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Contributor jeypeyy on the Education category

Informational screensavers  
Written by bgfeldm the 18 Mar 08 at 00:23. Related project: Gnome. New
Screensaver with usefulness, add some Informative or Educational Screensavers.

Clock and Weather Screensaver
-- Alarm Clock and Weather Screensaver.
-- World Clock Screensaver.
-- Local Weather with Weather Around the World Screensaver.
-- Count Down to Specific Date Screensaver.
-- World Atlas Map (Countries and Bodies of Water) Screensaver.
-- Human Body (Muscles and Bones) Screensaver.
-- System and Network Status Screensaver.
-- User Photos Slideshow Screensaver.
-- Panoramic view of landscapes screensaver.
-- Destination Photos from Around the World Sceensaver.
-- Icon which shows up when new Mail or Instant Message Arrives.
-- RSS Screensaver.
---- World News screensaver.
---- Word of the day screensaver.
---- Today in History screensaver.
---- Nutritional Health Tip Screensaver.
---- Screensaver with Collection of Jokes.
---- Various Dictionary Screensavers (Programming Terms, Linux, Mathematics, Science, Legal, Tech...)
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Solution #1: Clock Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 18 Mar 08 at 00:23.
add a Clock Screensaver.
22
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Solution #2: Weather Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 01:59.
add a Weather Screensaver
43
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Solution #3: RSS Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:06.
a RSS Screensaver

Which can then be used as a:
---- World News screensaver.
---- Word of the day screensaver.
---- Today/Date in History screensaver.
---- Nutritional Health Tip Screensaver.
---- Screensaver with Collection of Jokes.
---- Various Dictionary Screensavers (Programming Terms, Linux, Mathematics, Science, Legal, Tech...)
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Solution #4: Count Down Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:12.
Screensaver which Counts Down to a Specific Date.

count down to:
Next Software Release (Ubuntu)
Graduation
Midterm/Final Exam
Work/School Deadline
Wedding
Birthday
Anniversary
Family Reunion
Next Election
NASA Space Launch

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Solution #5: System and Network Status Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:17.
Screensaver to display System and Network Status. Could be useful to a system administrator.
16
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Solution #6: Landscapes Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:23.
-- Panoramic view of landscapes screensaver.
-- Destination Photos from Around the World Sceensaver.
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Solution #7: World Clock Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:33.
screensaver which displays a World Clock which displays
-- different time zones
-- day and night (sun/moon) shadow on the earth.
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Solution #8: Notification Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:42.
Notification Screensaver which:
--glows different colors
--displays a short note
--plays warming tone

when triggered by:
-- System Alerts.
-- alarm clock.
-- weather changes.
-- email/im messages.
17
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Solution #9: World Atlas Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:47.
Screensaver which displays a World Atlas Map (Countries, Mountain Ranges and Bodies of Water);

Screensaver useful for Interest or Study of Geography.

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Solution #10: Human Body Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 02:53.
Human Body Screensaver; Human Sciences.

which displays:
Human Skeleton; Skeletal System (Bones)
Human Anatomy Muscular System (Muscles)

Which could also change/rotate to:
Human Biology
Human Nervous System
Human Cardiovascular System
Human Digestive System
Human Lymphatic System
Human Endocrine System

Screensaver useful for Interest or Study of Human Sciences.
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Solution #11: Famous Art Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 13:40.
Screensaver of Famous art. useful for Art Appreciation.

Example of some famous artist:
Leonardo De Vinci
Michelangelo
Titian
Rapheal
Monet
Picasso
Renoir
Van Gogh

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Solution #12: Music current playing Song Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 12 May 09 at 14:02.
Multimedia Screensaver which shows:

Music Song Info for current playing song (MP3 ID3 tags):
artist
song title
album
album art


Screensaver useful for Music Appreciation.
19
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Solution #13: Planetarium Screensaver
Written by bgfeldm the 19 May 09 at 14:38.
Screen Saver which shows the night sky, stars and planets. planetarium. Study or appreciation of astronomy.

Could use pictures taken from NASA's
Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
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Solution #14: Quote Of The Day screensaver
Written by pepperpupper the 16 Sep 08 at 07:07.
Add a QOTD screensaver that displays random quotes reflecting the "Ubuntu-philosophy".
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Solution #15: Promote turning off screens instead of using screensavers
Written by amrhassan the 18 Jan 09 at 01:27.
To save some power, you should have your monitor turned off instead of using a screensaver.

I read somewhere - don't remember where exactly - that screensavers were used because old CRT monitors take some time to power up after sleep, that doesn't happen any more with LCD screens, so why still use screensavers! Go green.
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Solution #16: Create a 'setting'-button in screen savers preferences.
Written by jeypeyy the 18 Jan 09 at 17:48.
If there was a settings-button in the screen savers preferences we could change the text from the GLText screen saver. With this we could show usefule info like time and date, computer's name, user's name etc.
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Solution #17: Play Easy Listening Music From LastFm
Written by Basem the 24 Mar 09 at 05:08.
Play music from last fm if network connection exists, otherwise it plays some music from local drives, while maintaining a low volume and showing some photos.
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Solution #18: Chemical elements and information about those.
Written by teranos the 5 Jul 10 at 17:27.
All the chemical elements + shape + info.

* Recommended for Edubuntu.
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Solution #19: Optionally, add clock to any screensaver
Written by kreep the 4 Nov 10 at 21:08.
Add an option to add a clock (analog or digital, whichever is preferred by the user) to a chosen corner of the screen while the screensaver is running, no matter what the screensaver is.
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Solution #20: Screensaver widgets
Written by Oxwivi the 18 Nov 10 at 07:12.
Create widgets to display any of the options mentioned by the solutions above.
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Solution #21: Help me in writing/finishing an RSS screen saver
Written by mk2366 the 30 May 11 at 21:37.

See the 28 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 2 Jun 10 at 05:54) >>

Support newbies to become developers  
Written by t4ggs the 15 Jan 09 at 21:06. Global category: Education. New
I've been using Ubuntu for almost 3 years now so I don't consider myself a newbie...but neither a guru

I think that a way to improve Ubuntu and the whole open source software is helping people like me to improve my knowledge, maybe by making simple programs and guides to learn how to make programs, I've been reading a little about C programming language but to be honest it's really boring, I wonder if there is or could be a better way to learn so I could become more active in the Ubuntu community, not only proposing thins in the forums or in brainstorm, but witting programs.

And I remember you I'm not asking this for myself, but for everyone that wants to learn, I think the best way to improve open source software is teaching the average user how to improve it himself.
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Solution #1: Make some guides or programs to teach programming
Written by t4ggs the 15 Jan 09 at 21:06.
I've tried KTurtle and Little Wizard, never understood what I'm supposed to do.
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Solution #3: Improve development tools
Written by timnwells the 15 Jan 09 at 23:50.
Improve the available development tools to aid new programmers. We need tools at the same sort of caliber as Visual Studio or the Mac dev tools with easy to use gui designers, good code completion and integrated debugging.
This would go a long way to encouraging new developers.
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Solution #4: Idea #7933: Easy tutorials for developing and programming
Written by Primož Papič the 15 Jan 09 at 23:57.
I proposed this idea long ago and I think that it is an viable solution to this problem, even though that original solution tries to convey the same message, but it fails.
---
I'm rookie in Ubuntu and Linux, but I would like to get more
involved in process of developing and creating new programs
and applications for K/EDU/go/X-Ubuntu. But there is no really simple tutorial on how to learn basics of programming.
/EDIT: Let's say that I want to develop an application, so obviously I would go to Ubuntu site and look under development, but it there is no help for those that would like to start develop. The site should be similar to this site: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials#Introduction_To_KDE_4_Programming

Where I could get all information on how to program in Ubuntu, plus it would be really great if on this site, there would be default IDE on which this programming would take place.

This would not be site for those who know what they're doing but for those that know no programming language, but would like to learn how to program.
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Solution #5: Take the time to learn properly or contribute some other way.
Written by r0g the 20 Jan 09 at 22:31.
If you find c really boring then maybe programming is not for you. There are easier languages but it's not something you're ever going to be good at unless you have some enthusiasm for the subject because it goes deep. It's not inherently easy stuff either, this is why people spend thousands of dollars going to college or years of late nights to learn how to do it.

Ubuntu needs developers but they need to be half decent. A huge influx of total rookies wanting to program would be more hinderance than help what with all the hand holding the existing devs would have to do and the buggy/insecure/crappily commented code that would be generated.

There are plenty of ways to contribute to open source projects that don't involve writing code. If you do want to code you need patience, dedication and a very good reason. Even then it wouldn't be Ubuntu's job to teach you, especially as half the entire internet is made of coding tutorials and programming for Ubuntu is really no different than programming for Red Hat or Suse.
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Solution #6: Support newbies to become... Translators
Written by diegoj the 21 Jan 09 at 00:33.
Easier than becoming a developper but sometimes twice as useful.

There are too much languages without 50% of basic translations.

I think is more important, easier and useful to reach more people than to "support" newbies to develop software.

Using Launchapad to translate packages and Ubuntu should be encouraged from ubuntu.com and as many ways as possible.
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Solution #7: Coaching of a new dev via one-on-one voice chat
Written by woutersamaey the 21 Jan 09 at 22:37.
As a professional developer myself, I'd love to help out, but cannot spend hours and hours reading everything before I can even start to do anything.
If someone were to point me in the right direction, and get me helping out right away (even if it's just minor tasks), I'd be more eager to take that step. Also, the "coach" should give us the feeling of working together with other devs, instead of sitting alone at a desk, working our buts off.

Personal and vocal contact is a important social aspect of motivating skilled people.

I understand it's hard to talk to every single person, but I believe it's the only way. Give it a try, plz.
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Solution #8: Use Open Source Free 3D Game Maker - Platinum Arts Sandbox
Written by calimer the 24 Jan 09 at 04:57.
Hi, I currently work on a project called Platinum Arts Sandbox which is a free easy to use 3D Game Maker for kids and adults. The software is currently being used in schools throughout the world, has appeared at several linux conferences, and at moddb is currently rated as one of the top 100 mods/games of the year out of over 5k (hoping to make the top 10 :D voting ends in Feb). I personally have used the software to teach kids at various schools and colleges. I have had work submitted to me by kids as young as 6. The kids have created some really awesome projects and Sandbox is only growing. We currently have several different game modes such as Save The Princess, RPG, sidescroller, machinima, kartmode, and more! The project is capable of making FPS and other adult games as well. For more information on what it is capable of please check out our webpage at http://kids.platinumarts.net. Especially useful should be this section:
http://kids.platinumarts.net/what-is-sandbox.html
Here is our popular tutorial video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g44Ww2bg2_E
Here is a video of kids enjoying Sandbox :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvy3h3z8cvw

Sandbox is a great way for anyone to start with since it is easy to edit since it is done in game in real time and it is open source. The compiling process is relatively simple as we've put a lot of work into making the project as easy to use as possible and hoping to expand it even further. Another big strength is being able to work on levels cooperatively with other people.

I also plan on making a section on the webpage that lists free development tools. As a note I do have several years of game development experience and my past project was the doom 3 coop mod last man standing at http://doom3coop.com The project won many awards which you can check out in the About section. I'm really hoping to make Sandbox the best I can for everyone :) Take care and thanks for reading all this :D
-mike
http://kids.platinumarts.net
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Solution #9: Compile a kernel / make a distro game
Written by Primož Papič the 24 Jan 09 at 15:01.
This idea is totally strange, but it might work.
---
It would be nice to have a game where you would compile your own Linux kernel or customize your distro...
You know something similar to Need for Speed (the later versions) just instead of adding spinners to the car you would compile a kernel with some mods in it, do different scripts and so on...
And after you've done you would run the "virtual machine" and see what happens.

/The result could be a bit more fictitious like you kernel caused your computer to burn or caused a outbreak of plague somewhere...
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Solution #10: Promote Etoys to those showing an interest in programming.
Written by Warbo the 6 Feb 09 at 20:13.
Etoys is a programming environment, made in Squeak Smalltalk, which is object oriented, prototype-based (like Javascript), has drag-and-drop programming and allows everything (including the menus and everything!) to be inspected, edited, scripted, etc.

I would say that the hardest part of my programming journey so far was the jump between structured programming (a big list of instructions, conditions and loops, all acting on global variables) to object oriented programming (everything being 'objects' which contain properties and can tell each other things by running each others' methods). This was because it involved a big switch in the way I thought about programs. Once I understood OO programming then masses of libraries and things became available to me, but getting over that hurdle took some time.

Since object oriented programming is a more natural way of thinking than structured programming, I think it would be better to introduce an OO system first, rather than teach something which needs to be partially un-learned later. Etoys offers such a system, and gives instant graphical feedback for the scripts written. It's been used around the world, most notably on the One Laptop Per Child XO machines, showing that it's possible to have a full object oriented programming system understandable enough for children to pick up without prior experience with computers.

I propose that Etoys be promoted on official guides for those who want to start developing for Ubuntu, as a way forward for never-programmed-before users who want to become developers, followed by guides on how to apply knowledge of the Etoys programming environment to Python (Ubuntu's preferred development language).
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Solution #11: Help Wanted forum
Written by David.ZA the 13 Feb 09 at 12:52.
Forum where projects could post for help and those that want to help could sign up. This could work for all facets of development including documentation, translation and of course programming.

In fact this very forum should provide a link to 'project' for the solutions proposed; and if those projects require volunteers.
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Solution #12: Promote use of Qt
Written by codeslicer the 5 Mar 09 at 23:30.
Qt 4.5, recently released by Nokia, allows the development of single-source applications across all platforms.

Plus they recently added better Gtk integration (with Qt 4.5 which isn't available in the repos yet).

See http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/images/gtk-style-screenshot.png.

See the 17 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 22 May 09 at 09:52) >>

It's odd when you can't see the formulae  
Written by baldurpet the 18 Jan 09 at 08:36. Global category: Education. New
KmPlot is a very good application, but I think it's weird that if you integrate or differentiate equations you can't see the formulae of the derivatives or the integrals.
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Solution #1: To display the formula of the derivative and the integral
Written by baldurpet the 18 Jan 09 at 08:36.
This should be a very easy thing to do.
The program needs to find the derivative and integral anyhow in order to plot the functions, so why not display a small formula next to the "Show the _1st derivative".

Also, if you go to 'Advanced...' you can select '_Show the plot name', and it shows the original function!

What I want is, if you have the function x², that the program shows "2x" under the 1st derivative, "2" under the second one and "(1/3)*x³" under the integral.

Also if you choose "show the plot name" for the derivative or integral, it should display "x²" and "(x³)/3" respectively.

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Teaching Program   forum
Written by pulpie the 8 Sep 08 at 22:27. Global category: Education. New
I have created a program in which teaches people how to use any unix system. I was wondering if this was a good idea or not.

http://fushi.sourceforge.net
I have gotten a lot done so far, Its not debian/ubuntu specific but it can EASLY be made as such because it uses basic perl.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #12952
Written by pulpie the 8 Sep 08 at 22:27.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #12952 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

See the 7 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 15 Sep 08 at 18:33) >>

edubuntu forum  
Written by benner the 15 Mar 08 at 00:23. Global category: Education. New
Edubuntu users tend to have different types of needs and issues. They could use their own forum. The 'education and science' section in the ubuntuforums isn't really it.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #4693
Written by benner the 15 Mar 08 at 00:23.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #4693 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

Add a comment or propose a solution >>

Give a little more love to Edubuntu  
Written by neon the 7 Mar 08 at 00:45. Related project: Edubuntu. New
If we're serious about getting schools to switch to Edubuntu, I think we need to move it along a little more. The website still says Happy new year. o-o; We needs some strong features in it to make schools WANT to switch from Windows.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #3645
Written by neon the 7 Mar 08 at 00:45.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #3645 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

See the 4 comments or propose a solution >>