How One Teacher Turned Sixth Grade Into An MMO Editor’s Note: Ben Bertoli is a long-time Kotaku reader and commenter, a lifetime, dedicated video gamer and a sixth-grade teacher in Indiana. He reached out to Kotaku this past week to share the story of how he turned his class into a role-playing game. The enthusiasm and motivation of the children in Bertoli’s class evoke the success stories seen in gamified experiences such as Fitocracy. Video games and education. I wouldn’t be as well read as I am today if it wasn’t for video games. As I was describing my video-game-related teachings to my buddy Courtny, we began talking about incorporating gaming into education. I worked on my classroom system for a month before I had it completely devised. Knowing I could get some supportive and insightful feedback I even ran the idea by my pals on Kotaku. Originally I thought I’d try ClassRealm out on my students this coming fall, but soon realised it would be too much for me to deal with at the beginning of the school year. 1.
blog - Golden Ratio in logo designs Golden Ratio in logo designs. Beauty and aesthetics have been praised from time immemorial. But little did people know that the most effective, perfectly balanced, and visually compelling creations followed the tid-bits of mathematics. At least not until 1860, when German physicist and psychologist Gustav Theodor Fechner proposed that a simple ratio, an irrational number defines the balance in nature. The Golden Ratio! Fechner’s experiment was simple: ten rectangles varying in their length-to-width ratios were placed in front of a subject, who was asked to select the most pleasing one. Golden Ratio Golden Mean, Golden Section, Divine Proportion are all common names for what is known as the Golden Ratio which is based off the number phi (φ) = 1.61803398874… discovered by Italian Mathematician Fibonacci. the ratio between these numbers soon become very close to φ (1.618). What’s so amazing about this number? Logos with golden ratio National Geographic Pepsi Apple iCloud Toyota Grupo Boticário
One year worth of images give some amazing videos Update:I made three new videos of 2009 with my 5D Mark II last year. One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo. So far I’ve made two videos of the images I describe in this article. The one here at the top and another two minutes version. The story Back in 2005 I did an experiment shooting images out of my window for one year. So I started shooting images with my Canon 400D. Each time I snapped the following images: 3 exposures @10mm (Canon EF-S 10-22 F3.5-4.5 USM) 3 exposures @17mm (Canon EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS USM) 3 exposures @55mm (Canon EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS USM) All images shot in RAW. In addition to the images I decided to record some audio at the same place. All together giving me a pretty decent range of material to put together some experiments. Then what? Link to this video in HD on YouTube. At the top of this article you find a 40 second version that show one year. First I used Photomatix to make HDR images of the ones I decided to use. The free downloads And where are the files?
I want sparks & I want them NOW! Update May 2003 - Marx Three is now up & running Do you like the idea of tesla coils and other high-voltage sparking stuff, but don't have the time, money or patience to build something that elaborate? Here's a fun little project that can make big, fat, noisy sparks at least 2 inches long, and can be built very quickly and cheaply. The Marx generator consists of an array of resistors, capacitors and spark gaps arranged as follows: The capacitors, C, are charged up in parallel via the 1M (one megohm) resistors, so they each become charged to the input voltage. Rb has a ballasting effect. Although it is possible to make a Marx generator with just an array of resistors, capacitors and spark gaps, it can be hard to make it fire reliably, as it will depend on the breakdown voltage of the spark gaps, and there can be a fine line between not firing and firing before all the capacitors are fully charged. Component choice An input voltage of about 4-8KV is recommended. Power supply "Marx Two"
Mini Sketchbook Paintings Illustrator Matthew Cruikshank has a sharply defined style that includes leaving the edges of his work unfinished, using bold and blocky coloring, and black outlining for details. Photos © Matthew Cruikshank Link via Maya Gohill 67 Open Source Replacements for Really Expensive Applications Why spend thousands or even hundreds or thousands of dollars on a closed source application when you can get a comparable open source app for free? Even if you need commercial support, many open source programs now offer paid support that costs much less than the alternatives. For this list, we looked for quality, open source alternatives to software that has a reputation for being expensive. Whenever possible, we included MSRPs for the expensive software, though in some cases, the pricing scheme is so complicated that it's nearly impossible to pin down. We published a similar list last year, and we've updated and expanded the list for 2011. Accounting 1. 2. 3. 4. Audio Recording/Editing 5. 6. 7. Business Intelligence 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Business Process Management 13. 14. 15. Customer Relationship Management 16. Database 17. 18.
9 Fitness Tips to Help You Build Muscle, Lose Fat and Become a Better Athlete If you are in the fitness and bodybuilding world for some time, you’ve probably seen there is a ton of information about training, nutrition and supplements on the internet, magazines, television… Some of it is very useful, but unfortunately, most of it is very misleading. Often, when people find themselves overflown with information, they can pick bad advice, or even fail to act, mainly because they get confused and don’t know what is good and what is bad for them. So if you are just starting – here are a few fitness advices to take you the right way. For the experienced ones – this info will serve as a reminder and to help you stay on track.1. Compound exercises are the real deal Isolation exercise have their own benefits, but compound movements are the foundation of every weightlifting program and absolutely vital for your success. 2. A workout can work perfectly, but won’t work forever. 3. This may look confusing, but think about it, why you should train your legs? 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
20 Free Fonts For Beautiful Headline Typography Get our posts emailed to you with our monthly newsletter, subscribe here. I am always on the look out for new good quality free fonts, when I find a font I like I always download it and save it for future projects. I have added 20 of the most recent free fonts I have come across recently to this post, specifically I have focused on free fonts for use in headlines. When choosing the right font for a headline it is absolutely paramount to convey the correct look and feel, having an archive of fonts can really help your broaden your design. You may also like: 18 Free Stylish Sans-Serif Fonts For Your Collection 20 Minimalist & Typographic Brochure Designs Weston Tallys RBNo2 Quattrocento Null Infinity Glide® Font Excellens Elega Code Pro Cabin Font Broken Records Banda Typeface Arvo Piron Roscoe™ Big Noodle Titling Instrumenta font Telegrafico Have you got any high quality free fonts you could recommend?
How To Learn Photoshop In 24 Hrs Quite a bold statement, Learn Photoshop in 24 hours. Its simple and you can. Stepping into Photoshop at first can be quite daunting, were do you start? With these 20 tutorials we have given you some direction, you will start of with some very basic techniques and build towards the more advanced. By the end of it you will be an expert. Tutorial 1:Combining Two Photos for New Effect – Basic Tutorial running time : 10 minutes. We’ll start with something basic. Tutorial 2:Grass Texture – Basic Tutorial running time : 15 minutes. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a nice-looking grass texture. Tutorial 3:Underwater Effect – Basic In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an underwater scene from scratch, using Gradients, Transform and Filters. Tutorial 4:2d Mirror Effect – Basic In this tutorial you will learn how to Duplicate, Flip Horizontally/Vertically, Feathering and Blending. Tutorial 5:Sony Ericsson Logo – Basic Tutorial running time : 20 minutes.