Change in mounting apparatus for your Air Energy Devices:

Change in mounting apparatus for your Air Energy Devices:

Each team will have a square 1-1/2" metal post that is 28" long to mount your Air Energy Device onto. It cab be bolted or screwed to the post - either end works and there are places to thread bolts, and then I will attach this to the standing metal post. This way you can mount your device and test it for balance in the classroom. Your device will still end up being be about 10' off the ground.

Here is a photo of the end of the metal post. There are two locations where you can bolt to the corner w 3/8" threaded rod or connector:

Here is the other end of the post showing where you can bolt to the center:

And a third showing the bracket that is also available. The bracket has multiple holes for attaching:

~Richard.

Max Joins as a Renegade Wind Designer!

Max Hardcastle said...
Here's my blog:

http://renegadewind.blogspot.com/

I'm a blog addict now! It really is a good place to keep notes, etc.Data logger is really cool! It has some sort of GNU/Linux OS and it's now set to German. I hope everyone knows German because I can't figure out how to set it back!... I'm kidding!

....... show us how it's done Max!.... Richard.

Wind to Energy Using Computer Class as Well

Since most of the computer class is in the Wind Energy Project, here is a copy of a recent email as a post. If anyone in the computer class wants to use the time for learning the electrical logging software, graphic design of your wind energy, or other computer related activity even organizational - jump right in- I see it as totally valid since there are several teams represented - [a coincidence :) ] . Log your activities on your groups Wind Energy Blog and/or link it to your computer work.

Example:
Zhanar: gets software that can read/generate .dwg design files.
Ethan: uses his graphics 3D program to model the team's design
etc.

Here is my plea to stick with the project and work hard on it:

"Please stick with the project. It will be immensely great for all of us to have some working wind machines on Earth Day and thereafter.", pleaded Richard.

I am now thinking that we should collectively choose the best one (the sturdiest, best potential for the job, etc.) and it should be mounted up on the roof of the Middle Building after the contest of 24 hour measuring. This is a new twist to the project - and perhaps some modifications could be suggested by all of us and then made to this one - since it has to be at least somewhat safe from crashing down if the wind is too strong..

The four BLOG sites are as follows:

http://windmillbeneathmywings.blogspot.com/

http://teamvoltron.blogspot.com/

http://windenergyproject.blogspot.com/

http://teamtwister.blogspot.com/

Each has RSS feeds enabled if you want to use them; I am.
Post all your ideas and photos early and often, please.
The Vernier electrical data logging equipment that was donated for the project is scheduled to arrive late this afternoon, so we can test that out along the way, and you can learn to use it to test the output of your generators and experiments as well.

~Richard.

Show and Tell Finally Scheduled

Thursday and possibly into Friday during 2nd period will be Show and Tell. Each student will think in terms of 10 minutes, but won't you always go longer? I hope so - but not too much longer.

Plan on showing:
Your work for this past quarter - programs and results.
Telling us your goals for the upcoming final quarter.
Walk us through some of your programming methods.
Teach us ONE clear thing about your programming.

~Richard.

Microsoft Dreamspark.. ??

Microsoft in their back-dated wisdom is release an 'open' method of programming.. as open as Miscrosoft can let themselves get.

It appears at first read that students can have free versions of some development software; so here is yet another avenue for programming.

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

~Richard.

Showtime...

Note to all:

It is coming time for demonstrations of where your work is going, and to assess direction for the next quarter if there are any major changes. These have to happen over the next two weeks and it would be optimal to see them all at once in a double or tri-period.

Ideally we would all watch the presentations, so I will see what I can arrange with your teachers. Zhanar's should be easy with calculus and JP; the others - I may have to negotiate.

I also have a long standing promise to fulfill to you in having Bill Bryer, SBS parent, who works with JAVA for the State of NH come in to show us some ideas and inspire.

In general, it looks like programming work is happening.

Note to some:

A couple of computer library books went out.. one to Ethan on JAVA and one more to Zhanar on Access Database.. I need to get your 'library cards' on these.

~Richard.

Library Cards

POSKAR!!

Above is my system of Library Cards:

~Richard

Mysteries are Being Solved; Awesome Things in Progress

All Five Student BLOGS are getting filled, and that is a great sign. It is a habit that won't hurt and I am finding it a great help.

Update:
Alec:
He has latched on the the MAC XCode road and started to write his first application. Darn that Mac for making some of the most complex things simple as drag and drop! :) Also, his Blog is getting more specific and written very clearly, so I won't have to be a nag.

Max and Ethan:
They're working towards writing a complex game of some sort that will breach the Kamchatka Penninsula - no doubt some students in Kamchatka are currently writing a game that will breach the shores of mysterious Winnipesaukee. The C coding will be as complex as the spelling of the location names in the game. Max has been practicing writing and storing data to a .txt file. An encrypted database may be better in the long run, but this is a great start - and a successful one.
Ethan is practicing with writing and debugging blocks of code - I suspect some of the work to run the direction of the game from the user's input.

Zhanar:
Working to understand the Windows environment - a cryptic labyrinth of handlers, WinProc, and kernel calls.

Nate:
Feeling the call of other worlds, Nate is thinking of moving out of the JAVA book. After chapters of work, he is finishing the Paint program and heading out to greener, more tasty JAVA worlds.

~Richard.

Windows Port... a hole in every boat.

Zhanar is looking to port her program into the Windows environment. Here is a link that may provide some suggestions:

http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/opengl_first_windows_app.html

It is easier to read than several of the others I found.

Richard.

The Zhanar Show on Monday

To: Students Learning C and C++ variations..

I asked Zhanar to give us a show on Monday during the second half of the double - walking us through her C program to solve Sudoku problems. Her calculus class with Jon will take precedence BUT maybe we can hook him to sit in as well!

The code is posted on her BLOG

This seems like a great way to learn about some variables, includes, nested loops, and other dandy fine topics - particularly since we know the author...

The Zhanar Show will be brought to you courtesy of Hot Chocolate.

~Richard.

BLOG Your Work-.. make up missed time

Two important reminders:

UNO:
Be sure to BLOG your work each workday. Make it a habit and keep it going. Be specific about what you are doing.

Part B:
If you miss a class because of skiing, illness, or whatever.. make up the equivalent time and BLOG your time and work.

~Richard.

Here is a list of the address of all the Independent Comptuer Study blogs..
This is sent in an email to you as well.
Good luck to us all.

Richard -
http://geekteach.blogspot.com/
Alec -
http://alecp.blogspot.com/
Ethan -
http://geekteachindy-study08.blogspot.com/
Max -
http://indyc.blogspot.com/
Nate -
http://natesprogrammingblog.blogspot.com/
Zhanar -
http://zorbax.blogspot.com/

I have created Feeds to them all, and consider doing the same.
Students new to keeping a Blog [Alec, Nate, Zhanar] - check out the Max and Ethan Blogs to see sample content. It is for keeping notes, informing us, and matching ideas and sharing sites as well as generally letting me know what the heck you students are up to.
Be aware that I have showed some of these sites to other staff at teacher meetings to encourage them to use Blogging as a good way to document what is going on.

I have five cartons of books in the computer lab. If you take any of them out of the room I need to know, so I can track them down if necessary.

Thanks in advance for a good semester,
~Richard.

My Blog

my new blog address is http://natesprogrammingblog.blogspot.com

Uploading files (pictures or text) into a Database with PHP

Here is an article with some code allowing users to upload files. Assuming the data is there, I wonder if there are speed issues with getting the info back out in time to write the webpage with the graphics from the database.

Uploading files into a MySQL database using PHP

Richard.

Missing Class for Skiing or Other

Since Alec and Nate are missing class on a regular basis for skiing meets, here is a general policy that would apply for all missed classes:

Make up the missed class time by spending a block of equal time on your ongoing work within three days of your absence or missed day.

Post to this blog specifically how you spent the time. Take a minute and be specific - for instance - "I worked on the website" is not specific enough - tell what you specifically did with links if appropriate. "Worked on JAVA" is not enough also - tell what the current work involves and what commands or specific item you are investigating.

Richard.

WYSIWYG text editor for News and Projects users

A couple of follow-ups:

1. Text Editing
I found a WYSIWYG text editor that we might be able to use for the users posting material to the site as News and Projects.

It has several functions - it does not have the ability to download pictures. I would love to have this 'richeditorframe' function that this Google Blog uses! That would be perfect - but I don't see that it's available. Maybe it is with some more digging - even if it uses Google's site and another API somehow for access similar to the Google Maps work Alec is trying.

The HTML that it generates is a bit cumbersome, but it looks basic and straightforward.
I am checking that the code is legitimate - and doesn't have some buried redirects.

Here is the site [with a demo and the code with tutorial] that hosts the free editor:
http://koivi.com/WYSIWYG-Editor/

There also may be other links from the PHP site and related forum:
http://www.php.net/
A commercial version called "editize" gets some good reviews, but their half price for non-profits is $75 for a domain site's use.

2. Charting Data Online:
Also, here is a site that has some links to investigate java applets that create graphs for web viewing:
http://www.appletcollection.com/java/graph.html
Some of the links from this site are free software and some 'for purchase'. There are often deals available for non-profits, but take some digging and/or writing to the companies to see what their policy is.

Richard.

Meeting with The Energy Fellowship/Earth Support

Thanks for attending the lunch time meeting with Earth Support and Energy Fellowship. There were lots of great ideas that came out of it. Here is an outline of those ideas for the website and PLEASE add those that I may have forgotten:

1. The forum is a great idea but needs tweaking to make sure it works. Max H. went to sign up but it did not work for new additions. [rjd - I think Zhanar was thinking about looking into this? ] We couldn't demonstrate it fully at the presentation.

2. Barry suggested having a data section with graphs that are generated by that data. This idea had lots of enthusiasm and some data suggestions were:

• ongoing oil [B20 and regular oil] / electricity / propane usage by the school including the entire carbon footprint - ZachB
• water usage by the school
• recycling data
• cars in the parking lot
• please write with others I may have missed here [?]

To be effective the data and graphs need to be dynamic. We need to find/write scripts to do this.

Richard suggested an electric eye road near the entry to get automated data input for cars on the school road - [ now there's a whole project: make a solar powered data taking device for storing and sending that data, but there are lots of opportunities for automatic data entry, too including temperature and power usage for some areas or devices]

Jen wondered how we would get information on the site and Zhanar started to demonstrate how news, projects, and links data can be added by many individuals that have login privileges to do so. The last 5 articles that show on top, but others can be stored and available for showing. Articles and links can both be in the Forum and as part of the News and Projects sections of the site.

The overall question of the day was to see if there is enthusiasm to make the development of this website worth pursuing. I want the class to work towards something that has meaning and appreciation. The fact that there were a dozen people showing up with short notice for a lunch meeting shows that we are on a good project and should continue.

In attendance were: Robert, Jen, Todd[[?], Dave, Barry, Zhanar, Alec, ZachB, Richard, Jon P., Nate H., Max H., and .. [I think I missed a couple - help here please??]

EnergyFellowship.org Email Addresses and Mail System

The email system password is changed - see a private email to you.

 

The following have admin privileges to set up emails, add aliases, and manage accounts. It may be a good hook for users to have an energyfellowship.org email address to use.

 

The link to the email is:

http://mail.energyfellowship.org

 

perhaps a link to that can be on the site as well. We could offer users:

"Do you want to have an energyfellowship.org email address?"

and use the following to set up an alias.

IMHO, I think it should not as automated as the Forum, but on case by case - but maybe I'm too conservative here.

 

    info required:

        Real Name

        Current email to forward all mail

        Affiliation - what school, what organization, etc.

        Brief use agreement - simple..  Agree Disagree statement

 

Richard.

Some Site Ideas and Fixes

1. Add return link to http://www.santbani.org/ from the Energy Fellowship site
2. Show that the Energy Fellowship is part of/connected with the Sant Bani School
3. Admin setup pages
   perhaps a "view" button to see the results of additions while the user is still logged in.
   ability to add simple text editing to news and projects
   ability to add pictures to news and projects (limiting graphic size)
   
4. Forum:
   redo graphic at heading of Forum so that text is not pixelated
   have Forum open in a new page so that the user still has the original energyfellowship.org open
   link back to energyfellowship.org from Forum
   link to http://www.santbani.org/ from Forum
5. Add RSS feed so that users can sign up for any News and Project changes/additions

Richard

Others?

invitation to Energy Fellowship Group to view and comment on site.

Here is the text from Zhanar with some changes - of an invitation to the Energy Fellowship Group to see the website and give some more ideas - hopefully to write and include articles.
Is it strong enough about joining the forum?
Richard.
*********************************


[how about inserting graphic letterhead.. from the site]



November 1, 2007


Dear Colleagues,

We really appreciate your common interest in Energy Fellowship and offer you a great opportunity to exchange your thoughts and ideas with each other and people interested in sustainable life using the electronic network.

We invite you to visit your website http://www.energyfellowship.org/and share your projects or new ideas. You can also sign up for the Energy Fellowship forum and take part in discussions on different topics. You may also invite anyone interested in the Energy Fellowship to join our community.

Let’s meet on Wednesday, November 7 at lunch in the Reading Room at Sant Bani School where we will show you the website development so far. It will be a great chance to make your suggestions about the project and start to share ideas for the site.

We would be tremendously appreciative of any help or reply.
Cordially,


Sant Bani School Computer class
Zhanar Seitmagzimova Sant Bani ’08, zhanars@santbani.org
Alec Peters Sant Bani ’09, alecp@santbani.org
Nate Houran Sant Bani ’09, nateh@santbani.org
Richard Danahy Sant Bani Staff, richard@santbani.org