Science Fare

Hack it!

Can you hack it?

Here is a gallery from last weekend:

http://paddlefish.net/Ely2007/index.html

We had fun!

Where am I looking forward too?

The boundary waters!

Friday night:

http://www.ely.org/lodging/motels.php

Saturday during the day : boundary waters canoe area

Saturday budget host motel, Ely

we’ll return sun 4pm

Have a nice weekend!

Great Movie! Fantasy + Fairy Tale + Adventure + Romance + Great Cast + + + +

It had a nice credit song by british pop group “Take That”. The song is “Rule the World”, but I can’t seem to find a vid for you.

i need to turn this into my next d&d song.

The nearest bridge across the Mississippi River collapsed tonight. I’ve checked w/ everyone I can think of, and all report safe.

The closest calls that I know of are Dustin and Dylan, who crossed the bridge southbound about 20 minutes before the event. Jose and Jeff crossed about the same time on their way to the Twins game. Chet didn’t even go that way, but people were worried about him because he wasn’t checking his messages.

Kind of makes your mind spin when something like this happens…

“benevolent inventor” LOL

and check it out – – I’m 50% masculine, but 60% feminine. The honorary girl strikes again!!!

link

For his birthday, I sent my nephew Matthew a copy of Flash 8. I’ve been meaning for some time to write up a tutorial on how to write some simple programs using this. So here goes, from the ground up.

Matthew, I’m using a Macintosh computer, but I’m certain that the Windows version I got for you works the same way. But that might be why the screenshots look a little different for you.

First Install Flash.

Next, run Flash 8. You should get this window, in which you should click on new “Flash Document”

This part is a tiny bit tricky: Click on the very first rectangle in the timeline near the top. It is right below the number “1” and to the right of “Layer 1”:

Now choose “Actions” from the “Window” menu.

This will reveal the actions palette. Click inside this window and type this:

#include “myScript.as”

Now save the flash movie. Choose “Save” from the “File” menu — or just press Control-S. Create a new directory called “experiment1” and save the file there, with a name “experiment1.fla”.

Next, we’ll create a new Actionscript File. Choose “New” from the “File” menu, to show this dialog:

Now save this file (File -> New, or Control-S).

Click inside the myScript.as window and type this code:

var clip1:MovieClip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip( "clip1", 1 )
clip1.lineStyle( 3, 0xff0000 )
clip1.moveTo( 10, 10 )
clip1.lineTo( 100, 10 )
clip1.lineTo( 100, 100 )
clip1.lineTo( 10, 100 )
clip1.lineTo( 10, 10 )

clip1.lineStyle( 3, 0x00ff00 )

clip1.moveTo( 30, 30 )
clip1.lineTo( 80, 30 )
clip1.lineTo( 80, 80 )
clip1.lineTo( 30, 80 )
clip1.lineTo( 30, 30 )


After typing in the code, click the tab to show “experiment1.fla”. Then choose “Test Movie” from the “Control” Menu:

This is what you should see:

Once you get this far you can close the test window and start playing around the the computer program. Click the tab to go back to myScript.as and try some experiments. After each try, remember click the “experiment1.fla” tab and choose “Test Movie” again.

1. What happens if you change 0xff0000 in line 2 to 0x00ff00 ? or to 0x0000ff? or 0x123456?
2. What happens if you change one of the 100 s to a 200?
3. Instead of drawing squares, can you figure out how to draw a triangle? A shape with 5 sides? A zig-zag line?

Here is what I did with my drawing. I used a “for” loop — something I hope I’ll have time to tell you about later!

http://solito.free.fr/catane/index.php looks promising.

Becka had some leftover dyes from a recent class at the Textile Center, so we had fun in the backyard with T-shirts. We folded the fabric in patterns — in this example, I accordian folded the shirt. This is a Japanese dye technique called Shibori. Then today, I cut out a stencil using freezer paper, ironed it to the fabric, and painted using navy blue fabric paint. I let it dry, then “set” it with an iron.

(The image is a silhouette of a paddlefish, which has become sort of iconic of me, ever since my masters thesis in which I studied them.)