Sugar Labs/Current Events: Difference between revisions

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== Sugar Digest ==

~~1. Google Code~~ In ~~update~~: ~~After~~ the ~~first~~ two ~~weeks, we have 33 participants~~ and ~~almost 140 tasks completed. The pace~~ is ~~faster than in years past, perhaps because we have more experienced Sugar users~~ each ~~year~~. ~~You can follow the action~~ (the ~~contest runs for five more weeks) at [http://www~~.~~google~~-~~melange~~.~~com/gci/homepage/google/gci2014 GCI 2014]~~.

In schools, all hardware and software bestow agency on one of three

parties: the system, the teacher, or the learner. Typically, two of

these actors lose their power as the technology benefits the

third. Ask a group of colleagues to create a three-column table and

brainstorm the hardware or software in your school and who is granted

agency by each. Management software, school-wide grade-book programs,

integrated learning systems, school-to-home communication packages,

massive open online courses (MOOCs), and other cost-cutting

technologies grant maximum benefit to the system. Interactive

whiteboards, worksheet generators, projectors, whole-class

simulations, plagiarism software, and so on, benefit the

teacher. Personal laptops, programming languages, creativity software,

cameras, MIDI keyboards, microcontrollers, fabrication equipment, and

personal web space primarily benefit (bestow agency to) the

learner. -- Gary Stager

At the ~~current pace, almost 500 tasks will~~ have ~~been completed by~~ the ~~end of~~ the ~~contest. If you have project ideas~~, ~~please let me (or any of~~ the ~~other mentors) know. We can continue to add new~~ tasks throughout the contest. ~~Tasks include coding~~, but ~~also documentation~~, ~~quality assurance, outreach, etc~~.

1. Google Code-In. Wow. Finally a chance to catch my breath. Seven

intense weeks: 60 students completed more than 300 tasks for Sugar

Labs. The impact on Sugar Labs was even greater this year than in the

previous years we have participated: more diversity among the

participants, the mentors, the tasks, and a spirit of collaboration

while striving for excellence prevailed throughout the contest. Thanks

to Google and Stephanie Taylor for giving us this opportunity, to the

contestants who not only did great work but taught me a thing or two

along the way, and the mentors and community members who manned the

IRC channel 24/7.

2. ~~We continue to make progress on~~ Turtle Blocks JS (~~the Javascript version of~~ Turtle Blocks). ~~There have been many new contributions from participants in Google Code In~~ and ~~in generally, the code is approaching a point of stability~~. ~~You can try it by visiting~~ [https://~~turtle~~.sugarlabs.org ~~turtle~~.sugarlabs.org] ~~or by downloading the activity locally from~~ [https://~~github~~.com/~~walterbender~~/~~turtleblocksjs github~~]. ~~Any~~ and ~~all comments~~, ~~feedback, bug reports, merge requests~~, and ~~suggestions welcome~~.

I want to acknowledge the Top Ten+ from whom we will be selecting our

finalists this week (results announce in early February):

Ignacio Rodríguez, Daksh, samdroid, cristian99garcia, Ezequiel

Pereira, svineet, Gtrinidad, Jas Park, Rafael Cordano, Richar, Sergio

Britos, Aishmita Kakkar, Gabriel Lee, et al.

Also, some mentors (and community members) deserve special

recognition: Andrés Aguirre, Daniel Francis, Gary Servin, Gonzalo

Odiard, James Cameron, Jorge Ramirez, Mariah Villarreal, Rajul,

Rodrigo Parra, and Martin Abente Lahaye.

Finally, a few projects worth mentioning:

* Turtle Blocks JS [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs/blob/master/plugins.md plugins] (Ignacio, samDroid, Daksh)

* Turtle Blocks guides (Jas Park) [http://people.sugarlabs.org/walter/TurtleBlocksIntroductoryManual.pdf]

and [http://people.sugarlabs.org/walter/TurtleBlocksAdvancedBlocksManual.pdf]

* Activity [https://gabrielleedhs.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/reviewing-an-activity-from-sugar-labs-story-activity/ reviews] (Gabriel Lee)

* [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4764 Dasher app] (Cristian Garcia)

* Enhancements to [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4193 Physics] (Svineet)

* [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/work/download/google/gci2014/5809933962444800?id=5741031244955648 Sugar bugs squashed] (Ezequiel)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGOnlaTuTk Butia Measure] (Gtrinidad)

* [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/work/download/google/gci2014/5784136845361152?id=5717271485874176 Simple scrolling interface] for Sugar (Rafael)

and much much more.

2. As mentioned above, we have a number of new Turtle Blocks plugins

(for both the Python and Javascript versions) as a result of Google

Code-in. One of the more interesting inspirations for plugins comes

from mashape.com, a repository of APIs for everything from translation

services to a bicycle theft alert system. As Sugar becomes more

web-friendly, we can take advantage of web services and also

facilitate our users to craft their own tools and services. It is fun

and empowering.

=== In the community ===

3. The Free Software Foundation has put together a nice [https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/FSF30-video/FSF_30_720p.webm video] on the core ideas behind Free Software.

=== Tech Talk ===

3. ~~Martin Abente has been working on new translation platform, including~~ a ~~new Pootle instance~~. ~~He has been adding repositories there so translators can start working. If you are interested in having your project included in~~ the ~~new platform, please follow these instructions:~~

4. [[Xevents]] is a TurtleBlocks plugin that makes it easy to design

~~# If you still use our old Gitorious repository, please move your projects to Github. Gitorious is considered read~~-~~only now~~. ~~(See [[Activity_Team/How_to_migrate_from_Gitorious]] for details about how to move projects~~.)

different types of accessibility interfaces through a variery of

~~# Update this~~ [~~[Translation_Team~~/~~Pootle_Projects~~/~~Repositories]]~~ wiki ~~page so we can track your project's repository~~.

physical sensors types. It is being developed at FING by Andrés

~~# Be sure to grant commit access to [https:~~//~~github~~.~~com~~/~~sugarlabs-pootle sugarlabs-pootle]~~ the ~~Sugar Labs Github Pootle user~~.

Aguirre and Alan Aguiar and was the focus of some of the Google

~~# Create a new user~~ on the ~~new translation platform ([http://translate~~.~~sugarlabs~~.~~org translate~~.~~sugarlabs~~.~~org])~~.

Code-in work of Rafael Cordano.

~~# Please send an email to Martin~~ (~~CC'ing sugar-devel) with~~ a ~~list~~ of the ~~repositories for your projects so that he can add them to Pootle~~. ~~Don't forget to specify your user name on~~ the ~~translation platform~~.

5. For you OLPC XO 4 users, James Cameron has been working on [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/12297 enabling the second processor]. He reports "about 38% improvement. For CPU tasks like rendering, alt/tab, kernel compiles, the improvement is somewhat more than 38%. For single threaded tasks that rely on memory bandwidth, performance is lower because the memory controller is shared between two cores." When asked how it impacts Sugar, he said "it feels faster and more responsive."

6. Martin has announced the tarballs for the last 0.103.x UNSTABLE

release of Sugar before 0.104 STABLE. (We delayed the release a few

weeks in order to take advantage of all of the bug fixes coming in

from Google Code-in.) With this release we reach the API, UI and

String freeze (See [[0.104/Roadmap]].

~~4. The final phase of the run up the the Sugar 0.104 release is testing and bug fixing. Martin has released tarballs for our (UNSTABLE) feature-freeze release, which can be downloaded from:~~

* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.103.2.tar.xz

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.103.1.tar.xz ~~sugar]~~

* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.103.2.tar.xz

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-~~artwork~~/sugar-~~artwork~~-0.103.1.tar.xz ~~sugar-artwork]~~

* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-artwork/sugar-artwork-0.103.2.tar.xz

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-~~datastore~~/sugar-~~datastore~~-0.103.1.tar.xz ~~sugar-datastore]~~

* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-datastore/sugar-datastore-0.103.2.tar.xz

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-~~runner~~/sugar-~~runner~~-0.103.1.tar.xz ~~sugar-runner]~~

* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-runner/sugar-runner-0.103.2.tar.xz

* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-~~toolkit-gtk3~~/sugar-~~toolkit-gtk3~~-0.103.1.tar.xz ~~sugar-toolkit]~~

We ~~welcome all~~ the ~~help you can provide testing and fixing bugs!~~

It's time to switch focus on updating translations, everyone can

contribute through or [http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ new Pootle instance]. We have time until

February 13, before the 0.104.0 STABLE release.

=== Sugar Labs ===

5. Please visit our [http://planet.sugarlab.org ~~planet~~]

5. Please visit our planet at [http://planet.sugarlab.org].

== Community News archive ==

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 == Sugar Digest ==
-. Google Code In update: After the first two weeks, we have 33 participants and almost 140 tasks completed. The pace is faster than in years past, perhaps because we have more experienced Sugar users each year. You can follow the action (the contest runs for five more weeks) at [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/homepage/google/gci2014 GCI 2014].
+In schools, all hardware and software bestow agency on one of three
+parties: the system, the teacher, or the learner. Typically, two of
+these actors lose their power as the technology benefits the
+third. Ask a group of colleagues to create a three-column table and
+brainstorm the hardware or software in your school and who is granted
+agency by each. Management software, school-wide grade-book programs,
+integrated learning systems, school-to-home communication packages,
+massive open online courses (MOOCs), and other cost-cutting
+technologies grant maximum benefit to the system. Interactive
+whiteboards, worksheet generators, projectors, whole-class
+simulations, plagiarism software, and so on, benefit the
+teacher. Personal laptops, programming languages, creativity software,
+cameras, MIDI keyboards, microcontrollers, fabrication equipment, and
+personal web space primarily benefit (bestow agency to) the
+learner. -- Gary Stager
-At the current pace, almost 500 tasks will have been completed by the end of the contest. If you have project ideas, please let me (or any of the other mentors) know. We can continue to add new tasks throughout the contest. Tasks include coding, but also documentation, quality assurance, outreach, etc.
+. Google Code-In. Wow. Finally a chance to catch my breath. Seven
+intense weeks: 60 students completed more than 300 tasks for Sugar
+Labs. The impact on Sugar Labs was even greater this year than in the
+previous years we have participated: more diversity among the
+participants, the mentors, the tasks, and a spirit of collaboration
+while striving for excellence prevailed throughout the contest. Thanks
+to Google and Stephanie Taylor for giving us this opportunity, to the
+contestants who not only did great work but taught me a thing or two
+along the way, and the mentors and community members who manned the
+IRC channel 24/7.
-. We continue to make progress on Turtle Blocks JS (the Javascript version of Turtle Blocks). There have been many new contributions from participants in Google Code In and in generally, the code is approaching a point of stability. You can try it by visiting [https://turtle.sugarlabs.org turtle.sugarlabs.org] or by downloading the activity locally from [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs github]. Any and all comments, feedback, bug reports, merge requests, and suggestions welcome.
+I want to acknowledge the Top Ten+ from whom we will be selecting our
+finalists this week (results announce in early February):
+Ignacio Rodríguez, Daksh, samdroid, cristian99garcia, Ezequiel
+Pereira, svineet, Gtrinidad, Jas Park, Rafael Cordano, Richar, Sergio
+Britos, Aishmita Kakkar, Gabriel Lee, et al.
+Also, some mentors (and community members) deserve special
+recognition: Andrés Aguirre, Daniel Francis, Gary Servin, Gonzalo
+Odiard, James Cameron, Jorge Ramirez, Mariah Villarreal, Rajul,
+Rodrigo Parra, and Martin Abente Lahaye.
+Finally, a few projects worth mentioning:
+* Turtle Blocks JS [https://github.com/walterbender/turtleblocksjs/blob/master/plugins.md plugins] (Ignacio, samDroid, Daksh)
+* Turtle Blocks guides (Jas Park) [http://people.sugarlabs.org/walter/TurtleBlocksIntroductoryManual.pdf]
+and [http://people.sugarlabs.org/walter/TurtleBlocksAdvancedBlocksManual.pdf]
+* Activity [https://gabrielleedhs.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/reviewing-an-activity-from-sugar-labs-story-activity/ reviews] (Gabriel Lee)
+* [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4764 Dasher app] (Cristian Garcia)
+* Enhancements to [http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4193 Physics] (Svineet)
+* [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/work/download/google/gci2014/5809933962444800?id=5741031244955648 Sugar bugs squashed] (Ezequiel)
+* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGOnlaTuTk Butia Measure] (Gtrinidad)
+* [http://www.google-melange.com/gci/work/download/google/gci2014/5784136845361152?id=5717271485874176 Simple scrolling interface] for Sugar (Rafael)
+and much much more.
+. As mentioned above, we have a number of new Turtle Blocks plugins
+(for both the Python and Javascript versions) as a result of Google
+Code-in. One of the more interesting inspirations for plugins comes
+from mashape.com, a repository of APIs for everything from translation
+services to a bicycle theft alert system. As Sugar becomes more
+web-friendly, we can take advantage of web services and also
+facilitate our users to craft their own tools and services. It is fun
+and empowering.
+=== In the community ===
+. The Free Software Foundation has put together a nice [https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/FSF30-video/FSF_30_720p.webm video] on the core ideas behind Free Software.
 === Tech Talk ===
-. Martin Abente has been working on new translation platform, including a new Pootle instance. He has been adding repositories there so translators can start working. If you are interested in having your project included in the new platform, please follow these instructions:
+. [[Xevents]] is a TurtleBlocks plugin that makes it easy to design
-# If you still use our old Gitorious repository, please move your projects to Github. Gitorious is considered read-only now. (See [[Activity_Team/How_to_migrate_from_Gitorious]] for details about how to move projects.)
+different types of accessibility interfaces through a variery of
-# Update this [[Translation_Team/Pootle_Projects/Repositories]] wiki page so we can track your project's repository.
+physical sensors types. It is being developed at FING by Andrés
-# Be sure to grant commit access to [https://github.com/sugarlabs-pootle sugarlabs-pootle] the Sugar Labs Github Pootle user.
+Aguirre and Alan Aguiar and was the focus of some of the Google
-# Create a new user on the new translation platform ([http://translate.sugarlabs.org translate.sugarlabs.org]).
+Code-in work of Rafael Cordano.
-# Please send an email to Martin (CC'ing sugar-devel) with a list of the repositories for your projects so that he can add them to Pootle. Don't forget to specify your user name on the translation platform.
+. For you OLPC XO 4 users, James Cameron has been working on [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/12297 enabling the second processor]. He reports "about 38% improvement. For CPU tasks like rendering, alt/tab, kernel compiles, the improvement is somewhat more than 38%. For single threaded tasks that rely on memory bandwidth, performance is lower because the memory controller is shared between two cores." When asked how it impacts Sugar, he said "it feels faster and more responsive."
+. Martin has announced the tarballs for the last 0.103.x UNSTABLE
+release of Sugar before 0.104 STABLE. (We delayed the release a few
+weeks in order to take advantage of all of the bug fixes coming in
+from Google Code-in.) With this release we reach the API, UI and
+String freeze (See [[0.104/Roadmap]].
-. The final phase of the run up the the Sugar 0.104 release is testing and bug fixing. Martin has released tarballs for our (UNSTABLE) feature-freeze release, which can be downloaded from:
+* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.103.2.tar.xz
-* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar]
+* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.103.2.tar.xz
-* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-artwork/sugar-artwork-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-artwork]
+* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-artwork/sugar-artwork-0.103.2.tar.xz
-* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-datastore/sugar-datastore-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-datastore]
+* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-datastore/sugar-datastore-0.103.2.tar.xz
-* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-runner/sugar-runner-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-runner]
+* http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-runner/sugar-runner-0.103.2.tar.xz
-* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar-toolkit-gtk3/sugar-toolkit-gtk3-0.103.1.tar.xz sugar-toolkit]
-We welcome all the help you can provide testing and fixing bugs!
+It's time to switch focus on updating translations, everyone can
+contribute through or [http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ new Pootle instance]. We have time until
+February 13, before the 0.104.0 STABLE release.
 === Sugar Labs ===
-. Please visit our [http://planet.sugarlab.org planet]
+. Please visit our planet at [http://planet.sugarlab.org].
 == Community News archive ==