Teaching Computer Programming in a 3D environment

Alice.Org


"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

In Alice's interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course."

Upgrading your computers components

"It is commonly assumed by many struggling to keep up with technology that a computer has reached obsolescence the day it is purchased. However, while year-old or even five-year-old computers may not be able to run the latest feature-ridden applications, they can be perfectly adequate for working on a network, browsing the Internet, producing documents, and doing other nonprofit work. Sometimes, those older computers can perform even better with the right adjustments.

Upgrading your computer's RAM, hard drive, network card, or other hardware can be a cost-effective way to improve the technology available to your organization and increase productivity when your budget is tight. While it is always nicer to be able to purchase the fastest computers on the market, sometimes it may not be necessary. Here are some guidelines for deciding when to upgrade."

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/hardware/page4789.cfm

hard drive crash - LOADING PBR FOR DESCRIPTOR 2 DONE disk error occured

This blog entry is to document the steps to retrieve data from a crashed hard drive. The data contained within is important to the church operations and ministries. There is no rush to obtain the data because they had previous files backed up available elsewhere. This is the timeline of events about this hard drive crash.

Please note, I am using two Dell PC from church. First Dell PC is from children's church that was recovered. After testing, it does not boot properly and currently using it as parts. Second Dell PC is from church clerk office which had a hard drive failure due a pressumed power spike. Hard drive prevents computer from booting properly and must be replaced.

So, the solution is to take the First Dell PC working parts and place it in the Second Dell PC by replacing the hard drive and adding a duel head graphic card. Please see solution section for results.

Steps taken to repair:
5-29-09
Hard drive occured

8-16-09
Finally, some time to preform IDE diagnostic test (press F-12 on Dell Dimension 3000) .
Unable to boot into hard drive using Bart PE.
Used Bart PE to test the networking capabilites of computer
Replacing hard drive with First Dell PC into Second Dell PC *crosses fingers*
Identical machines should have little complaints of hardware compatibility

8-22-09
Swapped hard drive with working operating system works.
Adding dual head graphic card.
Testing environment before refreshing of Sunday Plus machine in production.


Details of computer:
Dell Dimension 3000

Solution:
Back up files on hard drive using BartPE (unable to boot hard disk)
Replace hard drive with working one

Resources:

Bart PE
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/394177-loading-pbr-descriptor-2-done-disk-read-error-occurred.html

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/405443-loading-pbr-descriptor-2-done.html

Printer drivers can be found here

http://www.panasonic.com.au/support/downloads/file_type_results.cfm?fileTypeID=1&productCategoryID=28&productID=390

fixing sshd

fixing sshd
source:
link

"
Delete you current sshd_config file and replace it with the below, then run
killall -HUP sshd


# $OpenBSD: sshd_config,v 1.68 2003/12/29 16:39:50 millert Exp $

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.

# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with
# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where
# possible, but leave them commented. Uncommented options change a
# default value.

#Port 22
Protocol 2
#AddressFamily any
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::

# HostKey for protocol version 1
#HostKey /etc/ssh_host_key
# HostKeys for protocol version 2
#HostKey /etc/ssh_host_rsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh_host_dsa_key

# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key
#KeyRegenerationInterval 1h
#ServerKeyBits 768

# Logging
#obsoletes QuietMode and FascistLogging
SyslogFacility AUTHPRIV
#LogLevel INFO

# Authentication:

#LoginGraceTime 2m
#PermitRootLogin yes
#StrictModes yes
#MaxAuthTries 6

#RSAAuthentication yes
#PubkeyAuthentication yes
#AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh_known_hosts
#RhostsRSAAuthentication no
# similar for protocol version 2
#HostbasedAuthentication no
# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for
# RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
#IgnoreRhosts yes

# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
#PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no

# SACL options
#SACLSupport yes

# Change to no to disable s/key passwords
#ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes

# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes
#KerberosGetAFSToken no

# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck yes
#GSSAPIKeyExchange yes

# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes

# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication (via challenge-response)
# and session processing. Depending on your PAM configuration, this may
# bypass the setting of 'PasswordAuthentication' and 'PermitEmptyPasswords'
#UsePAM yes

#AllowTcpForwarding yes
#GatewayPorts no
#X11Forwarding no
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes
#PrintMotd yes
#PrintLastLog yes
#TCPKeepAlive yes
#UseLogin no
#UsePrivilegeSeparation yes
#PermitUserEnvironment no
#Compression delayed
#ClientAliveInterval 0
#ClientAliveCountMax 3
#UseDNS yes
#PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid
#MaxStartups 10
#PermitTunnel no

# no default banner path
#Banner /some/path

# override default of no subsystems
Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/sftp-server

# Example of overriding settings on a per-user basis
#Match User anoncvs
# X11Forwarding no
# AllowTcpForwarding no
# ForceCommand cvs server
"

Controlling Web Access with squid

"Password Authentication Using NCSA
You can configure Squid to prompt users for a username and password. Squid comes with a program called ncsa_auth that reads any NCSA-compliant encrypted password file. You can use the htpasswd program that comes installed with Apache to create your passwords. Follow the link on how it's done."

Source:
the link

SMTP, Unix, Database, and web design

Need to come up with a way to allow SMTP outbound mail but still prevent someone from sending out SPAM. Need someone with Unix, database and web design experience for a project.

What kind of project am I looking for?

Remodeling Tasks

__ Replace shorter wooden desks with longer ones

__ Screw Power Strips below Desks

__ Visit computer lab twice a week

__ Sliders or wheels

__ Free up space where board is

__ set up work area

Internet Access

All the computers must access the proxy server to gain internet access. The Proxy Server MUST be on, too. If a browser does not have Internet access, the user must do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. On the Menu Bar Click Tools, Internet Options.















3. From Internet Options, a tabbed menu will show up.
4. Select the Connection Tab and click on the LAN Settings Button.



















5. The LAN Settings window will show up.
6. Check off the Proxy Server box.
7. Enter the address and port to the proxy server.
It should be written on the board in the room.
















8. Click OK and your browser will gain internet access.

Things I have noticed

Implementing Security Logging feature to keep track of users ONLINE. In Progress . . .

The current working printer needs both colored with blank and white ink for it to work properly.

People tend to bunch up on the newer machines so I need to spread them out more evenly.

Add two tables to the side walls to help protect dthe cat 5 wiring. Move a computer to them if the wiring permits.

Find a way to repair the laser jet printer for the computer lab. I am sure there are shops to charge a fee for repairing them.

Cleaning screens, mouse, keyboard, desk, carpets are a must.

Setting static IPs for other PCs.

Set up schedule maintainence times at least once a week

Create also a task list

Review pc lab notebook you are compiling.

Also, make a list of passwords for the BOSS's needs if I had to hand control over to someone else.

Schedule lab hours to reflect my work and study hours?

Use the computer lab to do all your internet studying?

From 8am to 12pm, I should set aside time to work on it, but the people that want to use it only come out during the evening times.

Post these ideas on my network project blog

Proxy server used to filter websites visited

The problem with this is the machine running the proxy server software is old and tends to crash alot. The solution would be to update the hardware and place the proxy server software on a newer machine.

A Small Room with A Big Project

Ok, I must document every equipment, serial number, and steps to get a computer lab built. Who can help me do so? Do I need to look into any type of 'legal matter?' Wait, google is my friend and time to use it.

Here are some links that I found that might be of help to me in the future if I need to organize and document this project.

Grant-writing tools for non-profit organizations
http://www.npguides.org/guide/grant2.htm

COMPUTER SOFTWARE FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS:
http://fdncenter.org/learn/topical/software.html

Site Renovation

I haven't posted in a while, but here it goes. The temporary lab I set up was dismantled because the room that housed it was being painted. New carpeting is coming in as well so all the PCs that were gather have to be moved from one room to the next. The only time I have set aside for it is probably all day Friday, but with finals around the corner, I will not be starting on it until March 20, 2005.

Status of Network Project

The new building at my church is near completion. We are now waiting on Edison to get the power into the building. The CAT-5 wiring is in place We still need to run about 150 feet of cat-5 to connect the new building and where the lab will be. That will be taken care oftoday.

I thought they were going with a Dynamic address, but we had another consultant working with us and suggested we go with 5 static IPs with SBC.

I am avoiding the cost of purchasing Windows 2003 Server and wanted to use FreeBSD 5.2.1 instead. I know everyone is busy, but just let me know if you would like to just learn.

Searching for Simple HOW TO via Google

I did a Google search "setting up networks" and found lots of useful links on setting up networks. There is alot of thought going into this idea. While I am waiting for the wiring to go into place, I need to anticipate what problems will come up configuring each computer to connect to a network.

Most of the older machines are running Windows 95 or Windows 98. The newer machines are running Windows XP. I will try to get a Linux operating system onto the network as well to see how it will work out.

So, in the mean time, I just need to read about it some more and be prepared soon.

Network Building Test Cart

There is a "test cart" set aside to play with network configurations. I am still trying to get Windows 2003 Server through Microsoft Academic Alliance. Not sure about the legalities about using an Academic Alliance software for public use. I will need to contact or research Microsoft about it. The other route is to use a Linux Server. See other post regarding this.

I did managed to play with the current network installed in the office and configured it to share printers. They only have one printer in use now. I left a note for them and hope they will find it in great use in the future.

Creating a Linux Server

I am gathering parts to create a Pentium II Linux Server. I was looking into getting http://www.freeBSD.org once I get the hardware stable. It was going to be an AMD 500Mhz, but the board keyboard and mouse do not respond anymore. So, I will keep you folks up to date.