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On Saturday 13 June, at 30 sites across the UK, people gathered to learn how to make simple Android apps. The workshop we used was my Android programming family fun day, and we decided to make the first hour of the workshop the actual record attempt. It turns out that the Guinness World Records (GWR) people take it all reassuringly seriously. So each site needed the following: Two witnesses, independent of BCSWomen and the host organisation (in this case, Aberystwyth University – we had Rachel Seabrook, who I met at Science Cafe, and Moya Neale, who I met at my dance class) Two independent stewardsRead More →

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On Saturday, across the UK, people are going to learn how to code simple Android apps using MIT AppInventor. The day is being coordinated by BCSWomen and you can sign up here. Signups close tomorrow (Tuesday). There are many reasons behind BCSWomen doing this kind of thing. Firstly, each site will be led by a woman, so we’re putting technical women on the stage. The day is open to kids and families, so we’re helping to show kids that coding is creative and can be something they can do. We’re hoping for a bit of publicity for us (women in tech, the BCS, etc.) too.Read More →

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For the last two weeks I’ve had a work experience student in working on AppInventor stuff. When she started, she’d never done any coding before, so I set her off on updating the materials for the AppInventor Family Fun Day. … and the materials are now ready Check the Family Fun Day page for fully updated materials, ready for AppInventor 2. Free, creative commons licensed one-day android programming workshop, now fully up to date again. AND she got an app on Google Play Check out PieSplat! A custard pie app where you can change the target image, and play either Whack-a-mole style or by flingingRead More →

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This post details the steps I had to go through to get my eee-pad transformer Android tablet to talk to a linux machine running Ubuntu for development purposes. In particular, I’m trying to get it to run with AppInventor (a draggy-block-style easy programming environment). There are lots of FAQs and HOWTOs on the net out there, but the straightforward instructions didn’t work for me so I’m putting the things I’ve learned up here, in case someone else can benefit. I’m guessing this post won’t be of interest to you unless you’re trying to mess about with android, running Linux, and haven’t managed to get developmentRead More →