This arvo I went along to the Linux Users of Victoria (LUV) Beginners Workshop and had an enjoyable afternoon playing with shiny toys. The Beginners Workshop has been running for a year now and by all accounts is a success. It’s quite easy going and a great place to share advice and tips on all things Linux.
Scratch on the OLPC. Photo by Wayan Vota, licensed CC-BY-NC.
I didn’t bring my laptop today as it was rather hot, and I knew there would be some OLPCs there. So I spent some time trying most of the OLPC applications, TamTam being the most engaging but I couldn’t figure out how to put together my own sound sequence. Finally I turned to Scratch, which I have been intrigued by since seeing Tony Forster’s talk on it at Software Freedom Day 2009.
And thus I was able to create this:
(Oddly enough, I can’t view this directly on my own laptop, as (A) my distro is so out of date I can’t easily install Scratch, and (B) getting Java applets to actually work seems to be a task more difficult than… virtually everything else on Linux. Note to self: really REALLY need to update my OS. Now I’ve given up and installed it under Wine.)
So here is the “code” to make this:
Ghost:
Unicorn:
The “Share” function will lets you easily upload your project to the Scratch website, as above, is very very cool. It’s integrated very well.
After that I set to crocheting. (See Revisiting craft for the backstory.) Last week while I was waiting for MXUG to start, I wandered around in Clegs and started my stash (you will need a Ravelry account to see that I think). Last weekend Emma Jane gave me my first crochet lesson at KiwiFoo, and I wanted to get started before I forgot that tactile memory completely.
These are my first, second and third (in-progress) pieces. The second piece looks like a triangle, although it was intended to be square. I guess I kept dropping stitches. The natural colour pattern in the multi-colour wool is interesting. Maybe it is more noticable in small pieces. I will keep them because I guess later they can be tacked onto bigger pieces as decoration.
The third shows a distinct improvement in consistency. I will see if I can keep the stitches up for a few more rows before attempting anything “real”.
It was a fun afternoon of tinkering.
