{"id":217,"date":"2005-08-17T13:59:22","date_gmt":"2005-08-17T18:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/?p=217"},"modified":"2005-08-17T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2005-08-17T19:00:57","slug":"how-come-this-always-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/08\/17\/how-come-this-always-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"How come this always happens?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\/cms\/Gallery.55.0.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blender3d.org\/cms\/typo3temp\/pics\/517e219fe6.jpg?w=840\" alt=\"'Stairs interior' by Maciej Szczyglowski from blender3d.org\" align='right' hspace='10' vspace='10' data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nClasses start on 29 August which, for those not near a calendar, is just under two weeks away.  One of my courses this semester is a Computer Graphics course.  This isn&#8217;t my area, but no one else here has any more background so it&#8217;s fallen in my lap when we&#8217;ve done it.  Because no one here&#8217;s really active in this area we haven&#8217;t done it all that often; I&#8217;ve taught three or four such courses in the 15 years I&#8217;ve been here, and the last time was something like 6 years ago.  But there&#8217;s high student interest, so once again into the breach.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\/cms\/Movies.160.0.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blender3d.org\/_gfx\/gallery\/movies\/lk.jpg?w=840\" alt=\"Thumbnail image from move 'Mick' by Liubomir Kovatchev from blender3d.org\" align='left' hspace='10' vspace='10' data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAnd so, just days before the course is set to begin, I discover (<em>entirely<\/em> by accident) <a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\">blender<\/a>.  I&#8217;m not sure what role it would have in the course (we&#8217;re going to focus more on how you would <em>implement<\/em> something like blender than on how to use it), but it would have been nice to have a little time to play with it and think about how it might have fit in.  Ugh.<\/p>\n<p>For those who, like me, know not the wonders of blender, it&#8217;s a pretty darn spiffy looking open source 3D modeling and animation tool.  The image above came from <a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\/cms\/Gallery.55.0.html\">their gallery<\/a>, and I definitely recommend <a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\/_media\/gallery\/movies\/lk.mpg\">this fun little movie<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/blender3d.org\/cms\/Movies.160.0.html\">their movies page<\/a>.  It looks kind of like the wondrous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.povray.org\/\">POV-Ray<\/a>, but with neat modelling tools built in.  Nice stuff.<\/p>\n<p>And of course the first student I mention it to is all &#8220;Oh, yeah, I have that on my computer&#8221;.  Which raises the question of why I didn&#8217;t canvas the students for tool ideas last Spring, especially since they are <em>way<\/em> more on top of graphics than I am.  Humph.<\/p>\n<p>Will I ever learn?  Sadly, I have my doubts&#8230;<\/p>\nNo tag for this post.\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li>No related posts.<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Classes start on 29 August which, for those not near a calendar, is just under two weeks away. One of my courses this semester is a Computer Graphics course. This isn&#8217;t my area, but no one else here has any more background so it&#8217;s fallen in my lap when we&#8217;ve done it. Because no one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/08\/17\/how-come-this-always-happens\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How come this always happens?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-3v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/19\/its-hard-for-us-old-folks-to-get-it-or-teach-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":0},"title":"It&#8217;s hard for us old folks to get it (or teach it)","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"John Naughton had a nice column in The Observer last month about the chronic problems with IT courses for kids. There had been a plan for a new required exam in information and communication technology (ICT) for 14 year olds in the UK, but enthusiasm for the requirement has waned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1078,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2009\/08\/22\/study-finds-on-line-education-beats-classroom-but-what-does-that-mean\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":1},"title":"Study finds on-line education beats classroom, but what does that mean?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"22 Aug 09","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent study for the Department of Education (NY Times piece; full 93-page PDF report) performed a meta-analysis of 99 students over the past 12 years, and found that students in on-line courses did slightly, but statistically significantly, better than those in traditional classrooms. It's an interesting study, and likely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":608,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/07\/29\/high-school-math-teh-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":2},"title":"High school math = Teh Good","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"29 Jul 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Pharyngula has a nice discussion of report looking at the impact of high school math and science classes on performance in university science courses. The short version? Definitely take math, as that improves performance in all the sciences in the study (biology, chemistry, and physics). Taking science in high school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":458,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/10\/do-we-need-to-be-requiring-more-mathscience-in-high-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":3},"title":"Do we need to be requiring more math\/science in high school?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"10 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned before, I took part in a panel discussion on women in science and math last week. One of the issues that came up in the discussion was the importance of requiring math and science courses, at least through high school, and perhaps into college. The argument was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/111\/267510192_a5bb4bf570_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/01\/16\/i-hate-computers\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":4},"title":"I hate computers&#8230;","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"16 Jan 05","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been using TWiki wiki implementation at the U since 2001, and while it's got it's problems (wikis tend to be disorganized messes, and I'm afraid our wiki suffers this as well), it's been incredibly successful based on the massive usage statistics. Unfortunately we're having a problem where saving\/editing hangs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computing","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":141,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/04\/30\/a-draft-of-a-strib-letter-on-the-id-silliness\/","url_meta":{"origin":217,"position":5},"title":"A draft of a Strib letter on the neo-creationism silliness","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"30 Apr 05","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just spent way too long flailing away in the horribly cramped confines of 150 words trying to write a letter to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on the whole ID-in-schools silliness. I wrote about a zillion drafts, and WeatherGirl expertly poked holes in one after another, sending me back to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}