Welcome back. Today, I’m sharing my version of the Magic 8 Ball game…you know, the one where you concentrate, and ask a question and shake the 8 ball to get the answer? I’m going to share its implementation in various languages (remember, I’m not a “programmer”, I’m a computer scientist…that means, I don’t like to […]
Tag: computing
My Favorite Shape!
Howdy! Let me share with you a personal bit…my most favorite shape in the world (to-date, known to man so far) is Metamobius! Invented/discovered by Ted Gibbons of ON. There’s very little information on this on the Internet at the time of this accidental discovery, but I’m sure it’ll get more populated. Anyway, his algorithm […]
Text-to-speech, Interactive Shopping List (in Scratch)
Welcome! Today, we’re going to try a program with a little more complexity and twists in Scratch. In this program, I demonstrate the following tips/tricks: How to use a List control real-time How to get inputs from user and take action accordingly How to convert Text-to-speech How to read variables real-time from calculations and let […]
Creating Custom Buttons Glyphs & Behavior (for touchscreens)
Howdy, today I continue the discussion on designing fun web applications using MIT’s Scratch platform. In my earlier blog about Scratch piano playing game, I mentioned how Scratch apps that listen for keystrokes only won’t work on smartphones and touchscreen only devices and that Scratch platform does not support Buttons or touchscreen natively, so it […]
Get Kids Excited About Coding!
Hello again, 10 years ago I coded some simple games for my son to show and tell and explain how fun and simple coding can be. These were not heavy duty coding I delve into as part of my work, rather to demonstrate logic and how to code, design basic interactions with users. I used […]
Making A Favorites List…
We all have favorites…movies, shopping list, tv shows, clothes, etc. etc. etc. Ok, welcome! Today, I’ll show you how to create a favorites movie list in XML…why XML? Because from this format, I’ll do some amazing things like analytics. First on this post though, I’ll show you how to store the list in a structured […]
Which Day Were You Born?
Hi again, today I’ll show you how you can magically tell anyone what day of the week they were born! No matter how long ago, even if they even didn’t know 🙂 The magic is in coding (I’ll use Python here) and its calendar module. The complete source is below along with a challenge at […]
Randomization to Patterns!
Hello again, today I want to share with you a sample code (source and explanation) that generates random parameters, creates unique patterns out of them, every second, until the end of time! Sound intriguing? I love doing this kind of stuff. I code for fun, learning, and experimentation. I don’t consider myself a programmer because […]
2+2 is NOT always 4. Here’s why…
Okay, being a little esoteric here. Sure 2 units added to 2 units (whatever the unit is) will add to 4 units (whatever the unit is). A man with 2 balls arrives and gives you 2 balls. Another man (or woman) with 2 balls give you the 2 balls…you carefully count them and they’re exactly 4 […]