A diary and a LOGO !!!

For quite some time I had wanted to have my own personal diary, which will have atleast a password protection. Downloaded a few from net but was not satisfied. So decided to make one for myself.
A couple of months back I had to sit at home for sometime with a nearly fractured leg, so used that time to create my own diary in Python programming language. That I did in windows. But as usual I want to port everything into Linux. So that is what I did.
Now my diary is working fine except that it is still working through the terminal. My next step would be to give it a GUI so that people may not feel out of place. Then as per the very concept of open source I will release this small piece of application for general public to use.

My other work pertaining Python is a small game cum educational application for kids. There is a famous programming language known as LOGO (Logic of Graphics Oriented) which uses a turtle to draw various figures using commands. Well i too have made one using Python. It has a canvas and a small box to punch in the variables. Now the similarity ends here, as I have given buttons to play with. So students will have fun using this application.

My next step is to convert the buttons into boxes where the programming can be done by the students.

I really hope someday i will be able to make my own programming language. Even though it may not be a great or smooth one but I will make one for myself.

Popular Misconception !!!

That day I just happened to ask a very simple question to a group of people. And I was really startled to get the answer.
The question is as follows.
A child in a snowy region created a SNOWMAN out of snow(obviously). Now this kid wanted the snowman to last as long as possible so that the snowman should not melt easily. He sought help from two people (lets say) A, and B
A:- Drape the snowman in a jacket from head to toe and it will not melt.
B:- A has gone crazy. If you drape the snowman in a jacket the snowman will melt and so just keep it in open and it will last long.
My question was: Whose option should the child take? A or B?

Amazingly enough, if I asked this question to 100 people, 96 of them answered that the option should be B. Most people were and are of the opinion that draping the snowman in a jacket will warm the inside of the jacket thereby resulting in rapid melting of the snowman. Rather is it good to keep the snowman in open.

The real answer is as follows.

"A" is correct. The snowman should be draped in a jacket. The thicker or multi-layered the better.The reason is that jacket or woolens create an insulation around the body. This insulation prevents the outside heat from entering the body but at the same time it doesn't allow the inner energy to escape too thereby creating a thermos flask type condition. This prevents the melting of the snowman as it remains virtually unaffected by the outside fluctuation of temperature.

This is the same case when you must have seen that ICE Chunks by the ice vendors are always covered by saw dust or thick rough clothing.
Some people may say that we feel warm inside the jacket but that warmth is the body warmth and not that the jacket is creating its own.


But a simple question like this threw up a viscious challenge of looking at the popular misconceptions that plague science and day to day life too.

Python and teaching

Recently at Amity International School I started my Computer science and Robotics club with 15 students. I was startled to know that these kids who are in class 8-10 have no prior programming experience. They don't have any idea of programming. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce them to the fun of programming concepts. I have started with GWBASIC. A redundant programming language. So redundant that after 1988 there has been no official updation on this. Also being a 16 bit language I find it difficult to install on my Win-7-x64 system. But then it is also a language that will help build the fundamentals of programming.
Next on my agenda is to introduce Python once the kids have understood programming concepts. Python, as I have stated before, is a language to reckon with due to its flexibility. So I am hoping to take my students towards some enlightenment and I hope in the process I will be bestowed with some more knowledge.

The School Bell : Python in Automation

Till last saturday (31-03-2012) I was working with DPS Rajnagar. There I was faced with a unique problem. The person responsible for ringing the bell between the classes was so inefficient that after 3rd Period we sometimes used to have the lunch break instead the 4th period. That created a massive problem for all teachers. So I came out with a solution. AUTOMATION.
The switch to ring the bell was in the control room which was actually the server room in which many computers as well as the server was there. I created a small PYTHON code which would create "beeps" at programmed time. The code would read the console time and compare it with the programmed time and "beep" accordingly.
So it was like at 09:25:00 am the code would compare the time with the console time and since it was the third period beginning (already programmed) the computer will "beep" three time with an interval of 0.5 seconds. But that was only one part.
Initially I thought that I would connect the output of the sound card to a relay circuit which in turn will drive the bell. But after my experiment I got to know that the output voltage was less than 1 V and not good enough to drive th relay.
So I made a sound-operated-relay circuit and hooked it up with the microphone of the sound card. The sound operated relay gets its power from the USB port of the very same computer and at every "beep" the computer would make the circuit would activate the relay which would finally activate the bell.
Unfortunately it remained in testing stage only as I left the school soon after.

But now I am converting it into a reminder cum alarm system for my computer itself.

Present Status: Still working on my personal reminder cum alarm system.

How I wish my previous school could have installed that system. It would have completely cured the problem of belling.

Phoenix

Phoenix is a low cost computer interface which has been created by the scientists of Inter University Accelerator Center, New Delhi for teachers and students alike who would like to develop scientific experiments based on the computer interface.

Phyiscs with Home-made Equipment & Innovative Experiments = Phoenix


I hope the above makes it pretty clear. 
A similar interface will cost you thousands tens of thousands of rupees in the market. Phoenix with all its basic interfacing components and software (free and open source) comes for 2500 rupees. 


More about Phoenix can be found here.

 I am not writing much about Phoenix here as it can be easily seen and understood by the above link.

Me and Python

Now before I start writing anything, let me assure you of one thing: I am not a programmer.
And second: Python is not a snake here, it is a programming language.
Well now I can breathe easy.

My sojourn with Python started three years back when I purchased Phoenix Interface which was designed and developed by the scientists of IUAC (formerly NSC), New Delhi.

Since the interface can talk to my laptop through Python language, I had no choice but to try and learn it. Well it seems today that it was not that bad a choice. I knew some BASIC, PASCAL, C and C++, but just a li'l bit of these. Now I know some Python. And why I said that I am not a programmer? Because I can't seem to remember the codes and syntax. I keep forgetting the syntax. Hence I need to keep checking the codes again and again when I sit down to write a piece of code. Hence, I don't call myself a programmer.


Now the more important things. What am I doing with Python? Well Python came across as an extremely versatile language with the added advantage that it is interpreter based and hence, I can see real time what is happening with my codes as I type them in the command prompt. It is like at first I try to see what is happening with the line that I am typing and once it gives me desired results I put the lines down together to form a Python code.

But the question remains, what is a Physics school teacher doing with Python?
Well I am, apart from being a Physics teacher, an innovator too. I like to make life easy for people in general. So that is what I am doing. Innovating.
This post is all about what I have done till now and what am I up to. I hate to patent stuff as I feel " All good things in the world are FREE". So why to put a lid on the usage of things by common man.