

[via xkcd]

Halloween Sugar Cookies

2009-10-29T07:57:00.005-06:00

These Halloween sugar cookies look great. Head over to Annie's Eats to see closeups of the cookies shown here. The recipes for the icing and the cookies are at the bottom of her post. She uses Royal Icing to decorate the cookie, something I've never used before.

The frosting calls for something called meringue powder. I found several sources for it online and many people say it is available from cake supply stores and craft stores like Michaels. Seems that originally the frosting was made with real egg whites, but folks are nervous about raw egg now-a-days.

[Image from Annie's Eat: http://annies-eats.com/2009/10/29/halloween-sugar-cookies/]

Halloween costumes for your pets

2009-10-29T05:00:00.002-06:00

Not usually a big fan of costumes for my dog. Although every year my wife wants to dress our pup up as a vampire or some such thing.

"Oh honey, it's so cute!" She says.

"Grumble....crazy....grumble." I reply.

I tend to side with the dog....that is until I saw this cool three-headed dog costume. I may have to re-think my stand on dressing the dogs up for the holidays. I'm thinking my Shitzu could be Cerberus and I could be Hercules.

I wonder if Hercules had a pot belly?

[Via Sci Fi Wire]
[Image captured from Sci Fi Wire: http://scifiwire.com/2009/10/pet-costumes.php]

A better way to cut a pumpkin top?

2009-10-28T05:00:00.004-06:00

Saw this on the Make site. Michael Williams came up with the idea as a way to make it easy to light the candle inside.

I'm willing to give this a shot with one of the pumpkins we carve this year. It also looks like it might help during the carving?

I'll let you know.

[Image captured from Make: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/a_better_way_to_slice_a_pumpkin.html]

Alien Animatronic Mandibles

2009-10-28T05:00:00.003-06:00

The lips on this animatronic device are awsome. Tried to find a little more information on the model. No luck.

But in searching for info on how this might be done, I found the other videos below.

[Image captured from the video: Alien AnimatronicMandibles]
[via Neatorama]

Learning about Halloween

2009-10-27T17:00:00.001-06:00

Larry Ferlazzo has a post called, "The Best Websites for Learning about Halloween". Bound to be something in here you can use.....or just enjoy on your own without ever sharing it with your students.

[Image captured from New York Times slideshow about Mexico's celebration of the Day of the Dead: "In Mexico, Celebrating the Day of the Dead": http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/03/travel/20071003_MEXICO_SLIDESHOW_9.html:

Halloween Party Food

2009-10-26T05:00:00.002-06:00

If I was the party throwing kind, I'd definitely be having a Halloween party with all kinds of creepy, spooky treats. Here are a few that would be a hit at any gathering of ghouls and Twilight wannabes.

[via Mental Floss]

[Image captured from Mental Floss: "Creepy Halloween Party Foods" : http://scifiwire.com/2009/10/pet-costumes.php]

Latex Zombie Mask

2009-10-25T05:00:00.000-06:00

The folks at Gryphern who brought you the Werewolf mask and a biting snapping puppet thingy, now have directions for creating your own latex mask. If you act today, you'll be ready by Halloween.

Their videos are always informative and easy to follow. I remember wanting to make a latex mask when I was a boy. If only Gryphern had been around when I was young.

[Image captured from the video]