The JQuery experience

The JQuery experience sounds like a Star Trek ride. lol.

The JQuery exercise was challenging. Creating a simple a tic-tac-toe game from scratch isn’t that simple, it took up a lot of time. At first I couldn’t get the Os and Xs to work on the game board. All I had was the blue horizontal lines and the blue vertical lines. Eventually I found out that I kept messing up on the html codes like missing a parenthesis here or a semi-colon there.

It would have been nice if we learn how to put a reset or restart button on our board game.

I also created another tic-tac-toe game by re-designing the Os and Xs for the tic-tac-toe board.

Overall I enjoyed doing this exercise.

Draggable Elements

This paragraph is draggable.

This one is not.

R2-D2

I previously did some contract work at a New England company where one of their regular staffed employee is a ‘Star Wars’ fanatic. So huge a fan is he that he actually built his own life-size robot, R2-D2. He started on his robot project about 10 years ago, building the robot in his spare time. It’s not easy getting parts for his robot. He has to surf the internet to find the proper sized part for his project. Cost is also a factor. Then he still has to modify the part so that it fits his robot. The R2-D2 robot is roughly 90% complete. The camera lense and the audio components have yet to be found (on the internet) and fitted into the robot.

R2-D2 is approximately 42 inches tall and is about 125 pounds heavy. I know because I helped unload R2-D2 from a truck flatbed. R2-D2 was brought out to a barbeque cookout that I attended. R2-D2 was quickly a huge draw with the neighborhood kids. With a master remote control, the robot could spin its head and zip down the street on its treaded wheel legs.

For those who don’t know who R2-D2, watch the ‘Star Wars’ movies. R2-D2 is one of many original fictional characters of George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ motion picture saga. R2-D2 is the short, round metal robot (on left in photo below). His sidekick, C3PO is the slimmer, taller robot.

Micro Pod Hotels

Ever had your flight delayed due to events out of your control? Ever had to nap/sleep at an airport? …or at a train terminal? …or at a bus terminal? Ever had weary thoughts of falling asleep in a weird position in a public space? …embarrassing thoughts? lol (See photos below).

Well there could be some comfort relief heading your way …for a price. It’s already a catchy trend that’s happening overseas.

In Asia and Europe, there are companies designing series of compact, low cost accommodations for the travelers.

Some international airports like London’s Heathrow, Barcelona, Amsterdam, already have some of these cool modular pods scattered around their terminals.

These micro pods are meant to be installed at airports and at any other transit terminals that have the space for them. They are like a micro hotel room. Generally the micro pods could be rented by the hour and they are usually equipped with a compact bed/ sofa, a folding table, a chair, high-speed internet access, a sink and a commode.

The concept of these micro pods is to provide some privacy and brief rest for the ‘would-be’ weary traveller whose flight was delayed and are waiting for their next flight. It’s for the travelers who don’t want to be seen sleeping and drooling in public. All this privacy, within the airport terminals, and without having to go to a nearby hotel.

Week 09 Forum: Interactive Web page ideas... alas, but none from me.

Forum week #09 - the class was asked to propose an interactive Web page or entire interactive Web site that we have not seen. This week’s forum isn’t easy at all, at least for me. Try as I might, I could not come up with an original concept for a new interactive Web page. I tried thinking of travel interactive stuff. I came up with nothing that’s already on the web. I thought of kiddie games that could be used as a new interactive Web page, such as ‘Hangman’, or an interactive virtual paper cutting activity like ‘Make Your Own Snowflake’. But double checking the internet I found that these games were already designed, developed and up on the internet. I think the whole spectrum of kiddie games are just about covered and are already on the internet.

With over 300 million living in the US and just under 7 billion worldwide, it’s pretty damn hard coming up with an idea/proposal for an interactive Web page that I haven’t seen.

This week’s forum completely stumped me for any ideas. Ho-hum.

If I do come up with a proposal for an interactive Web page before this class ends, I will definitely blog it here on my blog site.

Glass bottoms and a free-fall!

Here are three attractions to visit in the U.S. for those of the faint of heart …or not.

The first tall attraction to visit is located in Chicago, the Windy City. The Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) is 1,454 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the U.S. At the Willis Tower, located on the 103^rd floor, just 1,353 feet (412 meters) above street level is the observation deck, named the Skydeck Chicago.

A new attraction just opened up there recently, named the Ledge @ Skydeck Chicago. The ledge is a glass enclosed box that can slide out and away (approximately 4 feet) from the Tower, giving tourists a great view of Chicago’s skyline plus, as a bonus, a great view of the city streets below, as viewed thru the glass-bottom floor of the ledge! Just a piece of glass separating you and the street below! There are several of these ledges scattered throughout the observation floor of the Skydeck Chicago.

The second tall attraction to visit is at the Grand Canyon. It’s a very popular tourist attraction on the Hualapai Indian reservation, on the western side of the Canyon. Just roughly 125 miles drive east of Las Vegas, Nevada you’ll arrive at the attraction named the Grand Canyon Skywalk. The skywalk is a u-shaped, cantilevered, glass-bottomed walkway that protrudes outwards 70 feet (21.34 meters) away from the cliff ledge, where tourists can walk out on to observe great views of the Grand Canyon and observe the several 1,000 feet drop thru the glass floor!

A third attraction to visit, when you get back to Las Vegas, Nevada. At the Stratosphere Casino Hotel, you take a normal indoor elevator up to the 108^th floor to the Stratosphere Sky Jump. This attraction has no glass bottom floor, but you’ll get a nice view of the Vegas Strip. At the Stratosphere Sky Jump, they put you into a jumpsuit & into a harness, then hook you up to a cable and you are then pushed out over the ledge where you free-fall about 855 feet (261 meters) back down to the sidewalks below. The free-fall is approximately clocked around 40 mph. It’s a controlled free-fall. The cable prevents the winds from blowing you off course.

I had a great time doing all 3 of the above.

R.I.P. Paul the Octopus

Paul the Octopus, whose claim to fame was to correctly predict the winners of the 2010 World Cup tournament. The eight-tentacle sea creature, who resided at a German aquarium, has passed away from natural causes. Paul was 2 ½ years old. There were 8 futbol/soccer matches that Paul the Octopus was asked to predict the outcome. He went 8-0. An unbelievable 100% success rate.

During the 2010 World Cup tournament, played in South Africa, over at the Oberhausen Sea Life Center in western Germany, two glass boxes were lowered into Paul’s tank. The glass boxes each contained a tasty mussel and a flag of the opposing team. Paul the Octopus would head over to one glass box, open the hatch, to gobble up the mussel. This was how Paul the Octopus predicted all eight winners he was asked to predict. It included the final match, in which Spain defeated the Netherlands, 1-nil.

There are rumors floating around that another octopus at the Oberhausen Sea Life Center is being groomed to be the successor to Paul.