New resource

[Charles Cossé]

Dear MathFuture Folks,

This is my first post here, so Hello!  My name is Charles and I've been developing OpenSource Education apps as a hobby for many years.  I am writing to invite you to try a math game which I recently ported to JavaScript, and which now runs in a browser without installation or plugins: "TuxMathScrabble-2014" let me call it (screenshot attached).

I am also organizing my thoughts before making another MathFuture post regarding OpenSource Education software, and something to the effect of "who cares if it's opensource anymore if it's running online and benefits kids" ... inspired by quotes from Richard Stallman and the fact that there are two types of OpenSource customers: users and curious developers.   But I'll think those thoughts through a bit more before posting :-)

Have a good day,

Charles Cossé

[Maria Droujkova]

Hurrah!!! I've been waiting for this to happen!

Would you answer a few questions for my blog? I want to post a review.

Cheers,
Dr. Maria Droujkova

moebiusnoodles.com
919-388-1721

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[Charles Cossé]

Hi Maria,

Glad you like it!  I'd be happy to answer any questions.  I wrote it for people to use, but posting as the author is typically construed as spamming and/or advertising.   So, I'm relieved to hear that you approve.   

>I've been waiting for this to happen!

What exactly?  Javascript used in this way, my sentiments about opensource, I'm not sure what you meant ... 

Thanks!

Charles

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[Maria Droujkova]

On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 11:45 PM, Charles Cossé <cco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Maria,

Glad you like it!  I'd be happy to answer any questions.  I wrote it for people to use, but posting as the author is typically construed as spamming and/or advertising.   So, I'm relieved to hear that you approve.   

>I've been waiting for this to happen!

What exactly?  Javascript used in this way, my sentiments about opensource, I'm not sure what you meant ... 

For Tux Math Scrabble to be available in easier ways! I will send you interview questions shortly. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on open source. We are releasing books and online materials under Creative Commons, which involves a lot of good conversations with everyone involved (authors, book sellers, illustrators and other specialists)... I am shocked at the amount of people in the book industry who don't know anything about open licences, or equate open and free, or have other misconceptions.

[Charles Cossé]

>For Tux Math Scrabble to be available in easier ways!

Oh, so you had seen the program before then?  Indeed, I suspect the installation, with it's dependencies of Python, SDL, Pygame and wxWidgets likely precluded 90% of interested people from using it over the years ... especially on a Mac!   

>involves a lot of good conversations with everyone involved

I would be honored / love to contribute in such discussions!  

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[Maria Droujkova]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 12:01 AM, Charles Cossé <cco...@gmail.com> wrote:

>For Tux Math Scrabble to be available in easier ways!

Oh, so you had seen the program before then?  Indeed, I suspect the installation, with it's dependencies of Python, SDL, Pygame and wxWidgets likely precluded 90% of interested people from using it over the years ... especially on a Mac!    

Thanks for  

>involves a lot of good conversations with everyone involved

I would be honored / love to contribute in such discussions!  

I think many Math Future people are interested in open licenses, so whatever topics you had in mind are likely to be relevant. For my part, the misconceptions that come up most often are that open products prohibit you from making money, and therefore interfere with acquiring professional-quality services. 

Cheers,
Dr. Maria Droujkova

moebiusnoodles.com
919-388-1721

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[farrell...@gmail.com]

Charles,

I'm a music freak and guitar player, so I'm amazed by your MIDI applet! I don't have a MIDI instrument so I can't plug into it, but it's a great idea and it really plays notes!

Peter Farrell

[Charles Cossé]

Hi Peter,

>I don't have a MIDI instrument so I can't plug into it

Actually there is nothing to connect ... it works just by ear, i.e. it's easy to hear if you play the wrong note.

>it's a great idea and it really plays notes!

The idea came from a YouTube video by a Russian pianist.  At the time I was looking for advice to teach myself to sight-read better, and was consulting youtube videos.   His advice was to look ahead while reading, and imagine the notes scrolling towards some point, at which you played them.  The app you see is the result.  There was an earlier version that used LaTeX/MusicTex to render the tablature and java.midi to play the notes .. but the images were flashcards which played after a time delay.   Back in java 1.4-1.5 there used to be a better soundbank and you could change instruments ... now it's kind of tinny sounding, but the freqs are still the same and it's still obvious whether you've played the correct notes or not.  

I wrote these apps out of necessity, initially, but put-in tons more time to make them usable by others.  Not many people know about them, mainly because I'm not very good at self promotion. Sooo, if you can "like" it on FB, promote it among your circles, or any other ways of helping it/them get some more visibility, that would be most excellent :-)

Charles