Cabrini Connections Tech Club

Model Rockets

2011-03-29T16:27:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Sorry, long time no post. Schedules have been busy so there have been a few events that have changed up the Tech Club schedule a bit.

Last Tuesday we drew some models of bottle rockets we will build from pop bottles and card board once the weather starts getting warmer. Here are some of the models we created last week.

Tech Club Member Charles Interviewed For WCRX Public Service Announcement

2011-03-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Whoa - how cool is this?

Chicago Columbia University's WCRX radio interviewed Tech Club member Charles Hill, who talked a bit about the Cabrini Connections program. Take a listen!

Here's the 60 second version:

And here's the shorter 30 second version:

History of Video Games

2011-03-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

Last week on Tuesday we did some research on the history of video games. A couple of weeks before that we started to create our own video games. Here is an example done by one of the students:

Here is a brief bit of what we learned about some of the very first video games ever:

Computer space
A game created just for fun
1971 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney

Tennis for Two
1959

Missile Simulator
Locate a missile target
1947 Ray Mann.

This week we will keep looking at the history of video games and start researching how to design our own model rockets from pop/soda bottles.

Hey Tech Fans. We need your support

2011-03-04T10:17:00.000-08:00

This year's Cabrini Madness tourney has 13 teams of students and volunteers raising money for Cabrini Connections. The team that raises the most by the end of the NCAA Basketball Tournament wins.

Right now Team Five Dragons, which features Tech Club members and Mapping for Justice supporters, is in last place! You can change that with a donation (here) and by asking friends, family, co-workers and tech supporters to give and to blog about the tourney.

Money raised helps keep Cabrini Connections and tech club available to our teens.

Violinist at Tech Club

2011-02-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night Tech Club had a very special treat. Engineer, violinist, and entrepreneur Andrew Forde from Toronto visited and spoke about his love of engineering, music and creativity.

Andrew is in his last semester at the University of Toronto, finishing his degree in Nanoengineering. Nanoengineering studies materials at the nano level to find properties one would desire in a material, but from the perspective of some of the smallest pieces that make up that material.

Expanding off of his engineering background Andrew has launched a new company, Sommerfeld Solutions, that implements innovative ideas for other companies. He explained, while nanoengineering is an interest of his, that the research environment doesn't fit with his need to be creative, which is one of his reasons for starting his company.

Since he was four years old he has played the violin, and actually went to an arts high school, not the typical place you would expect a typical engineer to come from. He has released one album, and will be working on a second album in Summer 2011. We were fortunate that Andrew was able to bring his violin and play three songs for us after his talk.

You can check out his music at his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/violintheory.

Pictures to come this weekend from the event! Special thanks to Cabrini Connections for hosting the event, and to Andrew Forde for sharing his story with Tech Club.

Tech Club Special Guest | Music & Science

2011-02-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, February 22, Tech Club will have a very special guest all the way from Toronto, Canada. University of Toronto engineering student and entrepreneur Andrew Forde will be giving a special talk at Tech Club Tuesday night to play some contemporary music and to talk about how music and science and engineering are all related. Please join us for what will be a fun and engaging event!

Trucks Computer Games & Science

2011-01-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

What does a truck computer game and science have in common? Well, on Tuesday we found out. Jordan is learning about graphing points in math, and he was playing a computer game before Tech Club where you drive a truck off a ramp and the game records how far and high the truck goes.

We wanted to see if the game world's gravity worked like gravity in the real world. Assuming the speed is about the same for each case, the higher an object is thrown, the less far it will go in distance away from the spot it was thrown. Also, the further an object is thrown, the less high it will go. We played the truck game 10 times and recorded the height and distance data.

After recording all of the data, we entered the information into excel and made a graph with it so we could see if the game had a direct relationship between how far the truck went and how high it went. The speed was not recorded in this game.
We found there was no direct relationship in the video game between how far the truck went in height to how far it went in distance.

For the rest of the time we did some more experimentation with the Alice programming software before we get started on the first level of our video games. Jordan added a warehouse and had a train car crash into the wall of the warehouse.

After this week, we will be doing one science experiment each Tech Club meeting. It should be exciting. Also, we will be fundraising for Tech Club very soon to get more resources so we can expand the experiments and projects we cover. Stay tuned to this space to learn how you can donate!

Looking to the Past and the Future

2011-01-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

Tuesday at Tech Club we did three main things:

Learn about the contributions African Americans have made to science and technology
Discuss what classes are helpful to take in high school to prepare for science and engineering programs in college
Work more with Alice, the programming tool, to learn more about how to add stationary objects and how to make the moving objects interact with them

We read several of the bios on http://cr4.globalspec.com/blog/128/National-Society-of-Black-Engineers-Blog, to learn about African Americans in science and engineering. One person who stuck out was George Washington Carver, but not because he invented peanut butter. Things we didn't know about him were that his parents died when he was young and had to move from home to home, and sometimes the area he moved to didn't have a high school that would allow African Americans to attend. Fortunately the people he lived with then payed for him to have a tutor. I also learned he did not initially go to college for science, but for art. It wasn't until he transferred to Iowa State University did he study this in college. He was the first African American to attend Iowa State, and eventually went on to become a faculty member, until Tulane University offered him a job on their faculty and great research opportunities.

After we spent some time reading and discussing these important figures in the history of science and engineering, we talked about some of my first year college experiences with math and programming in the University of Michigan engineering program. I shared which classes I took, or didn't take in high school that helped me, or could have helped me during that first year of college. I felt the two most important areas of study to have a solid foundation in for the first year of college were math and programming, though many high schools do not offer programming courses.

Lastly, we did some Alice programming. Sean built a mini city and added a few characters and had a dragon flying off of one of the sky scrapers.

Next week we hope to do some more programming with Alice, and talk about how Facebook newsfeed works and how people make games for Facebook. That's all for now! See you next week!

New Quarter, New Tech Club, And 3D Programming

2011-01-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

Tech Club has been going through some transitions, so sorry we haven't been updating frequently, but you will see many more updates soon about Tech Club. This quarter Tech Club will be focusing on learning some computer programming with the help of a really awesome program named Alice and we will be learning more about careers in science and technology as well as looking at some cool experimental technology people are working on.

Today with the program Alice, we mainly experimented with the objects and did some simple movements with them. Specifically we did some simple flying movements with the red dragon in the picture for this post.

In addition to working with Alice today, we learned about a biomedical engineering student and a civil engineering student on www.egfi-k12.org. Here is one of the students we learned about today:

In addition to learning about different types of science/tech/engineering majors, we learned about some interesting things people have done with technology, specifically, this lego printer:

Possibly in the future we will be doing our own projects with Legos, but that will probably be next quarter. We are excited to do more with Alice programming next week and learn more about what cool new things are going on in technology!

Happy Holidays from Cabrini Connections!

2010-12-20T14:44:00.001-08:00

Click here to donate.

The continuation of madlibs.

2010-11-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Today we have the first madlib completed by none other then Charles Hill. The madlibs were part of the Halloween spirit and created to scare and create a sense of mystery into people's lives. Here's the first one, and others will be updated soon, the story called, The Moon Savior.

Mad Libs Stories begin

2010-10-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. This is an update on tech club. Please be on the lookout because last week we started to make our very own Mad Libs story using the scratch software. Of course this will use up some of our creativity which will make these stories all the more fun. More importantly this is a way for us kids to get more familiar with the scratch software as we get deeper into making our up and coming Cabrini Connections video game. Please keep you eyes and Desktops open for another update!!

NEW CHARACTER

2010-10-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! My name is Savon Clark, as some of you know, and i am here to introduce my new character in our latest project, the Cabrini Connections video game. His name is Neo Nova. For now, his main role in the game will be a student. What he will do exactly is yet to be determined since we are still figuring out a lot of the game at this point. So for now, he will be introduced as an incoming character. Neo Nova hopes to see you all very soon.

Mizawa! The untold story!

2010-09-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Mizawa(Me-Zah-Wa), the character of my choice. The name and meaning is unknown. However, this character is awesome. Amazing at that. The character will bring truth and justice to Cabrini Connections! Believe it!...No. Just kidding, the character was my choice to choose. Off to the Cabrini Connections Adventure!

Nyshanell's character

2010-09-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

My character is a Hello Kitty fairy. I decided to make my character a fairy because every body don't like Kitty's but i do so deal with it. (I also love dogs so yeah).

scratch.mit.edu/projects/SidoUchiha/1127332

Game Chracter- Sido Ritsu

2010-09-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

My character was made from a sonic advance game base. I made it by taking a sonic advance sprite and customizing it to my own specifications. The reason I made my character how he appears is because I wanted to make something that would be almost impossible to make emotions for in a sprite comic.

Click here to see the game demo

The summer so far...

2010-08-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

Tech Club's summer has been an interesting one...we started the summer with the Year-End Dinner, which was an excellent presentation of the Cabrini Connections Adventure. It showed what people could be looking forward to by the time we're done. Other details to the Year-End Dinner can be seen here.

This summer in Tech Club, we've made a flier for the Tutor/Mentor Jam. Sean Mayfield was the person who worked on the flier and a few words from him are: "When we made the flier, we decided on how the background would look and what information from the Tutor/Mentor Jam would incorporate into this. So, in the following weeks I worked on the flier and it was a success."

We've introduced new student Avery and returning student Savon. Avery's been with the Tech Club group for a few weeks now, however he's already propelling himself into the world of Technology. In his own words Avery explains: "My name is Avery Harris, I'm currently starting my Freshmen year of high school and love working with technology. I decided to join Tech Club, so that it would help me learn more about technology, and I am really enjoying it." We are really enjoying Avery's company and he fits right in with the Tech Club group.

A few words from our returning Tech Club member Savon Clark, which in his own words he talks about the future of Tech Club: "Moving on Tech Club will continue its main project of the Cabrini Connections Adventure, however there will be a few side projects that will help progress our game along the way and will help us fix the "bugs" or "glitches" that have appeared in our game.

Also! As the new school year starts we will be learning about Variables, in the context of Technology, and will continue our work on the Cabrini Connections Adventure. More updates will be brought to you soon!

Tech Club so far...

2010-06-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This is Charles Hill here, student at Cabrini Connection and currently involved in Cabrini Connection's Tech Club. Our latest project has been a year long project called: "Cabrini Connections Adventure" our working title. The game uses several characters from Cabrini Connections, the Tech Club group, and also people outside of Cabrini Connections like politicians. The Tech Club group has been led by our Coordinator Mike Trakan, while we've been using the skills of Photoshop and Scratch to create our game. During the Year-End Dinner, Mike and I presented the demo for the game, featuring our Tech Club character Nyshanell Freeman. There are still a few "bugs" that need to be fixed, and as soon as they're fixed we'll proceed with more characters in the game. A link to the playable demo will be along with this post. We'll keep you updated along the way.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SidoUchiha/1127332

Tech Club creates Year End Dinner Graphic

2010-05-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

The annual Cabrini Connections year end dinner will be June 10. Details here. This is a fund raiser to raise money to pay for the dinner, for Senior Awards, and for Summer activities. If you can donate or be a sponsor, use this page.

This graphic was created by Mike and the students in who meet every Tuesday evening for Tech Club. Hopefully they will write some articles in coming days to show how they created this and talk about other things they are learning.

Technology Expertise for Mentoring Students

2010-04-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

The Cabrini Connections "Cabrini Madness 2010" tournament raised over $23,000 for Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection!!!

The tournament brought students, volunteers, community leaders, and you and I together in the name of a great cause - tutoring and mentoring - helping students reach their full potential, in an era where school cuts and budget crises continue to undermine the value of a public education.

Many new volunteers, donors, and mentoring advocates were introduced to the cause through the tournament.

Many others, already active with the cause, got a unique chance to meet, work, and have fun with others they might not otherwise have met.

And while only one team could be crowned Tournament Champion (GUARANTEED VICTORY edged out TEAM IMPECCABLE in the fundraising $6402 to $6120 on a last-minute donation by a professional NFL football player)... at the risk of sounding cliche.... "everybody won!!" :)

Well, that's what we, Team TEMS, are telling ourselves anyway :) We fought hard but only came in 6th place. You helped us raise $1175 for the cause! Thank you!

"Team TEMS"? As you likely know by now, Cabrini Connections Tech Club entered a team in the tournament... which was named "TEMS" by the 7th-9th graders who participate each week in Tech Club. "Technical Execution Madness Squad."

An intimidating name for a tournament. But like everything we created and learned during the tournament (The kids used their ever-improving tech skills to design logos/fliers/artwork, like the one above, for the tournament... and they took the lead in organizing two "Game Night" fundraisers)...

The name "Team TEMS" will stick with us...

Team TEMS - "Technology Expertise for Mentoring Students" - will be the name all our Tech Club projects will be produced under, henceforward.

So please take a look at this quick video that reflects on all the afterglow from the first annual Cabrini Connections Tournament.

And please accept our many thanks for your donations, which helped us make the first cut and finish in 6th place with $1175... as well as for all your support and words of encouragement these past couple months... and for coming to the two "game night" fundraisers the kids organized... (action picture to the left!)

But don't forget to check in from time to time, to this blog, and keep an eye on Team TEMS moving forward.

Because the tournament kept us busy, but it did little to distract us from the development of our next "Team TEMS" production... a video game... which builds on the teamwork, tech, advocacy, and troubleshooting skills we learned while competing in the Cabrini Madness Tournament.

We look forward to sharing it with you when it is released early this summer!

Game Day #2 - The Sequel - Video Games This Saturday!

2010-03-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's Board Game Fundraiser was a lot of fun. We had an enthralling game of Simpson's Clue (I still can't believe that it wasn't Lisa with the necklace in the Bowl-arama)... some Yu-Gi-Oh! card action... a little Scrabble and some Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune.

Good times... Students... Volunteers...Staff... and You... all got together in the name of community, mentoring, and raising money for the Cabrini Madness Tourney!!

But maybe the biggest success of all was the enthusiasm from the 9th grade Tech Club students, who approached my wife and I afterward to critique the way they had marketed the event, analyzing how the poster they designed last week could have been more effective at drawing people to the event.

Specifically they thought the image they chose in the ad didn't make people think "board games."

Lightbulbs were popping on, up over their heads.

What if we took the lessons we learned, and hosted a more tech-oriented "Video Game Fundraiser" for the people who couldn't make it last week... and...

What if we promoted it better? With images that screamed "video games"... They were learning... they are excited about advocating for their cause... and they wanted another shot at it.

So, without further ado... using the lessons the kids learned, and a new poster design they put together tonight in Tech Club, I invite you to:

Game Night #2 The Sequel - Video Games!
A fundraiser for Cabrini Connections Mentoring.

Stop by and say hi... and kick some Guitar Hero butt.

$5 donation, any time 1-6pm. Bring some food or drinks to share, if you like.

(Click on the flyer we designed in Tech Club - that image above - for more details!)

If you cannot make it but want to donate to the cause... http://www.giveforward.org/tems

Team TEMS Can't Get Cut! Join Us For Board Games!

2010-03-09T16:33:00.001-08:00

The web banner above was designed by Tech Club (aka Team TEMS) member, Charles (aka Mizawa).

As of today, with the 1st cut in the Cabrini Madness Tournament looming on the horizon, Tech Club's "Team TEMS" entry is sitting in 9th place with $312 raised. Only $63 separates us and the 8th seed, which represents the cut (and occurs on March 21st).

Don't let us get cut! Donate $5, $10, $25... whatever you can afford to help Team TEMS get to the next round!

And come meet us for Game Night (Day)!

This Saturday. $5 entry donated to Team TEMS.

Share your favorite game with us! Any time from 1pm until 6pm.

Or come at 1pm sharp to get in on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Tourney.

More details in the flyer to the right (created by Team TEMS members Sean and Charles).

Team TEMS! Cabrini Madness! Join us!

2010-02-19T13:21:00.000-08:00

Cabrini Connections Tech Club is a group of inner-city Chicago students who meet Tuesday evenings (on their own time) to learn job skills (such as graphic design, programming, and map-making) from professionals who volunteer one hour each week.

The program is hosted by Cabrini Connections, a tutoring and mentoring program near the Cabrini Green neighborhood that pairs students with volunteer tutors/mentors, and equips these students with extra tools and guidance they might need when making life decisions, pursuing higher education, and ultimately finding success in the job market.

The impact for you is long-term and lasting. See, as more mentoring programs grow, more kids learn to help themselves, and fewer of your tax dollars are eventually needed to fund welfare- and crime-related programs -- two costs of poverty.

Specifically, Cabrini Connections Tech Club (or "Team TEMS" - Technology Expertise for Mentoring Students - as they've dubbed themselves) has been meeting weekly with local IT and design professionals, and together they are in the process of developing a video game (to be released later this year!) In the spirit of advocacy, the video game will provide an interactive look into tutoring/mentoring. It casts students from Team TEMS as the heroes, and examines the challenges they face in building awareness and raising the funding needed to keep Tech Club operational.

See, this couldn't happen without you. So we're giving you a quick way to become involved!

Team TEMS has entered the Cabrini Connections "Cabrini Madness 2010" tournament, as one of 13 teams competing to see who can find the most people willing to support tutoring/mentoring and Tech Club. (Of course, for the tournament, a more intimidating acronym - "Technical Execution Madness Squad" - will be used :)

Head to the Team TEMS home page... meet the students (Charles, Kierre, Nyshanell, and Sean)... as well as volunteers and other roster-members, including Mike Trakan, (GIS Professional, High School Teacher, and Indie Rock Musician)… Szu-Han Ho (a volunteer tutor/mentor)... Christine Kochevar (Graphic Designer, and Artist)… Mark Shore (CIO Shore Capital Management LLC, business leader, and Rock Musician), and Vicky Georganas Trakan (Bar Manager: Webster's Wine Bar, and Artist).

Join our team! All we ask is for a small donation – $5, $10, $25 - as much as you can afford – to this tax-deductible fundraiser/competition.

Together with you, Team TEMS will continue to fight for students' futures, for your community… and for the glory of the “Cabrini Madness Tournament 2010” championship!

Tech Club Creates Graphics for Cabrini Madness

2010-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

Visit the Cabrini Madness page on the Cabrini Connections web site and you'll see this graphic. It was created by students in tech club working with volunteers who work with technology and graphic design for a living. These students are learning a skill that can lead to jobs and careers.

In Cabrini Madness teams of students, volunteers, staff, Board members and friends are competing with each other to see which team can raise the most dollars to support the ongoing operations of this organization. It's a great competition and many students are learning valuable leadership, communications and team work skills that are valued by business leaders.

The Tech Club has it's own team, and created its own logo. Click here and you can support Zzu-Han Ho, Charles Hill, Mike Trakan, Mark Shore, Vicky Georganas Trakan, Christine Kochevar, Sean Mayfield, Kierre Halbert, and NyShanell Freeman in their quest to win the Cabrini Madness competition.

Merry Christmas!! From Tech Club!!!!

2009-12-25T06:11:00.000-08:00

We here at Tech Club want to thank everyone for their support this past year, and hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas day!

(Snowman design by Kierre (bio here)... the young man who also produced the "Turkey Head" Cabrini Connections logo from Thanksgiving, using the same image editing skills he's been perfecting at Tuesday Night Tech Club.)

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Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Students Charles and Sean!

2009-12-23T16:42:00.000-08:00

It should be no surprise that one of the more creative and provocative Christmas designs was created by our more experienced tech club members, who offer this sleek Holidays At Night design (as I like to call it :)

Two of our older tech club members, Charles (aka Mizawa) and Sean (See Sean's bio here) are already fairly accomplished techies, both on paths to become talented designers and programers. In fact, much of their time in the club has been spent offering a hand as teacher assistant for the younger members.

If you look through this blog, you will see several examples of the compositions Mizawa has already created, through his own motivation (the Tech Club banner up above for instance, but cool designs here and here. And check out some of the anime he's put together here.)

Both of these young men have also become Paint.Net gurus, and also have collaborated on a few animations, like this one here.

It will be exciting to see the work they produce in our upcoming projects in 2010.

Meantime, please join Sean, Charles, and myself in having a safe and merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student Israel!

2009-12-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is the third in our series of holiday graphics designed by 7th-9th grade students at Cabrini Connections Tech Club... students who choose to spend their Tuesday evenings learning/practicing marketable tech skills.

Today's designer, Israel (bio here), took a different approach from the one NyShanell and Marquise took. While the previous two graphics were assembled using Photoshop to cut, paste, and manipulate graphics that were borrowed from elsewhere on the internet, Israel decided to combine technology with his talent as a 2-dimensional artist (he also spends Monday evenings as a member of the Cabrini Connections Art Club).

To accomplish the bells above, he simply drew his image, and then scanned it into the computer, saving the file to be easily opened in an editing application like Photoshop.

Like all great composers however, Israel simply has too many good ideas floating around to get caught up too long in any single art piece!

I can't wait for the artist to come back to these bells with new inspiration and maybe take them to new artistic levels.

Meantime, great job, Israel, using the computer to take something you drew, and prepping it for digital editing. And thanks for the holiday wishes!

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Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student NyShanell!

2009-12-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

The second offering in our Holiday Series is submitted by talented artist, and a natural at graphic design... 7th grader NyShanell... check out her bio for more about her love of computers and art...

If there is something more representative of the spirit of the holidays than people holding hands around a Christmas tree, I don't know what is.

You can almost hear imagine the volunteers, students, and donors represented by the characters in the Cabrini Connections logo singing a carol outside in the snow!...

...Right before heading indoors for a cup of cocoa and a discussion, using Mapping For Justice maps, about how new collaborations can be made to ensure students with all the ability in the world, like NyShanell, have access to programs like Cabrini Connections, to build a work-ready skillset in every neighborhood in Chicago and beyond.

Thanks NyShanell. Great work as always!

Happy Holidays to everyone from Tech Club!

(Last week's submission by Marquise is here.)
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Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student Marquise!

2009-12-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

Students at Cabrini Connections are involved in more than just one-on-one mentoring... many of them take time out of their evenings during the week to attend clubs. That what this site is all about - a showcase of the work produced by the students who work with volunteer professionals on Tuesday nights to learn the skills they need to compete as future techies in the job market!

We took time out from our big project this past month (to be revealed later this winter) and produced the some holiday-inspired pieces... using tech skills we've been practicing at Tech Club.

I will feature those here in the week leading up to Christmas!

The first design to the left was produced by 7th grade student, Marquise (bio here)... a young man who is also a member of Video and Filmmakers Club on Mondays... and an artist with a flair for taking the simple and turning it into something unique, complex, and meaningful (a talent you can't always teach!).

Marquise used his Photoshop skills and artistic eye, and used the Cabrini Connections logo to highlight and define the puffy white part at the top of the traditional Christmas Stocking.

A brilliant composition that combines the spirit of the holiday with the pride of the program.

Marquise explains:

"The stocking of Cabrini Connections represent how everyone in the program is family and the stocking represents a member of Cabrini Connections."

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Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Holiday Fund Raising - Organize An Event

2009-12-01T09:30:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks staff and volunteers of Cabrini Connections have been inviting friends, family and coworkers to help with Holiday FUNdraising. I encourage you to read El Da'Sheon's article, showing how he's reaching out.

Our teens are helping, too. The holiday graphics that we're using were created by the youth who meet each week for Tech Club. I think you'll agree, there is a lot of talent. Hopefully, we'll be able to find enough donors, and additional volunteers, to help these kids keep developing these skills.

We'd like to see a lot of our volunteers and friends organize their own fund raising campaigns this year. At GiveForward we've set up a Tis The Season campaign which you can contribute to. Or, you can register, and create your own personalized campaign that can be supported by your company, faith group, family, or social group.

If enough people try to raise the money needed at Cabrini Connections, we will be able to continue to teach teens to make graphics and use technology to communicate ideas. Thank you everyone for your help.

Happy Thanksgiving from Tech Club

2009-11-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

This logo graphic was created by 7th grader Kierre, one of 8 -10 students who meet each week in the Cabrini Connections technology club. He used Photoshop skills he has learned from volunteers over the past month to modify the Cabrini Connections logo in a simple yet clever (and festive) way.

This is one of several holiday graphics that will be used over the next six weeks in our annual holiday fund raising campaigns.

Another example is provided by Israel... whose Turkey dares you to try and cook him for dinner.

Turkey advocacy, and a heck of a good sense of humor! Thanks Israel!

If you'd like to donate to help us continue this work, click here.

We are also looking for new tech-savvy volunteers to meet with us Tuesday evenings for an hour after work. Email us.

Meaning of logo

2009-11-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

The meaning of the logo that charles and I made is that it symbolizes the holidays under the pale moonlight and the spirit that roams the holidays (the moon)

A new background

2009-11-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I learned (Randomly did out of boredom) How to make backgrounds without the use of google or anything. Usually I would copy some things and paste a few images, but now, I can do it all myself. I know I've been talking about getting the new step by step plan for Paint.Net, yet I haven't been able to think on how to make it, so until then I am prolonging that idea. However, to keep everyone updated, I do plan on making the step by step plan soon, hopefully. This Tuesday in Tech Club, I will talk with a few of my peers and try to figure this out.

Basic Paint.net

2009-10-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hello once again it's Charles/Mizawa. Without all the flashing images, and moving objects, I wanted to show a basic picture that can be created using Paint.Net and only Paint.Net. As we speak I am figuring out a way to make a step by step plan on using Paint.Net.

Technology Night vs Tech Club

2009-10-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

(Blog submitted by EL D'asheon Nix)

This week's traditional Tech Club was altered just a bit. Tech Club's fearless leader, Mike Trakan, was not able to attend the session and a special guest of the Tech Club was unable to make it as well.

So Cabrini Connections' staff EL Da' Sheon Nix and Bradley Troast turned Tech Club into Technology Night. The students who attended the session did not work on their weekly projects, but used the computer and the Internet to catch up on some of their academic work and to check the progress on previous work.

Some of the students then located Internet games such as pool to pass the time during the open session which was a great idea. Instead of playing board games, the group used technology to learn and engage themselves in tonight's session. There were a couple of students and a mentor who usually meet on Wednesday who was present tonight because of a scheduling for tomorrow's session. So with the last 15 minutes of the session, we took the technology one step further and we played a game of Catch Phrase, where the males teamed up against the females. The game is similar to Taboo or charades, but uses a hand held technological devices as the center of the game. After an intense 15 minutes of Catch Phrase the females proved to be no match for us guys.

All in all, Technology Night was a lot of fun and gave the group other ways in which to learn, have fun, and compete all while using TECHNOLOGY!!!

Fireboy Picture

2009-09-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

This is an Example of what to look for in the future. I am *Nova*( or aka Savon) and I am currently writing a story called Fireboy. This story is about a boy named Jason andhow he is able to control the black fire demon that has been in his family for generations and find a way to stop the evil warlord Vladamir.

Mizawa Sprite!

2009-09-01T16:57:00.001-07:00

This artwork/sprite was created this week by Sean, using paint. Charles animated the artwork, using unfreeze.

Mizawa, Photoshop picture

2009-08-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, this is a picture I, Charles Hill, or known as Mizawa, have created. It's one of my many pictures I've used by using photoshop, using photoshop is something I've learned how to use during Tech Club, and now I'm able to create images such as this. Soon, I'll be making a guideline on how to make pictures using photoshop since it's complicated in the begginning, however becomes easier as you go on.

Ideas for youth building web sites

2009-05-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm part of an on-line community where people share ideas that they use in their teaching and learning. Today one of the topics is about "motivating kids". One response talked of how kids were encouraged to build web sites as part of this motivation effort.

I encourage volunteers working with teens at Cabrini Connections to read this article, follow the links, and see if there are ideas you can incorporate into what we're doing here.

Tech Club Students Profiled blog

2009-04-21T13:32:00.001-07:00

Chris Warren profiled Cabrini Connections Tech Club kids in his weekly student profiles. Take a look.

Tech Club Work in Progress

2009-04-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are content with just visiting websites like YouTube and Facebook, that's just great. However Tech Club isn't content with that. We want more! In Tech Club, we make our own websites! Check out this W.I.P. created by Sean Mayfield. http://www.cabriniconnections.net/web3/home.html A W.I.P. is short for Work in Progress. That means we'll spend the next few months editing, revising, and adding to this website. Right now, it's a great start. But with a little work, it is going to totally rock. Check back every week to see just how much progress Sean makes.

Who wants to join Tech Club?

2009-03-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

The websites are coming along just fine. We're at the point where we are going to start publishing what we have today. Check back for links and see what Tech Club has been up to.

In the meantime, Tech Club is still looking for another volunteer. We are currently working with Dreamweaver and Photoshop. If you have experience with these, that's great, but it's not necessary. We really need someone to help guide the kids. The classes are growing. The kids are motivated and have some great ideas. We just need someone who can help direct them.

Don't just visit websites. Make your own!

2009-03-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tech Club used to be Cabrini's best kept secret. But we can't say that any more. The word is out. Tech Club has arrived and we are HUGE. The classes are fun, the kids are motivated and more and more of them are showing up every week. We basically kick back with some snacks and talk about movies and video games. When we're done, we hit the computers. Right now, we just happen to be learning how to make websites using DreamWeaver and HTML. Everybody and their mother has their own website these days. All it takes is an idea and a little bit of time and energy. Anybody who wants to stop by is welcome to see what we do. And if you don't stop in, don't worry, you'll be seeing our websites on the internet real soon. :)

The Team

2009-03-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Tech Club has lost a great team leader in the past week as Alice Toth has taken a project in Atlanta. This means we're in search of a couple of other volunteers who will help with the Tuesday night group at Cabrini Connections, and who will help share what the group does via this blog.

One source of volunteers is the local universities in Chicago. Chris Warren wrote about one way we hope to recruit volunteers, and financial supporters, in his blog.

We'd like to see a team of tech volunteers, and students, organize for the same goals, but focused on helping tech volunteers work with kids in programs like Cabrini Connections, while also working to make sure funds are available to support the technology. Read Vjeko's blog to see how important this is.

Thanks Alice for helping the Tech Club for the past year. I hope you stay connected virtually. If readers would like to join to help keep this group going, just email tutormentor2@earthlink.net or call 312-492-9614.

Photo Fridays

2009-02-28T06:26:00.001-08:00

Sunset over Mobile Bay

Point Clear, Alabama

Death to IE6

2009-02-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

Those of us who code web apps and web sites have had to deal with making the presentation layer work in IE6. Due to IE6's non-compliance with W3C Standards, this involves a ridiculous amount of extra work (i.e., hacks) to get the page to render correctly in this most outdated of browsers. We've all written CSS that contains something like this:

.foo { margin: 0px 10px; _margin: -3px 5px; }

just so things will render the same across all browsers. And don't get me started on the extra lines of Javascript needed to make things work with IE6's archaic DOM.

The problem is that these deviations from the standard now become the standard and increase the amount of time required to write and maintain code. For those of us who went through the browser wars it is, unfortunately, second nature to write in all of these hacks; for others, it's just plain crazy and not understandable. Unfortunately, since this ancient browser is still in use by a non-negligible amount of people (somewhere between 10 to 20% worldwide), we have to support it.

But not for long. There is a movement underway to rid the world of IE6. From wired.com:

Several large websites in Norway have launched an advocacy campaign urging Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade their outdated web browsers.

Leading the charge is Finn.no, an eBay-like site that is apparently the largest site for buying and selling goods in all of Norway (Finn is Norwegian for "Find"). Earlier this week, Finn.no posted a warning on its web page for visitors running IE 6. The banner, seen at right, urges them to ditch IE 6 and upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

While started in Norway, this movement has gone global. An international wiki site tracks the spreading suppport; you can also follow on twitter using the #IE6 hashtag; and show your support by joining the Facebook group. Even Microsoft is supporting the campaign, issuing a statement that they hope their users will upgrade to IE7.

A global, grass-roots movement -- very cool. IE6? The bell tolls for thee.

Did You Know? (Part Two)

2009-02-23T05:36:00.000-08:00

Some more interesting facts I came across while wandering the tubes:

Ralph Johnson Bunche was a chief research analyst in the Office of Strategic Services (pre-CIA spy agency), the first African American to be a division head in the Dept. of State and he was with the United Nations, where he became the principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission. Due to his work, Dr. Bunche (Ph.D. Harvard) was awarded the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the 1948 Arab-Israeli truce.

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman, who moved to Chicago in 1915, was the first African American to become an airplane pilot and the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilot license. In 2005, a small park in Hyde Park neighborhood was named Bessie Coleman Park.

The History Channel's website has a great interactive feature on black history timeline.

Nice Redesign!

2009-02-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

Cabrini Connections has a new site design! The navigation makes it much easier to get around, to enter your SVHATS entrance and exit information (no excuses now!), and they even have some fun stuff like adding the Cabrini Connections theme to your iGoogle. Cool!

Go check it out at www.cabriniconnections.net

Photo Fridays

2009-02-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

City Grid

Chicago, IL

CTA Bus Tracker Update

2009-02-19T05:58:00.000-08:00

Having previously written about CTA's bus tracker, I wanted to let you know that they're expanding their list of routes. Here's the list of routes that are currently being tracked:

3, X3, 4, X4, 6, 7, 8, 9, X9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 20, X20, 21, 22, 35, 36, 38, 39, 43, 44, 47, 48, 49, X49, 49B, 50, 51, 52A, 52, 53A, 54A, 54B, 55, X55, 55A, 55N, 56, 56A, 59, 60, 62, 62H, 63, 63W, 67, 68, 69, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80, X80, 81, 81W, 82, 84, 85, 85A, 86, 87, 88, 90, 90N, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 125, 126, 129, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 156, 157 and 165.

As of March 2nd, these additional routes will now be available on ctabustracker.com:

1, 8A, 14, 15, 24, 28, X28, 29, 34, 49A, 53, 54, X54, 57, 65, 66, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 111, 119

:hover

2009-02-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

We continued to learn about links this week -- specifically, how to create text links such as this:

visit Cabrini Connections

and image links such as this:

We also started to learn about applying the pseudo class of :hover to our links, both text and images, so we can show something different when a user hovers their mouse over the link. We are slowly but surely building an HTML/CSS vocabulary and, more importantly, learning that we need to be precise when we're typing!

Technology & Privacy

2009-02-17T05:09:00.000-08:00

There seems to be a storm a brewin' with Facebook's recent changes to its terms of service. The new terms seem to state that anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook however they deem fit, forever and ever, even if you close your account.

That certainly doesn't seem right, but until better legal minds than mine can parse through the lingo, it might be a good idea to review exactly what you have visible to the full public and what is restricted to your friends or to just you. Check out this article on Facebook Privacy Settings to see what settings you might want to change.

The same holds true for users of other social networking sites (MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) -- while those spaces may not have modified their terms of service, you probably should review your privacy settings just to see what information is visible to whom. This is especially relevant to anyone applying to college or interviewing for a job -- yes, those places sometimes do search social networking sites to find out more information about you. And let's face it: you don't want them to have the same access as your friends. Just sayin.

Did You Know?

2009-02-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, affirms "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude."

In 1872, Frederick Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States, as Victoria Woodhull's running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket. He was nominated without his knowledge.

After the Civil War, the nation's new black voters overwhelmingly aligned themselves with the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln originally established to oppose slavery. Times have changed.

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, the son of a slave and her owner, set a couple of firsts. He was the first African American to become Governor of a U.S. state. He was also the first non-white Governor of Louisiana.

In Chicago on January 25, 1890, Timothy Thomas Fortune co-founded the National Afro-American League to right wrongs against African Americans authorized by law and sanctioned or tolerated by public opinion. This set the stage for the NAACP and other civil rights organizations to follow.

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Photo Fridays

2009-02-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

ALICE

Photo credit: Maximilien Brice, © CERN

ALICE, A Large Ion Collider Experiment, will study the physics of ultrahigh-energy proton-proton and lead-lead collisions and will explore conditions in the first instants of the universe, a few microseconds after the Big Bang. The photo is the ALICE Inner Tracking System during its transport in the experimental cavern and its insertion into the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) at CERN.

Technology in the Real World

2009-02-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

In an effort to look at uses of technology in the real world, I thought we'd look at the pairing of technology and a live event such as the Super Bowl, where technology is used not only in the game itself but also to enhance the overall viewing of the fans. From the headsets coaches use to communicate, to the computers used to calculate statistics to the HD cameras that record the contest for the viewing audience, technology is now an integral part of the game.

Here's how that integration breaks down into the details:

A Super Bowl Twitter feed was available as away to share a little bit of the flavor of the excitement gathering around the game with the fans before kickoff. Superbowl XLIII? Meet Web 2.0.

The superbowl.com site was designed, developed and available on the web. Online viewers were able to select from five different cameras filming the event and watch the player they wanted to see speak.

During the game, we saw 3D commercials -- well if you had the proper glasses they were in 3D. Why bother? Well, these digitally created commercials were a good test case for potentially running 3D trailers in movie theaters in the future.

Wireless bridge technology and Wi-Fi devices to support 4,000 journalists. Wi-Fi allows the NFL to streamline their costs by eliminating running lots of cable but still provide a reliable service. And obviously someone with a knowledge of infrastructure needed to setup those routers and networks so they could support roughly 500 simultaneous connections.

For game production and business operations, the NFL tech team built out an infrastructure with approximately 300 computers, PCs and laptops.

To support it all, the league and IBM used a series of four IBM BladeCenter S chassis, one at each of four venues the NFL has set up around Tampa: one for general media and PR, one for the league's offices, one for game-day media and PR, and one for credentialing and in-house security. These environments don't set themselves up.

Of course not everything in the Super Bowl requires technology -- the game still begins with the entirely low-tech flip of a coin.

General Motors & Solar Power

2009-02-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

Quick -- who owns the two largest rooftop solar stations in the US? If you guessed General Motors (yup, the car company), you'd be correct. Not content with that, General Motors also has the world's largest rooftop source of power from the sun at its plant in Spain. Who knew!

In the U.S., their rooftop stations are located atop warehouse facilities in both Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga, California, and have been operational for a couple of years now. Electricity generated by the solar array, but not used by the GM facilities, is fed back into the electrical grid for sale to other area residents and businesses. During spring and fall, which in California are periods of high sunshine combined with low air conditioning needs, the system will generate extra electricity for the grid.

Last summer, GM began installing 85,000 solar panels on top of its Zaragoza plant in Spain, covering over 2 million square feet. These will provide over 10 megawatts of power from a renewable energy source that will not only be used by the factory (responsible for over 480,000 vehicles) but also by the local power grid.

Providing "green" energy to the local community's power grid -- and I thought GM just made cars.

Interested in the field of green technology and wondering what areas it might encompass? A good place to start is Chicago's Center for Green Technology.

Netflix + XBOX 360 =$$

2009-02-10T05:58:00.000-08:00

part•ner•ship [noun]:

An association of two or more people who take part in an undertaking with each other, especially in a business or company with shared risks and profits.

Once upon a time, two companies formed a partnership. Two months later, one million Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console users have activated Netflix's movie streaming service. One Million. In two months.

With this service, Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix members can instantly view content from Netflix on a TV via the Xbox 360 system through its Watch Instantly video service. In the two months this co-service has been available, the Xbox LIVE community has watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes. That's B for Billion. In two months.

Showing movies and t.v. shows over the web has been talked about ever since the debut of the web. Bandwidth finally increased to the point where it's possible and now technology has caught up to the point where consumers feel comfortable about it. The Netflix/XBox partnership may be a blueprint for the future of streaming movies. Per Reuters:

Analysts have been watching for data on the alliance as an important gauge of the emerging market for movies delivered over the Web, particularly as traditional media companies like Walt Disney this week have reported declining DVD sales and said the traditional business for delivering home video needs to be revised.

Netflix last month said its stronger-than-expected quarterly results were propelled by growth in its Web video streaming service and that streaming was "energizing" its growth.

Dr. Herman B. White Smashes Atoms

2009-02-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

Tech Club salutes:

Herman B. White
Particle Physicist
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab)

Dr. Herman B. White has been a particle physics scientist with Fermilab for the past 34 years. His research has covered a range of topics in Particle and Nuclear Physics, as well as work with accelerators and particle beams.

In a 1997 interview, Dr. White made the statement that "[The physicist's] job is to advance knowledge and erase ignorance." His efforts to bring information, concerns, and focus about physics and physical science research have caused him to appear before U.S. Congress, the National Science Foundation, National Public Radio and others. Dr. White's next lecture is at the Adler Planetarium where among other things he'll bring us up to date on the progress of starting the world's newest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.

But lest you think physicists do nothing but deal with a bunch of stuff we can't even see, their problem solving filters over into our every day lives as well. The World Wide Web was an idea conceived and implemented by a group of high-energy physicists at CERN who wanted to instantly share their ideas and papers with colleagues across the globe. Thanks to their creative solution, the world has become a bit more interconnected.

International Year of Astronomy

2009-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Related to this week's Photo Fridays' pics, were you aware that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy?

Astronomy (from the Greek words astron (star) and nomos (law)) is the scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation).
source: Wikipedia

In 2009, 400 years after Galileo first used a telescope to study the skies, the International Astronomical Union and the United Nations are honoring both astronomers and astronomical milestones by proclaiming 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy.

Celebrate the International Year of Astronomy by brushing up on your own knowledge of the skies. Visit the Adler Planetarium's site where they'll be posting a monthly Hot Topic to explore our understanding of the universe and updating their CyberSpace website with space science content and resources about each topic. Both NASA and the International Year of Astronomy also have sites celebrating this year.

To start you off, February's Hot Topic at the Adler is "Our Solar System" where you can read about what Galileo observed when he viewed the universe through that crazy new invention called a telescope.

Photo Fridays

2009-02-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

Postcards from Mars

Photo Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and University of Arizona

Google Earth Gets Wet

2009-02-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

A new version of Google Earth has just been released which now contains an undersea view of the world. This new feature includes maps of the ocean bottom, photographs and videos of underwater flora and fauna and even shipwrecks. But no pirates, argh!

Google's partners in this new venture are the National Geographic Society, the Scripps Oceanographic Institution and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. In fact, a former chief scientist at NOAA, Sylvia Earle, once joked that Google Earth should be called "Google Dirt," because it omitted a majority of the planet's surface. That is no longer the case.

{ color: red; }

2009-02-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

Sean, Kaylin, Cazzie and newest Cabrini Connections and Tech Club member Elijah continued on with their quest to create websites.

Old pro Sean decided his text buttons were just too ugly for his site and quickly opened up Photoshop to create some cool looking graphics for his buttons. He and Steve worked on adding in some pretty neat effects and the result was worth the effort. Sean is just owning this project, which I can see as his site is moving forward.

Meanwhile, Kaylin, Cazzie and Elijah started learning the basics with HTML. We focused on an introduction to CSS, mainly taking about background and text colors. Specifically, we discussed:

background-color
background-image
color
font-size
font-family

and how to make a defined style be applied globally or just to one HTML element.

They soon had their first web page up and then spent some time changing colors and text in their code and seeing how it would display in a browser. There were some errors, but that's part of programming and after some troubleshooting, figured out their mistakes and the correct page was soon visible.

All in all I'm very proud of how quickly they've picked up on the essentials and look forward to seeing how they turn the basics into a site; and how Sean continues to build out his design vision. Tuesday nights at Cabrini Connections are very exciting!!!

Track that Bus!

2009-02-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

Is there anything is more frustrating than standing at a bus stop not knowing when (or if) the next bus will come? I think not. To help alleviate that frustration, CTA has developed a very handy bus tracker service to let you know where the buses are on a specific route and when they're expected to arrive at their stops.

Not all bus routes have tracking on them, at least not yet, but those that are online have tracking devices on the buses that update the CTA servers with their location information. That information is then available to you so you can plan when you should start walking to the bus stop. Or if you should actually be running ... like right now!

Since CTA doesn't assume you're always sitting at a computer, you can access ctabustracker.com either from your computer or using a mobile device (such as a cell phone). So if you're already at the stop and your phone has internet access, you can check their site to see how much longer you'll be standing there. The site served up on a mobile device is text only and the navigation is very direct -- which is exactly what you need for a mobile device. You're first presented with a list of the bus routes that have tracking enabled. After selecting your route, choose a direction (e.g., northbound) and then choose a bus stop. CTA then displays the arrival time of the next bus and the one or two after that. When I used my phone to look up the #8 southbound to see when it would arrive at Halsted & Chicago, I was shown this information:

Halsted & Chicago (South Bound)
#8    To 79th    8 MIN    (Bus 1672)
#8    To 79th    15 MIN    (Bus 1226)
#8    To 79th    23 MIN    (Bus 1661)

When you access the site via a web browser, it has a much more rich interface but similar to the mobile device, you can look up estimated arrival times for a specific stop. In addition, the browser site has a very nice mapping feature where they integrated their bus tracking with Google maps. In this map view, they place an icon of the bus along the route so you can actually see where the buses are. The buses "move" along the map as their location information is updated. You can still view the estimated arrival time by clicking on a stop on the map, but in this view you can also set up a pop-up alert so you'll be notified when a bus reaches a given stop.

As someone who frequently uses public transportation, this is a great tool, and I hope it'll be rolled out to all the routes. Kudos to CTA for not only implementing ctabustracker.com, but also for creating a version for mobile devices. If you use it, let me know how you like it and how accurate you find the arrival times to be.

Australian Open Win

2009-02-02T05:58:00.000-08:00

Serena Williams wins Australian Open

Photo credit: Getty Images / January 31, 2009

Over the weekend, Serena Williams won her fourth Australian Open with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Dinara Safina in the final. Williams ran off 18 of the last 20 points in the first set to finish it in 22 minutes. That's impressive.

With this win, Ms. Williams' Grand Slam titles now add up to 10, making her only the seventh woman to have achieved double-digit Grand Slam singles titles. In addition, she's now the fifth woman to win four or more Australian singles titles and has once again reclaimed her No. 1 ranking.

This post has nothing to do with technology -- I just think she's a great athlete.

Death by Black Hole

2009-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:00

I have always been fascinated by the universe and appreciate those who not only delve into space but can explain it in such a way that it's understandable to the rest of us. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one such person.

For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Dr. Tyson is an astrophysicist, the Director of the Hayden Planeterium in NYC, host of the PBS science program Nova scienceNOW and author of "Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandries". In this interview he ruminates on our expanding universe, the risks of asteroids threatening Earth, and death by black hole among other topics. Who wouldn't want to know about that!

I particularly like his view is that Earth is not an isolated planet -- we are connected to the universe. I hope you enjoy his conversation.

[updated]: this is the first time I've embedded Google video; if it doesn't work for you, please leave a comment noting which browser and OS you're using (e.g., IE7 on Vista). kthxbye.

Photo Fridays

2009-01-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

I'm tired of cold and snow and ice.

Protest or Facebook Event?

2009-01-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting article on the rise of political activism via social network sites. In countries that restrict or outright ban such things as gathering in a public place, these sites are the perfect venue for sharing ideas and organizing groups.

From the article:

Members coalesce around a few issues — free speech, economic stagnation and government nepotism — and they share their ideas for improving Egypt. But they do more than just chat: they have tried to organize street protests to free jailed journalists, and this month, hundreds of young people from the April 6 group participated in demonstrations about Gaza, some of which were coordinated on Facebook, and at least eight members of the group were detained by police.

I encourage you to read the full article. It's a good look at how the web is being used in other countries.

Career Direction : Culinary Arts

2009-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Culinary Art is the art of cooking. From Wikipedia:

Culinary artists are responsible for skillfully preparing meals that are as pleasing to the palate as to the eye. Increasingly they are required to have a knowledge of the science of food and an understanding of diet and nutrition. They work primarily in restaurants, fast food chain store franchises, delicatessens, hospitals and other institutions

Why the post on cooking? Well, thanks to Cabrini Connections' tutor/mentor and Board member Mike Hayes, you'll have the opportunity to visit Charlie Trotter's Restaurant, get a great meal and learn about a career in the Culinary Arts. While becoming a chef or cook may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this field, there are other career paths available as well, such as: food and beverage managers, dining room managers (corporate and institutional), food writers and critics, and researchers who develop new food products.

The Charlie Trotter ‘Experience’ is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 10th and will accommodate 14-16 students. The selection process for the students is currently being discussed, but if you have any interest in the Culinary Arts, talk to your mentor or anyone at Cabrini Connections to find out how you can be one of the students enjoying this experience.

From Thumbnails to Code

2009-01-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

<html>
  <head>
    <title>test page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    hello world
  </body>
</html>

Last week, Sean and Steve did some thumbnail sketches of the different pages in their site, showing the page layout and how the user would travel between the various pages.

Tonight we started to turn those thumbnails into actual web pages. Sean found some really cool images he's using for background art. Steve is relying more on typography, rather than visual images, to convey his sense of design. Both approaches are valid and acceptable and highlight how the website designer brings his/her own sense of style to a site.

Cazzie and Kaylin have joined Tech Club (welcome!!) and jumped right in with sketching out some ideas for their website. They came up with some very well thought out concepts that are going to look really neat as websites. Next week they will start turning those sketches into code while Sean continues to code along on his website.

All in all, we're on a roll and coding away like crazy.

Government 2.0

2009-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

In continuation of his pledge for a more transparent government, President Obama is once again turning to the Internet to disseminate information to the American public. This time the information revolves around tracking how and where taxpayer dollars are spent for the economic recovery.

In his weekly address, President Obama talked about a new website that's being setup which "shall provide data on relevant economic, financial, grant and contract information in user-friendly visual presentations to enhance public awareness of the use of funds made available in this Act."

The Act he refers to is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Once the Act is passed, the new website will allow us to track the performance of contracts that are awarded to various companies, industries, etc., and see how they are doing with our money. And if we don't like how they're handling our tax dollars, the site is one way we can send in our feedback and let them know what we think.

For now, Recovery.gov is a placeholder. Once the Act passes and is signed by the President, this website will be our source for knowing who the contracts are awarded to and a means to holding them accountable for good governance. Transparency via the Internet -- that's Government 2.0.

Downadup/Conflicker worm

2009-01-26T05:58:00.000-08:00

Since late last year, a new malicious software program has been making the rounds of cyberspace and infecting millions of Windows computers worldwide. Known as Downadup (also called Downad, Kido, Conficker or Conflicker), this Windows worm spreads in three different ways: by exploiting a Windows vulnerability (which has since been patched); by guessing weak network passwords; and by the use of autorun on network drives and removeable gadgets such as USB keys.

The infection seems to be the first step of a potential multistage attack, although as of now, Downadup's main trick is to block users from accessing antivirus sites to obtain updates or from accessing Microsoft's site to download the necessary Windows patch. However, once a machine is infected, the worm is capable of downloading second-stage code for potentially darker purposes. It might operate in the background, using the infected computer to send spam or infect other computers, or it might steal the PC user’s personal information. "Right now it's not destroying or stealing -- it's just hanging out," comments Tom Cross, X-Force researcher in the IBM ISS division. "It's building its network of hosts."

What to do? Since this worm can spread three different ways, here's the short list what you should do:

Make sure your Windows security updates are, well, up-to-date.
If Windows Update is set to automatically download and install security updates and patches, you should be good to go, but it wouldn't hurt to double check. Verify that the patch has been installed by bringing up Windows Update, then clicking "Review your update history" and looking for a security update labeled as "KB958644." If it's not there, then manually run the security updates. If you're just installing the patch now,
take Microsoft's advice and run the January edition of its free Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), which was updated last week so that it can detect, and then delete, Downadup infections.

Make sure your passwords, especially any network passwords, are strong. The worm relies on people using weak passwords -- dictionary words such as "password", "changeme", "testtest" or sequences of letters or repeated numbers (123123). Strong passwords are lengthy with a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. As Microsoft's article on strong passwords states: "A 15-character password composed only of random letters and numbers is about 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard."

Disable Autorun and Autoplay to protect the spread from flash drives. A USB storage device (typically a flash drive although any USB device can be infected) from an infected computer will have the file "autorun.inf" at its root. When that flash drive is connected to a PC, the file takes advantage of Windows' Autorun and Autoplay features to copy the worm to any machine that it's plugged into.

Network World has the details on how to deal with this potential problem along with a general article on the worm itself.

Masons of Regolith

2009-01-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

No, it's not a new video game.

If (maybe when?) NASA returns to the moon, the idea of a permanent base camp is not far-fetched. We've all seen the sci-fi movies with dwellings dotting the moonscape, but the reality is how to deal with the logistics needed to transport the necessary building materials.

A team of seven students from the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech have been working on that very problem and devised a solution: use the volcanic ash from moon rocks to create moon bricks. Since actual lunar rock is scarce, the students devised a simulated regolith by using volcanic ash from a deposit on Earth along with various minerals and basaltic glass, similar to rock on the lunar surface.

From Popular Mechanics:

The team combined the faux moon ash with powdered aluminum and mixed the two together in a silica crucible. Then the group put a nickel chromium wire into the mixture and heated it to 2700 degrees F, starting a thermite reaction that spread through the mix and turned it to solid brick. All it takes is heating the mixture to aluminum's melting point, about 1221 degrees F, says the team's adviser, professor Kathryn Logan. "It's very much like a sparkler," she says.

The self-named Masons of Regolith then subjected their results to various tests to see how much pressure the bricks could take before cracking. Turns out they're nearly as strong as concrete! One-square inch of the brick could withstand the gradual application of 2,450 pounds, or nearly the weight of a Ford Focus. Fascinating!

I'm bringing this to your attention because (a) I'm a Virginia Tech grad and (b) to point out that college isn't just studying and writing papers and taking tests. There are some great opportunities within any program of study to expand your knowledge with real-world experience, and I hope all of our college-bound students will chat with their professors and fellow students and seek them out.

Photo Fridays

2009-01-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Winter Scene

Millennium Park, Chicago, IL

Koobface : Social Network Virus

2009-01-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

To anyone on Facebook or MySpace or, for that matter, any other social network, you should be aware that there is a Trojan worm making the rounds of those various sites. Called Koobface, the virus spreads by having unsuspecting users log into their accounts and click on links posted in comments that are seemingly left by friends.

The links take you to an spoofed page that pretends to offer a video download from YouTube and then states that you have to update your Flash player to view the video. Clicking on that link infects your machine. Once a computer has become infected with the Koobface worm, it spams the friends belonging to the owner of the computer by leaving comments on their profiles. And so on and so on. Here is Kaspersky Lab's details on the worm.

The virus is spreading in part because we don't always have our guard up when it comes to our social networks. By now, we already know not to click on unknown links in unwanted email. But, on a social network because you believe the comment was left by someone you know, you have no reason to suspicious and not click on the link.

So what to do? If you think your social network account has recently been used to send spam, reset your password. If you have anti-virus software on your computer, keep the definitions up-to-date and be sure to run the software often. If you don't have the software on your computer, there are some free, on-line virus scanners you can use to detect any viruses or spyware: Kaspersky, Symantec's Norton Security Scan and McAfee's Free Scan.

Start with the Thumbnail

2009-01-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

Our exploration of HTML continues. While we covered a few more tags and attributes, last night's focus was more about coming up with an idea for a website. Creating something out of nothing can be a bit intimidating, so we started off with tossing around a few ideas and turning them into thumbnail sketches.

Thumbnail sketches are very small, rough sketches that let you quickly outline the basic elements of an idea and share your thinking with others. Here's what I've written before about thumbnails:

By their very nature they’re not a pretty or perfect drawing -- you have objects overlaying other objects, lines scratched out, arrows pointing to a different version, a big X to abandon the initial idea which is now evolving into a new thumbnail, etc., etc. They’re small drawings, done quickly in order to work through an idea.

Though quick and small, thumbnails are very beneficial. Not only can
you immediately relay the basic elements of an idea to your audience, since they're visual they’ll help you see what isn’t quite working. You begin to see the holes or realize that one idea would be stronger split into two or wonder what in the world you were thinking in the first place. Rarely is this insight possible without first putting pen to paper (or marker to whiteboard as the case may be).

As for next Tuesday, well, that's when we'll start to transform those thumbnails into a site.

For further reading on thumbnails, check out:

About.com

Wikipedia

Congratulations, Mr. President

2009-01-20T11:05:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama

44th President of the United States

Martin Luther King Day

2009-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

King Profile, Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the last century
Day of National Service

Field Trip! UIC Men's Basketball

2009-01-17T06:32:00.000-08:00

Students, volunteers, and staff have been wanting to take more field trips. You asked and we delivered.

UIC Men's Basketball
vs. Youngstown State
@ UIC Pavilion
Saturday, February 7th
Game time: 7:00 pm
Cost: FREE!!!!

The game AND transportation are being provided for FREE!!! All you have to do is sign-up for the field trip. There are over 60 tickets, but we expect them to go fast!! So, if you want to go on this field trip, when you're in for a Club or mentoring night, be sure to write your name down on the posted sign-up sheet; or call in, email or text a staff's cell phone telling them you want to go.

Get a head start on March Madness!!! Hurry Hurry and Sign Up Now!!!

Photo Fridays

2009-01-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

Gears under Chicago Avenue Bridge

Chicago, IL

The Chicago River has 38 movable bridges of several different types, one of which is a bascule bridge. From Wikipedia: "A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span, or "leaf," throughout the entire upward swing in providing clearance for boat traffic." The gears are part of the mechanism used to give controlled movement once the span starts swinging up or down. Pretty impressive!

Gaming News - Final Fantasy XIII

2009-01-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

For you gamers out there, Square Enix has launched their official website for Final Fantasy XIII. You'll be able to get a glimpse of screenshots, game music and the characters' bios -- unfortunately, only written in Japanese.

However, details (in English) on the Final Fantasy XIII battle system can be found on this fan site.

Windows 7 Beta Release

2009-01-14T06:32:00.000-08:00

For those of you interested, the Windows 7 beta release in both 32-bit and 64-bit was made available for general public download as of last Friday.

Based on user feedback, improvements include, among others:

Improved taskbar so you can set the order the icons appear; plus they're easier to see
Jump list to quickly see the files you've recently been working on
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 release

Normal caveats apply: If you don't know what you're doing, don't mess with it. If you do know what you're doing, let us know what you think.

hello world

2009-01-13T17:42:00.001-08:00

A new year ... a new project. Sean and Steve began to immerse themselves in the world of HTML and CSS. Using nothing other than Notepad and their imagination, they started with the basic

hello world

and went from there. Background colors and images were added, font size readjusted, text colors implemented and there was even some absolute positioning going on. All this on just the first night! Crazy.

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood."

~ Daniel Burnham

Their assignment for next week is to play around with what they created using on-line references to expand their knowledge. There will be a show and tell of their triumphs and tragedies. I'll let you know how it goes and work with Vjeko on making their results publicly available.

Tuesday, January 13th @ 6pm

2009-01-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

Nicely rested from the holiday break, Tech Club starts up again on Tuesday the 13th. For the next couple of weeks, we'll be working with

<HTML>

and learning how to create a web page.

Come join us and have some fun creating your own web site! Tech Club meets every Tuesday at 6:00 pm

Photo Friday

2009-01-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: Brian Jackson/Sun-Times

As a city dweller who walks to work, walks to Cabrini Connections, walks to the grocery store -- well, you get the picture -- a hearty thanks to those of you who clear your sidewalks of snow. It's very much appreciated.

Holiday Posting

2008-12-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

Very light blog posting for now. Enjoy the holidays and we'll chat in 2009!

TNT Leverages Apple's Final Cut Studio

2008-12-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

I always find it interesting when I run across articles showcasing high-end, quality work that uses the exact same software available to me. I generally think of those companies achieving their results by using fully custom software, not the out of the box kind. Well, TNT's new show "Leverage" relies on Apple software for their post-production work.

From Dean Devlin, the show's Executive Producer:

"We do the entire show in Final Cut Studio. We shoot on the Red One camera, bring it back on hard drives, and put it in our Xsan. Then every department here pulls off those servers whether it's for digital effects, sound effects, sound mixing, picture editing, color correction, everything. And it never leaves our building. This is all able to happen because of Final Cut Studio."

Pretty neat. And available at your nearest Apple store -- talent not included.

Photo Friday

2008-12-12T06:13:00.000-08:00

December 12th is National Poinsettia Day

Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first United States Ambassador to Mexico being appointed by President John Quincy Adams in the 1820's. At the time of his appointment, Mexico was involved in a civil war. Because of his interest in botany he introduced the American elm into Mexico. During his stay in Mexico he wandered the countryside looking for new plant species. In 1828 he found a beautiful shrub with large red flowers growing next to a road. He took cuttings from the plant and brought them back to his greenhouse in South Carolina. Even though Poinsett had an outstanding career as a United States Congressman and as an ambassador he will always be remembered for introducing the poinsettia into the United States.

The Poinsettia Pages
University of Illinois Extension

NFL Meets 3D Technology.

2008-12-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday's NFL game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers was the NFL's first foray into 3-D broadcasting, compliments of the camera technology from 3ality Digital LLC, the Burbank-based company that put on the show for the NFL. Some kinks were discovered, e.g., satellite glitches blacked out a portion of the game, a quick camera movement or a refocusing was a bit too quick for 3-D and had viewers pulling off their glasses. But overall, the audience was mostly in awe of a spectacle that in some instances gave the feeling of being on the field, especially for the opening coin toss and an interception by Chargers linebacker Stephen Cooper.

For me, it's bad enough watching the Bears fumble in 2-D; I'm not sure I really want to see it in 3-D. However, if you want to try out the experience yourself, Fox Sports plans to broadcast college football's BCS National Championship game to 150 digital movie theaters in 3-D in January. While Chicago does have movie theaters than can show 3-D broadcasts, it remains to be seen if we're one of the cities for the BCS game.

Don't Forget - NIU Visit This Week

2008-12-10T06:34:00.000-08:00

On Thursday December 11, 2008 (between 4-6pm before the tutoring/mentoring session) a representative from Northern Illinois University will be visiting Cabrini Connections to provide a variety of information about the university, financial aid assistance, athletics, and any and all questions that the group may have.

The Big Picture

2008-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Boston Globe's online edition, boston.com, has a section called The Big Picture, which is found under the News tab and is a photo blog run by their web developer Alan Taylor. To paraphrase Mr. Taylor, inspiration for The Big Picture comes from the rich imagery found in such publications as the old Life Magazine and National Geographic and the stories those photo essays would underscore. Its intent is to highlight high-quality and amazing photos with a focus on current events.

Their recent photo essay is on space, courtesy of the Hubble Telescope. From Mr. Taylor:

As we head into the traditional western Holiday Season, I'd like to present this Hubble Space Telescope imagery Advent Calendar. Every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the amazing Hubble Space Telescope. As I take this chance to share these images of our amazing Universe with you, I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone.

Here's the view from December 5th along with a partial description:

"... the sharpest view ever taken of the Orion Nebula - a picture book of star formation with massive young stars that are shaping the nebula and pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars ..."

And if you want to see how the image fits into the universe, The Big Picture provides us with a link to Google Sky.

Bookmark The Big Picture to see some
amazing photos.

Tech Talk

2008-12-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

Sun Microsystems released JavaFX 1.0 last week, which is Sun's first Java release to include standardized, cross-platform audio and video playback code. This release is comprised of a new software foundation, designed to run graphically rich Internet applications, and a new programming language called JavaFX Script that's intended to be easier to use than traditional Java. The development kit currently consists of the base run-time, a NetBeans/Eclipse plug-in and a set of artifact exporters for Adobe CS 3&4.

While Java paved the way in 1995 and Sun spent much of its energy adapting Java for servers, a host of other software options for building rich Internet applications sprang up in the meantime. JavaFX is Sun's bid to take on Adobe Systems' Flash and AIR and Microsoft's newer arrival, Silverlight, along with JavaScript and its more sophisticated cousin Ajax. From the JavaFX site, here is a gallery of sample code and projects.

Photo Friday

2008-12-05T05:39:00.000-08:00

Changing Weather

Chicago, Illinois
Watching the clouds build up over Lake Michigan

NIU Visit on December 11th

2008-12-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

We are continuing our efforts to get our students excited and exposed to post high school educational opportunities! As a result we will be hosting a in-house college visit from Northern Illinois University.

On Thursday December 11, 2008 (between 4-6pm) a representative from Northern Illinois University will be visiting Cabrini Connections to provide a variety of information about the university, financial aid assistance, athletics, and any and all questions that the group may have.

This opportunity is taking place on Thursday before the tutoring/mentoring session but it is open to any and all students, volunteers, and staff who would like to attend. This is another great opportunity for the Cabrini Connections’ program, so please attend and be prepared with questions!

Congrats Sean Mayfield!

2008-12-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

Tech Club's own Sean Mayfield was elected by a group of his peers to be on the Youth Leadership Council.

Great job, Sean!!

For details on the election and the other student representatives, I'll send you over to Chris' post.

Pan-STARRS

2008-12-02T05:24:00.000-08:00

Staying awake at night concerned that asteroids might be hurtling towards the Earth, obliterating life as we know it? Well, fear no more. Thanks to the smart folks at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and MIT's Lincoln Lab, Pan-STARRS is looking out for us.

The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) is the world's largest digital camera, and it's to be used to keep an eye out for asteroids heading towards Earth. This 1400 megapixel camera sits atop Mount Haleakala in Maui Island, Hawaii, and will scan the skies looking for rogue objects approaching Earth at a trajectory that's a little too close for comfort.

Finding moving objects isn't the only objective of this project: another focus is its ability to map very large areas of sky to great sensitivity thus producing the deepest and most complete survey of the Solar System so far.

Again, to all Tech Club denizens and others who have an interest in science, astronomy, or space exploration, here's another example of how your passion can translate into a career. Not only are people needed to think of and design these types of tests, but computer programmers are also needed to develop the software necessary to run the instruments to perform the scientists' tests.

Only Three More Weeks!

2008-11-30T13:09:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that we have only three weeks left in the fall session of Tech Club. In December, we'll be meeting on:

December 2nd
December 9th
December 16th

and then that's it for the fall session. Of course we'll resume in 2009 in our usual Tuesday night slot, and I hope to see some more of you sign up for the spring session! I think technology is a lot of fun but if we need a break from learning, we can always persuade Steve to bring in his Xbox.

Photo Friday

2008-11-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

Lake Shore Drive

Chicago, IL
To everyone spending time traveling this weekend:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T05:13:00.000-08:00

A Solar Cemetery

2008-11-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

From the BBC, I've learned that the Spanish city of Santa Coloma de Gramanet, near Barcelona, has definitely found an unusual place to generate renewable energy; to wit: the local cemetery. Like many European cities, the cemetery at Santa Coloma de Gramanet has mausoleums, and their nice wide roofs were a perfect spot for solar panels since they were one of the few open, sunny places in the crowded city.

To date, 462 solar panels have been installed over some of the cemetery's mausoleums. It's projected that these panels will create enough energy each year to supply the needs of 60 homes and keep about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year. Very green, very nice. The current installation covers less than 5% of the cemetery's total surface area, and there are plans to install more solar panels.

This is another in the continuing posts on interesting ways to apply technology. But before you think this is just some crazy European thinking, let me remind you that the Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will help create five million new jobs (that's 5,000,000):

by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future. (change.gov).

This is expanding a whole new area for applying technology. Think about it. And then think about which classes you'll sign up for in school.

NASA's Juno Mission

2008-11-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

Attention all fans of science and technology: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on Monday that they're moving forward with a mission to conduct an in-depth study of Jupiter. That's right -- space exploration!

From the NASA news release:

Called Juno, the mission will be the first in which a spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the giant planet to understand its formation, evolution and structure. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our early solar system.

Why Jupiter? Again, from the news release:

Understanding the formation of Jupiter is essential to understanding the processes that led to the development of the rest of our solar system and what the conditions were that led to Earth and humankind.

The Juno mission is a part of NASA's New Frontiers Program and is actually the second spacecraft designed under that program. The first was the Pluto New Horizons mission, launched in January 2006 and scheduled to reach Pluto's moon Charon in 2015. Juno is scheduled to launch in August 2011 and will reach Jupiter in 2016.

So, to all who have an interest in technology and/or science, here is an example of how following your interest can lead to a fascinating career. Oh and by the way, software programmers are needed to get these spacecrafts launched and ready to perform the tests needed by the scientists.