Notices by Devin Ulibarri (pikurasa@mastodon.social)

**Excellent!**

I made a program with my son today that calculates whether or not a word is a hundred-dollar word, a word whose letters add up to one hundred. You can see the calculation, and you can also *hear* the word, too!

We made it with Music Blocks visual programming language, which is a Sugar Labs project. Watch the video to see how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcB2rJML38s

Now, we're going to have some *pumpkin* pie. 🥧

#education #programming #fun #visualprogramming #edtech

@janriemer haha... love it! Totally tuning into the satire!

Just finished a Sunday morning coffee with @fsf executive director Zoë Kooyman. We chatted about free software and education, parenting, and nonprofit leadership. I'm very thankful for all of the FSF's efforts in advocating for software freedom for all.

It's also one of the final days for their current office space. Shortly after learning about free software, I came to this space to meet everyone and ask questions. Now begins a new chapter, but the fight is just as relevant as it ever was.

@lxo I did have a conversation with Matthew Shifrin about this idea. Matthew is a musician, and he had a website called "legofortheblind.com" which seems to now be owned by LEGO. Here's an Internet Archive snapshot of the website from a time when he was managing it: https://web.archive.org/web/20210304001339/http://legofortheblind.com/

I plan to reach out to him again after trying a few more things, but, for now, I have our email correspondences from years ago to work from.

@lxo Yes, you figured it out! I have an image of a corrected version, but the image was not rotated properly upon upload, so I went with this earlier photo.

At any rate, you figured out both the tune and the mistake. Bravo!

I am using this as a possible avenue to transfer musical data from lego "notation" to the computer for the blind.

Can you name that tune? (Early prototype)

#Lego #Legos #CMK

So, I saw this locked up piano at the mall today, and I thought of this meme.

So, what do ya' think?

#Music #FreeSoftware #SoftwareLibre #FreeSoftwareMeme #Programming #DRM

I signed this petition from the @fsf for free-as-in-freedom tax filing: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=10

If you also think that "the methods for filing [should] be free as in freedom, and that they will not require use of nonfree software" then I encourage you to sign, too.

Cheers!

#freesoftware #taxes #softwarelibre #opensource

So, parents of my son's school were invited to pick timeslots to come to class and do a book reading. I'm chose this Thursday and I'm going to read "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" by Matthias Kirschner and Sandra Brandstätter.

And, in the spirit of software freedom, I plan to showcase a Music Blocks project and show them how to remix it. Here it is:

* Watch it: https://iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=62W7R48VUKA
* Try it: https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/index.html?id=1716493643269830&run=True

#freesoftware #softwarefreedom

Update: I read the book for my son's class and showed them Music Blocks. The first-grade group listened very well to Ada & Zangemann, and they enjoyed creating some visual code together, reading the scripts on the screen, trying to predict and watching the results, and, finally, remixing the code.

I reminded them they can remix and share their new project.

And, of course, since Music Blocks is AGPL, they can use, share, study, and remix the whole programming language, if they like!

#FLOSS

And here's the "making of" video, for anyone who wants to watch how the program was made: https://iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=PklYj6JDtik

I used Music Blocks's in-app screen recorded to make the video, and then I ran the following ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -r:v "375/1" -i making-ada-zangemann.webm -an -r:v "30/1" making-ada-zangemann-fast.webm

#MusicBlocks #MusicPlusCode #Programming #Music #Zangemann #FanCode #IceCream #VisualProgramming #ForKids #Fun #Education

I am a trained musician.

Somehow I'm teaching computer science students at a local high school how to use git.

Yes, I am a trained musician.

#git #computerscience #musician

Have you ever wondered if kids in music really do better in their academics? And why? In my latest article, I share my insight as a music educator, as well as a few links to this topic in the news, on the MAP Family Learning Center website: https://online.mapflc.com/2023/09/28/series-music-and-arts-education-whats-the-point-episode-2-why-music-students-do-better-in-academics/ #MusicEducation #MusicInEducation #STEAMeducation #ArtsEducation #MusicArtProgramming

Colleague @wolftune reminded me about these posts he made on the subject in 2008. They're great reads -- you should read them!

* https://blog.wolftune.com/2008/06/what-is-whole-point-of-music.html
* https://blog.wolftune.com/2008/06/benefits-of-music-study.html

#Music #MusicEducation #MusicInEducation

@fsf So, at this rate, how many more people need to answer this question correctly in order for the correct answer to win out? #Math

@fsf New hint: "Fighting for essential rights and freedoms for computer users since 1985. https://fsf.org" Therefore, the answer is 2023 minus 1985. #Math

This #ILoveFS Day, I want to thank the Rubén Rodríguez for his work on #Trisquel, the #Inkscape devs for their work, #KDE, @fsf @fsfe @walterbender for his work on #MusicBlocks ...the list goes on and on (and obviously is incomplete). Basically, if you are working on #FreeSoftware in some capacity, then "Thank you!"

@fsf I've given a couple tightening talks at #LibrePlanet before. Both times were a lot of fun. I encourage others to submit!

The video for the second talk was recorded and is published at https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/lp-2019-lightning-talks/ and starts 36 minutes in. It's about working with the FSF to bring #FreeSoftware into the public schools in Boston.