Digitalkatie's blog

Samba de Amigo!

We bought Samba de Amigo yesterday.  It was our anniversary present to each other (yes, we're that sad!)  It is brilliant, even better than when it was on the Dreamcast.  Our friend Stuart had it and would bring it to our New Year's Day parties and we would hook it up to a data projector I had borrowed from work.  Ah those were the days! (Of course the vast amount of alcoholic cocktails helped with the inhibitions of standing shaking maracas)

We started to get quite despondent.  It took us about half an hour to configure the game.  The key factor is the new version is not so dependent on height as the Dreamcast version, where you would have to enter your height into the game.

The Wii version also factors in angle of the wiimotes/maracas.  If you are shaking high, point the wiimotes upwards.  You don't actually have to lift them too much.  For the middle shakes, keep the wiimotes level.  For posing with both wiimotes to one side (this is where we had the major block in the configuration stage) point them behind you.  It seems to work. 

Happy Samba-ing everyone!

Giraffe Hero: the making of...

We made a little film recently.  I had seen this fantastic red giraffe soft toy in TK Maxx and was quite taken by its spotty resemblance to the Guitar Hero controller.  I decided this would make a great film, and as TeachMeet08 was coming up, it was a good deadline for making it.

First of all we discussed how to animate the computer game part of the movie.  I wanted to show the dots floating down like they do in Guitar Hero.  Two options that came to mind were stop motion animation with a very large sheet of paper and some cardboard cutout dots, or using a graphics package like Paint.Net to produce a series of images to then put into an animation program.

I have been using Scratch, a simple games programming / multimedia program developed by MIT with my second years.  They have just finished working through the task cards that are provided on the website and now we're all starting to make Pacman games.

Sean pointed out that Scratch might be a good way to animate the Giraffe Hero game.  I then got very enthusiastic and spent a day creating the sprites and the board and trying to code it all (Sean and Louis had a lovely day out and about enjoying the real world away from computers :-)

The big issue was timing.  I wanted to create a game that worked, so that the individual sound clip for a chord played as the dot got to the bottom of the screen.  This worked first time round, but as it looped it became more and more out of sync.  Ideally I wanted to be able to adapt the game later so that it could be played.  You would press buttons 1-5 at the right times to get the chord to play and win a point.

Here's the first game attempt.  I did have the dots getting brighter and bigger as they got to the bases but I took that out thinking it might speed it up. (Click on the image to play) 

After this version I realised this wasn't helping me get on and make the movie.  I took out the sound clips, but that didn't help with the timing so I then copied the looping dots and made three sets instead that just wait until they're needed before floating down.  You can see that version here on Scratch.

Maybe some day I'll get round to making Giraffe Hero the game, but as you can see my target audience hasn't gor the hang of holding the wireless soft chewable red giraffe controller yet, let alone pressing the buttons on time!

Here's the finished movie:

OK, who was it??

So, who was it??? Admit it!  I'll find out soon enough, just as soon as my payment for $4,500 goes through (although I may not send the remaining $3,500 of the $9,000 fee until their arithmetic improves!)

-----Original Message-----
From: Alqueada - WorldNetwork [mailto:info@alqueada.net]
Sent: 05 March 2008 17:02
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject:

I  am very sorry for you XXXXXXXX, is a pity that this is how your life is going to end, as soon as you don't comply. As you can see introduction is of no importance to you as I don't have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL you  I have already been paid for that.

Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this, the person also came to us and told me that he wanted you dead and he provided us with your name ,picture and other necessary information's we need about you. So I sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary spy needed for the operation on you, but I told them not to kill you yet that I will like to contact you and see if your life is Important to you or not since their findings shows that you are innocent.

I called my client back and ask him of your email address which I didn't tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me and I am using it to contact you now. As I am writing to you now my men are monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you. Just to let you know that am not joking

Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE?. Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life, $9,000 is all you need to spend You will first of all pay $4,500 then I will send a tape to you which i recorded every discussion i had with the person who want you dead and as soon as you get the tape, you will pay the remaining $3,500. If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my job straight-up.

WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELLING ANYONE BECAUSE I WILL KNOW.REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANT YOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHING FUNNY.DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7:PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND GIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKE ANY LEGAL ACTION. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY xxxxxxx.killer@gmail.com

Louis goes to University

We've just had a great day out today. Chenoa and the Nerf family texted us and asked if we fancied meeting up for pizza...in 30 minutes! We didn't make it on time but there was a queue for tables anyway so it was fine. It was lovely to see them, and Dylan was looking really happy which was fab.

After lunch we headed up to Appleton Tower to catch a bit of this year's BarCamp Scotland. We heared a couple of talks then Ewan Spence did his end-of-conference entertainment - a talk about card games called Fluxx and One Thousand Blank White Cards.

At the end of BarCamp we sneaked into a particular union bar that shall remain unnamed. I say sneaked, because we were pretty sure they don't have a kids licence. I carried Louis in his 'cocoon' cot part of the pram (it looks like a wide lime-green sports bag, except you can see a baby's face peeking out the top). The security staff were only concerned that we had voucers to let us in and didn't see him.

We then sat in the corner of the Committee Room with Ewan and Vicki, with Louis in his cocoon on the floor. He slept peacefully while we played several games of Fluxx and had some food (major loss of brownie points for the union for a) not having the vegie platter b) putting the veggie spring rolls on the meal platter and c) not telling us there were also meat spring rolls. They gave us free nachios and veggie spring rolls but Vicki was understandably upset when she realised she'd eaten a meat spring roll)

Fluxx is a very cool card game that is now on my ebay list. The rules change as you play as well as the goal of the game (i.e. how you win). It made for a fun evening, well it was helped by the G and T (my first drink since giving birth!).

Just as we were finishing eating Louis started stiring and looking hungry so we decided to make our move. I could have tried to hid him as I fed, play the daft lassie if questioned, or just be kicked out but we didn't want to get BarCamp in trouble. Louis was pretty quiet all the way home too :-) He's wonderful!

Fun educational games

Sean came across this cool version of Tetris called Stateris.  This would be great for Geography teachers.  I was amazed how difficult even the easy version of Europe Stateris is to play!

Another cool game is Free Rice, which tests your knowledge of word definitions.  For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice get donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

Borough film debates

Following the news that David Hasslehoff is considering doing the film version of Knight Rider, the debate in the pub tonight turned to who would you cast if you were making a film version of the A-Team?

Murdoch - Jim Carrey or Ellen De Generes
Face - Will Smith or Brad Pitt
Mr T - The Rock or Vin Diesel
Hannibal - Mel Gibson
Bad guy - Kevin Spacey, Burt Reynolds or John Cussack

Some cool and fun stuff

Someone has invented a really cool sleeping bag. It has legs and arms!  This would have been wonderful as a Guider on Guide camp for those times when you've just managed to warm up and get the sleeping bag toasty warm then you hear noises from one of the guide tents and know you need to investigate.  Now you don't even need to get out of the sleeping bag!

Another weird thing on the internet - instructions on how to cook lasagne in your DISHWASHER!  Yup, really!

...and if you end up in the Royal with food poisoning, when not head to the Pelican Gallery at the RIE and check out the "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind" exhibition there, featuring 2D and 3D artwork by pupils from my school.

At the Handheld Learning Conference there was protesters outside campaigning for us not to buy products that use wifi.  I really wish I'd had this t-shirt on as I walked past them!  It lights up more bars as the wifi signal in the area gets stronger.  Unfortunately it can't tell the difference between secure and unsecure wifi networks, but it is still very cool!

 

Westminster tube station

Westminster tube station seems to have got celebrity sound-alikes to record their audio messages. The station prerecorded announcements sound like Hattie Hayridge and the lift messages sound like Ivor Cutler!

I want a Wii ;-)

Wii's till recently were just mildly amusing, but I didn't really want one.  However, a colleague has pointed out to me that Samba de Amiga is being developed for the Wii!!!  I loved this game for the Dreamcast, but only ever played my friend's one.  Boogie also looks great, although I don't fancy the karaoke section.

Bus Race

If I can I try to get the number 2 bus to work.  It's usually quicker as it goes through the Grassmarket.  However if a 3, 31 or 33 arrives and there is still a five or more minute wait for the No 2 then I'll get that bus and change when they meet up again after the Bridges.

There is a family who do a similar thing to me, except they live further out of town.  The two boys are pupils at Forthill and the mother works in the cafeteria.

Today they got off the No. 3 bus that I was getting on to. It was very disconcerting, however the race is on!  Will they get to school faster waiting five minutes for the No 2 or will I get there first by bus hopping? 

Now obviously I'm not going to count the incedibly long time it takes me now to waddle from the bus stop to school, so I think we'll just see who makes it to the bus stop nearest the school first.

Update: It was a draw!