Changes

1. I was on a flight from Miami to Boston with Reuben Caron last night during which we discussed the hot-button topic of Flash games. Reuben was on his way back from a deployment that was heavy into Flash and was looking for a way to wean itself from a dependency on deprecated software that was both opaque and power hungry. Having just finished porting a Flash game to Sugar--it really is not so difficult--I suggested that we encourage the deployment to Sugarize their Flash assets. So we took a quick scan through their library and chose a reflective-symmetry game as a place to start. Two hours later, we had [[Activities/Reflection|Reflection]] running in Sugar. Version 2, which I wrote on the train into Cambridge this morning includes collaboration and a mode of symmetry not available in the original Flash game.

1. I was on a flight from Miami to Boston with Reuben Caron last night during which we discussed the hot-button topic of Flash games. Reuben was on his way back from a deployment that was heavy into Flash and was looking for a way to wean itself from a dependency on deprecated software that was both opaque and power hungry. Having just finished porting a Flash game to Sugar--it really is not so difficult--I suggested that we encourage the deployment to Sugarize their Flash assets. So we took a quick scan through their library and chose a reflective-symmetry game as a place to start. Two hours later, we had [[Activities/Reflection|Reflection]] running in Sugar. Version 2, which I wrote on the train into Cambridge this morning includes collaboration and a mode of symmetry not available in the original Flash game.

Ultimately, it comes down to sustainability. It is my opinion that deployments are capable of building capacity and writing simple Sugar activities that they can tailor to their needs and this is a skill that pays off in the short term--no need to sustain Flash--and the long term--they learn to build tools to solve problems.

Ultimately, it comes down to sustainability. It is my opinion that deployments are capable of building capacity and writing simple Sugar activities that they can tailor to their needs, and this is a skill that pays off in the short term--no need to sustain Flash--and the long term--they learn to build tools to solve problems.

2. I've been busy this week with some other programming tasks as well: enhancing Measure and Turtle Art to take advantage of stereo input: both analog audio and DC resistance modes. As a result, you can now attach multiple sensors to the microphone input of an XO 1.5 and read two channels of data. I wrote a simple [[:File:TAdual-sensor-mode.png|Turtle Art program]] to paint using a photo-resistor and a mechanical switch. Try doing that in Flash!!

2. I've been busy this week with some other programming tasks as well: enhancing Measure and Turtle Art to take advantage of stereo input: both analog audio and DC resistance modes. As a result, you can now attach multiple sensors to the microphone input of an XO 1.5 and read two channels of data. I wrote a simple [[:File:TAdual-sensor-mode.png|Turtle Art program]] to paint using a photo-resistor and a mechanical switch. Try doing that in Flash!!