Top Five Lists
May 16, 2008
We’re going to make some lists today for the zine. You can make your list on your own, or get other people’s opinions to include. Here are some topics you can choose from:
Top 5 reasons for violence in my neighborhood…
Top 5 reasons for violence in San Francisco…
Top 5 things I do to keep myself safe at Galileo…
Top 5 things I do to keep myself safe in my neighborhood…
Top 5 ways to promote peace at Galileo..
Top 5 ways to promote peace in my neighborhood…
Top 5 places in San Francisco where I feel safe…
Top 5 random acts of kindness that I have committed…
(A random act of kindness is something nice that you have done for someone else without expecting anything in return.)
You will be creating your list in real life today — paper and markers are on the center table.
NAF Registration
May 14, 2008
Seniors, I received this message via email for you:
Dear 2008 Graduate,Congratulations! You are now NAF alumni and as part of the process of
becoming a NAF alumni you need to go to the following web site and
register by May 21st. You could win a free trip to Orlando, Florida
this summer.Go to: www.naf.org
1. In upper right hand corner click on Students & alumni.
2. Click on blue REGISTER NOW box and complete
Please register ASAP.
Neighborhood Artifact
May 12, 2008
To help with our neighborhood zine project, everyone must bring in at least one artifact from their neighborhood by Friday. What is an artifact? Here are some examples:
- A note you found on the ground
- A take-out menu from a restaurant
- A digital picture
- An advertisement or flyer
- A map
It should be something flat so that we can copy or scan it. Your artifact will not be returned, so do not bring an original photograph or writing unless you’re okay with that.
Bring it in by Friday, 5/16/08!
Picture Project
May 12, 2008
The NodeBox example file Examples/Images/ImageGrid.py shows the image nodboxicon.png exactly 65 times on a 400×400 image, like this:
Study the example code and take note:
- How the image function causes an image file to be loaded and displayed
- How the grid of background images is created
- How the background images are given a transparent blue overlay
- How the main image is positioned
- How the text is inserted
As usual, the reference will be quite useful for looking up new functions you find in this code, like grid(), image(), rect(), align(), and font().
For this project, you will be creating your own personal ImageGrid. For example:
Your finished image must:
- come from NodeBox
- be 480 x 320 pixels
- be based on a 240 x 160 original image of your choice
- have a smoothly tiled, continuous background of 64 images
- use a different overlay color than ImageGrid.py
- center the main image vertically and horizontally
- display your first name and last initial below the main image
Due date: End of class, Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Turn in two screenshots: First, your entire NodeBox window including the code and second, just your ImageGrid image.
Tips:
- Photo Booth takes 640 x 480 pictures (which is exactly 400% of the size you need). You can write the code first using any image file and change it later, so don’t get distracted by the toy.
- Do not forget to use the reference so you can really understand the example code.
- Experiment! If you want to find out how something works, try it!
Olympic Rings
May 9, 2008
Extra credit opportunity: Use what you’ve learned so far about NodeBox to create a 200×100 pixel image of the Olympic rings, similar to the image below.
Email your code to Mr. Chun. You should probably be able to complete this exercise with between 10-15 lines of code. Spend some time getting the colors and positioning right.
Last day to submit: Wednesday, 5/14/08
Product Groups and Personas
May 7, 2008
Three groups got their 1st choice, three groups got their 2nd choice, and two groups got their 3rd choice. Everyone got one of their top 3 choices.
Satellite Phone: John, Kevin, Antonio
Mag-Lev Train: Daniel, James, Brandon J
Robot Vacuum: Karen, Ruby, Jodi, Lovica
Next-Gen Console: Anh, Joe, Wilton, Melody
GPS Watch: Brandon B, Richard, Aaron
Laser Eye Surgery: Jaysie, Katherine, Athena
Airbrush Makeup: Fontaine, Tiara, Sinead
Personal Video Recorder: Alice, Ivy, Kristine
You are now the founders of a company creating this product. Your job is to create two personas representing your potential market. These are due by the end of class Friday, 5/9/08. Each persona should have:
- A name (like “Grandma” or “BBQDad”)
- Indications of their available time and money
- Difficulties or successes they experience with technology
- The ways they like to shop for or purchase things
- Emotional attachments that will motivate them to buy your product (or a competitive product)
Build a PowerPoint introducing your personas. Make sure to include a slide explaining the purpose of the personas before you introduce them. At the end of your presentation, include a summary slide explaining what you think your company needs to do to sell your product to the markets that these personas represent.
Zine Project
May 7, 2008
Two things to do today:
1. Create a one-page layout about your neighborhood for our zine. Use Microsoft Word to do this. Set the margins to 0.5 inches on all sides. Keep the orientation set to portrait.
You must include your own words (either from the forum or new ideas) and also something that someone else wrote on the forum about your neighborhood. Do not copy words from anywhere else.
2. Write your thoughts on the new Moodle forum about violence.
NodeBox Exercises
May 6, 2008
Open the Examples/Primitives/Ovals.py, then run the file (command-R) to see its output. Read the code, then complete the following exercises.
1. How would you change the background color from dark red to dark green?
2. How would you modify the code to fill in the ovals with a random color? (So that every oval is a different color.)
3. How would you modify the code to fill in each oval with the same color as its stroke?
4. We see random called with one and two parameters in this code — as random(0.31) or as random(0.2, 4.0). What’s the difference between these?
5. What are the parameters of the oval function? What do they control?
6. What are the values of WIDTH and HEIGHT? Can you control them?
7. Why is the first parameter passed to oval random(WIDTH)-radius instead of just random(WIDTH)?
You may wish to use the Reference for help.
Email your answers to Mr. Chun by Friday, May 9, 2008.
NodeBox
May 5, 2008
Today you’ll need to download NodeBox and stick it somewhere that you’ll be able to find it again later. (It’s also in my pickup folder, if that’s more convenient.)
Skim the introduction, read carefully about the environment, and then have a look at the examples (by opening any of the files in the Examples folder and running them with command-R). Notice the similarities and differences between this programming language (Python) and what we learned when we worked with Flash.
