Programming Tangent

Today's song is Top 50 Billboard ... what else are you going to do locked up? ...

I was planning on learning the Unity Game software platform and I may get back to it at sometime if the lockdown continues. The Ministry of Education just announced that schools are closed until May 31st.

I started to review programming books on Amazon and I discovered two languages I am interested in have lots of books published on them. I have learned that is the best way to discover how popular a language is in the industry. The languages are Kotlin and Golang.

Kotlin is many things, the most important being it is a much more concise Java. It transpiles to Javascript as well as native Android.

However Golang (GO) has much more appeal to me as I can use it in my company to provide microservices via the web for my software projects. Another appeal to me is that GO is close to the C language which is one of the first languages I learned.  It is best used to write network, system, and web stuff.

So far I have created a web server, accessed a mssql database and returned json, and cretaed a PDF. These are all things I do in my work using Javascript, ColdFusion, and Delphi. Most of all it is just fun to learn a new language that is concise, open source, and light on resources.

Other than programming, I was researching battery powered chain saws as it is time to get out in the woods and start creating a path for roaming in Jordan's back yard. In case you are curious I decided on:

Along the tech line, I had trouble getting a cell connection in the house. It appears that Rogers has some dead zones inside the City of Ottawa. Go figure, Thailand had cverage everywhere I went (at much less expensive). I did some research and found out that I could use a cell phone signal booster.  I decide on the one below and went from no bars on my phone to 4 bars and now I always have a solid connection. Highly recommended especially if you have a son who is willing to go up on the roof and install it.

The results - grey zone before installation

Jordan up on the roof installing the antenna

On the Lego Technic car builds, I am waiting on Canada Post to deliver some parts I bought. They were mailed 8 days ago from Toronto.

TTYL

Getting into Isolation

Today's song is: Hot Cars and Songs of 2017

I had a great day today as I am really getting into cocooning and social isolation. I am also enjoying Lego Technics, building and modifying my models to make them motorised. Today I finished my first mod and my only disappointment is I wimped out and went with 3 motors rather than 4. However, not bad for my first try.

I am still waiting on the blue tooth controller from Hungary which should be in sometime early next week. It will then be fun to test it against Jaidan's motorised car that Thavorn built.

Thavorn's car uses a blue tooth controller made in Slovenia.  Both controllers were gofundme projects.

I have 2 more cars on order, one a smaller Corvette model that I have ordered motors for that I will motorise. Tee second car is a Chinese clone of a Lego super-car mod that features 5 motors and a Chinese lipo battery and controller. It is about half the price that the Lego super-cars are. It will be interesting to compare the quality as well as the building instructions. The Chinese clones feature motorised vehicles vs having to do your own. Trying to figure out how to motorise the vehicle is half the fun. Thavorn will build that model which as 2000 pieces!

Here is a YouTube of the speed build of the Icarus. This is what Thavorn will be doing.

TTYL

Jaidan's Growth

Today's song is: Bored in the House ... Tyga and Curtis Roach

It has been a while since I measured Jaidan to see how his growth is going.  He seems to be following the same curve.

He is still about 99 percentile which is good. Not that he eats especially well as he prefers junk food and other yummy foods rather than fruits and vegetables.

On another note it snowed again this morning for an hour at 7 am. Come on mow, it is spring! Get with it Mother Nature  ... have you not heard it is global warming time?

I am still enjoying building and motorising Lego Technics models, however, it is getting costly. We are talking 65 inch TV costly. Oh well, you have to do something to pass the time and better to be creative than a couch potato.

I have decided to celebrate every 14 days by having a beer or glass of wine to survive without catch covid19. I have to go out once every 2 weeks for a grocery/beer/wine run (all on the same trip and destination. You have to thank Ford for permitting grocery stores to sell beer and wine :-)

TTYL

Thavorn's Technics

Today's song is: Everything I wanted ... Billie Eilish

One of my better achievements when I was the Coordinator of IT and Learning Technologies was the creation of 2 Robolabs in the school board where we bussed in junior grade classes to lean how to program Lego creations that they built.  The classes usually came for 2 consecutive days. The RoboLabs ran for about 10 years and thousands of children participated.

The best feedback we got was from parents who eMailed, 'My child came home from school today and actually talked about what they did in school!'  Another great feedback was from teachers who stated, 'I have never seen children so engaged, especially the problem children!'

The RoboLabs came about after I visited MIT's Lego Learning lab in the late 90's. It was not easy to convince the planning and construction department at the board to paint the walls Lego colours, the ceiling Lego sky blue, and tile the floor in Lego colours. I emailed Lego head quarters in Denmark and they sent us 4 beautiful, large banners that we hung from the ceiling.

After I retired the labs were retired due to budget cuts. Not much money was saved as a class was permitted one field trip a year and the students were voting for the RoboLab, year after year.

I have always had an interest in Lego Mindstorms, versions 1 through 3 and the Technics range of vehicles. The RoboLabs used a visual programming language similar to Scratch to program the students robots to do their thing such as following a line, moving towards a light or noise, avoiding obstacles, etc.

Self isolating has meant that we have had to find ways to amuse ourselves so I bought one new (Amazon) and one used Technics car (eBay) and I planned on putting them together over 4 days each. I had not counted on Thavorn taking control and finishing the first car in one day, and the second car in 2 days. She also learned how to motorise the cars (steering and motion) through Bluetooth, driven from her smart phone.

I have not told her the second car will be able to be programmed to avoid obstacles and shut down if it tilts over 45 degrees. I think I will keep those functions for myself.

As for Jaidan, he is enjoying driving the first car around our home.  It is great to find an activity that the whole family can get involved in.

Some pics:

Thavorn motorising the first car.

The second car gets finished.

The doors, rear spoiler and Engine hood are motorised opening and closing.

The pistons in the engine move.

The first car finished and the second car is getting started.

I have more motors on order (Lego.ca) and may decide to make the second car 4 wheel drive. 

This learning activity combines creativity, physical dexterity, following directions, organisational skills, visual acuity, and problem solving. It's also a lot of fun :-)

TTYL

Games

Today's song is: Walk Me Home ... Pink

It has been about 11 years since I was teaching Grade 12 students at Canadian Pre University in Subang Jaya in Malaysia. If you want to offer a programming course and have the students really enjoy it while they learn then I suggest you offer game programming. After all, besides being fun, game programming is really hard. It also lends itself to team work as some students will be great in designing graphics while some will be more proficient in coding and testing..

Back in 2009 I was teaching programming in Flash using the Flex IDE and ActionScript which was a powerful combination and some of my students completed commercial level games. The games could be loaded on to and played from a web server in the browser. Pretty heady stuff in 2010.

Now that I am self isolating I decided to explore how game programming had progressed. Indie games are in the in thing now as individuals can sometimes complete with the big players such as Electronic Arts and Epic Games among others.  Indie game programmers use one of Unreal or Unity platforms.

Indie game - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Indie_game
Indie games are developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies that are often specifically formed for the development of one specific game. Typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles.

These platforms make it easier to combine and manipulate 2D or 3D graphics with code. It still, is not easy, but much more manageable for smaller teams.

A day that goes by without learning something new is a wasted stay so I decided to explore these two platforms and came to the decision that I would adopt Unity and learn how to use it to reproduce some of the games my students worked on in 2009.

Top 10 Unity Games Ever Made

• 10: Deus Ex: The Fall.
• 9: Assassin's Creed: Identity.
• 8: Satellite Reign.
• 7: Escape plan.
• 6: Temple Run Trilogy.
• 5: Rust.
• 4: Battlestar Galactica Online.
• 3: Wasteland 2.
• 2: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
• 1: Kerbal Space Program.

I don't pretend to write such a game but I do intend to learn enough that I could teach the Unity platform to students and perhaps later my son Jaidan. Instead I will write a few educational games that could be used online during pandemics.

If you are bored and would like a challenge visit the Unity web site.

https://unity.com/

Our living space is starting to feel like a home and Thavorn is enjoying the kitchen area.

TTYL

Ongoing ...

Today's song is: Boom Boom Pow  ...  Black Eyed Peas

If you have ever been to Thailand you will know what Boom Boom refers to :-)

It is April 3rd 2020 and probably a month I will remember, but not wish to remember in the future.  Prime Minister Trudope was to speak at 11 am and the Premier of Ontario Doug Ford at noon. The topic everyone was hoping for was some kind of road map for the future. For example, how bad will it get, and how long will it last.

Trudope's 2 big announcements were;

Amazon Canada would deliver the much needed medical supplies and the military would help out in Quebec. First off, Trudope did not mention where these medical supplies would come fro,. Trump was on record that he did not want US companies sending N95 masks to Canada when the US needed the. Trudope stated that he would point out to Trump that NAFTA guaranteed free trade. However, that was then and this is now.

The second big announcement would keep the Quebecois happy as they were suffering from all the French snowbirds returning from their roosts in Florida.

Other than that Trudope was a flop in my mind.

I have yet to read Ford's road map but I am hoing he will just give us some scenarios so we can plan. One month, two month, three months, and how many are projected to die and become infected. Is that all so hard? Apparently it was for Trudope.

I headed off to the rural Foodland and it was busier than normal as people were stocking up for the long run.  They also appeared very scared IMHO and they really tried to stay as far away as possible when confronting me in an aisle. Sad!

I received notice from DHL couriers that my Lego power supply was in customs and apparently customs is open for business as they wanted their duty, fees, GST/PST. It is good to know that may tax money is at work still.

I am afraid these posts will become somewhat repetitive but by nature will reflect what is going on in my life. C'est la vie :-)

TTYL