HFOSS Wrap-up

For the last fifteen weeks, I have been part of a HFOSS class at RIT. Every Monday and Wednesday at 5:00 to 6:15. When I enrolled in the class, the only thing that I had to go off of was the word of my friend. It has probably been one of my favorite classes to take during my time at RIT, partly because of the students in the class, and partly because of my instructor. DeCause loves what he does. He helps make the class what it is and helps push his student to not just be better programmers, but also better people.

The HFOSS program recently got a minor approved, which is the first minor for FOSS in the nation. HFOSS really has an important message and it isn't something that a lot of people really know heading into the job market. Before I took this class, I only vaguely knew what Open Source development was, and I think that is the same for many people. The FOSS minor will help to educate people about this subject and will hopefully encourage many to join in on Open Source development.

Python Math, the game that I helped develop has been a good example of working under limited environments and my team was fairly smooth running. We had some issues, but we managed to get everything we really wanted done, with exception to getting outside sources interested in development. It was a fun experience and one I will be more than happy to help with in the future should someone else pick up the project.

Overall, I am really proud to have been a part of this class and have learned a fair amount. I will enjoy taking another class with DeCause in the fall. I look forward to the future.

Pharas, signing off~

A link to my Github: https://github.com/Pharas
A link to Python Math's repository: https://github.com/danShumway/python_math
Some screenshots from Python Math

Python Math: Final Thoughts

We are doing a presentation today on Python Math: Adder's Garden Adventure. What we learned from it, what challenges we faced, and what could have gone better. Honestly I am proud of what my little team managed to come up with and I am also proud of what we will be leaving behind for the next HFOSS class to work with. While I think that in the long run I could have contributed more than what I ended up contributing, I think that we all did a good job.

The most important thing that I have taken from the whole experience has to be how fast development can be when you have people that really care about a project and also what happens when you have very limited development time. Roughly 4 weeks is not a long time to go from nothing to "finished" product. We still don't have that honestly, but I think we have something worth while.

I hope that there are people that will be picking it up in the future, especially as the next HFOSS class comes into session. I would like to see more done with the game. The framework is complete. It just needs some dedicated people to write up some cool levels for it and a fresh coat of paint. With those two things, I think it could very well shine. I have to give a big thanks to danShumway for starting this project and I hope I will get to work with him more in the future.

Python Math: A Playtest and Ice Cream

So last week, Python Math: Adder's Garden adventure got to do some playtesting with 4th graders. This was the first time that we got to have any sort of interaction with our game regarding actually playing it outside of our little group. The playtesting itself went rather smoothly.The children really seemed to like our game, even if it had a few bugs that needed working out. I think the biggest issue was mostly from a visuals standpoint. As we only have rather simplistic assets in the game at current, it is a little difficult to understand which way you are facing.

There is also an issue where some of our map design in that if you go through an addition gate in the wrong way, Adder will just fall off the back of the map because he is too long. There is an inverse problem where if traveling through a subtraction gate with too few segments. In that case, you just lose all of your segments and then are unable to go through the gate.

Altogether, we managed to get some good feedback and found some things that should be fixed with the game. On the way back we stopped for some ice cream which was a nice little diversion. All in all, a good way to spend the day.

HFOSS Quiz: Logical Fallacies

When?

1. When was the latest version of the infographic published?

The latest revision was put up in November of 2012

Who?

2. Who wrote and designed this infographic?

David McCandess

3. Who did the research and collected the data?

Marley Whiteside, Kathryn Ariel Kay, and Peter Ayres

4. Who did the translation of this graph?

Gilles Peyroux, Klaus-Michael Lux, and Ivan Galarza

Where?

5. Where on the internet can this infographic be found?
The graph can be found here

6. What sources did the authors use to create this visualization? List each one in the form of a hyperlink
Wikipedia
FallacyFiles
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosphy
Skeptic Dictionary
Changing Minds
Logically Fallacious
Evolution Wiki
Infidels.org
Philosophical Society
San Jose State University
TV Tropes
Stantarosa.edu
Concise Introduction to Logic
Beginners Guide to Scientific Method

What?

7. According to the graphic, how many major categories of fallacies are there? Please list each one

Appeal to the minds, Appeal to emotions, Faulty deductions, Manipulating content, Garbled Cause and Effect, On The Attack

8. How many different languages has this infographic been translated into? Please list each one.

English, French, Spanish, German

9. Under what license is this infographic released?

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0

Bonus

10. Why might understanding these fallacies be important?

The more you understand and recognize faulty logic, the easier it is to see bad arguments for what they are and it can help you to make good decisions.

Lit Review Two: Fallacy Boogaloo

This time we turn our attention towards, not an article, but a webpage. In particular, this webpage is meant to teach people logical fallacies that are commonly practiced. So let's take a look.

Who

The page was written and designed by David McCandess with help from Tatjana Dubovina on the design front. Marley Whiteside, Kathryn Ariel Kay, and Peter Ayres did the main research for the project.

What

Rhetological Fallacies: Errors and manipulations of rhetoric and logic thinking

When

The project was put up sometime in April, 2012.

Where

The page can be found here

Gist

Show a wide swath of different logical fallacies that are commonly committed in everyday life and examples of what they are.

The Good

- Wide variety of fallacies commented on

- Simple examples of said fallacies

- Split up into the different related types of fallacies

The Bad

- The page is fairly bland outside of the fallacies, which are just sort of listed

- There is nowhere to go to learn more directly on the page

- The simple examples can confuse some of the more complex fallacies like Sweeping Generalization

Questions

- Why were certain fallacies left off?

- Why choose to use this style to provide the information?

- Will the group continue to add to this document?

Final Thoughts

Things like this are important as is anything that raises public awareness and intelligence. The logical fallacies brought up are so common in basic discourse, it is hard to not commit one or two every once and a while. If we are aware of them though, it helps make us better in discerning when arguments aren't very good. All in all, a valiant project and one I greatly appreciate. 8/10 gavels

Change of Pace: ImagineRIT & Face-painting

So ImagineRIT is a showcase for all sorts of projects and booths that RIT puts together every year. I had quite a few friends present their projects and had some pretty good showings. I was not one of those people that had a real showcase. I spent time with my club. We got together, grabbed two tables, and made little masks and did face-painting for the kids. I was pretty tired after the entire affair was over, but it was also probably the most fulfilling thing I have done.

I don't know why, but seeing a child's face light up is just amazing. I am not the best artist, as displayed by some of the artwork my fellow club mates showed off, but I know I made some kids really happy. I even had one parent personally thank me because I had just made their son's day. It is the little things like that which make the entire thing worth while. I'm hoping that we will get to do something like this again next year.