Free Math Quiz Software
My daughter has been doing multiplication quiz sheets at school to help her learn to multiply quickly in her head. The way it works is the teacher hands out a worksheet with 100 simple multiplication problems on the page, all featuring a number – like 5: 6×5, 8×5, 9×5, etc. For now they are always single digits. The kids are then given 5 minutes to finish as many problems as they can. If they finish 90 or more of the problems, then the time is cranked down to 4 minutes and they do it again until they can get 90 or more, then 3 minutes, etc.
She’d like to get better at them more quickly (they only do a worksheet every few days), but I didn’t want to have to come up with these math worksheets by hand all the time, so tonight I took an hour and wrote a simple little program to do it for me.
At present, I only really wrote it to scratch my own itch – so while it will let you choose to do addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, the division will produce answers that have remainders, and the subtraction will produce answers with negative numbers. Also, the printing is pretty basic – you can’t set margins, for example. For now this fits my needs, so I’m not going to bother improving it unless someone requests I do so.
Some items I may improve in the future:
- Allow the user to select the range to something more than 0-9
- Allow the user to decide how many problems to print – 1 – 100
- Allow the user to decide if the problems should be randomized or not
- Clean up division to not produce remainders
- Clean up subtraction to not produce negative numbers
- Beef up printing system
- Others?
So, without further ado, I give the world MathFacts – maybe you’ll find it useful in teaching some arithmetic to your youngster:
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MathFacts For Macintosh |
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MathFacts For Windows |
Release History:
2/7/2010 – initial release
2/14/2010 – improved randomization of problems on the same line
A while back I began to explore hdr (high dynamic range) photography. Rather than bore you with the details of what HDR is, I’ll just show you what I did yesterday.
Every morning when I drive to work I pass a farm. Yesterday the sun was just coming up and I happened to have my camera with me, so I hopped out and took the following 2 shots:
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In the shot on the left, the sky is totally over exposed, but the barn and foreground are ok, if a little under exposed. In the shot on the right, the sky is better, but the barn and foreground are so under exposed as to only be a silhouette.
Using the new Photomerge Exposure tool in Photoshop Elements 8, I combined the 2 shots to produce this:
In this shot, the barn and foreground are still exposed well, and the sky is much more dramatic. Sunrise on the farm – can you smell the bacon?
Have you ever tried HDR photography? Shoot me a comment and share your results!
Help Me Re-Name My Latest App!
Just about anyone who’s been in the same room with me for more than 5 minutes over the last few months has likely been accosted by me in an attempt to show off my latest iPhone app: inPictures. The reaction to the app has universally been positive – people think the idea behind the app is great and the user interaction and interface is fantastic. I’ve heard all kinds of enthusiastic responses from people – gushing with praise and encouragement that this app will be a huge success.
But it hasn’t.
Since being released in early December (nearly 2 months ago now) it’s earned me enough money to buy a sandwich – and since Apple holds payments until you hit a threshold around $350 or so, I’ve not seen the first dime from this app yet.
So, what’s wrong? Why is it that everyone I show loves it, but nobody buys it on the app store?
In a word, I think the answer is: “noise”. Noise, you ask? Let me explain: The last I heard, the app store currently has somewhere north of 140,000 applications for sale. Even discounting the 40,000 iBodilyFunction apps, that’s still a *HUGE* ocean of applications, and being noticed is very difficult – particularly because the name of my app and the keywords I used when I set it up for sale are way too generic.
Currently, the app name is “inPictures”, and the keywords I used are: “Photography, Zoom, Puzzle, game, Imagination, IQ, Picture, Image, Abstract, Art, Camera, Visualize”. When I was putting this app together, I thought that these words described it pretty well. However, just go ahead and search on any of these in the App Store in iTunes – I’ll wait.
No, really – go ahead….
Did you find my app? No? Did you find thousands of other apps instead? See the problem I’m facing?
I’ve also spend considerable time and money in various marketing campaigns, which has helped some, but not enough to justify the effort.
So, I’ve decided to rename it, and need your help. What do you think I should call the next version? I’m looking for a name that captures the essence of what this app is, but is unique enough that people can actually find it.
Spit out a comment with your suggestions below. Thanks!
Tiger Moth Upper Ailerons Modification
A few weeks ago I first flew my new Tiger Moth 400 with the brushless mod. After getting it trimmed well, it flies pretty well with a few caveats:
- There is still quite a bit of prop torque
- With ailerons on only the lower wing, this plane does not axial roll very fast, and loses a lot of altitude when it does.
To fix the prop torque, I’ve adjusted the motor to point down and to the right -- this helped, but did not eliminate the problem. I think I need a lighter-weight prop on it. I’m currently using a 10 x 8 that is very stiff and pretty bulky. I will try a lighter prop -- probably one similar to what is used on the Super Cub.
To fix the roll rate, I’ve tried upping the throw on the servos for the ailerons to their max (110%, actually, which is all my radio will do). This helped a bit as well, but the real solution is to cut some ailerons into the upper wings as well. I hope that this will help with the roll rate as well as keeping a more consistent attitude in flight during rolls.
Tonight I finished adding ailerons -- here is what I did, step by step:
First, a few shots of the plane before the surgery:
I began by measuring the size of the lower ailerons and marking a similar size with a ball-point pen on the upper wing:
Then I cut it carefully with my razor. I did many light passes rather than try to cut through the whole thing at once. This leaves a very clean and straight cut:
Look, a brand new aileron!
Next I used 80 grit sandpaper to shape the cut edge of the aileron so there would be clearance for it to pivot up and down:
Next I trimmed of the inner edge of the aileron to allow more clearance as it travels:
Then I cut slits into the cut edge of the aileron, and inserted my plastic hinges. I just used leftover hinges from when I built the plane:
Once the hinges were glued in place with epoxy, I glued control horns (again, left over from the build of this plane -- it came with lots of extra parts) to both the upper and lower ailerons, being careful to try to line them up. Then I cut slits into the upper wing and glued the hinges of the upper ailerons in place.
Then I added a pushrod with a bend in it so I could adjust the distance so the ailerons would be even, and I’m done!
Here’s a little video of them in action:
Have a helpful hint? Could I have done something better? Leave a comment!
Slumped over his laptop, the man worked and slaved, productively producing productive preponderances of product.
Then he got hungry.
“meh – dinner”, he muttered as he sulked into the kitchen. Lights on. Fridge open. Hmm…. what do we have here.
Yogurt. Yogurt for dinner. Hmm. Wife not likely like yogurt for dinner.
Eggs. More promising. Requires cooking. Possible fire hazard. Onto the counter they go.
Cheese. Requires knife. Possible stitches. Worth the risk? Onto the counter.
Tortilla shells. Onto the counter they go as well.
Pan. He needs a pan. Proud of himself for finding one after digging about in only 3 cupboards, the man turns on the stove and scrambles and seasons the eggs, then tosses some grated cheese onto a tortilla shell, then a layer of eggs, then more cheese. Into the pan it goes.
Wait a bit. Man hates waiting.
Flip.
Wait a bit more.
Remove from pan, slice, serve.
Delicious.
I eagerly watched the so-called Live feeds for the special Apple event today where they announced the iPad. The hype over this device has been huge, and the magical Apple reality distortion field was in full effect at the presentation. The reporters I was following were drooling all over the device, and doing their best to transmit that drool electronically to my computer screen so I could drool too.
But, their drool sorta freaked me out, so I cleaned off my screen and took a few steps back.
What has Apple really produced here? Most likely you are already familiar with the specifications of the device, so I’ll dive straight into why I think this device will be a mostly massive flop:
- No Camera. I can’t imagine what Apple was thinking when they left off a camera on this device. The possibilities of video chat, real-time photo capture-edit-publish, video capture and editing, etc could have all been a reality if they’d only included a camera.
- No Tactile Feedback. I admit that I type most of the day, and I am used to and expect some tactile feedback. I’ve used lots of keyboards over the years, and I can’t imagine wanting to type for long on the on-screen keyboard. Yes, yes, you may point out that they have an external keyboard stand thingie, but at that point I ask why you are not just using a laptop?
- File System Management? How do I put files onto the thing? How do I get files off the thing? If I want to work on that spreadsheet or presentation for work while I’m on a flight or waiting at the dentists office, does it sync with my .mac account in some fashion, or so I have to push files to / from it manually?
- iPhone OS. As an iPhone developer, it’s obvious to me why they chose to use the iPhone OS on this device, but the compromise this forces on the user are great enough that I think many people will opt for a laptop rather than this tablet: There is no multi-tasking. You can *only* install apps approved from the app store (unless you jailbreak it, at your own risk), etc.
- No Flash. How long has it been since the first iPhone came out with what was supposed to be the worlds best mobile browsing experience – but it had no flash. They still have no flash support. There are many popular sites that I can’t use on an iPad due to this limitation.
- Size. Let’s face it – you don’t want to try to cram this thing into a pocket…. it’s just too big. I currently take my iPod Touch with me everywhere because it fits easily in a pocket. With it I can surf the web, read email, read books (if I want my eyes to bleed), connect with friends, remotely control other computers, and all the rest that comes with the iPhone OS. What does the iPad bring to the table? Larger size, so it won’t fit in my pocket, so I don’t want to kep with me all the time.
In short, I think this product does not fit well between a laptop and an iPhone, because it is less functional than an iPhone (no camera, no phone), less functional than a laptop (iPhone OS), too big to drag around with me everywhere, and missing any compelling feature to make me want to choose it over an iPod Touch.
There is a reason that there has been a long history of tablet computer failures – and I’m afraid that the iPad is destined to be added to the heap of those that have come and gone before.
I’d love to hear your take on this – leave some comments!
How To Write iPhone Apps
More and more frequently I’m approached by folks who are interested in writing apps for the iPhone, and want to know how to get started. Usually these are not other programmers with a few years of experience with other platforms, but rather folks who think it would be neat to get into the whole iPhone app gig thingie.
I certainly understand why they are interested – with well over 100k apps in the app store, and predictions in the news about the insane amounts of money to be made by releasing the next iBodilyFunction, everyone seems interested in cranking out the next big app.
Well, I’ve written a few iPhone applications now – some have been very successful, others have not even bought me lunch. If you are still reading, you may want to get a refreshing beverage, cause I’m now going to get up on my stump and pontificate.
First off, developing a killer iPhone app is hard work. This is not really the sort of thing that someone with a bit of html or php knowledge cobbled together by maintaining their brother’s wedding video website will be able to tackle in a weekend. The set of tools provided by Apple are robust and powerful, but come with a steep learning curve that will require patience and dedication to wade through.
It’s handy to come to the table with some deep Object Oriented experience in the first place. A CS degree is even better.
Secondly, those of us developing apps are not particularly interested in developing yours for you. I’m happy to offer advice or propose a solution to an isolated technical question, but requests such as “hey, can you write me a demo application that has 3 buttons on the main screen with labels that change colors when you tap them and a timer that keeps track of which button you tapped last and a scoring system that gives you points if you tap the right color at the right time and … ” – my response will likely be: Erhm. No.
Actually, I can guarantee that is what my response will be, cause I keep actually responding that way to people making similar requests.
Now, I won’t just say “NO!” and slam the door in your face – I find myself constantly giving out the same few key points of advice. Quoting now from an email I sent to yet another hopeful iPhone App Store Superstar:
I could put together a little example project that shows this, but, honestly, to do so would deny you the chance to learn a few key concepts in depth. You could see my sample project that works, but have no understanding of *why* it does. Specifically, there are a few root principles that every iPhone or Objective-C developer should learn:
a) Interface builder can be your best friend or worst enemy. Spend some time on YouTube looking for tutorials to understand the relationship between the code you write in Xcode and the UI you build in InterfaceBuilder. Wiring the 2 together is subtle, but *very* easy to get wrong.
b) Objective-C is very dissimilar to php from your background. You need to spend some time really digesting the difference between a .h and .m file, how they work together, what parts of your classes go in which file, etc.
c) Delegates. Learn what they are, how they work, and why they are useful. You can do amazing things with delegates, and they are used very frequently all over the Objective-C APIs.
If I were to put together the sort of example you have requested, the concepts above would all be used – unless you understood them, the example would not make much sense to you – even though it did what you were after.
Additionally, I would suggest that you use IRC to chat in real-time with other Objective-C and iPhone developers. In particular, the #iphonedev channel on freenode.net is full of several hundred very helpful people who are able to answer quick questions and point you to better resources.
Finally, there are many, many tutorial sites out there that are full of video tutorials on all of the above. Some are better than others. I have used http://www.iphonedevcentral.com/ extensively.
I’m happy to answer quick questions via email or even IM if you like, but I’m more of a “teach a man to fish, he’ll feed himself for a lifetime” rather than “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day” kind of guy, so I may point you to places to learn what you need to know, rather than just provide your finished product.
Best of luck with your iPhone development endeavors – may The Steve smile down upon you and help you sell a gajillion iWhateverItIs.
Danny Glover is an Idiot
Since the devastating earthquake last week in Haiti, I’ve heard all kinds of theories about what caused it and what should be done about it. Wasn’t long before the kook parade started.
The first moron I heard was Pat Robertson, who hardly waited 24 hours before announcing in all his wisdom that the reason for the earthquake is rooted in a pact with the devil made by the people of Haiti in order to free them French rule.
Seriously. According to Pat, God is pissed and finally doing something about it.
Today, though, I heard one that is even better. Washed up actor and activist Danny Glover claims that the real reason for the earthquake is because of all the damage we are doing to the planet with global warming. Americans drive cars, Haiti gets it.
If only we had done more in Copenhagen.
Makes perfect sense — if you are a nutjob.
Birthday List 2010
First, the planes:
- P-47 Thunder
- F4U
- Cessna
- Messerschmitt Bf-109G
- And, if I get a plane, I’m going to need this receiver so I can fly it with my radio
Charger, Batteries, wiring, etc:
- LiPo Battery Charger
- Small LiPo Battery (I need several – at least 2, more would be great)
- Large LiPo Battery (probably just want one of these to try)
- Safety Battery Storage and Charging Bag
- Wiring Connectors (To convert my old planes to use the new batteries)
- Bullet Connectors (for use in my glider project)
- Heat Shrink. I need both red and black
Look, ma! Non-R/C Planes stuff!
- A silly new hat – like this or maybe this
- A ski mask
- T-Shirt
- Anything else you can think of that I might enjoy?
