Monthly Archives: February 2010

Processing.js 0.6 Released

We’ve just released Processing.js 0.6, and with it a bunch of bug fixes and more WebGL-based 3D support.  You can download it here, and read the full blog-post here.  We had hoped to get a rewrite of the color implementation in this time, which will bring with it some nice performance gains, but that is [...]
Posted in CDOT, Mozilla, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

Processing.js 0.5 Released

I’m happy to announce that Processing.js version 0.5 is now available for download.  This release fixes many bugs and adds new features, including the first support for WebGL based 3D functionality (PMatrix3D, box, camera, etc.).  Please note that you’ll need a WebGL enabled browser (e.g., Firefox nightly as discussed here) to use these 3D features.  [...]
Posted in CDOT, Mozilla, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

HOWTO: turn a student into a software developer

Yesterday I was frustrated.  I’m teaching my open source Mozilla courses, and I happened to look at our blog planet.  Right now we’ve got more than 30 students working on various open source projects, and to look at their blogs, you’d think they were all on holidays.  I view blogging as a barometer for development [...]
Posted in CDOT, Mozilla Education, Seneca, Teaching Open Source | Comments closed

Family Day

It’s Family Day in Ontario.  What’s it like?  In the past hour, I’ve been asked the following questions by my daughters: What’s strudel? What’s reason? Can you play me some Blues?  I don’t know why, but I like the Blues. Don’t think for a minute you can be a dad and not have prepared for a lifetime in advance.  [...]
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On the need for an ethical online existence

I thought that the NYT’s “multimedia” accompaniment to their article about the death of Georgian Luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was in bad taste.  The Huffington Post proves you can always go lower if you stretch: The dead slider’s father said he hasn’t seen the video of the fatal crash, adding, “I don’t want to see it [...]
Posted in Come on!, Idea Factory | Comments closed

Don’t use the R-word unless you mean it

Today Google announced that despite (or because of) the glacial pace of broadband rates in North America, it’s going to show Ma Bell how it’s done and do gigabit fibre to homes for what it calls a competitive rate. Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing [...]
Posted in Digital Swag | Comments closed

Things then and now, part II

Yesterday I wrote about a short newspaper article from March 31, 1949.  While I was looking at it, I also took a moment to read the surrounding articles.  The article itself was actually reprinted as part of the “From Our Early Files” section, and one of a dozen short pieces from 10, 20, 35, 50, [...]
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Things then and now

I wrote a letter to my grandmother a little while ago.  I was partly reminded of the need for such writing by Luke, but also I had wanted to connect some of my current work with my past.  Yesterday my grandmother was here visiting, and she took me aside just before she left.  “I have [...]
Posted in Experiments with audio, Idea Factory, family | Comments closed

Writing Automated Tests for Processing.js

I finished up some work today on the Processing.js automated test tools.  Previously I wrote a test harness to allow JavaScript based unit tests, as well as parser tests.  However, after watching some of my students struggle through bugs during the lead up to their 0.5 release, I decided we needed a way to also [...]
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Another road

There is another road.  It is, for the most part, hidden from view.  I have seen it only a few times, and always it has been those walking upon it that have made it appear to me. I saw it for the first time in a wicked snow storm, just as the light was succumbing to [...]
Posted in Idea Factory, Nature | Comments closed