Mandy Advances to Region Science Fair

Our family is very fortunate to get a double play in Science & Engineering Fair goodness this year.

Mandy had so much fun playing with Brennan's Tic-Tac-Toe project last year, that she decided she wanted to create her own game for the Web this year as her Engineering Fair project.

She chose the game of "Dots".  You know, that game you play on paper with other nearby friends during long boring meetings like a middle-school geography class, where you vie to capture more boxes than the other players by connecting dots to make the sides of the boxes.  She opted to name her game "DotMania", paying homage to our favorite video game franchise "ManiaPlanet" by Nadeo.

It was a blast to help her think conceptually about how to teach a computer to allow this game to be played, and even more fun helping her figure out how to make an interactive board with HTML, CSS And JavaScript.

The design she finalized on was to use an HTML table, with dots absolutely positioned in each corner of every cell, then adding "Click Zone" divs along the borders of each cell, handling the event when a player clicks on one of them.  If it's a valid move, it will highlight and check to see if that table cell's square is complete, as well as any adjacent square that shares the same border.

The game also tracks score as it goes.

Whether you're already a fan of the game, or you've never played it before, please give Mandy's "DotMania" project a try, and wish her luck in the Central Utah Science & Engineering Fair in March at BYU!

Play DotMania
It brings happiness.

Congratulations Mandy!  You're "awesomesauce"!

Brennan Advances to Region Science Fair

Last school year, Brennan tackled developing Tic-Tac-Toe for 2 players using HTML, JavaScript and CSS.    It was really fun for me to help him with the project and learning 3 new computer languages.

This year, he decided he wanted to delve into Artificial Intelligence and add a computer player to his Tic-Tac-Toe game.  It was a unique and exciting experience to help him process through concepts and watch the gears turn as he tried to figure out what our minds ask ourselves when we play Tic-Tac-Toe.

The outcome is quite fun.  If you haven't seen it yet, check it out on his website, brennan.thatoneplace.net

The next round will be held at BYU in March.  We've never been this far in a "fair" before, so we're both nervous and excited.  Apparently there are cash and other prizes at stake as well; and rumor has it, there might be companies present that look to give scholarships for interesting computer engineering projects.  It would be awesome for one to take an interest in our aspiring engineer!

Brennan and I would like to thank all of you who helped "beta test" his project and provide feedback.  We are excited to see how he does at the Region Science & Engineering Fair!

Congratulations Brennan!  You rock!

Viva UTOPIA!!!

This screenshot brought to you by a business client on UTOPIA with Xmission as a provider and a 30Mbit/30Mbit package for $125/mo. (Residential clients get 15Mbit/15Mbit for $39.99/mo - see below; and notice that it's ~1MB faster in both directions than what the package states.)

Both pictures are courtesy of two of my friends located in Murray, Utah.

I'd like to see Qwest and Comcast even ATTEMPT to make that happen on their current systems as they exist today. It's time to ride the light, folks... the light that runs on FIBER OPTICS!!! You know what they say: 9/10 doctors recommend fiber for relieving internet constipation.

Notice the upload speed is nearly 10.8Mbit faster than what the package states they'll get... 10.8Mbit alone isn't even available on Qwest's or Comcast's networks...

Qwest offers a 7Mbit down package, but it's ridiculously overpriced and only available to people that live within spitting distance of one of their "COs." Then you must hope and pray that the planets are aligned and the moon is full to be able to get that kind of connection. Otherwise, it's 256k-ville or 1.5Mbit-land for you; still at the skyrocketed price compared to pricing on UTOPIA providers.

Comcast cranks their download connections up more - to around 8-9Mbit for over 1.5 times the cost of UTOPIA providers... and their uploads are only around 1Mbit... so 15x LESS the speed for more money... hmmm, that's smarts. But what do you do when you don't have a choice?!

Did I mention that all of my neighbors are also on Comcast, because our only other option in my neighborhood is a lousy 256k connection. After all, that's all Qwest promised the city of Taylorsville in 2004 when they convinced the City Council to pull out of UTOPIA... no kudos to the short-sighted Taylorsville City Council that somehow lost the vision they once had.

That said, I only achieve the full speeds listed above on the Comcast system when I'm using it at 3:00am after all the neighbors have gone to bed and aren't using theirs.

Ah to have the splendid best of both worlds... where I could have a dedicated line like Qwest provides (not shared with neighbors) - and speeds much greater than Comcast offers and for a lot less money... That's why I'm moving out of Taylorsville and seeking residence in UTOPIA cities.

Remember folks, it's not just about faster internet... it's about the future of all your communications: phone, TV and internet (even though phone and TV are even now being handled over internet as well); and it's about competition and options... something the Qwest and Comcast monopolies haven't had, nor provided. Instead they continue to charge us premium prices for lackluster services... and provide little to nothing in terms of customer support... Don't believe me?

Read my story about dealings with Qwest during my fight to keep Taylorsville in UTOPIA.

Read about another friend's unfortunate experiences with Comcast.

I really hope that Qwest and Comcast will either start bringing their systems up to handle the technology we need to get our state and our country back in the technology race; and enchance our quality of information connectivity... or get onboard and start providing on UTOPIA so they can give their customers the same speeds they're currently charging for.

Want to know more? Check out UTOPIA's web site and then start hounding your City Council to help them understand the benefits of getting it in your area.

Wish me luck in my quest for UTOPIA. Start your own and help grow the list of cities I can look for homes in!