Tag: Computer Science

Hacktoberfest 2017

IMG_20171101_134454I had my IB students sign up for Hacktoberfest which is open to everyone in the global community!

The learning target was to learn how to participate in the global open source software development community.

  • Seen here, the first student with a shirt awarded for making four pull requests between October 1–31 in any timezone. Pull requests can be to any public repo on GitHub. Pull requests reported by maintainers as spam or that are automated will be marked as invalid and won’t count towards the shirt.

A powerful statement about the kind of learner who can be successful in software engineering!


That One Privacy Site

This is a solid site and well referenced on the Internet for those looking for information on VPNs.  From the author of That One Privacy Site:

There are some other good resources that cover privacy based topics quite well, but when I started down the path of retaking my own privacy, there was very little unbiased and reliable information with regard to VPNs.

I started researching data about VPN services for my own knowledge, then posted the information online in the hopes the Internet might find my work useful for themselves.  Through the positive feedback and assistance those in the community offered, I’ve been able to take this step into compiling all of my related work in one location and moving away from the Google Spreadsheet that it was originally created on.

Please enjoy my Simple VPN Comparison Chart, Detailed VPN Comparison Chart, VPN Reviews, and Commentary on how to choose the best VPN (for you).  Please also take a moment to read the FAQs!

(I plan to add more content as time goes by, but for now the site focuses mainly on my VPN Comparison Project).

Over $100 Million Pledged to Games on Kickstarter

On Kickstarter, Michael McGregor  writes this on March 21, 2012:

…. we would share an exciting stat: more than $100 million has been pledged to Games projects on Kickstarter, giving 1,476 new games the green light!

Games Category Stats

  • Total Dollars: $107.6 Million
  • Successful projects: 1,476
  • Total Backers: 633,242

In the past four years, more than 633,242 backers have pledged to more than 4,500 Games projects, nearly 1,000 of them in the past year alone. After the launch of Double Fine Adventure in February 2012, things really took off:

Dollars Pledged to Games

  • 2009: $60,601
  • 2010: $546,362
  • 2011: $3,855,692 
  • 2012: $83,144,565
  • 2013: $22,423,264 (to date)

For a good illustration of how times have changed, look at creator Adam Poots, who raised $1,741 from 28 backers for his Kingdom Death miniatures project in 2009, becoming one of the first successful projects on Kickstarter. In 2012, Adam launched another set of Kingdom Death miniatures, raising more than $2 million.

Even better than the amazing sums projects are raising? The games they’re producing. To celebrate this $100 million milestone, we polled the Kickstarter staff to come up with the ten favorite Kickstarter-funded video games and tabletop games we’ve been playing over the past few years, along with links for where to play or buy. We hope you enjoy!

10 Kickstarter-funded Video Games you can play right now (in no particular order)

  • FTL (Faster than Light) (2013 IGF Finalist), a space simulator aimed at recreating the feeling of cruising through the galaxy in a spaceship.                             
  • Kentucky Route Zero (2013 IGF Finalist), a magical realist adventure game set on a secret highway in Kentucky.                                                                                                          
  • Organ Trail (at PAX in the Indie Megabooth), a zombie apocalypse parody of the classic Oregon Trail.                                                                                              
  • Blindside (2012 IndieCade Finalist), a survival/horror adventure game with no graphics at all.
  • Guns of Icarus (at PAX in the Indie Megabooth). You are the captain of a steampunk airship in this post-apocalyptic MMO.
  • God of Blades (at Kickstarter Arcade), a sword-and-sorcery saga RPG for iOS.
  • Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, the 25th anniversary edition of this classic where you jump, dash and twist through a warped dimension. 
  • Strike Suit Zero (at Kickstarter Arcade), a fast and frantic space combat game for PC.
  • Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller,  a supernatural adventure game where you play an FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer.
  • Zombies Run, an immersive mobile game where you help rebuild civilization after a zombie apocalypse.
  • Sidius Nova, a combination of turn-based and real-time space strategy.

10 Kickstarter-funded Tabletop Games you can play right now (in no particular order)

  • Miskatonic School for Girls, the first deck-building game where you get to build your opponent’s deck.
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse, an award-winning cooperative comic-book-themed card game.
  • Mobile Frame Zero, Lego mechs battling for control of your table.
  • Cards Against Humanity (at Kickstarter Arcade), a party game for horrible people.
  • Everything is Dolphins, an old-school RPG clone in which you play a dolphin instead of a dwarf, elf or human.
  • Zombicide, a zombie survival game featuring 71 amazing miniatures.
  • Tammany Hall, determine who really rules New York City in this boardgame about 19th century politics.
  • Unexploded Cow, a new board game by Cheap Ass Games creator James Earnest.
  • Gunship, dice, cards and boards collide in this tactical space combat game.
  • Ghost Pirates (at Kickstarter Arcade), a board game of ship-to-ship tactical action.

Thanks so much to all of the creators and backers and the incredible gaming community that has made these projects happen. We hope to see many of you this weekend at PAX East!