Mark my blogs plox.

mark mark mark mark Mr Kerr.

Part Two: User Interface (Sugar Evaluation)

Complete a variety of labelled screenshots which illustrate the differences between these user interfaces.

Windows (WIMP – windows, icons, menus, pointers – as in MSOffice 2003)

Windows (ribbons, contextual tabs, galleries – as in MSOffice 2007)

Sugar (Frame replaces menubar, Journal replaces file system hierarchy, Community – didn’t work for us,)

Linux command line (similar to DOS)


I prefer to to use Windows more because its the only operating system that I have been using my whole life until this year I discovered other operating systems.

I rate Windows first because I've been using my life so I am more familiar with its interface.Next would be Sugar on my list because Ive been working on it in class but I still think the windows interface is better.Lastly would be Linux althought it looks good I just havn't actually used it so far in life.

Part One. What we did. (Sugar Evaluation)

1) Rate each of the following out of 5:
Guest speaker: Rosemary about Timor Leste = 3.5/5
Guest speak: Joel about the xo = 3/5
Physics = 4.5/5
SVG icon and Linux command line = 2/5
Turtle Art = 4/5
Other activity evaluation = 4/5
Etoys = 4/5
Scratch = 4.5/5

2) Three things that I have learnt:
I’ve learnt how to set the command controls to make something to move the way I want it to on Scratch and Etoys. Another thing I learnt is to how to create a dialogue on Etoys thanks to Mr. Kerr. Last thing I learnt is how to get more activities and input them into the Sugar OS.

3) Three things that I have enjoyed:
I’ve really enjoyed working with the Physic activities because it was challenging and fun. Scratch was my next favourite because the interface was easy to use and the functions were fun to play around. Etoys was my next, although it has functions which are hidden somewhere in the activity. Once you find the functions you need, it becomes more fun to play around.

4) Three things that I didn’t like:
The thing that I didn’t enjoy much was the making of the SVG icon. It was confusing and very hard because one little mistake and ruin it all. I didn’t really enjoy much about the guest speakers because I am a particle person so I don’t really like sitting in one spot listening to people talk. Another thing I didn’t enjoy is on Etoys when I couldn’t get something to work the way I want.

5) State which was the following with reasons: Best, Worst, Most Interesting, Most difficult:
Activity evaluation was the best because it was fun playing different games and activities.
SVG icon was my worst as it was confusing with the language between US and Australia.
Etoys was interesting as it is similar to the program Scratch on Windows but much more complicated.
SVG icon making was most difficult to me because I wanted to create a complicated icon.

6) About the XO
Is the xo or olpc(one laptop per a child, green machine) a good idea for the children of the developing world? State your opinion and give reasons
I think the xo and the olpc is a very good idea for children in the developing world as it can help them catch up with the technology we are currently using. The xo has an interface which is easy to use therefore would be easy to use for those who are in the developing world. Thanks to the engineering of the olpc, it would be able to be used through even hot conditions and rough especially from dropping. This will really help children from developing world to learn, explore and enjoy.

ACTIVITIES!~

One of the lessons of my year 10 Control Tech class, we had a choice of downloading activities for the OS 'Sugar' or get the activities on the L drive of the school.

What we had to do was to try out the activities and then blog about it. I picked the typing turtle activity to blog. There are many levels the first is on the middle row on the keyboard. This activities teaches the user where the keys are on the keyboard allowing them to type faster and maybe be able to type without looking at the keyboard. The first part of each level is to type letters of the row to practice, while the second level is like a game balloons witha word in that row floats up. What you have to do is to type the word before the balloon hits the top of the screen to earn points. The longer you play the faster the balloons float up.

Here is a screenshot of the first level.



Here is a screenshot for the second level.



I rank this activity 4/5 stars and I recommended it to all ages after 4 years. This activity is very helpful in teaching the users how to type fast and more accurate. It can also teach users how to type without looking at the keyboard which can be helpful with everyday life.

In my opinion, the positive points towards this activity is that it is easy to understand of what is needed to do in the activity. I havn't found any bugs in this activity yet and the best part of this activity is that it is FREE!~ xD

Etoys

For the past few lessons in Mr.Kerr's year 10 control tech class, we as students have been working on Etoys, an activity on the operating system called Sugar.

The activity is similar to scratch and and turtle because the point is to make animations using commands. Firstly we started off with the basic by making the car bouncing off the wall in different directions. Then started to make a track so we could steer the car around the track without getting hit by drawing a wheel and adding commands allowing it to move the car. Next was making a race with 2 cars with random speeds and buttons allowing it to start, reset, and stopping at finishing line. Through these activities, I have increased my knowledge on this application.

After completing all that, I worked on the task called the Great Race. This type of race consist of 4 different cars racing on the track with timer on and all cars at different random speeds. I went through a lot of trouble with my track because I just had to draw in sharp corners which made the car went off track occasionally. Therefore I kept editing the track until the sharp corners wasn't so sharp no more. Another problem I had was trying to get other cars to win because if they all were at same random speed then the car closest to the centre of the track will always win. I fixed this by increasing the cars speed if they are further away from the centre of track.

After hard work, this is what I produced...



Here are the scripts that I used for this awesome GREAT RACE!~



My thoughts about Etoys is that it's alright but i still think the scratch program for windows is much for fun in creating animations using commands.

Turtle Art

For the last week or so, in Mr Kerr's year 10 Control Technology class have been playing around with an Activity on sugar called Turtle Art. On our second lesson on Turtle Art Mr. Kerr gave us a sheet with 40 different shapes to create using Turtle Art. I went many trouble trying to finish some of the shapes. Some shapes such as normal polygons were easy to draw on Turtle Art. The best shape that I have created is shape number 39.

I based this shape on one of the other shapes that I created before which was a hitler sign. When I completed the shape it turned out to be a window. I sat there thinking what was wrong. I thought that it might of been the pen stroke was to think thats why it turned out to be a window and so I change the pen size to one. There was a lot of commands that is needed to make this shape... Well to me it is.

This is the shape that I have created.


This is a screen shot of the commands that I used to create the shape above.

During the last one or two weeks ago. We have been working on svgs and making them as the main icon on Sugar.

In the process I have used HTML-Kit to draw my design, Opera(A different type of internet browser) to check how my design is going in terms of looks and of course Sugar to put on my design.

Firstly in HTML-Kit when I was designing my design turned out very complex. I used a whole load of lines and paths to create what i have created here.

I this took me over a week to get every point right. I even had to go to .3 and .8 of a point gee. It was all worth it for a cool looking picture xD. Following the instructions that Mr Kerr gave us, I tried to replace the icon on sugar. I was in shock... it failed... ended up like this...

I was like WTH!? and got frustrated with svgs. -^^-V I was so confused, so I asked my friends to help try to fix it but no one didn't know what was the problem. Then I asked Mr Kerr, even he thought it was strange. So I gave Mr Kerr my svg file so he can take a look at it in his spare time. Before the next Control Tech lesson started, I was asked to see him during lunch regarding the svg. Mr Kerr said that the problem could be that in the fill and stroke colour i spelt the work colour as how Australians spelt it. The correct way of spelling colour in order for the image to work was color... C-O-L-O-R >.>

Anyhow when Control Tech lesson started I replace all the &fill_colour; and &stroke_colour; with &fill_color; and &stroke_color;. Restarted Sugar, Sugar opens up and its loading. One minute later, OMG still the SAME!?! still no icon popped up. Mr Kerr was confused about it as well. He said that he will take another look at my svg and that I should go on with the new work so I don't fall behind.

The weekend past and on Monday Mr Kerr said that he found out what the problem was. He said that Sugar couldn't read the .3s and .8s etc. Thats why it wouldn't show on Sugar. I was happy hahaah and so I redid everything to replace the icon but still it didn't work... I got frustrated. I then asked a friend named Darren to help. He backuped the cache file and restarted the Sugar. After when it finished loading... I saw...

IT WAS THERE!! I was so happy Hahahah. Felt good as well =D. I have FINALLY successfully replace the icon sugar ^^v. Although I went through alot of troubles and little problems.

Guest Speaker Joel Stanley

On Wednesday 5th of August, Year 10 Control Tech class had a guest speaker come in to talk about how he was involved in with the product known as 'xo'. His name was Joel Stanley. Our teacher, strangely suggested that instead of having Joel to tell us about him and what he does, instead we had to ask questions to know more about him. Below I list some of the Questions and Answers:

Q. What do you do?
A. I am currently studying Computer System Engineering at the University of Adelaide and currently working on the XO project.

Q. Why did you chose to study computer engineering?
A. I chose computer engineering is because when I was year 10, I went to a camp which included the tour of the University which I found out that engineering interested me.

Q. What is the XO project?
A. The XO project is aiming at giving the XOs to third world countries or can be called as developing countries, so that it can help change their lives.

Q. How are you apart of the XO project?
A. I help make and develop the XOs. I also bake XOs in a pie oven which we bought off EBay at 65 degrees Celsius.

Q. Why 65 degrees?
A. This is to test that the XO will be able to survive in hot temperatures. Third world countries, their temperature can sometimes reach up to 65 degrees.

Q. How long have you been a part of this Project?
A. I worked on this project for about 10 weeks.

Q. On the map why is there a arrow pointing at America?
A. Where the arrow pointing to is the MIT. This place is where I went to gain more experiences.

Q. What does MIT stand for?
A. MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is where the smart people go to. Guitar Hero a popular console game was originated at MIT.

Q. On the XO what are the two sticks on top?
A. It's the antenna of the XO for wireless connection. The first edition the sticks were hard but people decided that a flexible rubber stick is better as it won't break easily and will last longer.

Q. Below the keyboard why is there 3 pads?
A. There are 3 pads because the middle pad is for the mouse which you can use your finger to move it. The 2 pads beside it was used for sensing other objects, but this didn't work out so the XO now only uses the finger pads.

Q. Do you prefer Microsoft or Linux?
A. I prefer Linux because of its a free open software, plus Microsoft annoys me.

Q. Which part of the XO uses most power?
A. The screen uses the most power. This same goes for other laptops on the market. The 2nd thing that uses most power is the CPU.

During the talk Joel Stanley also demonstrated us how the XOs are drop proof. He also showed us some programs and how to use the XO. In my opinion, this project is really a good way to help boost up developing countries in the world.

Physics Activity

Today I have found out that you can browse Sugar using keys instead of mouse only.
F1 = Takes you to neighborhood.
F2 = Takes you to group.
F3 = Takes you back to home.
Alt+Tab = Allows you to switch from activity to another.
I'm really enjoying the activity physic as it is fun to play around with blocks.
You can create blocks and it drops like real building blocks. Young children will enjoy this as they can build houses.
The functions on the activity physic are:

-Play/pause
-Draw
-Triangle
-Polygon
-Erase
-Motor
-Box
-Grab
-Pin
-Circle
-Joint

There are more other activities that are entertaining as well but I think Physic is one of the best out off all activities.

XO Guest speakers

On the 29^th July, Rosemary and David came to Woodville High school to my year 10 control tech class as guest speakers to talk about their visit to Timor-Leste. They said that the food and accessories over there are expensive since it was in the US currency. They talked about some history about Timor-Leste how it was with the Portuguese Colony and it became an Indonesian Colony in 1975, but the Indonesian pulled out in 1999. In 2006 a civil war started. Timorese started to go against each other. The US and Australian Army went over to Timor-Leste to keep peace in the country.

Right now they have nationalised their own language called Tetun. The term Mallia is used to call people who aren’t from Timor. Most people in Timor-Leste speak the language of Portuguese. They are still learning on how to speak and understand English. The tourism of Timor-Leste is still undeveloped. Their only tourist site is their beach with a hotel and a small cafe behind the beach. In waters there are dangers such as crocodiles lives around the area.

They have introduced the xo project supplied by the industry called ‘IT NGO forum’. They assist NGO to teaching the locals on how to use computers etc. They have also brought out the product called xo. The xo is able to help teachers to create lessons for the children. It is also enable children to learn english and simple maths. Therefore this product will be a big benefit for the Timorese. Rosemary said that the xo is now used as a tool to improve teaching over in Timor-Leste. She also said that there was a question that came up. The question was 'Should the children of Timor-Leste be able to bring the xo home?' She answered that if the children of Timor-Leste be able to bring it home, their family would be able to also get benefits from using it.

At Timor-Leste Rosemary and David stayed with missionaries from Brazil with 2 people from Timor. One was a 8 year old boy and the other was a 5 year old girl. The children knew 3 languages which are English, Portuganese and Tetun. Rosemary said that Deanna one of the missionaries worked in the village to help bring water supply down from mountain using trolleys. She also said that there was a new lady to the missionary and her role was to teach english.

In Timor-Leste, most children dont go to school but just stay home. Even when staying at home there wasnt much to do. There are no McDonalds like us or Bowling allys to go to. Therefore parents would usually think of games or things for their young child to play with.

When Rosemary and David stayed at Timor-Leste, Rosemary said that they recieved a scooter to travel around with. She also said that majority of people traveled in scooters. The price to fill up a scooter with petrol is $2.50 in US Currency. She explained that when she goes around she sees children going to school with only one school book and a pen. Rosemary also found out that there is a store called 'Leader'. She said that you will hardly see any Timorese in this shop since its so expensive. This shop is aimed at foreigners.

Rosemary explained that there was a project runned by Green PC Melbourne based company. Their aim was to gather 6 Timorese and bring them back to Melbourne. Train them to learn how to fix computers and learn how to run and start a business. Then send them back to Timor Leste. Old computers which we dont use anymore in Australia is donated to Timor. From there they can fix and start a business.

Nuns in Timor provide teaching programs for girls. They learn skills such as cooking, basic book keeping and hospitality. Computer lessons ware taught as well but only in the evening. The computers were donated from Melbourne.

Rosemary's story at Timor-Leste sounds interesting and that a small laptop is changing their lives as we know it.

Here are some pictures that were taken by the missionaries at Timor-leste.

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Sugar Sugar!

My first impression of the operating system called Sugar was fun. I really like the physic game. Hahaha! It was very different compared to windows. The icons was cool but was kind of confusing to understand.

There are many activities to play around with, ones that I liked are the jigsaw puzzle game and the physic game. I think that I would rather use Windows Vista or the new windows 7 instead of Sugar. Sugar still doesn’t use all applications that Windows would be able to use or install.

I think the operating system Sugar is most likely targeted to young children. I think this is because it will be able to help children with their hand co-ordination with the mouse, and about to find letters on the keyboard. Sugar can also get children to learn Maths and English.