ICT 2008

Information Computer Technology 12's class of 2008 will officially end on May 29th. It has been wonderful experiencing, learning, and probing into the world of technology and media. It surrounds us despite where we are. The year was long, but constantly filled with the innovative ideas of both teacher and peers. Much has been shared and passed on between everyone and it will be hard to forget the lessons learnt everyday. I know the valuable skills I have developed from this class will aid me in every aspect of what I do.

OLPC of 2010

There are images of what new XO laptops are to look like around 2010.

Is that a touch screen I see?

OLPC and Microsoft

Attention on the XO computer has been far-reaching and growing.

Now, the OLPC Foundation has come to an agreement with Microsoft to include Windows XP in the XO laptop.

Bridge Building Contest

The bridge building contest is an annual event held at the school. Physics 11 and 12 students have the opportunity to construct their own bridges, with their own purchased materials, and enter it in the contest. There are terms and rules regarding the creation of the bridges that must be followed in order for the students to participate. In the process, students experience what bridge building truly entails. To make a sturdy and strong bridge, precision and good workmanship are needed. The objective of the contest is for the bridge to hold the heaviest weight while abiding by the terms. The current bridge record is 209.4 kg. There are multiple sponsors for this contest including the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC, Collings Johnston Inc., Buckland and Taylor Ltd., and many more. The upcoming contest is on Tuesday, May 6.

Vancouver is a city of many interesting bridges.

My favourite is the Burrard Street Bridge.

Picture taken by Mr. Vogel.

Here is an intersting site from the additional links.

Kiwanis Fraser Valley International Music Festival

Today, I had the honor of participating in the 9th annual KFV International Music Festival with the Westcoast Harp Ensemble located in Langley, BC, Canada. Despite the lengthy travel time, I was glad to be apart of the event. I performed Pachelbel's Canon in D Major in an ensemble of twelve harpists. After we played the piece, the awesome adjudicator, Don Hlus critiqued certain song measures, timing, and intepretation. Overall, this is certainly a valuable experience for me. His feedback and comments will definitely help me in any pieces that I perform in the future.

Numerous pictures were taken (with flash), so I will end this post now and let my eyes adjust to normal lighting.

Visual Basic Multiform Project & Easter Egg

For class, I had the opportunity to work more in depth with Visual Basic and programming. I made a project that had some specific criteria. They included a thorough and consistant theme (designs), timed splash screen, menu screen, at least 5 program forms, exit message box, closing screen, and a hidden Easter Egg. My program was based entirely on the Final Fantasy gaming story line. My splash screen was set to 10 seconds until the menu screen was automatically displayed. I had 6 forms in my multiform project such as buzz , calculator, digital clock, hidden egg game, racer game, and temperature converter. My closing screen was created from the same template as the splash screen and was set to 10 seconds before the program was exited. The multiform project also included an Easter Egg which is a hidden program until certain keys on the keyboard are clicked. Only then will the Easter Egg be activated. My Easter Egg command keys were ctrl + E.

Look familiar?

The OLPC Experience

During the weekend, I was able to borrow the XO laptop because I was a donor and contributed to this laptop program. My initial reaction upon receiving it on Friday was that it was cute, compact, and green! It would be perfect for the child, who would be getting one as well, because of the ICT 12 class' contribution. I charged the laptop and ran it. While using it, I discovered that there were numerous complex functionallities with the laptop. However, despite its complexity the laptop was easy to understand and utilize. Again, perfect for any child using it.

The time it took for the laptop to start up was not bad. Compared to my desktop computer, I have nothing to complain about. I then went through all of the programs and realized the intentions of the developers. The laptop was to be funtional as any other laptop in the West, but usable for a child. There were enough programs and tools to suit the needs of a child. The programs included Chat, Browse, Write, Record, Paint, TamTamJam, Etoys, TurtleArt, Pippy, Calculate, Measure, TamTamEdit, TamamSynthLab, Memorize, News Reader, TamTamMini, Terminal, Log Viewer, Analyze, and Acoustic Tape Measure.

So you see, the laptop contained programs that yours and mine do not even have. The ones that I liked, mainly because I do not have some of these features on my laptop, included Measure (measured sound waves), TamTamEdit, and Acoustic Tape Measure (measures distance between XO laptops). They were easy to use and I am confident that the children who receive these laptops because of our generous contributions would be ecstatic and thrilled to have them. The XO's would open so many doors for it's receivers because of it's design and features.

I liked everything about its applications. On the other hand, there are some inconveniences that come with the XO. The first thing I noticed was that the cord, which is used to charge the battery, was quite short. I had to move locations so that the cord would reach my home electrical plugs. It is quite short compared to the cord of an average laptop. As well, when I ran the laptop, it froze quite a number of times. I had to frequently restart it. Though, that did not bother me as much as the "keypad". My finger placements, on the little keyboard like piece of the laptop, felt odd. In the end, I resorted to typing solely with my left and right index fingers and thumb, occasionally.

Besides the few aspects of the laptop that I found to be disconcerting, I would still recommend everyone to take part in the OLPC program. We should keep in mind that the main purpose of these laptops is to give less fortunate children opportunities to probe into the world of technology.

For a few other OLPC Laptop reviews from my classmates please visit:

• http://ict12amandaalberti.blogspot.com/
• http://ict12elizalabrador.blogspot.com/