Thursday was the most exciting day of the conference. There were plenty of people there (both in the audience, and on stage). On Thursday I met three people:
1. Walter Bender - Walter's presentation was probably my favorite of all. He showed off the Sugar OS on his own OLPC. In fact, he did his entire presentation using his Sugar Laptop (using Turtle Art -- which acted as his presentation method instead of using the traditional Powerpoint slides). He really tried to convince the audience that using Sugar really helps kids "learn how to learn" in a number of different ways. He showed off a few of Sugar's best activities to the audience, and how they all help the students learn.
After his presentation, I (and most of the Sugar-based teams in our class) introduced ourselves to Walter. I told him about our ideas for the nutrition-based activity, and immediately he offered some suggestions for us. He told us about how the OLPC laptops have a webcam built in, and that we should consider trying to use object recognition to gather our data. I think this may be a little over our heads (especially for the next month...), but it is an excellent idea nonetheless. This could definitely be something that we can mention on our Wiki page that we make soon.
After his presentation, I (and most of the Sugar-based teams in our class) introduced ourselves to Walter. I told him about our ideas for the nutrition-based activity, and immediately he offered some suggestions for us. He told us about how the OLPC laptops have a webcam built in, and that we should consider trying to use object recognition to gather our data. I think this may be a little over our heads (especially for the next month...), but it is an excellent idea nonetheless. This could definitely be something that we can mention on our Wiki page that we make soon.
2. David Duggins - David gave an interesting presentation about how to use open source software in place of proprietary software. This ranged from operating systems, to word processors, and of course to programming languages. The talk was short, but still very informative.
After the presentation, I talked to him about PHP development. My question for him was about the advantages of using PHP over Microsoft's .NET development. I explained how .NET development offers a very object-oriented feel for designing web pages, while PHP makes you dynamically write your code using (what I think are kind of ugly) "echo" statements. I've never found an easier way to write PHP applications, and I was asking him for suggestions. Unfortunately, he didn't really seem to provide me with a good answer... just to look around for possible libraries that may offer this level of abstraction that I'm looking for.
After hearing this, I've started messing around with the possibility of creating my own open-source PHP library. I might try and tackle this over the summer and put it up on the web. Who knows though.
3. Neil Underwood - Neil was around POSSCON throughout the entire event showing off his 3D printer. The 3D printer was a pretty hot item throughout the event, and for a good reason too. The 3D printer was pretty neat -- they showed off the ability to create almost anything you wanted using this device. The printer itself was even self-replicating -- you could create your own printers using this printer! I talked to Neil, and asked him if it were possible to copy an object, and then print it out. He showed me his 3D scanner that he had in his bag, which would let you do just that. A good example of this would be if my cellphone cover was starting to fall apart: I could literally scan it with this 3D scanner, then create myself as many new cellphone covers as I'd like! The idea sounds pretty neat, and it's completely open source. I took one of their business cards. Maybe I'll look into creating my own 3D printer this summer if I'm bored.
After the presentation, I talked to him about PHP development. My question for him was about the advantages of using PHP over Microsoft's .NET development. I explained how .NET development offers a very object-oriented feel for designing web pages, while PHP makes you dynamically write your code using (what I think are kind of ugly) "echo" statements. I've never found an easier way to write PHP applications, and I was asking him for suggestions. Unfortunately, he didn't really seem to provide me with a good answer... just to look around for possible libraries that may offer this level of abstraction that I'm looking for.
After hearing this, I've started messing around with the possibility of creating my own open-source PHP library. I might try and tackle this over the summer and put it up on the web. Who knows though.
3. Neil Underwood - Neil was around POSSCON throughout the entire event showing off his 3D printer. The 3D printer was a pretty hot item throughout the event, and for a good reason too. The 3D printer was pretty neat -- they showed off the ability to create almost anything you wanted using this device. The printer itself was even self-replicating -- you could create your own printers using this printer! I talked to Neil, and asked him if it were possible to copy an object, and then print it out. He showed me his 3D scanner that he had in his bag, which would let you do just that. A good example of this would be if my cellphone cover was starting to fall apart: I could literally scan it with this 3D scanner, then create myself as many new cellphone covers as I'd like! The idea sounds pretty neat, and it's completely open source. I took one of their business cards. Maybe I'll look into creating my own 3D printer this summer if I'm bored.
Anyways, POSSCON turned out to be a great event and I'm glad I was able to go both days.
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