GalaxyGoo Blogs

GalaxyGoo got a big mention in Edutopia online, as part of an article on the Maker Faire.

If you're not familiar with Edutopia, it's published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Posted by Kristin at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, at the Maker Faire, I was interviewed for Bay Area Backroads. I'm not quite sure how people get used to having cameras pointing at them, as it certainly unsettled me.

It was actually kind of cool. I didn't see that they had a camera, at first. They asked me what we were setting up for...and I was just myself, talking about the Cell Project. Then they wired me up with a mic, and started shooting. I have to say that they were a little more reserved once the camera started running, and I think this made me a little more reserved as well.

I'm learning that when it comes to filming, I do much better when I don't know the camera's running. All I can say is, well....I hope they edit it well, and that GalaxyGoo at least gets a mention in the show (which should air in the Fall).

Posted by Kristin at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We ordered some neat little stickers to take to the Maker Faire. The first batch arrived today!

We'll be giving these away at our booth, in the Maker Kids area of the Faire.

My fellow Biology geeks out there might appreciate this cell phone sticker... I couldn't resist putting one on my cell right away.

We ordered some in full color, as well. But they haven't arrived yet. Can't wait to see them!

Big thanks go to Professor Colin Purrington, of Swarthmore College, for suggesting the idea!

Posted by Kristin at 06:44 PM | Permalink

The Maker Faire is fast approaching. In fact, it's this weekend!

This year, they're trying out something new. They've invited the Makers to start a day early, and to participate in a special day just for students and educators. Admission is free for Education Day!

That's right, if you're a teacher, and you'd like to come to a special open house just for educators, go sign up right now!

I'll be conducting a special workshop for teachers, on making cell models. If you're going to be there, please contact me so that I can be sure to have enough clay on had for you to do the workshop. Did I mention that teachers get in for free?!

The open house for teachers is scheduled for 4-6pm. Earlier in the day, I'll be doing some demonstrations for students, who will be there on field trips from school.

Posted by Kristin at 08:39 PM | Permalink

Khoi Vinh, the designer of the newish New York Times site and creator of the elegant blog Subtraction, is participating in a question and answer session all week (yeah, I'm late with this).

Talk to the Newsroom: Khoi Vinh, Design Director

Right up front he makes an important point about designing and writing for a specific medium (one that I wish more people truly understood):

Whatever success we've had with making NYTimes.com a useful and engaging source for online news, in my opinion, comes from realizing that we're not just trying to re-create what's available to readers in the printed newspaper.

Rather, we're trying to create something that's true to this medium, that borrows the best of what works in print and that takes advantage of the unique aspects of digital media.

This means we pay a lot of attention to how people use our content online. That is, not just how they read it, but how they make use of it: how they might scan the page haphazardly rather than diligently reading from top to bottom; what parts of the page they look to first and last; what they expect to change from visit to visit; which visual cues are meaningful for them and which design flourishes they find useless.

Good stuff.

Posted by Rob Simmon at 06:40 AM | Permalink

I recently started a new job where I'm working on library software and the technology we work with is Intersystem's Caché database engine (based on MUMPS). The language used to build the software is Caché ObjectScript, and last week I took an intensive 4-day course in writing OO applications using this language. So consider Caché ObjectScript the latest addition to the list of languages we at GalayGoo are familiar with :)

Continue reading "New GalaxyGoo skillset: Caché ObjectScript" »

Posted by Edwin at 01:20 AM | Permalink

As most readers will know a browser allows only so many parallel connections to a server. This means that if an HTML-page contains a lot of included JS/CSS-files and images and such, it will not load them all at once, but a bunch at a time and then the next bunch etc. This maximum is typically 2. It isn't hard to imagine that as more files need to be loaded in to display a page correctly, it can take longer to load it in when there's a queue instead of loading in all files simultaneously. This becomes even more apparent when you take into consideration all the Ajax/widget toolkits that are popping up all over the place, which can require quite a few JS & CSS files to load in and process before rendering a page.

Today I came across an article explaining a fairly basic but sweet idea to help increase your website performance. Simply use subdomains to load in files! Apparently a browser doesn't check for IP when loading in files but only the domain. So a file originating from a subdomain is seen as originating from a different server then from the toplevel domain, and isn't put into the queue for the toplevel domain. This means that you can set up subdomains which point to the same host as the toplevel domain and your site will still load in faster! And as an additional bonus, if your site becomes so big or popular it warrants splitting across servers, you can point the subdomains to different servers and your site's code will still work without a change! If you don't assign subdomains to files in a 'random' fashion ofcourse like the code used in the article. This technique will most certainly be used in a site my girlfriend and I are slowly developing, and I am sure it will find its way into the GalaxyGoo code as well.

Please keep in mind that as with anything, this is not some sort of holy grail. Do think about proper site/file-structure when setting up/developing a site before applying this idea.

Posted by Edwin at 01:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As summer approaches, I start thinking about family vacation time. Escaping from the city to some relaxing spot with semi-wilderness. Playing lots of games with the kids.

One of our favorite games is Mastermind. We never get tired of it.

One great thing about it is that it's not a long commitment, compared to a game like Monopoly. We can play a quick game, or a long series of games.

It's a great game to bring on vacation! It's relatively small, and lightweight. A big advantage when packing.

Posted by Kristin at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's that time of year again, when schools across the country hold their annual benefit auctions. These can be a lot of fun, and auction committees are always looking for great items to add to their catalogs.

Do your friends at work have kids? Ask them if you can make a donation to their school's auction!

Here are some donation ideas:

• Gift certificates for dinner at your favorite local restaurant


• Do you work somewhere cool? Offer a tour! Be sure to check with your boss on this one.


• Got season tickets? Donate tickets for a game or performance.


• Go to an art store, and put together an arts and crafts supply basket


• Gift certificates to any store!


• Are you a musician? Offer to play at a party.


• Are you a designer? Offer 2-3 hours of design consulting. Be strict on what you offer here, or you could find yourself giving more than you originally intended. While you've donated your services, the person with the winning bid is still your client.


• Check if your company makes matching gifts when employees make donations, and double your donation


• ...

There are so many more things to give. Different schools run different auctions. Some like to focus on gift certificates, some on tangible goods, most combine both.

Posted by Kristin at 02:39 PM | Permalink

Come see us, and the Cell Project, at the Maker Faire! Ticket discounts end in April. Get your tickets now, so you don't have to pay full price at the door.

As the organizers say, the Maker Faire is

A two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful folks who like to tinker and love to make things.
We call them Makers.

Posted by Kristin at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine my surprise, when I see GalaxyGoo mentioned on the front page of the Business section of the San Francisco Chronicle. In fact, we were mentioned in the Tech Chronicles in a short article on the Maker Faire. There we are! Right there in the second paragraph!

Posted by Kristin at 11:31 AM | Permalink

The impending layoff of teachers, and cutting of programs (including sports) here in California is completely unacceptable! What could be more important than education?!

It's a challenge to advance the GalaxyGoo mission of promoting science literacy, and an environment where education as a whole is at risk, it's getting even harder.

Here at GalaxyGoo, we may need to widen our mission to include supporting education in general, and not focus only on science. The quetion is, how would we do this? I'll be looking into possibilities, and asking for suggestions.

Posted by Kristin at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)