[Dclug] a math game i designed on the OLPC laptop

[Phil Shapiro]

hi DC Lug community,

      some happy news to share. it looks like an elementary level math game i
designed might be bundled with the One Laptop Per Child laptop.

     i originally designed and programmed this game for apple II computers in
1989.  a very beautiful mac version was created by scott fenton, of vermont, in
1994.  in 2004 a java version of the game was created by david findley.

     the java version is the one that most likely will be bundled with the laptop.

      this game teaches multiplication skills and general number sense via skip
counting. further info at http://www.his.com/pshapiro/whichnumber

     a 6-minute screencast explaining this game can be found on youtube at
http://tinyurl.com/2ebc4n

       in case there's anyone else on this list who knows of educational games
that can be donated for the OLPC laptop (which runs on linux), here's a PC World
article that explains how people can submit software.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132272/article.html

        mel chua, a recent graduate from olin college of engineering is
coordinating the submissions of educational software. her email address is
mel at melchua.com

         it's the fondest hope of any programmer to have their software enjoyed
and used by many. it would be a dream come true for me to have this software i
designed way back when included on the OLPC laptop.

          and the exciting thing would be that the game could be continually
improved by other programmers as a sorceforge project.
 
          phil shapiro
          lanham, maryland

btw, these days the laptop itself is referred to as the XO.  OLPC refers to the
nonprofit organization designing the laptop.

i should mention, too, that the macintosh version of this game runs on macs from
1986 to 2006, but it doesn't run natively under the new intel macs. it might be
able to run in emulation mode on intel macs using http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/

on the dual-processor G5 mac i use at work, i needed to install mac classic (mac
os 9) from the second dvd that came with the computer. that process took all of
2 minutes, after which the math game i designed runs fine.

-- 
-- 
Phil Shapiro  pshapiro at his.com
http://www.his.com/pshapiro/briefbio.html
http://philsrssfeed.blogspot.com
http://www.his.com/pshapiro/stories.menu.html

"Wisdom starts with wonder." - Socrates
"Learning happens through gentleness."