Code Chaser Game : Learn coding in a 3D world filled with Challenging Missions

Code Chaser aims is to bring fun into learning and provide an exciting game to all the gamers out there who want to live in the World of Code. Grasping the educational concepts behind coding had always been overwhelming especially if you are new to the coding world, and you don’t know from where to start. Code chaser game will help you and help your kids understand the basic concepts behind coding while enjoying a 3D entertaining world.

  

In this release the game will focus on helping players gain the knowledge behind the “if” control structure by assigning players missions related to the “if” conditions (==,!=,<=, >=, >, <). Players need to to complete the missions in order to move from one level to another. 

The game is suitable for school kids how would like to practise coding, parents who are interested to learn about coding, programmers who enjoy applying their programming skills in interactive environments, and gamers who enjoy playing games and completing missions. 

The game is available on:

Apple store Google play Amazon

Watch the trailer of the game

                          

For more details follow us on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodeChaserGame

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CodeChaserGame
CEO Maryam Kausar: @Maryam__

How social media endangers the safety of our younger generations?

Social media platforms are providing us with great free tools for communication to express ourselves, our ideas, and make our voice heard by hundreds, thousands, and millions of people out there. However these platforms forgot one important thing, to protect us from exposing our lives, ideas, activities, and beliefs to a society that most of the time will judge us without any justifications. To a society that will publish fake stories with Taboo headlines, and make our kids who are under 18 exposed to cyber bullying, harassment and sexual abuse.

Its time for these social media platforms to set the limits on what people could say. It is time for them to make the move and protect us, protect our privacy and our lives. Yes I may be strong enough to handle a bunch of hatred comments, which are 100% not true. But what if our kids who are very young are exposed to a world where they could be cursed, bullied, and humiliated by people they don’t even know? 

How will social media platforms protect them? How could their parents protect them? How could the society protect them??

I had a look at the reporting forums of Facebook and Twitter that people could use when they are bullied or harassed and I was shocked with the outcomes. It took Facebook around 16 hours to check your report and even when they do, they get back to you with an auto-generated feedback that won’t even explain to you why they don’t consider the post, picture or page a bullying behavior. 

I was shocked with the outcome and this brought my attention to a new level that made me think of the following questions:

• What does that mean? If something goes wrong it should just go wrong?
• People could ruin my life and I can’t defend myself?
• They could harass me and I have to be fine with it?
• Is that the environment I want my kids to grow up in?

I am sorry to say a big NO to all the above questions. I don’t accept that and I do believe millions of people out there don’t accept that too. We all should be aware of the negative impact of social media on our generation, and how we all could be driven by negative social media that expose hate and discriminate the society into right and wrong.

Protect us and protect our kids

Want to understand Agile using LEGO?

It has always been hard to explain to students the concepts behind agile development method unless they are part of a real project. In this article I will be explaining an interesting exercise introduced by Thoughtwork^[1] to help students gain the main concepts behind agile by getting them to design and build a new kind of animal, in LEGO, using a simple iterative process.

To start the exercise you need LEGO boxes, small whiteboards, user stories, and customers. Divide students in the classroom into different groups and give each group a box of LEGO, a set of user stories, and a small whiteboard. Then ask your students to draw two columns on the whiteboard. This will result in three different sections; backlog section, will consist of user stories students are expected to finish in an iteration (number), and completed user stories. Students are then asked to put all the user stories in the backlog section and decide as a team which user stories they could achieve during the first iteration.

Give them five minutes to read the user stories and decide which stories they are willing to achieve, after that students will move the stories they have selected from backlog section to the user stories expected to  finish section and start building the animal.

One customer is assigned to each team and he introduces himself to the group of students at the beginning of the exercise. It is expected that the students will start asking the customer straightforward after receiving user stories for more clarifications. However, in the first iteration most students didn’t ask because they are still unaware of the importance of customer involvement in agile development. They will realise their mistake later on when the customer checks which user stories they actually completed at the end of the first iteration and find out that whatever they were working on in the iteration is not what the customer wants.

At the end of the first iteration, students present to the customer their animal and the customer moves all the completed user stories to the completed user stories section in the whiteboard and uncompleted user stories go back to the backlog.

After the iteration finishes, each group of students are asked to do a retrospective to determine what went right, what went wrong and how they could improve in the upcoming iterations.

In the second iteration students are given new user stories, which they add to the backlog and the same process is carried out again. However, this time students understood that they should keep the customer involved. Therefore, they might ask him at some stage to sit with them and help them build the animal.

This exercise will help students understand the main concepts behind agile and help them practical apply agile in classrooms.

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^[1] http://www.thoughtworks.com/

Code Chaser - Game Teaser

To give you a first look at what the game is going to be about we have released Code Chaser's game teaser. More details on the game play will be revealed soon! Do check out the teaser and we, M & M Innovators hope you like it!

Coming Soon!

iWatch

There has been so much talk going on about Apple, iPhone 6,  iWatch due to the recent Apple event that happened on 9^th Sept 2014. Being a very loyal customer of Apple products from iPod to MacBookPro I have it all. Now the question comes what is iWatch? Is it as good of a product like all the previous Apple products?

People have made remarks regarding its design, a Swiss watchmakers, Jean-Claude Biver, who heads the French group's luxury-watch division said “To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester".  Similar remarks were added by Swatch CEO, Nick Hayek that the world's biggest watch group was "not nervous" about Apple’s watch coming into the market despite the warning given by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design chief.

Keeping all the drama associated with Apple products in mind, lets see what iWatch actually promises.  Next year when Apple will launch iWatch it will have 34 combinations of models and wristbands to select from, providing a variety from gym wearable watches to boardroom styles. It will require an iPhone 5 or later models to work with. This isn’t a fault with the product rather it is an additional feature as it works so well with iPhones. It allows you to make phone calls to any other phone. You can read books, check emails and watch movies on it.

The watch will also validate any payments made by Apple Pay by using a PIN code for authorization and will remain authorized till it remains on your wrist. This has been achieved by using one or more sensors on the back of the watch, which will be used to determine when the user has taken off the watch. In order to make further purchases you will need to wear the watch again and enter the pin.

Now coming to the battery life of the watch, as we all know Apple products do have battery issues, an Apple spokesperson Nat Kerris told Recode, saying that the Watch lasts "about a day right now." Apple does still have time to improve the battery as the watch wont be out till 2015.

There are still many questions regarding iWatch as well as a lot of expectations from it. Some think it will be Apple’s most viral product. On Apple Watch promotion pages it stated: “With Apple Watch, every exchange is less about reading words on a screen. And more about making a genuine connection.”

From all this talk, iWatch does look like an exciting product and we can’t wait for it to be launched so that we can truly see what all it has to offer.

Are PhD and Startups Related?

Last month I was attending a startup session called “Women in startups” were they started the presentation by showing a slide with Women in startups written in big font. The slide was there for a while, and unconsciously my brain started interacting with the sentence in bold, "Women in startups" ..  Women in startups ..  startups ..  startups.

Then something clicked and I started realising that my PhD and my newborn startup could be related!! Related….. why not if they have similar DNA?

They both make me go through the same challenges every day. They taught me how to be patient, absorb stress, and end my day with a smile because no matter what happens I have learnt something.

To prove that PhD and startups are genetically connected I applied the following biological unit tests:

Test 1: I have a great idea, that means I own the stage !!

>> Run Test 1 ;

>> test failed: PhD test caused an error

>> test failed: Startups test caused an error

PhD and startups failed the test because having an idea does not mean that people will be keen to hear about it. You have to find a way to sell your idea to them, and convince them that it is the perfect solution for their problems.

Test 2: Is it worth the risk?

>> Run Test 2 ;

>> test passed: PhD test passed

>> test passed: Startups test passed

In both Phd and startups you are passionate about your idea but you can't stop questioning yourself whether it is worth the risk or not.

They both passed the test because they both are worth the risk as you are putting all your effort into making your idea succeed, and are making the most out of the PhD or startup experience.

Test 3: Unconstructive criticism

>> Run Test 3 ;

>> test passed: PhD test passed

>> test passed: Startups test passed

PhD and startups passed the unconstructive criticism test, because there are always people who will criticize your work even if it is perfect. Never let this hold you back, believe in yourself, and don’t forget that there are always more experienced people in the domain.

According to the test results proved we believe that PhD and startups are related.

Google Loon Takes Off to the Sky

Google is trying to give affordable Internet access to 4.8 billion people who live in rural and remote areas, with the help of Google Loon. Google loon is a device that has been made with polyethylene plastic sheets and looks like a hot air balloon.

            

This is a research project that started at New Zealand in June 2013 by Google Inc. and is supported by the company's own research department Google X. During its  first testing phase, they launched 30 balloons from New Zealand's South Island. These balloons were connected to each other in a circle via wireless Internet with a handful of ground station, and passed signals to one another in a kind of daisy chain.

The local people didn’t know about this project when it was launched for the first time, but they still allowed Google to attach the receiver (like a basketball) to an outside wall of their property in order to connect to the Internet.

The proposed scenario of Google loon is that, at high-altitude, a network of balloons will be placed in the stratosphere approximately at 20 km (approximately 65616 feet) above the earth, traveling at the edge of space moving with the wind (with speed Between 5 and 20 mph) at altitude of about 20 miles (32 km) to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds.

How Google Loon Works

Google Loon balloons are floating into the stratosphere twice as high as airplanes, but below the range of satellites and weather, handle by using software algorithms to determine where its balloons need to go. The balloons are filled with Helium gas and mixture of air. As they need to move with the air, the balloons can be arranged to form a large communications network. 

The ‘Google loon balloons' carry signal around the earth by winds and they can be steered by rising or descending to an altitude with winds moving in the particular direction. The Loon team can access the web- based control system from any computer or tablet. In the stratosphere the balloons are connected to each other, and the signals are bounced from one balloon to another, which forms global Internet on the earth. People will connect with this network by using a special Internet antenna which is attached with the user house as shown in the picture below.

Google Loon has three parts: Envelope, Solar panels and Equipment.

Envelope

It is the inflatable part made form polyethylene. This part is able to hold high pressure and low pressure (1/100 atm). This part is resistant to ultraviolet rays and is capable to working in low temperature like -58 °F.

Solar Panels

Google loon are outfitted with solar panels, which produce 100 Watts of power in full sun, the balloons run on solar power during the day and a battery at night. By moving (with wind) and charging (with sun) balloons are able to power itself to use renewable energy source.

Equipment

In equipment there are “circuit boards (for control the system), radio antennas (for communication with other balloons and with Internet antennas on the ground), batteries (to store solar power and balloons can operate during the night with this power) and weather instruments (to monitor the conditions and weather around them). The balloons and equipment can be re-used and life time of each Google loon balloon is approximately 2- years.