Alternicity

Werewolf Game Part One

2012-02-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

Won't work in IOS
Learn more about this project

Thanks to dragoArt

2d gun-game

2012-02-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

A side-scroller gun game.
Won't work on iOS
Learn more about this project

By AchillesX

Tennis Game

2012-01-25T16:21:00.000-08:00

A tennis game AchillesX has been working on.

Learn more about this project

Supernatural Boxing Game

2012-01-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is the boxing game AchillesX has been working on.
Won't work on iOS

Learn more about this project

Boxing Game

2012-01-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

Here is the scratch game my eldest son has been working on.
Won't work on iOS
Learn more about this project

Computer Programming for the Home Educated

2012-01-12T06:38:00.000-08:00

a guest post by Jon Winterburn

As a child I went to state school in an inner city London school which, like so many of its kind, let me and many of my fellow students down in practically every subject. One particular subject was the then-called “computer studies” which is now known as ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Just like the state-schooled children of today, the only “computer studies” we were introduced to was a basic understanding of how to use a word processor and very simple spreadsheet management.

Therefore, you would probably be surprised to learn that for the last 13 years I have been working in IT with several professional IT qualifications under my belt and am a member of the British Computer Society. Despite failing at school, I used online resources to teach myself the fundamentals of network engineering, computer programming and web design. If I can do it (and I’m not the sharpest tool in the box!), then anyone can! For the last 7 years I’ve worked in a dual-role in central London; managing a network that supports over 2,500 London black taxis as well as programming Web applications providing tens of thousands of customers with access to their taxi bookings.

Why am I blabbering on about all this, you might ask. Well, yesterday in the news you may have heard that Education Secretary Michael Gove announced radical new changes to the national curriculum with regards to ICT.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929

Finally, the government has listened to the IT industry and realised what we’ve been saying for years: the next generation needs to be tech-savvy. Britain needs to lead the way in state-of-the-art computer programming. This covers a vast range of technologies ranging from consumer-level software (smartphone “apps”, Websites, video games, special effects in movies and TV), to industry-level software (medical equipment, transportation, infrastructure, architecture). Do we want to be behind the rest of the world in technology? Do we want all the exciting possibilities for the nation’s children to be outsourced to some remote country on the other side of the world? No!

So, as an ex-state-schooled kid, I was so pleased to hear that the garbage the national curriculum calls ICT (using proprietary software – Microsoft Office – to learn basic clerical skills) is to be scrapped in favour of real computer science. I don’t blame the schools for implementing this gross waste of time and money, for they have had their hands forced by previous backward, outdated governments who wouldn’t know an iPhone from igloo. This is scandalous, because whilst our economy will always need administrators and clerical workers, we also need software developers, computer engineers and video game designers.

Whilst the state-schooled children are obtaining a better education in computer science (one can only hope that the bureaucrats get it right!), we in the home education community (my wife and I home educate our 9 year old son) don’t want to be left behind. I say this for a number of reasons. First of all, we need our children to be armed with the skills they need to compete against their state-schooled counterparts. Secondly, we need to be prepared for the inevitable declarations from the LEA that our children are missing out on these new-fangled skills now that the schools are doing what many of us already do! And finally, you will be surprised just how much fun it is (and how easy it is) for children to learn computer science. Computer programming is the perfect way to bring to life all that boring maths your kids are learning!

If this article interests you, I hope to be able to help you unravel the mysteries of computer programming (aka coding) and give your children (and you too if you’re interested!) a head-start in not just understanding how computers work, but how to make them do what you want them to do. There are a number of free, user-friendly resources, courses and tools now available to allow anyone from 6 to 60 to become an accomplished programmer – with little or no former experience! Before I list a few of these, let me clarify something about computer programming:

Learning to program is not hard. There, I said it! It really isn’t hard to learn. What is difficult is mastering it. Just like almost everything else in life, learning to program is easy to learn. Admittedly, mastering a programming language takes a lot of hard work as well as much trial and error. But there is a lot of free support out there on the Internet and the benefits are rewarding. If you think computers are too clever for you or your child/children to ever be able to program them, you’re wrong. Computers are stupid! Think about it. If you’d never made a cucumber sandwich, and I asked you to make me one, I’d probably give you instructions like so:

“Get two slices of bread from the bag, use a knife to spread the butter evenly. Cut up the cucumber, put it one one slice and push the two bits of bread together and put it on a plate”. Simple!

Now imagine telling a computer how to do this using any programming language. You’d have to give instructions a bit like:

“If bread is available in the bread bin (which is in the kitchen on the worktop), take out two slices – a slice is approximately 150mm x 150mm. Lay both slices flat on the worktop and obtain a butter knife from the drawer. This will be in the left hand compartment. You will need to hold the knife by the handle. Now obtain the butter from the fridge (top right shelf, yellow container), remove the lid from the container and insert the knife at a 30 degree angle…” and so on – as you can see, this is a far more lengthy process because the computer really has no intelligence. However, you are intelligent, and you can utilise your vastly superior intelligence to instruct the computer to do what you want it to do. Remember: the computer is the slave, and you are its master – not the other way round!

So, on to the resources. The website www.codecademy.com has been set up in conjunction with the Code Year program (www.codeyear.com) started on 1st January this year, with the intention of helping you become a programming ninja within the year. Sporting a clean, easy to use interface, you work through interactive, bite-sized exercises which teach you the basics of 3 of the easiest languages: JavaScript, Python and Ruby. You gain points, awards and badges as you work your way through the exercises, which is a great encouragement.

The next resource is designed primarily for children but of course is suitable for anyone wanting to learn to program. The language of choice is Ruby (an object-orientated open-source language developed in Japan by someone who wanted to provide people with an easier, more human-understandable language). The colourful and fun website www.kidsruby.com provides kids and parents with free software that’ll have your little ones building computer games in Ruby in no time at all. Building computer games is a great and exciting way for children to put to use the maths and science they learn in school and they learn to program without realising it!

Up next is www.hackety.com – another colourful and fun website which helps absolute beginners and kids learn to program quickly, also in Ruby. You can quickly develop graphical interfaces and several lessons and example programs are provided, showing you how to make all kinds of fun things!

One more similar resource is the website http://scratch.mit.edu – a kid-friendly website which provides free software and starter kits that’ll get your kids developing in a simple programming language called Scratch (designed by MIT).

Of course there are far more resources and programming languages out there which you can easily find through Google. However, if you’re an absolute beginner or want to get your kids interested in coding, then the above websites are a great starting point.

Happy coding!

Buntle Hunter Ass Kickin

2012-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

Originally Buntle Hunter was supposed to be the antagonist of these odd creatures, but when I imported him into the animation file with the others he was tiny!

So rather than change that I rolled with it and it shaped the animation.

Also EyeStalk has glasses in this one, just cos.

What do you think it needs?

Optimism #4 :: Altruism on the Web

2011-12-08T14:50:00.001-08:00

If the question was not 'What Are You Optimistic About?' but instead 'What Are You Pessimistic About' then Dan Sperber's answer would be that the progress of human wisdom is pathetically slow. In the meantime, greater technological advances have provided wealthy, powerful people a new way to cause more and more havoc. Therefore, he doesn’t have much reason to be optimistic about the future of humanity. However, humans are unpredictable, and often have many surprises up their sleeves. Many of those surprises are helpful, which in some ways is something to be optimistic about.

A endless stream of technological, academic, artistic inventions, many of them brilliant quality, are becoming free to the public according to their needs, individuals working to the maximum of their skills. They often seek self-understanding more than notice and glory. Some examples of the types: Free-software, Wikis and the open-source software. Some examples of the individual programs: Blender, Audacity, Gimp*, Firefox and Opera. Not many people would have thought the Internet would become quite so popular.

Many free technologies need the Internet. For example: Wikis, Blogs, Open-access documents and many more. A cheaper or free product is more desirable than an expensive one. So let us applaud change, wherever it appears. Many members of the public have observed the economics is odd. He is optimistic that the development of both individual and collective forms of altruism on the Internet. The Internet is an organization of organizations. Each and every single node is a website. Many websites are colliding, and linking to each other.

On this planet, more and more altruistic acts - acts that had in the past been intended just for the persons family or clan or state - might now, out of a sensible sense of common destiny be aimed for the gain of everyone. Dan Sperber is optimistic about altruism on the Internet.

By AchillesX (9)

Things Could Always Be Worse

2011-12-06T16:18:00.001-08:00

Things could always be worse. That is what Robert R.Provine is optimistic about. He wonders whether this is a good source of optimism, knowing your life could be worse. You have probably heard of the saying 'the grass is greener'. This theory is pretty much the opposite. Sometimes 'less is more'. In this case, the green grass makes you just want even greener grass. Also, the green grass will wither, and become as yellow as the grass that you left. If you have a green patch of say, 1, and it withers, if you jump to another patch of grass with a greenness of 1 also, you will not be as satisfied as when you first had a patch with a greenness of 1. The reason for this is you consciously or unconsciously try to continually beat yourself. Humans are very competitive. Philosophers and scientists generally agree that life is not so much of a race, so much as a marathon, not so much as completing a goal as a long voyage.

By AchillesX (9)

Optimism #2 :: Cultural Divide is Decreasing

2011-12-05T15:43:00.001-08:00

Carlo Rovelli is optimistic that humans are increasingly realizing that thinking rationally is far greater than thinking irrationally. At the same time, more people are thinking scientifically. This scientific thinking is leaving a traditional superficiality behind. It is regaining communication with the rest of the culture, learning how to deal with the complex web known as the human experience and the search for knowledge. Not everyone believes in science, for example priests, but it is growing.

In the small world of academia, Carlo Rovelli sees the senseless divide between scientists and the culture is disintegrating. This might be what Charles Percy Snow's book 'The Third Culture' is about, says my Dad. Some intellectuals realize that we cannot understand the complex nature of knowledge unless we examine it all, and not just as individual subjects.

If a contemporary philosopher ignores scientific thinking, he or she is disconnected from reality. Scientists are coming out of their lab and speaking their mind. History makes it look like horrible things like greed and war are going to stick to us like glue. However, that is judging the future from the past. The future is what the world makes of it.

By AchillesX (9)

Optimistic Post #1 :: Professor Dawkins

2011-12-04T14:03:00.001-08:00

Richard Dawkins is optimistic about four things in his chapter of What Are You Optimistic About.

Prof Dawkins is optimistic that humans will find The Theory of Everything before aliens arrive.

The second thing he is optimistic about is that with The Theory of Everything we will then complete physics, but the enterperise of physics will continue.

With evolution by natural selection and The Theory of Everything we will create a sensible explanation for the existence of humans and the universe.

Prof Dawkins is confident that this will deal a deathblow to religion. I think this is unlikely, but if no people believed this, then they wouldn't have so much belief in science.

Non-Fiction Book Roundup 2011

2011-11-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Partial Non-Fiction Book Roundup 2011

Here are some of the non fiction books I have read this year, which I recommend for one reason or another. A good practice, imo, with any new idea, thinker, theory, or whatever is to read what is being said in criticism of it. To that end, I have added (MCR) links which point to the most critical review I could find, or a list of critical reviews.

1 History of Western Philosophy

2 Guns Germs and Steel

3 Consilience

4 Holographic Universe

5 Critical Mass

6 Black Swan

7 How the Mind Works

8 Emergence

9 Rubicon

10 Meme Machine

The History of Western Philosophy

The History of Western Philosophy is a daunting book, but once you start reading it you realize why it is so highly regarded. This is a history of thinkers, and the schools and religions they influenced, and it sheds light on many forgotten but important forerunners of the memes and ideas that fill our heads now.

Russell's writing style inspires confidence in his integrity. I never once got the impression that he was trying to push his own agenda or beliefs, even in the Christian chapters. He simply lays the

subject matter out and chapter by chapter you learn huge important chunks of how Western societies got where they are, and think the way they think. It is such foundational material that I am rather annoyed that my school did not get me reading this as a boy instead of the bible. My boys read small snippets of this, mostly when I prompt them to. I always emphasize that it is a book to go to for short passages, rather than something they should read cover to cover.

Sometimes - not often at the time of writing this - we just use it a text for reading aloud. It is not essential to understand it all at any particular stage, just getting exposed to the words and ideas within is educational. MCR

Guns, Germs and Steel

Another fascinating, but sometimes difficult to read book. The difficulty in this case is that some parts go into great detail and you end up asking yourself whether you really need to know all this, but Diamond has several fascinating points to make and prove, and these points are worth struggling through the drier passages.
Why did some areas of the planet produce and support societies that exported amazing *cargo*

and other areas produce societies that are still firing arrows to catch their food, and in need ( or

desirous of ) that fantastic cargo.
Why did a tiny contingent of Europeans conquer so much territory, people and plunder so much, so easily from massive empires in the Americas? Read this book to find out, or watch the author give a lecture about it if you prefer - video is available online. MCR

Consilience

The concept that this book teaches about means the 'Unity of Knowledge'. It is interdisciplinary-ness taken to the max, so I would read it even if it were awful in other ways, which it is not. Academia is famous for breaking knowledge into subjects, departments and territories, and thismode of thought flies in the face of that. For internet connected home educated kids and parents this would seem to be a good meta/subject to move into to take advantage of our greater freedoms.

One thing to note however, is that although some people online think very highly of Wilson's work, the writers of the three splurbs on the cover of my edition are all literary types, not scientific ones, whom would have perhaps been a more appropriate choice. On the other hand, maybe it takes literary types to see the broader projected picture in a positive light, as they are not constrained to one or other 'Great Branches of Learning'.
Consilience is definately on my reread list, both the boys have read it, and I expect to read it with my grandkids, as the concept will still hold, I am sure. Which grandchild generation schoolkids will have heard of the concept by then? MCR

Holographic Universe

This book takes a key scientific idea and expands and extrapolates to explain many bizarre

phenomena in a logical way. Are our minds co-authors of the reality we 'perceive'? They certainly are, but to what level?
My whole family has marked this book for reading. If you are interested in spiritual and/or supernatural things the ideas contained in this book - once you get past the science bit at the start - might help you understand them, and see them in a whole different perspective.
At times I cannot help but wonder if the author is over working the base material, and using it to explain too many things. That other fascinating phenomena? Holographic! That unknown mystery? Holographic!
Nevertheless it remains an interesting read and one I will return to again because the theory does have explanatory power. The thing is, it has enormous explanatory power, or he is pretty wrong and has been conned.
I haven't looked up any online material critical of this book yet - for some reason I am holding off - but a theory of such great power needs scepticism and scorn poured all over, it needs to be tested, to see how well it holds under pressure. MCR - I guess I did look it up.

Critical Mass

I paid full price for this one, on a bad mood whim one time. As with Guns, Germs and Steel it has some parts that are slow going unless you happen to be interested in the actual material presented, but it is worth it for the greater points he is trying to make. Again it is multidisciplinary, and meta, the product of a great mind's years of trying to figure important trends out. It gets critiqued in the next book on this list. MCR

Black Swan

Wow! The safer(more stable) you feel, the less safe you are, because it is the extremely rare, unpredictable events that are likely to shape your life and society. The more you come to feel like you can predict the future - especially using as system based on numbers - the more vulnerable you are to a Black Swan event. ((Although a BS can be positive...))
This is mind blowing!
And how could I have never known the word 'erudite' before reading this?!? (It means well read, to save you a quick search)
Where some of these books are sometimes wordy and dry in a slow paced kind of way, this one is a footnoter, something which bothers me less. However I have decided to teach the idea of this book to my family verbally, myself, rather than strew this book heavily, or ask them if they want to read it.

I intend to read it again, possibly backwards by chapter, or at least the last few sections first as I did feel that as I reached the end, there was another bit , then another bit, and maybe the good author was saving the very best till the very end. Cheeky, but he doesn't give a damn I don't suppose, having earned a great deal of money by being extremely smart. He was also, interestingly, not whatever it-takes enough for TED, his talk having been *buried*.
I wonder if it will ever leak. If you find it, please post the link! MCR

How the Mind Works

I thought this one would be a boring run through of best/favourite articles of psychology, but stuff I ha best brush up on, as I don't want to not know about something.
It was pretty much that, but less of the boring, and more interdisciplinary than I had expected. How can anyone not want to know this stuff? It's not on the school curriculum, and personally I don't care whether they adopt it, but it makes super easy reading of psychology, biology; when textbooks of those subjects are overweight, overpriced and an upgrade and often exam board con. Great for someone like...home educators with extra learning freedoms. If your kids want to specialize, those textbooks and college classes will still be there. Unless of course, they have become obsolete by then.

I don't think this book will have become obsolete, although it does have an updated version from mine. We have purchased another of Pinker's books, but have not read it yet, and his latest looks interesting too, arguing the the total cruelty of the human race has gone down. A recommended read, a recommended thinker. If you disagree, I'd love to hear about it. MCR

Emergence by Steven Johnson

How does the greater, excellent thing, emerge from a multitude of much smaller, basic units? I was intrigued to find out that bits in this book felt dated, but I am glad to have bought and read it, as it what feels like dated knowledge to me is still great for the kids.

The History of Western Philosophy is dated too, but it's position in the canon of English language head coffee is assured. Emergence is an important concept, this is the book about it. It goes far beyond the wikipedia article on the subject.
I guess more knowledge about it will groans you know, emerge. MCR

Patterns in the Mind

Linguistics is one of those subjects which a greater understanding of, enables a greater understanding of other areas, in this case, music appreciation, cultural, and social interaction. I doubt many want however to read Chomsky's linguistics works in the original, well Jackendoff provide the overview. He also provides, as a basis, another competing theory.
Generative Grammar vs Innate Knowledge then, form an axis on which to hang this study, but the author goes further, adding a third and also sections on how children learn, and how language can be acquired under odd circumstances.
I've yet to come across a book on semiotics as good as this one is for linguistics. MCR

Rubicon

Rome was already great before it was an Empire. In fact the Roman Republic is even more interesting in my opinion. This society did not want anyone to climb too high! They were ever afraid of a tyrant arising from within and gaining too much power. Despite this they kicked major ass and held dominion over a large area, all without a particularly distincitve culture of their own. This book takes an important era of history and teaches you about it in a way that is as gripping as a good novel, whilst reminding us that historical truth may not be all that truthful.

A fantastic learning experience for a home educated kid, is to read this book over the same period as playing the pc game Rome: Total War as one strand will fertilize the other, and mental links will be made. There is, of course, plenty of other material that falls into this period, but we found that these two went brilliantly together.
Studying Classical Civ has an unassailable feel to it as well; no one is going to diss your child for studying this, it contains our world in retrocosm. While we're on the subject, we learn Latin and ancient Greek words, but not much of written or spoken language. This informs the use of modern language without getting bogged down in learning a virtually useless dead tongue.
Rubicon rules, I want this authors other book too. Both boys read it, and will certainly read it again, I guess so our faction is better able to ... no wait that's the game! MCR lol

The Meme Machine

Why do I read books like the ones in this list? Partly because I want to know things, especially things that might prove useful, but also things that help me to better understand the world, universe and people.
But also because I am responsible for educating my kids, and humans learn by copying. I want my boys to see me reading these books, and see me punch the sky when I finish one or grok something.
They have already started practicing the reading meme and I want them to also get the reading smart stuff meme so I have to do it first.

This book describes natural selection and how this applies to more than just physical organisms but their thoughts possessions and behaviours. Susan Blackmore is onto Richard Dawkin's meme concept with a view to pushing it outwards and trying to see things from a meme's eye view.
She has also coined a new term, the teme, which is another extraordinary concept, and well worth learning about. She has an excellent TED talk which you can look up to get the overview from, her book is worth reading and digesting. Mine is falling apart. MCR

A Blog Award Game

2011-10-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog game I am playing with some other home educators.
Thankyou Lisa for awarding my blog. Lately you have taught me that I should be more open minded to people of faith.

The Rules
Thank the person(s) who nominated you and link back up them.
Tell Readers 7 things about yourself.
Pass this award onto your favorite newly discovered bloggers and let them know.

1. I suffer from psoriasis. It's a stinger, but I can cope with it. Tinnitus as well, and I can cope with that too.

2. I didn't want children.

3. I've reshaped my life around them, and am no longer an individual, but a member of my family.

4. I'm addicted to learning in a generalist top down fashion. Suggest something to me!

5. I shave my pencils down to the wood, all the way along. They are much more pleasant that way.

6. I reject nouns/labels other than 'home educator' and 'animator' (sometimes: 'blenderhead') as any others are disadvantageous. At it's heart this is a rejection of the 'I AM' principle. However..

7. I am not Anonymous.

The blogs I'd like to award are:

Unschoolplus

http://www.the-shed-and-beyond.blogspot.com/

http://www.allaboutthevoluntary.com/

Sharing Hope - Occupy

2011-10-24T20:57:00.001-07:00

I might be kidding myself, but the Occupy Movement has given me hope. The first in a while, despite some doubts.

I got asked why it gave me hope on G+ and also why they (OWS) seemed uplifting.
My answers:

1. They are still there. In Wall St.
2. They have smart conscientious people like Max Keiser trying to advise them.

This post is part of Sunny Mama's Sharing Hope
#luckdragon for her.

New Robot

2011-10-20T14:28:00.001-07:00

Politics, Friends, Hardware Hacking, Art, Books

2011-10-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went into Bristol city centre and visited the Occupy event
there. We were on our way to an artist's community event where
Bristol Hackspace were also attending with their box
of hardware awesome. More of that in a moment.

Acting on the request of Bristol's excellent netizen, and scourge of
evil, @wood5y we delivered a note to Bristol City Council requesting
that they stop exporting UK tax monies to Microsoft. There are
excellent Free Software alternatives and very good reasons to adopt
them, chief among which is the very low cost of deployment and the
ability to audit the source code.

Outside the Council House the Occupy movement were singing songs, and
we stopped for a while. There were not as many people there as I had
hoped, certainly no where near as many as the first time we happened
upon a protest there. I considered sending the boys around handing
out raisins and water, but possibly that will be better received a
bit later, when they have been there a while.

I have mixed feelings about this movement, but I certainly appreciate
the animating spirit behind it. We have also decided to change our family web photograph policy a bit.

On the way down to Bedminster for the Art and Hardware we had a
climb, a nosh and met another pirate (only in Bristol?) who bade us
"Arrr...!"
He had a whopping great Skull and Crossbones flag, and I assume he
was on his way to raid the banking lanes.

The BV Studios event was brilliant, it was a
great feeling to be back around so much art, multiplied by the
technology display from http://bristol.hackspace.org.uk/ and again by
meeting up with some friends:
ElThommovideo

I asked a lot of the artists if I could photograph and blog their
work, so there are some photos below. If any of these are yours and
you want them re-labelled, a link added to another site, or taken
down, please don't hesitate to get in touch stuart at alternicity dot
com or @alternicity on twitter.

An old friend from my own childhood, and an Arduino powered xylophone.

Art from technology.

A bird and a cage, in front of a painted panel. Unsure of Artist.

CaesarX play with a music making Unicycle.

Unknown Creature Sculptures.

Microscopic Creature of the type that attacks bees, by Artist Alice Forward.

Conway's Game of Life. You can try this yourself

Boxing Master. There were several versions of him, as you can see. There is something practical to be learned from this. These, and the laughing fatman below are, I think by sculptor Gareth Pitt.

This dance was like tap dancing, only with many downward arm movements. Full on.

I'm going to include a few more pictures in this first draft blogpost, and they are going to be by awesome artist Phil Young of dendrophile.co.uk

Oh alright a few more pics:

A Makerbot! You have no idea how badly we want one of these.
All in due time...
Also pictured above is some of the plastic objects made with it.

Cubic Topology, Unknown Artist.

Varnished Oils, by Molly Behagg.
That's me in the reflection though.

It really was excellent to see and interact with; the place was huge, and
after about 10 minutes trying to keep track of the boys, I decided to
let them wander off, and get involved with whatever took
their fancy. I wandered off myself. The pictures don't cover half of it!

The main corridor also reminded me of the rebel base on Hoth, which I
liked, and there is a large park nearby, although we didn't need
it today. I want to live nearer this part of the city now, and rent an art space here.

On the way back North, we stopped off and bought some books,
unusually for us. Here is this weeks haul:

And you know what?
It was a long day. More tomorrow, most likely. I have more to upload and relate, and we may even go back down there.

Paint your own Gorilla

2011-09-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

We uploaded a blank Gorilla .blend under a CC license so you can use Blenders texture paint to decorate your own.

Don't forget to save out the image as well as the blender file itself. You can do this in the UV image window with Image>Save As. There are more instructions in the on hosting site, and inside the .blend file itself
Here is the Blend.

Some Home Education Resources Aug 2011

2011-08-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

Some emphasis on being free (price) and freedom, as in free software.

Khan Academy - Maths and other tutorials.

Mathworld
Math visualizations.

Blender - Animation and image creation, video editing, game creation.

GIMP - Raster graphics.

Audacity - Sound editing.

Charity book shops.

Unity3d - Game making tool, free as in free beer.

topdocumentaryfilms Contains some adult/PG material.

Lately we've been enjoying the short educational videos on the abchungrybeast channel.

Soundcloud and Mixcloud for discovering new music.

Frontcannon/swinghouse-mix/
Amazing music genre/playlist for improving the mood in a room or person. Powerful stuff this. I can imagine WW3 breaking out and I will be tapping my foot with "Swing, swing, swing, swing..." running through my head.

http://www.ektoplazm.com/
Free motivational music.

Selected twitter, youtube, wikipedia and google channels/files/services depending on your interest. Always check if someone has uploaded a video when you get interested in something. Just about any music is available on youtube.

Total War games, in conjunction with other historical media, for learning history. Non free software but great fun, which is useful for history.

Wikireader Wikipedia in your pocket.

SAS Survival Handbook - in case the Predators arrive. You will also need mud, and a chopper to get to.

Academicearth - alternatively, you could go massively into debt to attend college.

TED There is a lot more here than that video.

Keiser Report
Business, markets and political analysis videos with Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert.

http://www.reddit.com/r/videos Lulz, culture etc. Pick through em when your kids are playing outside, for watching later on. (I mean that, some adult content)

Okami for the Wii Sheer beauty, student pacification.

Update: Check out Suzie's Tutorials.

This is a current list, see also the sidebars on this blog. Please contact me with any other suggestions, cool links etc. This post is part of a Home ed resources carnival, started by Jax. Check out the other lists.

Great Googly Moogly

2011-08-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

Great Googly Moogly is a short comic by Paul Caggegi which I
have just been reading with my kids.

I love it!
Paul is a fellow blenderhead, but one with a lot of
traditional drawing skills as well, and it shows in this
project.

I especially liked the ending...what a cool monster.
Paul runs the Process Diary, Pandeia and is on twitter.

Arty Bristol Gorillas

2011-08-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks Bristol has had a number of artistically painted Gorilla statues placed all over the city.

People have been taking photos of them, and we went on a Home Ed trip to collects some pics too.
Here is our pic set.

The gorillas made us want to paint our own in 3d as a group project and here they are.

Bristol Wow Gorillas

2011-08-12T18:10:00.001-07:00

Bristol Wow Gorillas, a set on Flickr.

This is our photo set of the Bristol Gorillas.

Buntle Hunter Animation Test

2011-07-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Splat Splash

2011-03-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is the sixth or seventh attempt my brother and dad have had at rendering this scene. It has taken quite a lot of time and effort to make this one, compared to our other animations.

Blood Cell Animation

2011-02-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

This one took a while, and went through several iterations to get to this point. AchillesX was reading something about blood and got motivated to animate and here is the result.

Making Masks

2011-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

My sons decided that they wanted to make masks out of play dough. Unfortunately we didn't have any shop bought products at home, but I remembered from my own childhood that we used to make our own out of flour.

We had to do a couple of experiments with ingredients but we ended up using the following:

2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
A tablespoon vegetable oil

These are rough measurements though as I found that I had a certain consistency in mind when I was mixing it so I kept adding flour and water until happy.

Once we had the dough ready we had a mess around of shapes and creatures that we wanted to make. We settled for masks or heads as they were nice and flat and the boys wanted them to be baked so that they would harden and be ready for painting - kinda like fimo.

Once they were happy with their creations, I laid them out on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

The oven had been pre-heated to 180 degrees, but once the tray was in the oven I dropped it down to 150 cos I didn't want them to cook on the outside too quickly but leave a doughy soft middle.

I have to admit you need to distract the kids whilst baking as it took a good couple of hours for them to bake hard all the way through!

When we thought that they were hard enough, we took them out and placed them on a cooling tray. Once cooled they can be painted :) We used acrylic paints as they generally dry nice and quick.

When everyone was happy with their paint job, we left them to dry and then re-painted over the whole thing with pvc craft glue. The glue protects the paint and although thick and white and gloopy, it does dry clear. We painted both the front and backs of our mask/heads as we wanted them to be waterproof all the way round.