The Adventures of Anibot

I’ve been working on a visual story I’d like to write. My main character so far is called Anibot, or, any robot. So now I’m drawing his home and the area around where he lives. I’ll also draw the robot in different poses and some of his friends and family.

In the first picture, I decided to add some depth of field by blurring the background objects. The software doesn’t automatically allow you to do 3D, but you can fake it with a little practice.

In the second picture, I started by making the grass in the yard shorter. Then I moved all the objects closer together so they fit in the yard. I made closer objects taller and father ones shorter, as well as adjusting the amount of blur on objects far away. It’s pretty easy to do and the results make it look like you are standing right in front of Anibot!

 

Inkscape for Kids

I’ve taken up a part time job teaching computer science at a private high school in Taiwan. So far, it’s going really well. I’m using Inkscape to teach them about vector graphics and design techniques. With OED becoming an important part of the Taiwan economy, kids are flocking to these classes at the university level. So I thought, why not teach them something about it early on, in high school?

I’m also putting together a pdf (ebook) of all the lessons, if anyone is interested in teaching something similar. The book will contain original drawings and clear instructions.

Here is a dolphin that I created today. The kids are going to love learning how to do this!

 

Dinosaur Graphics

 

 

 

I just made a dinosaur. I will be teaching a computer graphics class in a high school in Taiwan in the spring. I used Inkscape which is great free software and I followed a tutorial. See it here:

Dino Tutorial

It took me about half a day. I had to learn a bunch of stuff. I also played with different colors and techniques. Once you see how to make shapes quickly, it’s really fun.

 

 

Pebblefoot Park

I’ve been writing a platform where writers and readers can meet, share information about books, promote books, sell books, and just talk about things they found interesting in any relationship to the publishing business. It’s free and anyone can join. Currently, we have about 14 members which is wonderful because it allows me to test and debug various features. Also, they’ve posted around 20 books that are up for sale.

Although I enjoy writing as a hobby, and I enjoy programming on the side, I hope this site will help me promote and sell more of my own work. It would be great to make a living off of writing some day. The Park allows me to combine two of my interests, but at the same time it also gives other aspiring or even successful writers a place to expand their work online. Let me describe the features so far.

The Wall – This is a place to write book reviews. You can give each book a rating on a scale of 1 to 5.

The Forest - This is a place where you can blog. Topics could include a book you read, a short story you wrote, a writer you met, a book project you are involved with, or even just news about the publishing industry.

The River – This is a directory of books. To submit a book, you need a book ID number, which may be verified using sources on the Internet.

The Cabin – This is a place where people can leave messages and network together. Then, if you want to continue a conversation with a particular member of the Park, you can click on their name and leave a message on their individual message page.

In the Park Trailhead, which is a kind of introduction/welcome/newsletter page, you will find information about current features recently added to the Park and new features on the way. Each page comes with a sidebar giving clear instructions on how the page works. The main feature of each page to be aware of is the Notepad. This is where you enter information for that page.

Anyone can join, whether a reader or a writer. The site is open to agents and publishers as well. It allows multiple people to work together online at the same time and functions as a social network for people who love books. It’s a free platform for you (and me) to find success in the writing business.

Follow this link to check it out:

Pebblefoot Park

See you in the Park!

 

Google/MIT blocks for Android Apps

Today I started playing around with the online project by Google/MIT which uses puzzle pieces to build apps for Android. Apparently, Google had put the project online a while ago and it ‘went dark’ this year, so MIT picked it up and also turned it into open source, so people can write plugins for it. Currently it’s in the beta stage.

Simple put, it rocks. At first, though, it takes a bit of getting used to. You move puzzle pieces, called ‘blocks’, around the screen and attach them to each other. I had to look through a few examples and read some tutorials, which were excellent, but then I finally started to pick up on the logic behind the thing. In fact, once you get it, making a simple app for Android goes really fast.

Much of hand written coding is repetitious. You write the same keywords over and over again, with different values and different labels. What this ‘block’ approach allows you to do is speed up that whole process, by dragging and dropping the right parts into the right places. And then you just change the labels and values to whatever you need. Once you’ve got the visual layout of the screen figured out, most of the pieces you can use for the programming have already been labeled correctly.

For example, you insert a button on the visual screen page. Then you go to the blocks editor and drag and drop a button ‘block’ (or puzzle piece) with the same label into place. Then there’s an emulator you can try, or you can actually hook it right into your smartphone for application.

Once you’ve gotten the thing neatly put together, you can ‘package’ it for downloading. This will give you an .apk file, which you can attach to emails and send to whoever you like. One thing, though, a friend already pointed out that his email client won’t let him download .apk files. I tried sending it as an attachment to a message on FB and had no problem. Probably there’s already a great place where we can upload and share our Android apps, but I haven’t looked for it yet. Having a centralized place from which your friends could download your apps would be ideal.

What’s possible with this thing? They say you can write a chat program in no time, something that works like LINE or Whatsapp. An address book, phone book, even a Twitter type app is possible, they say. Here is the site if you’d like to get started:

Android Apps by Blocks

Or search: MIT AppInventor Experimental

And remember, it doesn’t work on Apple phones… Hahahaha! (apple, sigh)

 

 

Rivertalk Plugin for Elgg

My friend Art and I have just spent the last week writing our first plugin for the Elgg social networking community. I did the code modification and Art managed the user experience and user behavior end of the project.

The Rivertalk plugin is free, but we’d appreciate it if people would chip in and donate. Thanks.

You can find the plugin here:

Rivertalk 1.05

 

Solar for Kindle

Although I live in Taiwan, I love using solar to charge my Kindle Fire!