Game Design Findings

1) What didn’t work at first when checking for collisions?
2) What was the first thing you changed to make the collision to work in the opposite direction
3) What does _y and _x do?
4) What other object properties did you find that you manipulated to make things change in the character?
5) How did the “speed” of the character change the behaviour when it hit the object? Explain why this happens.

1. Instance names have to be complementary to the code. Also, the code we were given had 3 ‘_y’s and a single ‘_x’ when there should be two of each, positive and negative.

2.  I changed one of the ‘_y’s to ‘_x’ so that there would be two of each, positive and negative.

3.  _y and _x refer to the relative x and y coordinates of the object.

4. I added _rotation which made the character rotate to the angle value set so that the character rotates as the arrows are pressed.

5. When the character speed was too fast, it passed through the wall, but when it was slowed down it began to push it and show signs of density.

Obama’s use of technology in his campaign.

               

Though both McCain and Obama used significant amounts of technology to aid their campaigns, Obama evidently made much more use of the internet and various other technologies of the present. His campaign used the net to announce his running for presidency and gave birth to  an international community of supporters constantly helping him out. John McCain admitted to using computers only to check e-mail, and only when people tell him to. Obama is younger and knew the potential the internet had.

Not only did Obama have his website to spread his words, but he went to many large familiar blogging and network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, etc. where he befriended many people and kept in touch with them. It made them feel like he really was their friend which led them to give their support to him. Another way he kept in contact with his supporters was by means of e-mail. He was able to give friendly messages by sending mass e-mails to people as a plea to vote immediately before he goes out to give his speech or any other times. With this viral contact, that is, when friends would convince their friends to join in and those friends would continue the chain, Obama set records for collecting donations primarily on the net. When millions of everyday people give even a small amount, he could raise a significant amount. People were still donating right up to election day.

Obama’s website is generally more appealing to modern internet users compared to that of McCain’s. Obama links to those many social networks discussed above, as well as give users downloadable content such as ringtones and applications revolving his campaign. One of his bigger projects is MyBO, My Barack Obama, which allows people to organize fundraisers and talk to voters locally about his campaign. With all the Americans on the internet, imagine how many people would do the campaigning for him. In addition, his website has an online shop, one of the best ways to distribute things to people without having to set up stores all around America. He sells merchandise that further promotes himself that supporters can proudly use.

YouTube, most probably the largest video sharing website on the internet, played a big role too. Since Obama got a lot of his supporters over the net, they’re more likely the type of people who will record Obama’s speeches and such and virally spread them over video sharing websites to get his message around incredibly fast.

Future candidates would most likely learn from Obama’s campaign and do the same. They may try to further take advantage of the viral aspects of the web and possibly do multiple live online broadcasts from home or another place specifically for the online supporters. This might attract people who don’t normally go on the internet to do so and get involved in many future online campaignings. In addition there may be future technologies to be developed that may be of use that we are clueless of presently. Obama has clued into the many possibilities the internet proposes and emerged victorious in his election.

Geekbrief TV

One of the gadgets that Cali Lewis described was the Mophie Juice Pack which is a rechargeable lithium battery pack for the 1st gen iPhone and the iPod Touch. The iPhone came with a built in battery pack and batteries don’t last forever. Each time you recharge the battery, its maximum life is reduced, which would make this product appeal to the heavy cellphone users that can’t live without them. There are many evident advantages of using this product, as well as several disadvantages.

People who use cellphones for more than just phone calls, such as music, video, and other multimedia, would tend to drain their iPhone or iPod Touch’s battery pretty fast. Docking their device into the Mophie Juice Pack practically doubles its life. In addition, the pack gives added protection as well as a better grip. The device will always be commanded to use the power from the juice pack before its own so detaching it while it still has power will leave the device with its full charge. Furthermore, the juice pack can be charged alone or simultaneously with your iPhone or iPod Touch.

One of the main downfalls is that the product is only compatible with the 1st gen iPhone and iPod Touch. People with Apple’s other products, such as those with newer versions of the iPhone, will not be able to make use of this brilliant gadget. In addition, one of the cons that the two compatible Apple products previously had was their high price. The semi-pricey juice pack simply adds to the price of the already expensive product. In terms of convenience, the juice pack will make your device a little more bulky as well as heavy when the main reason people used them was because they conveniently had multiple things in one ‘small and light’ machine.