Aggie Tech Club

Cleaning and Adapting

2012-01-10T17:00:00.003-05:00

Today in Techclub we cleaned all of the unused/unneeded programs and files off of Quiana's Desktop.
And then we discussed the many ways to connect her laptop to a TV.
We decided that she'll need a VGA to RCA adapter for the video signal and an 1/8" to RCA stereo splitter for the audio portion.
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See you next week!
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Mr. P

Hard Drives, Poodles, and Disk Transfers

2011-11-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

Today Shoniece came down to get some information about how to replace the CD drive and Power Supply in her computer at home. We ended up taking apart one of the towers we have on-hand to see just exactly what she should do and look for.

Also, Quiana was inquiring about doing a Hard Disk transfer for her computer at home.

After all that discussion, we got to working on Quiana's Dog Breeds web site. She fixed a few of the menu pages and added a bit more of colour to it all.

See you after the Thanksgiving Break! -- Mr. P

Corgies and Poodles and Hounds -- Oh My!

2011-11-01T17:00:00.002-04:00

Today, Quiana created an entire website with HTML tags, from scratch, that gives information about various breeds of dogs. Her site has a Menu Page, and several individual pages for each breed. She's changing the size, colour, and style of text as she goes!

Animation and Web Pages

2011-10-18T17:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to the start of the new year here in the Aggie Tech Club! Today we had our first meeting after a long time away from techie stuff!

Our new members seemed very interested in some new technologies including animation and web pages, so we had a brief overview of how to animate using the open source software called, "Pencil". We made a ball bounce off of a tree.

We spent the majority of today's Tech Club in a demonstration of how we can create HTML documents and use them to help us present information.

The HTML tags that we talked about:

i - italics
b - bold
u - underline
img - image
a - anchor
center - center the text
h1 through h5 - change the size of the text

And then we came up with a project idea:

Students will create a web page describing different dog breeds with pictures and information

I look forward to posting them!

See you next week!
Mr. P

Fixed one more Computer & Wrapped Up for the Year!!!

2011-05-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

So today, we fixed the last computer of 2010-2011 school year, and decided that with Finals coming up, we should end The Aggie Tech Club for this school year. Good Luck on Your Finals Kids!!!! We'll see you in 2011-2012!

Shonice's Computer

2011-05-10T17:00:00.002-04:00

Well... finally! The tech club was worth it's weight in gold today. Shoniece and I fixed her home computer via the NASCAR PC recovery that was built in! We created 5 user accounts and then set up her desktop!

More on Google

2011-03-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

Today, Shoneice, finished one of her Google websites and began (all over again) from Scratch. This is probably the last meeting until May 2011.

Fixing Old Computers

2011-03-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

Again--- we spent the majority of the day repairing machines brought in by various students and teachers.

Ubuntu

2011-03-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

So, we discovered that the version of Ubuntu we've been using would not exist in the Spring of 2011, so we completely took it off of the classroom machine, and installed Slax. Slax is a customizable web-built Linux that is easy to use albeit difficult to install. (beware the ides of march!)

Fixing Old Computers

2011-03-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

We spent the majority of today installing and un-installing different variations of Linux on our machines. The one that seemed to work the best is slax-- with Ubuntu coming in a close second.

More on Google

2011-03-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

No Ham Radio Here so we Worked on our Google Sites projects

Google Sites

2011-02-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

Shoniece made a webpage using google sites today in an effort to evaluate the Google Sites project. Shoniece's Site

There was no ham radio enthusiasts, so -- maybe next week for world-wide-communication!!! - mr. p.

Slax OS and DSL

2010-12-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

Today, Loriann, Shoniece, and Jasmine, helped with a couple of installations of Slax and DSL on a couple of our machines. Then ... they discovered the Linux games on the Slax OS and it was all over. They found a game that similar to Tron meets Racquetball. Hours of enjoyment!
On a side note, the girls brought over the machines from our old Tech Club room. In the future, we will put these to good use, but for now... they shall collect Smith Hall dust. No Tech Club next week. Meetings. -- TTFN

Programmable Logic Circuit

2010-11-30T17:00:00.000-05:00

This was our first (and probably last) attempt at implementing our programmable logic circuit memory storage. I think our fingers aren't small enough, steady enough, or nerdy enough to solder all those wee bits!

A Programmable Circuit

2010-11-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

The above schematic is one for a POV Display system that works on the same principle as a Dot-Matrix printer. You can program in graphic columns (or rows) of 8 bits each and then scroll through all of the memory. If you move the device fast enough, you should be able to see the programmed image. If the output LEDs were inkjets, the device would "print" the image.

KTechLab - Building a Working Memory Circuit

2010-11-16T17:00:00.001-05:00

Today, the goal was to test out a new (to us) circuit board design app for Linux called ktechlab. We came up with a preliminary memory circuit (just to see if we could) so in the future, we could implement it into our bot. KTechLab was a good tool, but the Documentation is slim, and the website is down, so it was a bit of trial-and-error until we got our simulation working. But it does indeed work. We can store 2 bits in any of the 16 locations... that's a whopping 32 bits of memory!

Arduino UNO

2010-11-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the Designs for an LCD Shield for an Arduino UNO.
Ingredients:

10k Potentiometer
Radio Shack Perf-Board
An RT-204-1 (ver 2.0) 20x4 LCD
Some salvaged Ribbon Cable from an old DVD player
Some single strand wire & rosin core solder

We breadboarded it last week, and now it's time to solder it all together!

The "}" is the ribbon cable which breaks out into 6 wires to connect to the Arduino UNO Board.

Uno Uno Uno Uno

2010-11-02T17:00:00.001-04:00

The UNO came in this week, and we were tinkering around with it, making sure the darned thing actually works! and... indeed it does. Now, we need to figure out how to implement it into our Robot!

Programmable Logic Circuits

2010-10-26T17:00:00.001-04:00

Today we researched Programmable Logic Circuits, and specifically how to store data using an 8 bit bus. (We also ordered our Arduino Uno!)

Well, they were wrong then... weren't they?!

2010-10-19T17:00:00.003-04:00

So-- we finally have created the monster. The 1st Aggie-bot was born today, October 19th, 2010 at 4:06pm. Since it's still young, we haven't yet given it a name (or even a gender), and it is completely immobile.

The original design was modified slightly during construction to rectify a minor glitch in the purchased parts... the push-button switches we got default to "open", so the whole remote controller was reversed... up was on... and down was off.

We spent the better half of the meeting trying to manufacture wheels that were light enough for the Hi-speed servos to spin and propel the Aggie-bot... all to no avail. So we came up with a new design that involves a rubber band drive chain for each servo, and we'll most likely use much larger wheels in the back (making the Aggie-bot Rear-wheel drive).

That's all for now!

Still in Pieces

2010-10-12T17:00:00.001-04:00

Well--- today we discovered that we needed a new bread-board for the chassis, so it looks like we'll be building NEXT week.

The Beasty's in Pieces

2010-10-05T17:00:00.001-04:00

All the pieces are spread out, and we're inventorying for the build next week.

The Birth of imagiNation

2010-09-28T17:00:00.004-04:00

Hello, and Welcome back to yet another year of the Aggie Tech Club. This afternoon, amidst the pouring rain, we brainstormed and designed our first project of the year... a remote controlled robot!

Here are the sketches and an early computerized design:

Tearing it up once again

2010-05-25T17:00:00.001-04:00

Today Owen, Shoniece, and Jasmine took apart various electronic gadgets searching for parts to build with.
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Owen installed a bootable Ubuntu v9 onto a thumb-drive for college use.
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The girls worked on making videos using MPEG technology.

Tearin it up.

2010-05-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

Today, Rob and Owen took apart several electrical gadgets trying to understand how they worked.

Batteries Not Included

2010-05-04T17:00:00.001-04:00

Today we began to make a Battery Pack out of Nickels, Pennies, and H2O. We tested it on a LED (light emitting diode), and discovered that the Water was not much of an electrolyte. Next time we'll add salt.

We also discussed some of the ways to help the seniors use Linux when they get to college. One way would be to create a bootable jump drive.

The Open Source DVD Player and Cities of Tech Club

2010-04-06T17:00:00.001-04:00

Jasmine and Shoneice discovered the beauty of Cities made of Motherboards while Owen continued to configure a machine to serve as an Open Source DVD Player using Slitaz (a 30MB Linux Based O.S.). We did have several visitors today as well! Must be getting close to graduation!

Tech Club Cancelled due to Rain

2010-03-30T14:23:00.004-04:00

It's strange because in Spain, the rain stays mainly in the plains, but on the North Shore, it stays mainly in peoples basements!

Tie Day Extravaganza!

2010-03-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

Jasmine, Shoniece and Brian evaluated several online methods of tying a tie. One of the best resources we found was : Tie-A-Tie.net

Owen Tears apart the NEC

2010-03-16T17:00:00.005-04:00

While discussing a bit of Gravitational Physics, Owen was able to dismantle an old (1992) NEC Desktop. We discovered that it's processor (an Intel i486 SL) was the first processor specifically designed for a laptop computer. I think in the future, we will try to put its LCD keyboard display to good use using HackADay.com as a reference. We'll need to look up how to control it.

Also, we burned a Ubuntu Boot CD for his computer at home.

The Finality of the Laptop Destruction

2010-03-02T16:42:00.002-05:00

2 Things. Owen finally salvaged bits and pieces of that high-end laptop. After learning a bit about integrated Circuits... Also we uncovered a hidden mini-wireless card! Treasure at last!

Nathan successfully installed his first Native Windows app on his linux box. And spent the remainder of the meeting blogging away.

Stop Motion Animation & Slax

2010-01-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

Today we welcomed Julie to the club. She created a stop motion video of a Barking Dog using Linux, a web cam, and a Chalk Board. She plans on making instructional videos in this style.

Nathan worked on his Slax distribution.

SLAX OS DAY!!!

2009-12-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

We valiantly attempted to install slax os onto some of our machines... Kevin, Nate, and Owen were in attendance. Nothing took. Owen did, however, finish building a machine for 2010's meetings.

Almost There!!!

2009-12-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

what we did today Nathan built a a processing system on slax. Shoinece tried to put music on a HTML document. Owen was building a computer from scratch!.

Success Success Success!!!

2009-12-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

Matt was making a program and it said that Matt was cool and that is true. also he learned how to do computer programing and how to number the lines on the program. The program had a variable, "x" and used the PRINT, GOTO, and END keywords. Nathan was putting together his computer and make the computer work. Next is to create the OS using SLAX.org!

The Fall of a Precious Laptop

2009-12-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

Nathan destroyed the future computer of his dreams... a broken laptop. Shoneice obtained her pictures for her website and changed her desktop background on the gOS machine.

Brian practice his Text to Speech program.

Mr. P worked on a video game (the picture is above!)

Matt's First Day

2009-11-17T16:39:00.001-05:00

Today i looked at C-64 software 1 thing i did was i read about it on google.com it was fun. cant wait till next meeting

HTML & C64 Sprites!

2009-11-10T16:33:00.006-05:00

Shoniece's long going experiment I mastered making listing and puting words in italics in an HTML Document. I also.... Shoniece also mastered the paragraph tag (<P>) n an HTML Doc. Tags I now know are (<P>) for paragraph, (<B>) for bold, (<I>) Italics, (<IMG>) for image. Shoniece is planning on inserting images in the HTML document. Scorpio Power!

Shoniece's HTML Day

2009-10-27T16:26:00.002-04:00

Today I started to learn how to make a web page, kind of. I learned how to hyperlink a web page to a site. How to change the color of a web page,and font. Bold and italicize words, bullitize and make a list. Creat a internet site/link by using note pad.

Nathan's Research on Audio Linux Distributions

2009-10-13T17:00:00.002-04:00

THIS IS RESEARCH in PROGRESS by Nathan 64studio -www.64studio.com AV Linux - www.bandsted.net/AVlinux.html

LiveDVD ISO Image - transfers computer into a full blown Audio/Video Workstation to use.  - covering almost every everyday computer task it features - full complement of the best F/OSS multimedia Applications - multitrack audio recording and mixing, video capturing editing and converting iPod tools.

Startcom Enterprise Linux AS-5.O.3 (kishof) startcomlinux - linux.startcom.org Plannet CCrma www-( crma.standford.edu/planetccrma )software Trinity www.trinityanudiogroup.com/transmission.html 6NV/Linux- digital content creation,- ics,and publishing tools- Rmx of Debian Etch-comes both Amd64/Intel64

First Meeting Today!

2009-09-29T16:28:00.003-04:00

We had our meeting at 3pm in Gallant Hall Room 8. Members Present were: Nathan, Shoniece, Haley, and Jasmine. President Seth was not in attendance. Nathan became the club secretary and was given an official Tech Club record book to keep the minutes. We decided on a yearly project to create computerized musical instruments for each member. This will involve building the computers, programming the sound effects software, and learning how to play the instruments. We hope to be able to learn songs like, "Mr. Roboto", "Robot Rock", and "Thriller" for a performance for some of the school population. Next Meeting is on 2009 10 06.

2009-2010 Aggie Tech Club to Meet in Gallant Hall Room 8

2009-08-25T10:37:00.001-04:00

2009-2010 Aggie Tech Club to Meet in Gallant Hall Room 8 - See Mr. Pellegrino for Details!

kturtle Programming!!!

2009-02-24T16:27:00.003-05:00

Nathan rediscovered KTurle. It's a programming language much like Logo (wiki. Nathan began by programming the turtle to make a square, a house, a trapezoid, a diamond, and a circle.

Jasmine's Flashlight...

2009-02-11T07:40:00.002-05:00

Jasmine was learning about volts and amps while she was building her science project today.

attendance

2009-02-10T14:57:00.000-05:00

chris seth jessica vincenzia jasmine

i love the smell of iPod Linux in the morning... smells like... victory.

2009-01-24T08:01:00.003-05:00

while trying to install linux on an iPod, I found this useful blog. With the brief instructions:

mkdir ipodlinux
cd ipodlinux
wget http://de.dataghost.com/ipl/dg-installer/dg-linux-installer-20070311.tar.bz2
tar -jxf dg-linux-installer-20070311.tar.bz2
sudo ./installer.sh

Alas... gOS didn't work on the new machine :(

2009-01-07T11:10:00.003-05:00

Alas... gOS didn't work on the new machine. So last night I did a bit of looking around and found TinyME... a stripped down version of linux. It doesn't run KDE but it has a very simple UI. That's okay because we just want to get the machine functioning (and help it kick the Microsoft). If all else fails, we can put FreeDOS or BasicLINUX on the machine and see just what we can accomplish!

Shoniece & Jasmine Go to Work!

2009-01-06T15:21:00.006-05:00

So today, one of our school's administrative assistants donated an HP Pavilion 4535 and a Sony Model CPD-100ES CRT. Shoniece & Jasmine decided they'd put a new OS (gOS of Course!) on it and try to get the thing working at top-speed and in tip-top shape.

Global Positioning Satellite

2008-12-15T07:36:00.004-05:00

So, this is not something we've researched in the Tech Club, but it is Tech Related, and some of you may find it informative. I had an interesting encounter this weekend with a friend of mine that says that GPS stands for "Global Positioning System". I argued that it stands for "Global Positioning Satellite". His counter was that in a car, you have a GPS, or at least that's what they're referred to as, and "you wouldn't have a satellite in your car." My counter-counter was that the American public is lazy and has shortened the actual term "GPS Receiver" to merely (pun intended... MIR!) GPS. Well, after doing some research (not on Wikipedia Mind You) I discovered that the two are used interchangeably.

When I worked in the industry in the 90's, we were developing GPS systems, or more accurately, systems that used GPS... they used Global Positioning Satellites. However, the 21 Global Positioning Satellites that orbit Earth are collectively called the Global Positioning System, because their collective data are used in a coordinated effort to determine the location of one GPS Receiver.

When I looked at Garmin's website, they astonishingly referred to GPS as Global Positioning System, But then I found countless other reliable websites that refer to it as Global Positioning Satellite... so... I guess the jury is still out. (but I'm right).

Here's a List of Credible References that I used.

Yet Another Machine...

2008-12-09T17:00:00.004-05:00

Seth & Nate Loaded gOS onto one of our newer Dell systems and were able to fully install this time. The old Compaq seems like it might be a lost cause. I think we'll scrap it and use the parts. It's got some memory and a few drives that are usable. Other than that, it might be a good training machine.

Chris' x-box just sat on the shelf, but I did find a list of places to get parts. We're still waiting on the charger for the PSP so we can fix it.

Nate had a pretty intense game of chess against the older Dell and the thing just wouldn't let him win, so we put an ancient snake game on both of the Dells and played around with them. The goal is to figure out the Machine's algorithm for moving it's own snakes and then you can beat it.

Attendance: Nate, Seth, Shoneice, Jasmine

Owen's first thoughts on the AggieTechClub

2008-11-18T16:46:00.002-05:00

It was cool,I started to make a computer but changed my mind....started to build a rob0t, but changed my mind... ===0w3n today i tryied to make my computer on an old version, but manged to change it and made it work with the help of mister pellegrino.---nathan 20th my b day ==shoniece 2 day i went 2 the library and used the computers and then camehere ..jasmine =======> google os is the best! ... mr p

Broadcomm Wireless & gOS

2008-11-13T11:48:00.005-05:00

So... I finally figured out how to get my gOS machines up and running with a wireless NIC. Took long enough. So NOW, we can change all of our machines over to the much better and more stable Google OS! (I had a little help from t.h.i.s...w.e.b.s.i.t.e )

Attendance 2008 11 04

2008-11-04T15:55:00.002-05:00

Nathan, Sam, Seth, Shoniece, Jasmine, Chris

Macintosh, New Aggie Tech Machine, Kai's Software, and New Member

2008-10-21T16:31:00.002-04:00

The new Aggie tech machine. It has cpu, memory card and power supply, video supplyand sound card. The new memders name is Jessica.-- Nathan The new Aggie Tech Club member is Jessica, me. Today we made a new machine, that has a cpu, a memory card, a video card and a power supply.-- Jessica 2day we learned about some parts of a computer and put it together--jasmine we learned how to assemble a computer and the main parts of a computer.---shoniece today we also got a macintosh.-----Sethb1

:

2008-10-14T16:47:00.002-04:00

today i played chess i drew a drawing of a spiky person. i ate a rice crispy treat. also i played galaga -- nathan todaz I was finishing my drawing but hallfßwaz through I was destracted that is all I recalectßßß jasmine and shoniece

A Little About LOGO

2008-10-09T07:14:00.004-04:00

LOGO is a programming language created by the good folks over at MIT some years ago. It's a great primer for structured/top-down programming and even robotics! It's also a very unforgiving language in that the old addage, to err is human shines out like a Phosphoric Molecule under heavy radiation!

The LOGO Programming Day!

2008-10-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

Today we did the LOGO programming well tried... I made one but it did not go well.. that what we did today ----sethb1
I learn how to in put info 2 move the logo turtle.^_^----Shoniece
today in tech club we did logo turtles and drew pictures--jasmine
today i learned how to gragh on a caulator and use logo-- nathan
Today in tech club a learned some of the basics of designing a website.--Christopher Rita

The First Meeting...

2008-09-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

today we made a list that consits of the four things we want to do. we also made accounts. we want to make drr. --nathan today we talked about stuff we could do in the future,and....we talked about random subjects--jasmine today we all made a username. ---sethb1 Moshi moshi e v 1,2 day in tech club we talked abt random stuff like old muffins and tech stuff.I had fun 2 day CHA O_O :::Powder Monkey

The First Meeting is Next Week!

2008-09-26T15:00:00.001-04:00

That's right! Tuesday, September 30th, from 3pm - 5pm is the Aggie Tech Club's First Meeting of the 08/09 School Year! We've got lots of new equipment to play around with and we we look forward to seeing all of you at the first meeting (Smith Hall - 203, Mr. P's room) next week!

The Last Meeting of the Year...

2008-06-10T17:00:00.002-04:00

So Seth came by today with a project he was working on. He was researching the pros & cons of certain video game systems. He was using Firefox on the Aggie-tech machine to search out health statistics on the systems. When he compiled enough information and pictures, we put it all together on a thumb-drive and brought it to the library for printing. After overcoming some small issues there (the LIBLAB computers don't allow thumb-drives), it was time to go and say "Farewell to the Aggie Tech Club until the Fall!". --- Mr. P

What we did today...

2008-05-20T16:49:00.002-04:00

Who was there? Seth and James

Today i learned what a jumper is and that namco and capcom have a joint game.

2008-04-29T16:45:00.002-04:00

today i beat seth at computer chess and stalemated with mr pellegrino. then we kept working on our encoding program.

What We Did Today...

2008-04-29T16:41:00.003-04:00

I played some chess on the computer and I made a picture using GNU's GIMP program to make a new Linux logo. ----sethb1

what we did today

2008-04-15T16:47:00.001-04:00

today I got more songs for stepmania so we get more fun that all that i did ----sethb1

2008-04-15T16:46:00.001-04:00

to day was fun cause we made magnets with keyboard parts
We began making a contribution! Today we started making refrigerator magnets out of junked computer keyboards. We hope to donate them at the art auction (May 8th) -- Mr. P.

2008-04-15T16:43:00.002-04:00

I learned how to putr a magnet on to a key and got super glue all over my hand! Jake

smash

2008-04-08T16:53:00.000-04:00

today i smashed stuff, i also tried to biuld a program called chicken, it makes codes.

What we did today...

2008-04-08T16:51:00.002-04:00

today we got small magnets for our keyboard magnets idea but in order to do that we have to smash the small things they where attach to so ya. and I draw too. ----SETHB1-----

2008-04-01T16:55:00.003-04:00

I had a lot of fun today and make and play sort of like DDR

2008-04-01T16:55:00.001-04:00

I had a fun day!!!!!!

What we did today...

2008-04-01T16:51:00.002-04:00

today I did today was that I was helping out the game stepmania to work so we can make our own DDR game with our own songs and even steps we can make. right know we have three songs for it so hope fully we can but more on next week so good bye.------SETHB1

TOday

2008-04-01T16:49:00.001-04:00

Today we did not do very much. infact i think i did zip, but next time we are going to try to make a 3d biulding

My First Day

2008-03-25T16:56:00.001-04:00

I learned a lot how to disamsble a keyboard and a caculater. If was a lot of fun. Jake

2008-03-25T16:50:00.002-04:00

today we tried to put linux on my computer, but the school's internet would not let us download it. then we biult a super thin keyboard as thin as this dash~. then we dissasembled and incorrectly assembled a calculator.next time we want to make 3d images of all the biuldings on campus. James G.

... what we did today!

2008-03-25T16:47:00.002-04:00

Today we made a roll out keyboard because we dismantled the keyboard for the DDR dance-pad and we did other things too.----sethb1

... what we talked about today

2008-03-18T16:46:00.003-04:00

we but down more software for our computer. than we talk about things like about the first computer and other things too. ------ sethb1

... what we talked about today

2008-03-18T16:37:00.002-04:00

Today was the very first time i visited this club and now i want to join. today we talked about the history of computers and then i learned how to use Linux. I had heard of Linux before and thought it was a pritty cool idea, but i never would be able to use it. I thought that it was good only for basement hackers and computer science PHDs. i learned that my impressions were wrong and i am going to use DSL, or D@#$ small Linux to fix my computer. I will definitely come every Tuesday and the stuff they do her is very cool. James Gallagher

What we did today...

2008-03-11T16:47:00.002-04:00

we kinda research how video games are made. than we updated the aggietech machine to use open gl. came up with initial idea for a DDR type game using a homemade controller ----sethb1

How Video Games Are Made

2008-03-11T15:22:00.003-04:00

Here's a link I found while researching how video games are made. Click Here!

Minutes - 2008 02 12

2008-02-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Meeting Canceled - Sorry :(

Minutes - 2008 02 05

2008-02-06T14:45:00.000-05:00

Students signed in at 3pm.

The first thing we did was begin upgrading some more of the software on our Linux box. Chad wanted to put a DVD player in it, but alas, we have no working DVD drives. We put that on our list of things to get. For some reason, make was not installed on the machine, so we got it using Yoper's self updating tool... a very nice feature. We also started downloading a complete set of Software Development tools, but realized that it would take several hours to download them all, so we aborted.

After about 30 minutes, we grabbed our Robot and headed over to Mr. Vanikiotis' lab where we were to begin programming. This went very well. Mr. V showed us some of the machines that were built and programmed by one some of his students and then he gave us a brief tutorial on how to program the NXT and upload our programs to the bot. It was all very user friendly. Then we spent the next hour or so programming the Robots to perform various tasks. We were able to successfully control each of the machine's 2 independent motors, and even use some of its sensors for environmental feedback. I want to make a Lego Mindstorm turntable using the color sensor and a spinning disc.

We went back to Gallant Hall just in time to post a blog and catch the 5 O'Clock bus. We can't wait to go back across the street next week... or is that NXT week?!

..... Mr. P.

What We Did Today...

2008-02-05T16:49:00.000-05:00

we install more software today we did some stuff with Lego robots. so we went to mr.v across the street. ---sethb1

we also learned how to move a robot by using a computer. we got it to turn left or right or froward and backward. ............................... chad#1

Minutes - 2008 01 29

2008-01-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Students sign in at 2:50pm and 3:00pm

Downloaded Open Source (Public Domain) MPEG video files for integration with a video slide show presentation class. The idea is to learn how to make really good "Powerpoint" type presentations, and then teach students, faculty, and anyone else who'd like to learn, how to do the same. One of the teachers (who is also helping us with the Lego Mindstorms) asked us to show him how to put video files into a presentation. We got a few videos from the Internet Archive (a free, public domain, on-line storage facility).

While Seth took care of the video end of things, Chad learned a bit about the Aggie Tech Club by reading through our blogs, and he decided he'd like to learn about robotics (using the Lego Mindstorms Stuff). We took apart our robot and discovered that one of the sensors (or maybe one of the cables) was malfunctioning. We built a new version of the robot, and I showed Chad how to program it. We investigated the LOGO programming language to help us understand the basics of robotics, and then I challenged Chad to program the robot to navigate around different objects and in different patterns (not unlike LOGO's turtle).

Ms. Swartz's iPod
Ms. Swartz brought in an iPod Mini and her laptop so we could show her how to put songs from her computer and her cd's onto the iPod. This was much more of a challenge than we had anticipated. Her Microsoft-infected machine had an outdated Windows Operating System that needed Service Pack 2 in order for the iPod software to work properly. Argh! It took the entire 2 hours just to download a portion of the software needed to get her machine up to speed.

At 4:45, Chad and Seth blogged about what we did and they were on the Late Bus shortly thereafter. -- Mr. P.

What we did today...

2008-01-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

today at 1-29-08 we did lots of fun stuff like work on robots and working on our new computer. with the robot we were trying to find out how we could improve how it works. when we worked on the computer we were downloading a bunch of cool stuff and talk to us on learning how to things on working wit computer --- chad

we downloaded some videos and music so we can make a powerpoint vwith video in it --- by sethb1

Success, Success, Success!!!

2008-01-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

Well... I just heard the good news from Seth! The video game controller that we operated on yesterday is back to it's original working condition! We should check on the splicing job in a month or so just to make sure it's holding up.

Minutes

2008-01-22T17:04:00.000-05:00

First we tried to use some of the audio capabilities of our beloved machine. Needless to say, they were lacking, so we decided to install the software that would give us the functionality that we wanted. We decided to go to Yoper.com for the latest updates. After a bit of reading on the Yoper website, we realized that Yoper has its own self-update system built into it, so we tried that. Easy as pie. We got tons of apps that we didn't have before (including the sound drivers needed to use the Speakers that Mr. Vercellone loaned us!)

While that was all installing (probably 2 gigs worth of apps), Seth proposed we learn how to splice wires while fixing his Game Cube Controller. Apparently he has a dog that likes to chew up wires. So I gave a brief lesson on wire splicing, and we had at it. I discovered that we as a club need some wire-cutters and some electrical tape, but we got by with some scissors and clear plastic tape for now. We won't know if the controller survived the operation until tomorrow.

Seth also got a bit of time on Wikipedia.org looking up information.

Another thing we did was a bit of research on TTS (Text to Speech) technology. Using the website: www.research.att.com we were converting all sorts of school related text to speech (with the help of our recently upgraded audio software and recently loaned speakers!)

At 4:55pm, Seth blogged and headed for the late bus. -- Mr. P.

Today we did...

2008-01-22T16:55:00.000-05:00

we saw what resident evil is about on wikipedia. wikipedia is website that people can edited information about everything we upgraded our computer softwere by going yoper.com we fix my game cube controller by cutting it and attach the 5 diffrent colored wires we use att text to speech, we downloaded a sound system and we got speakers and we did other things too. sethb1

Even though there's no meeting...

2008-01-15T09:38:00.000-05:00

... I thought I'd leave a blog.

I've been playing around with the lego mindstorms software (for linux of course) at home, and have been pretty successful at getting the machine to do what I want. Mr. V. recently went to a Mindstorms conference and has come back with all sorts of new tricks up his sleeves. The most important of which is the patch for the Windows version of the Development Environment for the NXT! Next week (after academic midterms) we should install the development environment on a new machine (after we build it) that (much to my dismay) has a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system on it. I believe that Microsoft will allow Windows 98/se to be installed freely because they no longer support it.

In other news, I was using NOAA's website to track this passed Sunday's storm. I think there was something wrong with their Doppler because (to me) it looked like the storm was going to be mostly rain and be just north of Hathorne. Instead, we got several inches of snow and it hit us dead on.

I'll see you all next week. --- Mr. P

KDE 4.0.0

2008-01-10T10:02:00.000-05:00

I just found some screenshots from the new version KDE (the Desktop Environment on our machine) and I think we should maybe try to upgrade from our KDE3 to this newer one. It looks fantastic! drowstar.blogspot.com

Minutes

2008-01-08T23:26:00.000-05:00

Sign-in at 3:00pm

First things first... we had to fix the machine. The KDE login Manager (KDM) wasn't running during the boot process, so we had to go into /etc/rc5.d and add a script to run kdm, we also added it to /etc/inittab.

We rebooted and forgot to take the Yoper install CD out of the cd-drive so we learned how to eject a cd from a cd-rom drive using a paper-clip.

Then we decided to install a few much needed apps. Mozilla's Firefox withe the Flash Plug-in. We learned about Gnu because we needed to install the GCC (Gnu's Compiler Collection).

GCC: The Gnu compiler collection is a collection of software tools that allow a developer to build customized applications for specific platforms.

Once we got gcc, we downloaded some source code for an old video game called Doom (freeware of course) to test it all out. This is where we ran into a snag. There was no existing compiler on our machine, so we couldn't build gcc.

Time was running out, so we decided to change directions slightly. Seth thought it would be a good idea to look around the web (using Firefox) for different freeware apps that might improve our Aggie Tech machine. While he was doing this I inventoried some new tools that I brought in (different size screwdrivers, screws, pliers, and a soldering iron with solder).

At about 4:45, we made our daily blog and called it a day.

What did we do today?

2008-01-08T16:47:00.000-05:00

we signed in than we had to fix the problem for login than we got it to work than we got gcc than other things than fire fox and two games. mr.pellegrino brought his tool but seth forgot his controller. The end.... sethb1

Minutes

2007-12-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Students signed in at 2:50pm.

Seth brought in a video game controller that needs repair, but we didn't have the tools necessary to repair it (yet).

We decided it would be a good idea to finish building our computer that we started last week. We then went to acquire a couple of screwdrivers. The first order of business with the machine was to swap out the cd-rom drive with a working one. Seth took care of that. Then we had to edit the CMOS to allow the machine to boot from the cd-rom drive. Then, we installed Yoper Linux. We then added a new user to the machine: "AggieTech". Once that was done, we installed a few necessary programs (KOffice, Java, etc.) and some games.

There was a slight issue with the kdm process, but I think we resolved it by putting a link to it in /etc/boot.

After the machine was all setup, we got it online and took a look at a few different technologies, mainly Babelfish and Knoppix.

Babelfish is a website hosted by AltaVista at http://babelfish.altavista.com. It lets you translate from one written language to another. We translated a sentence in English (Seth is a bright young man) into Korean... see the entry below.

Knoppix is a very well tested version of linux. Seth and Brian had many questions about linux, so at the next meeting, I intend to bring in a few books on it for them to take home.

We didn't have time to fix Allison's iPod speakers (and I think we'll need to use the same tools as we would to fix Seth's video game controller), so we'll try to get to that next week. I'd also like to bring in some more parts so we can build another machine.

Meeting adjourned at 4:58pm

It's True... thanks to Babelfish!

2007-12-18T16:19:00.000-05:00

Seth 새는 아주 밝은 젊은이 이다.

Minutes

2007-12-11T18:59:00.001-05:00

Members showed up at 3pm and signed in. We had a bunch of older computer parts donated to us for use in the Aggie Tech Club so we decided to build a computer that we would use exclusively for the club. Using a Power Supply, 1 Gig of Memory, A Hard Drive, CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), Fan, and a Motherboard we put one together. We can use it to do any future computer work for the club. The goal is to (next week) install DSL (a very tiny version of Linux) on it, along with Open Office and a few other Linux Goodies. It will be Microsoft Free! We'll have to install POV-Ray for its animation capabilities and NQC (Not Quite C) for its ability to program the Lego Mindstorm robot. It took almost the entire 2 hours to set up the machine. The CD-Drive is broken, so we need a new one, and the Hard-Drive is OS-less.

We Built a Computer

2007-12-11T16:50:00.000-05:00

Today in the Aggie Tech Club we took donated parts of a computer and used them plus other items to get a working computer on the second day. This was more than we expected to happen and it was really was very fun and informational. We also took inventory showing us that we had an abundance of supplies that we could use. -- vinny c.

How Do I....

2007-12-05T07:06:00.000-05:00

A Teacher Asked: How did you set up a page like the blog page i just read?

Just Go To: http://www.blogspot.com/ and setup a free account!

Minutes

2007-12-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Meeting started on time at 1500 hours, and we moved from Room 8 to Lab 2. We discussed ideas for the direction of the club.

Electronics and Circuit Boards
Taking apart and Studying Computers
Animation
Robotics
Web Design

We discussed the fact that we need officers and will should start the nomination process.

We briefly discussed how computers boot up, and whether or not a machine will boot up if it has no memory installed (no... it won't). And I gave a demonstration using one of the Linux Laptops, showing the POST (Power On Self Test).

We began to make a simple webpage using HTML. It had a background image, 1 jpeg image, and 2 animated gifs from other sites. It had different fonts and font colours. And it had some hard-breaks, center tags, and bold text. It also had a link to another website.

We also discussed various Animation Software, mainly:

POV Ray - The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracing Tool (www.povray.org)
Cinepaint - (www.Cinepaint.org)

I showed one of the students how to use KPovray (A POV Ray Front-End made for KDE) to begin basic design of a scene. We made a sphere and were wondering how to make a golf-ball. It's not as easy as it looks.

One of the students explored the use of the Robot in the Aggie Tech Club. One of the goals is to begin programming the Robot using a machine that we put together.

The last thing we did was create a mission statement (see blog below).

Our Mission Statement

2007-12-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

Our Mission Statement

Our club strives to support improvements in education and make a positive difference in our lives by exploring software and hardware that helps us learn and think.

Welcome to the Aggie Tech Club

2007-12-04T13:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Official Aggie Tech Club Blog

We're going to try to put weekly minutes, agendas, and random goings on here. Today is the first meeting, and we're going to try to do a bunch of things. In no particular order:

Nominate Officers
Come up with a rough Meeting Agenda
Come up with a Mission Statement
Discuss some areas of technology that we already use
Discuss some areas of technology we may wish to explore
Fundraisers? -- what would we spend the money on?
The Aggie Tech Club Blog