String Art Visualizer

 Background

I wanted to come with an activity to help young kids learn to use tools as that seems to be a less common among kids, a vanishing skill. I see it as a way to help build self-confidence by using workmanship provide a physical outcome rather than some virtual victory.

I thought pounding nails was a good place for them to start, and the "interwebs" suggested string art as a good place to start. I love it. I want to choose a design that looks good but has fewer total nails. I didn't like most of the options I saw and want to create my own. If only there were an app where I could upload an image, place my own nails and see how it looks with all possible nails connected. I couldn't find anything, and it sounds like a fun challenge.

The Idea

Make a single-page, JavaScript-driven webpage that will let you upload an image, place the nails by clicking with the mouse, and see what it looks like when strings are connected to all possible nails. It would be nice if the image can be zoomed and panned, and if you could control shape colors and sizes.

Progress

03/04/2024 - I thought it would be really fast, but there are some difficult things to manage. Should I use SVG or canvas? I decide on canvas. How do you know which nails are meant to outline the polygon? Easiest is to force them to be in order, either clockwise (CW) or counter-clockwise (CCW). How do you determine whether nails are in CW or CCW order? Turns out you can use calculus along the array of polygon coordinates. When connecting all the nail pairs, how do you identify lines that would go outside of a polygon (i.e. for a concave polygon)? I had to check multiple things: 1) strings don't cross the polygon border segments, and 2) string angle must stay between the neighboring border lines on each of the endpoint vertices. There might be more efficient ways to do the math, but this is a quick-and-dirty app for fun. It just needs to work.

Step 1: Load an image.

Step 2: Click to place nails.

• Click an empty space to add a nail.
• Click on a nail to remove it.
• Click and drag a nail to move it.
• Click on a line between nails to insert a nail inbetween.
• Add nails in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.
• Click and drag to move the canvas.
• Scroll to zoom in and out.

Step 3: View all strings between points.

Nail Color: Nail Size:

Outline Color: Outline Width:

String Color: String Width:

Teach Kids to Code with Code Battles

Credit: Lucélia Ribeiro Flikr 

Background

As a tech nerd, finding good cell phone games can be challenging. But every once in awhile I find some real gems. One of my favorites is called lightbot. It uses a fun game to teach the general concepts of programming or coding. In general I'm a huge fan of video games. Some gaming behavior can actually "rot" your brain while other behavior has benefits. (I was going to post articles and references, but there's a ton of stuff out there. Do your own research).

I try to find games for myself and my children that provide both entertainment and growth. I think lightbot fits that goal. On another day I was hunting for "building" games where you build some type of machine and then use it to compete against other players. There are several good ones out there, and we play more than one. One we play intermittently is called RoboCraft. During my search I found a programming game (maybe it was Robocode?) where you build the behavior of a robot using code and compete against other players to see whose code is best.

I instantly thought this would be a great game style to teach kids how to program. But the code was too advanced for children. When I see a good product that needs to be adapted to another audience is almost always when I have my ideas.

The Idea

Create a competitive game that teaches the basic programming to children by using modular, graphical code blocks. My basic vision is two robots that compete using behavior that is programmed by the kids. The code blocks each contain specific behaviors like movement, sensing and actions. Some of the blocks would be routines or loops.

For the case of robots, you could have the robots perform some type of task, like moving a ball into a designated goal. The first robot to complete the task wins. So your movement actions could consist of turning and moving forwards. The sensing actions could be detecting a ball in an adjacent square, detecting if the robot is holding the ball, and detecting when the robot is in the goal. Actions would consist of picking up and dropping the ball. One example of a routine would say, "Am I holding a ball? If yes then find the goal, if no then find the ball. Then you would build routines for finding the ball and finding the goal. The person who builds the best routines would accomplish the goal the quickest.

Instead of robots you could have a tank battle. The movements, sensing and actions could be modified for that scenario.

The difficulty could also be modified for different age groups. For younger audiences the code blocks could be high-level and entered sequentially, exactly like lightbot. For intermediate audiences you could make the code interface more like Scratch where the blocks are more granular, and kids have to pick specific settings. And in the most advance version you can expose the actual code like JavaScript. Another way to add complexity is to add additional moving, sensing and action options. Movement could be up down left right and player movements are restricted to a grid. In an advanced model you can include rotate right, rotate left, move sideways and remove the grid for continuous movement. For simple tanks you could control movement and direction of the turret separately from movement and direction of the tracks. The scenarios and variety are limited by creativity and resources.

Progress

2019-05-12

Has it Been Done Before?

I originally had this idea years ago. I did not see anything back then. But there is tons of cool stuff happening rapidly in this space. I haven't found anything that is exactly like lightbot and suitable for entry level audiences or young children. There are some great options now for older children that are comfortable using Scratch.

Tynker has some great options on their "Hour of Code" page. I played some of the games, and they are great for computer-savvy young children up through old children. It uses a Scratch interface and is a perfect example of different action blocks. However, I didn't see any competitive games, and the price is a bit much. If they continue expanding their offerings I could potentially buy into their program. If you are a technical parent, then you can just go to Scratch since I think Tynker is based on Scratch.

Side Note / Pro Tip: Once you find something you like, you can Google for similar things. The two key phrases I use to accomplish this are, "alternative" and, "similar to". As an example, when I googled, "Tynker alternatives" I found "Grasshopper" which looks good for older kids, "Coding Planets" that looks similar to lightbot, "robo garden" which is free but kludgy, and finally "ScratchJr" which is a new-to-me app from the Scratch team. I like the code blocks in ScratchJr, but the objectives are not intuitive and will require guidance from a parent to get them going.

Another item I found by Class 42 is Robot Rattle. There is some voice instruction which I think is helpful for kids or when things are not intuitive. But good game design doesn't require it. Just look at Super Mario Bros Game Design for a perfect example of good design.

There is a super-cool RPG game done by "CodeCombat." It is marketed towards deucators, so I'm not sure on pricing. The demo I tried dumps you straight into Python or Javascript without much instruction. I'm guessing the educators package provides the necessary instruction, but the game could have easily been designed to include the instruction. While it's a fun option, it's not exactly what I was envisioning. I still suggest it for older kids or educators.

So I haven't found anything that fits my specs yet. There are several other potentially good options out there, but most of the ones I found are hidden behind registration walls. My purpose here is not to review everything out there, just to share what I think is needed and see if anything already exists. So far the answer is NO. Close, but not quite.

Rush Hour: Beat the House with Car Counting?

Background

I work downtown and hate driving in rush hour traffic. Normally I take the train so I can read or watch movies. But sometimes I just have to drive. Back roads are not an option, and no matter which direction I go there will be gridlock during some part of the commute. It the behavior of other drivers that really drives me crazy. And it's the impatient drivers that often cause the phantom slowdowns (no reference, go do your own googling to verify).

My analytical brain watches traffic on the freeway as one lane speeds up and another slows down, and people drift back and forth trying to game the system and get ahead. My gameplan is to just stay patient and ride it out in the same lane unless there is someone obviously going slower than everyone else. To pass the time I mentally tag various cars to gauge the progress of different lanes and different driving behaviors. My intuition tells me that there is usually little difference between lanes. Traffic incidents are hard to predict and gauge, and there are some areas where changing lanes can result in minor improvements. The left-most lanes tend to run a little faster, but not much, and not always.

During these times I wish my brainpower and visibility could extend beyond mild intuition. What if I had the power to track every car in traffic with near 100% fidelity. And then, what if my brain could run an analysis on the cars and identify shifting traffic patterns. Maybe then I could make informed decisions about when to switch lanes and when to ride it out.

Maybe my brain can't do it, but I bet I could teach a computer to do exactly that.

The Idea

Setup a computing system in my car that can monitor all the other cars in traffic. It would track their speed and location. During rush hour, the system would run an algorithm to identify traffic flow patterns and advise lane changes and speed corrections to improve my rate of travel through the madness.

The most conceptually simple way to tackle this is would be to mount a video camera on the car and send the video feed to the computer. The computer would then analyze the images to identify specific cars and track their positions. For a simplistic example check out this video from the VR Lab at Kyungpook National University in Korea. One drawback from this method is that visibility is limited. You'd need to mount the camera up high to increased it's field of view.

Progress

Just a fun idea for now. And by the time I ever get around to working on it, self-driving cars will be the standard and it won't matter anymore!

Job Shadow Time Lapse

Background

On my hour commute to work I have lots of time to think about stuff. My frequent topics revolve around work and career since I still don't feel like I've found my vocational calling in life. One recurring theme in my career search is the mismatch between our dreams and reality.

For example, my first post-college job was essentially my dream job. I got hired at a prestigious company, working on cutting-edge technology with excellent compensation. But the reality of any job is that things are messy, at best. People can be the most challenging aspect of a job, and the work that you do is far from the academic rigor of the daily homework presented in engineering classes.

Company brochures, recruiting videos and people typically present only their best front about their jobs (which is exactly what I experienced when I tried to interview people on the inside). Work with robots that automatically build computer chips? Sounds awesome! But sometimes that daily work lacks luster. Long shifts, starting at a screen under artificial lighting. These are things that somehow get omitted from the company propaganda.

Even career services presents a biased picture of various jobs. But who can blame them? Their bottom-line mission is to get people into the work place to support themselves. Most people I know would rather do something other than their work, but we all recognize work as a necessary part of life. So everyone puts on a bit of a front.

But I think that makes it more challenging to find a fitting job. It's like you only look at half the job. And I love so many things, they all sound appealing. For me it's the negative aspects of a job that have made a bigger difference in my personal satisfaction.

I wish that you could get a fuller, unbiased idea of a job. I think job shadows are a great way to accomplish this. The difficulty of a job shadow is finding them. Linked-In can help, but in my personal experience people have been hesitant even when getting introduced by a mutual connection. There's got to be a better way?

The Idea

Create time-lapse, job-shadow videos. The videos would give a representative look at the daily activities for various jobs. This way you can see the statistician sitting for hours in front of his computer, or the manager sitting through hours upon hours of meetings. Important aspects of a job could be emphasized by slowing down the video. But not too much editing. If a job contains lots of walking then you want to capture that aspect.

Progress

I have no idea how to market something like this, but it would be a great addition to someone who is already in this space. Or maybe you could start the website and pay freelancers to take the video. With that approach, I wonder if this could fall under my "Teen Business" ideas.

This is another one of those services I wish existed. I would pay for this, but I don't want to start this business.

Robotics Dev Kit for Kids

Background

If you read my other posts you'll know that I enjoy doing engineering projects with my kids. At home and at school they have played with some basic coding programs. My oldest son and daughter both expressed interest in programming as a hobby; my daughter is interested in astronomy, and my son is interested in robotics. They've played with scratch at school and dabbled in code academy. They have both lamented that the step between the kid programming games and real programming is too big and wish they had better stepping stones.

In a totally separate channel, I was riding on the train and thinking about introducing children to technology in ways that will KEEP them interested and engaged as they continue to grow.

From these two thoughts I wished that there was a robotics kit geared for kids that would provide a fun way to learn the basics of programming, but also incrementally unwrap the graphical programming methods to help them learn the underlying code structures.

The Idea

A robotics kit for kids with modular, easily connectable components and a coding interface that provides varying levels of difficulty.

Regarding the connectable components, I think Lego Power Functions is a perfect example of electronics that have pre-defined functions and can be built however you want right out of the box. They just work and don't take tons of soldering or programming to make something work. But Power Functions fall short when it comes to altering the behavior of the modular components. I think this is an essential part of programming robotics.

You might think that Lego Mindstorms is the answer. When I first had this idea, the answer was a definite NO. In my opinion the programming interface had a high learning-curve for younger kids. I think it is much better now, but the next strike against Mindstorms is the price point. I just think the $200-$400 price point for a single kit is too high of an entry point for most families who want to pursue this as a hobby, and whose kids may end up being not so interested.

As far as the programming interface, I really like the approach taken by the Scratch team. My kids have used it for silly projects and found it enjoyable. But they never learned how to dig into the code that underlies the little building blocks. So this robotics dev kit would provide that functionality to let them learn progressively more involved coding while learning how to control different properties of motors and sensors.

Progress

Has it Been Done Before?

Let me just say that we live in an amazing time in history. I love that people like me can have ideas,  share them publicly, and get the support from their peers to release a product to market, nearly risk free. And there are so many smart people who recognize a need and are willing to take various approaches to provide a solution.

There are some great options out there now that I would consider buying. If you combined the best features of the three below kits then you would obtain my ideal product!

1) Root Robotics

What is it?

• A pre-built robot with controllable behaviors and a programming interface with increment difficulty.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Fun
• Three levels of programming difficulty
• Teaches real programming
• Multiple programming languages
• Good for educators

Cons

• Limited ability to customize hardware
• Best used on a large whiteboard

2) Mabot

What is it?

• A plug-and-play, programmable robot.

Pros

• Modular components can be hot-swapped
• Plug and play
• Simple programming interface
• Compatible with Legos
• Expandable
• Good for young kids

Cons

• Full functionality requires a tablet
• Proprietary, limited programming interface

3) ROKit Smart

What is it?

• A robotics kit based on the Arduino development board.

Pros

• Standard electronics platform means nearly limitless expansion potential
• Teaches full-fledged robotics programming on Arduino
• Online lessons provide varying difficulty and project examples
• Good for older youth

Cons

• Programming interface requires installation and configuration
• No graphical programming for younger audience
• Not plug-and-play. Requires advanced ability to read and follow directions or an experienced teacher.

Simple Media Center

Background

We've accumulated a collection of movie DVDs over the years. Some titles get watched so much that the DVDs have become scratched and nearly unplayable. For these favorite titles I've ripped them onto the computer to allow us to continue watching these favorites without the hassle of loading them up and dealing with the skipping issues. Also, it's just nice to have all the movies, music and other digital media located in a single spot.

Once you have this digital library the next challenge is how to access the content. This is a rabbit hole that can quickly swallow and overwhelm even the savviest of techies. And as usual I always make projects more complex by trying to do them as cheaply as possible.

After going through at least ten different designs for a home theater PC I threw my hands up and just wished for something super-simple that almost anyone could use. But I could not find anything. So I just made my own solution.

The Idea

A method for hosting and presenting digital movies (e.g. movies) that is free, easy to use and easy to maintain.

Progress

Method 1: Chrome + Visual Basic Script (VBS)

This is the method I have been using successfully for years. It requires minimal setup and maintenance and is completely free. It takes about 5 minutes to add new movies.

1. Obtain your media in MP4, M4V,  MPG and/or MPEG format. (I use Handbrake)
2. Copy all your media to a single folder.
3. Create a sub-folder called "thumbnails" and add PNG images files for each movie using the same exact name as the movie file.
4. Run a vbs script, "Create_Movie_Page.vbs" that will create an HTML page in the folder.
5. Open the HTML page in Chrome to see all your movies.
6. Click on any movie to watch!

The code and instructions are hosted on my Github page: Simple-Movie-Server-1

Method 2: Raspberry Pi

Okay, this is free and AWESOME, but not easy.

On road trips we used to take DVD players and mount them on the backs of the seats. This was a decent solution, but had issues managing cords, scratched discs, and the video skipping due to the car bouncing.

I discovered the Raspberry Pi a couple years ago and built a "portable media drive". Now my kids use an old phone or tablet to pull up a list of movies to watch. They can each watch their own movies independently, and now we just have to manage battery life.

To give full credit, I discovered this project from gavsworld. But I had to make some changes since I was using a Pi 3, and I relied on other sources for info. I also recommend this post on the Raspberry Pi site.

If you want the awesomeness without the fun of a project, you could just buy one. They are not well known because the industry hasn't agreed on a standard marketing term. Or maybe it's because the terms they use are so generic that they result in lots of cross-over devices. You could look for "wireless hard drive" or "portable media player".

Interviewing the Homeless: A Book?

Background

On the daily commute downtown, I constantly see homeless people on the light rail. Some of them are regulars who have been making the rounds for years, while others I only see once. Many of them have obvious symptoms of drug abuse or mental health problems, while others are difficult to distinguish from the other random riders. As a people-watcher I often wonder about the lives of these people. Well, I wonder about the lives of pretty much everyone, but with the homeless there's always a terrible mixture of wanting to help and simultaneously wanting to run away unburdened.

Usually I just do the running part. That's true for almost every social interaction, it's not just an aversion to kindness and generosity. As I've opened up to people to help or just talk, I've had a variety of results and stories. I've sometimes been scammed, only discovering this days or weeks later as I watch the scammer talk to some other kind, gullible soul; telling the the same fabricated sob story, or picking up their wheelchair and walking away. Sometimes I've been surprised at the kindness and generosity of a person temporarily on hard times. And I've been scared for my safety by the mentally insane and/or drug-intoxicated. One day I watched 3 law-enforcement officers subdue a man whom I presume was on PCP. He escaped two large officers after being tazed, and was finally taken down after another tazing by three officers.

My thoughts on this topic ultimately go back to the conflict of wanting to help those who really need it without fueling someone's vices. In addition, the local homeless advocacy groups discourage donating directly to the homeless, and encourage you to direct them to the local organizations for help. But most of the people asking for handouts have already been there. As a caring person, it can be challenging to decide how to respond to those who petition for help. I guess the question I really ask inside is, "What are the odds that I will help this person by giving them ... something?"

The Idea

To answer this question, I thought about writing a book by interviewing panhandlers. Offer to pay them for their time to tell their story. What is their life like? How did they get here? What are their plans or dreams? What help have they gotten, and how successful are they in their current efforts?

It's one thing to just blindly rely on the voices of those who work with these people every day in the shelters and missions. But it could provide a new outlook for the average person by demystifying the lives and stories of the local homeless. I bet that people would give more directly, and that they would donate more to the local homeless advocacy organizations.

Progress

I'm such an introvert, I don't know if I would ever have the courage to do this on my own.

Has it Been Done Before?

There is a book called, "Until They Have Faces" that compiles 110 interviews and commentary for homeless people in California. The mix is about what you expect, but the commentary is definitely biased.

I also found a collection of interviews called "Voices of Homelessness" collected and maintained by sistersoftheroad.org, a non-profit in Portland, OR. You have to register to access the information. They also published the book, "Voices from the Street: Truths about Homelessness from Sisters of the Road." I'm currently waiting for access to the database or for the book to ship.

Animal Sound Mixer Game

Background

When I became a new father, tablets and smart phones were still in their early years. But even at the early stage their usefulness for entertaining busy little toddler bodies was obvious. But it's challenging to find games that are affordable, entertaining, and ... not mind-melting? It's unhealthy for little kids to get much screen time, but YOU KNOW you're gonna put that kid in front of a screen for 5 minutes of peace.

A responsible parent at least tries to make that content beneficial for their child, but that can be a challenge. I've seen a lot of garbage time wasters out there for entertaining kids. I've seen some good animal apps out there that help kids learn animal names and sounds. I thought it would be cool to add another layer to those types of apps by letting kids change things around. Like one of those block games that has pictures of different animals on each side of the block, but the top an bottom can be rotated so you get a cat head with a dog body. The new element is to add sound to go with the visuals.

The Idea

Make an application that shows an animal on the main screen. The animal is divided into panels with head, torso and bottom. You could have vertical panels as well as horizontal panels depending on the animals. The panels can be swiped / rotated to mix the body parts from different animals.

Now here's the fun part: each animal has a sound loop for each body part. For example, the bottom / legs of each animal could be different percussion and bass loops. The torsos could all be harmony loops, and the heads could all be different melody loops. So by mixing up the panels you would get different sounds to go with your crazy animal mashups.

Progress

I took and Android developer class, but it's complex and time consuming still. I'm not sure I will take this one up.

Fear The Beard

Background

I like video games. Beards came into renewed fashion a couple years ago, so I was seeing them everywhere. One day I just had a random thought about a video game where the beard is a main part of the game.

The Idea

For some reason, when I think of the game style, the POW from Metal Slug comes into my mind (that's the image for this post). Imagine this guy, only clean shaven. That's how you start in the game; as a dude with no weapons. His only attack is a headbutt, but with his chin. As the game progresses, the dude's beard gets longer, and he can use it in more creative ways to move and dispatch combatants. It would be fun to use progression trees where points can be earned and spent on various beard skills. Some funny images that come to mind is swinging around and slashing dudes with a super-long Rip Van Winkle beard, charging like a bull with a ridiculous handlebar mustache, and a super-thick full beard that just swallows everything.

Progress

I'm not a game developer and don't plan to be one. But I think it would be hilarious if someone did this!

Arduino Sleep Apnea Tester

Background

There was a period of months during 2015 where I would awake in the morning feeling un-rested and un-refreshed. I was casually tracking my eating, sleeping and exertion habits but could not find any change or correlation. I began to suspect that I might have sleep apnea. Well, it's 2018 now and I've since learned that it was most likely due to melancholy or mild depression. But it was during that time that I considered creating a cheap device to measure my vitals while sleeping and give me a report in the morning.

The Idea

Well, I was into the Arduino in 2015, so that would serve as the platform. Remember - I like to do my projects on the cheap, so I use stuff I already have, or try to "roll my own" solutions. Funny tangent, I just realized that the idiom comes from rolling your own cigarettes. Anyways, the Arduino is great for simple inputs, outputs and data recording (over serial or to an SD card).

Here are the monitors I would consider building:

• Breathing
• Record Audio - just needs an electret microphone.
• Chest Strap - Use a band around the chest attached to a slide potentiometer and a spring to measure breathing as resistance.
• Brain Wave
• Probably best to use a market EEG headset. Either way this is more expense than I want at present.
• Sleep Stages
• Accelerometer-based sleep detection.
• Arms & Legs
• Accelerometer-based tracking of motion for each limb.
• Heart Rate
• There are cheap ECG or IR sensors that can provide rudimentary feedback.

Hook it all up, write some code, go to sleep. Analyze data in the morning. That's actually the fun part for me. Making connections between body systems.

Progress

I discovered my issue is likely based on personal stress. I haven't built one yet. But every time I have sleep issues I always get curious. I don't have plans to finish one at this time, but you never know.

Has it Been Done Before?

All of these monitors have been done before individually. I have no interest in product or sharing, but at least there is prior projects to use as guides.

Teen Business Idea: Label Printing

Background

Some time ago at work we went through a major project to clean up and organize our office and work spaces. Part of that process was getting new labels anywhere they were needed. We choked when we saw the size of the bill for printing all the required placards, name tags, shelf labels, etc. Someone did a quick "back-of-the-napkin" calculation and determined we could save thousands of dollars by buying a labeling machine and printing our own labels.

When I see profits of that magnitude for a product that everyone uses, I see an opportunity for an enterprising young person.

The Idea

For a small investment, a teen can buy an inexpensive engraving machine. I've seen do-it-yourself plastic engraving machines for $100. If you wanted to get fancy you could spend as much as $2000 for a multi-function CNC machine.

As with most of my teen business ideas, effort is required to find the business. The opportunities are everywhere, but it requires, footwork, phone-work, and sales. Business name tags, shelf tags, etc. Don't bother with the web, because you won't get the top rank on Google. Put yourself on Google maps and start hitting local businesses. High-tech manufacturing would be a great place to find larger volumes.

What are you offering? Lower price, local business, same-day turn-around, and the proceeds go to a good cause. I believe many business people appreciate ingenuity, and those people are your target market.

Book Series "For Smart People"

Image Attribution: Marcus Quigmire via Wikipedia

Background

If you love to learn about new things then you have probably borrowed, bought or stolen a book from the "For Dummies" series. As a technical self-learner I have a deep appreciation for this series and the wealth of knowledge it makes available. Back before the internet was pervasive, these books provided an unusually cheap way to  learn about new subjects. Over the years the series has gained diverse authors and subjects while retaining the objective of creating competent students from the ignorant.

I have a great respect for the series, but also a deep frustration. I'm a slow reader, but a quick learner. It often feels like the "For Dummies" books cater to the lowest common denominator, and rightly so, because that is really their target market. As such, the lessons are laid out something like this: First, introduce the subject and background information. Second, introduce sub-topics. Third, teach basic knowledge indirectly related to the topic. Fourth, teach each sub-topic sequentially, one by one. It's the fourth step that introduces what I consider to be a grinding element to the learning process. For each sub-topic the books start at the basics and build up to competence level. This means that you have to read the entire book to make sure you don't miss any important details. This also means that you waste your time reading examples and lessons over and over and over again when you got it the first time.

Personally, I want the pace to be about ten times faster. In sixth grade I was privileged to take a self-paced math course. The lessons were laid out as follows: First, read a high-level introduction that taught the basic concepts of the topic. Second, take a chapter quiz to see how well you understand the topics covered. Third, read detailed lessons and do practice problems for any areas that were weak. Fourth, take a chapter test to certify you understand the content. If you aced the first quiz, you got to go on to the next topic. If the quiz demonstrated knowledge gaps, then you only studied to fill in those gaps. I went through my Math so fast they eventually had to send me to the high school for math class.

Where is the book series that follows this learning process?!

The Idea

Will someone please create a book series, an online school, or even a brick and mortar school that is geared towards people who comprehend quickly?! Most gifted / talented / accelerated learning programs and schools don't do it this way. I know because I went to several. They almost always teach using the same stupid style that is used in all our U.S. schools. The whole class is expected to stay at the same level and pace. Everyone is forced through the same practice lessons, whether they are needed or not. And too often, teachers of these accelerated courses just use fake difficulty by assigning inordinate amounts of homework, or worse, use the extra time to teach unrelated and unhelpful content.

If you make a book series, "For Smart People" I will totally buy them.

And I'm really not that smart, I just like to learn more than the average person!

Teen Business Idea: Polishing Portables

Background

Any computer guru will tell you that being good with computers comes with the onus of being "the fix-it guy." People know I'm into computers, and I'm frequently called upon to resolve problems. Sometimes I do this as a service, sometimes for pay and sometimes in trade. I recently fixed a laptop for a friend, and in return got an iPod. I'm not much of a music buff, so I decided to sell it for cash. The iPod had been well-loved, and despite being perfectly functional, the signs of use were quite evident by way of scuffs and scratches.

I did my best to polish the case with the materials on hand, but I know I could get a better price with a better polish job. Buuuuuuuut, it wouldn't be worth buying the stuff needed to get a professional finish. What I really needed was someone who already had the polishing equipment...

I often find myself wanting something that just isn't common. And when that happens, I see an idea.

The Idea

Cell phones, tablets, laptops, MP3 players, etc. - These things are a part of our everyday lives. We have come to depend on them for nearly every facet of our electronic requirements. One device that does everything tends to take some abuse over time. This means people get annoying scratches, scuffs and worn out screens and cases. It would be nice if there was an accessible way (which is just my way of saying "cheap") to get rid of these scratches.

But this the United States, where manufactured items are cheap, and services are expensive. This is a job for moderately-skilled, cheap labor...aka Teenagers. I think there are better jobs for teens than flipping burgers or working at the movie house. Not that there is anything wrong with those...but learning an uncommon skill or providing a unique service can improve your earning potential.

So here's what you do. Get mom, or dad, or rich uncle Ted to loan you enough money to buy a polishing wheel, some pads, discs and compound. Educate yourself and learn the art polishing plastic and glass. You should be able to find everything on Google (if your Google-Fu is good). If not, try asking a local jeweler for a pseudo apprenticeship. You could also go to the library. Heck, if you're that bad off you can send me an email and I'll get you started.

The last bit is all about marketing yourself and getting business. Start learning on your family and friends. Offer your business for free until you build some skill, and possibly a reputation. Then build your clientele. Make up some business cards, flyers and leave them at independent cell phone stores. Maybe they'll let you setup shop around the store. Go door to door if necessary. And good luck.

Kids Project: Vibrobots

It's pretty cool what you can do with stuff you already have laying around. Once again, Lewis showed me a book of robotics that had some pictures of vibrobots. These are small robots that move using vibration. All it takes is a "AA" battery, a vibrating motor, some wire and hot glue. We used other junk electronics I had laying to add features to our bots. You could use motors from a pager, cell phone or RC car, but mine came from a pair of defunct Xbox controllers.

Lewis was the traditionalist and went with a vibrating bug. Nate and Corinne went with animals near and dear to their hearts, a dog and cat respectively. Lydia pushed her creativity and came out with a dancing frog. All told this took us the better part of a Saturday morning.

These don't stand up well to abuse, and I've re-glued the precious cat multiple times. I dread the battle that awaits when the battery dies...

Kids Project: Rubber-Band Cars

Here is a project we did several weeks ago that put huge smiles on the kids' faces. One day Lewis brought home a book from the school Library called, "Amazing Rubber Band Cars" by Mike Rigsby. He was very excited about making some of the cars from the book. So one Saturday we sat down and copied a basic template from his book and came up with our own design. Below are the results.

We used hot glue for nearly all of the construction, but found that you needed glue on both sides of the tires to make them durable enough for kid use. We also had to play around with the rubber-band size and spacing since our rubber bands obviously differed from those used in the book. The cars withstood quite a bit of abuse and got used periodically throughout the following weeks. I love projects that keep the kids entertained for more than an hour.