Celebrate PI day

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:18:52 GMT

Did you celebrate PI day?

The Greek letter PI represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

March 14 is PI day. 3/14. It is to be celebrated at 1:59am or PM.

Playing around with some javascript

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 06:42:47 GMT

Last Sunday, I wrote a little program to prove an idea I got on Saturday following a brief chat with a couple of friends after a technical presentation we attended. Aside from wanting to prove that it was possible, I also figured it would make an interesting little lesson in programming for my nephew who just turned 11 and has recently displayed an interest in computer programming (as I did when I was that age). He has his eye firmly on the ball... he wants to be a Games Programmer when he grows up. Last Christmas, we chipped in and got him a games development kit called Gamemaker which he loved immensly and has been using ever since. He created his own little jumping game with bitmaps of Mario and Luigi he found on the web. Man I wish the web and Google were around when I was that age! Anyway, this Game Maker sparked his interest in more general computer programming.

The other day he looked at me with these big eyes and asked "Uncle Simon, can you teach me how to program in Visual Basic? I want to learn how to program." "Sure thing habibi, it would be my pleasure."

I installed Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition on their family computer. Microsoft gives this product (among a few others) away for free... and it shall remain free as far as I can tell from their download terms and conditions on their website, which is really cool when you think about it. This will turn a whole new generation of students, hobbyists, and smarter folks than me (such as kids like my nephew) on to programming. And anything that promotes development of logic and reasoning in more people can't be a bad thing.

Anyway, I didn't have a chance to write him anything in VB on Sunday, but I did program the little web page below, complete with embedded javascript right in front of his eyes so that he can see what is involved in the process and that it actually takes thought, discipline, and concerted application of directed effort to produce a software product.

Software is nothing more than the end product of an intellectual process that transforms abstract ideas and concepts into sequences of instructions to a machine to produce some utility for human consumption, be it an intellectual product (like a business application or game), or a concrete product such as a car that rolls off an assembly line thanks to the help of software-controlled manufacturing equpment (robots).

Without further ado... here is the code and your reward for being patient and reading through the boring stuff to get to this point.

Instructions:

1. Open Notepad.exe
2. Highlight the following code starting with <html> and ending with </html> (inclusively) and copy and paste it into notepad.
3. Save the file as animate.htm
4. Double-click on this htm file to launch it in your web browser.

If you have javascript enabled, you will be rewarded with a simple little text animation... but in a most unexpected place. I Hope you enjoy playing around with it.

Note: your browser might issue a warning about the file containing some "unsafe content" and will ask you if you wish to override the safety protocols and allow the content to run. This will happen with any web content that contains Javascript. It is there to protect you from hackers who embed their pages with malicious code that can do nasty things to your system. There is no harmful content whatsoever in the script below and your system will be fine but the browser will complain anyway. You will want to "allow blocked content".

<html>
<head>
    <script>
    function main()
    {
      var messageText = document.forms[0]["messageText"].value;;
      var scrollWindowWidth = document.forms[0]["scrollWindowWidth"].value;
      var animationCycles = document.forms[0]["animationCycles"].value;
      var animationSpeed = document.forms[0]["animationSpeed"].value;
      var animationDirection = document.forms[0]["animationDirection"].value;

startAnimation(messageText, scrollWindowWidth, animationCycles, animationSpeed, animationDirection);
}

    function startAnimation(str, width, cycles, speed, direction)
    {
       var url = "" + window.location;
       if (url.indexOf("#") < 0)
       {
         window.location = url + "#";
       }
       str = padString(".", 0, width/4) + str + padString(".", 0, width/4);

if (speed <= 0) speed = 1;

       var url = "" + window.location;
       var delay = 1000 / speed;
       var callStr = "animateNextFrame(\"" + url + "\"," + delay + ",\"" + str + "\"," + width + "," + cycles + ",0," + direction + ");";

window.setTimeout(callStr, 0);
}

    function padString(str, start, len)
    {
       var inStrLen = str.length;
       var result = "";
       start = start % inStrLen;
       if (start < 0)
       {
         start = inStrLen + start;
       }

       for(i = 0; i < len; i++)
       {
         result = result + str.substr((i + start) % inStrLen,1);
       }

       return result;
    }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form onsubmit="main(); return false;">
      <table>
        <tr><td>Scroll Window Width</td><td><input type="text" value="75" ID="scrollWindowWidth" NAME="scrollWindowWidth" size="4"></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Animation Cycles</td><td><input type="text" value="300" ID="animationCycles" NAME="animationCycles" size="4"></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Animation Speed</td><td><input type="text" value="25" ID="animationSpeed" NAME="animationSpeed" size="4"></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Scroll Direction</td><td><select ID="animationDirection" NAME="animationDirection"><option value="1" selected>Left</option><option value="-1">Right</option></select></td></tr>
        <tr><td>Message Text</td><td><textarea ID="Textarea1" NAME="messageText" cols=50 rows=10>What you are looking at is a demonstration of how to use Javascript to do some simple animation in the address bar</textarea></td></tr>
      </table>
      <input type="submit" value="Run Animation">
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Tag

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:38:06 GMT

Tagged by: Wehlia and Bacchus, concurrently. :)

My quote: "People whose intellects are at the top end of the IQ scale."

(From the 8-sep-2005 post "On the importance of good communication...")

The rules:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

I now tag the following people:

  David
  Kelly
  Pete
  Shannon
Diana

(One factor was the assessment whether the tagees even had 23 posts to date )

Happy New Year

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 18:19:23 GMT

Happy New Year everyone!

Here's hoping that you have a great 2006!

A little fun for y'all

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 23:42:26 GMT

Halloween Eye Candy

This blog entry is beautifully done and has lots and lots of goodies and treats just in time for Halloween. Stop by and check it out.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/BAISER-DAMOUR/Blog/cns!1pJMvI_Y9XsL5zCgu5PsLXSw!1329.entry

Also, for a few good laughs, take a look at the comedy video in her other entry:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/BAISER-DAMOUR/Blog/cns!1pJMvI_Y9XsL5zCgu5PsLXSw!1225.entry

Ever wanna poke a penguin?

Here's your chance... let's see if we can really get him mad! :) LOL

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/pokepenguin.php

Remember, keep pokin'... and have a great day everyone!

Weird Purple-Dot Illusion

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 17:00:04 GMT

What you should see in the image below is a set of twelve purple dots arranged in a circular pattern (like the hours on a clock face). There is also a gray dot, same colour as the background moving around in a clockwise direction over the purple dots, making each dot in turn disappear momentarily. The effect appears as though there is a blank spot moving clockwise around the ring of purple dots.

If you stare at any purple dot, nothing special appears to happen aside from the dot blinking at a regular interval.

However, if you stare at the little black cross in the center of the ring, the purple dots will begin to appear greenish in colour before eventually disappearing altogether. Don't move your eyes off the cross!

Klatu verata niktu: Fun