Thursday 13 March 2008

SMILE Mathematics

Here are several older applications that I did at SMILE Mathematics which is no more.

Division Buster
Like the old TV Show BlockBuster but with division questions... Anyway the path checking algorithm was interesting in this!


Nim
The objective of this game is to make sure your opponent is the last person to pick up a pencil I think this game is played with matchsticks but that wasn't deemed appropriate for schools! This game can be played against the computer and again required the development of a logic and a bit of research on the problem to determine a good computer strategy. you'll be hard pressed to beat the comp, and this one does require reading the instructions!


Towers of Hanoi
A classic game that's been seen many times before event on the web. This one records moves and replays them and if you can do three ring easily enough. Change the options.


Enlarging Pentominoes
This is basically a jigsaw but the interesting thing about it is there are several ways to complete each jigsaw this required developing algorithms to analyse that the jigsaw had been completed in a more abstract way.


Building Pentominoes
Similarly as with Enlarging Pentominoes this simple to play game used graph theory to analyse the pentominoes to determine which ones they were regardless of symmetry. So if you created the same shape upside down the program would recognise it. See if you can find all twelve pentominoes!


Darts
Here you're forced to do the maths in this game, one version requires a modicum of skill!


Adds Up To
Again this game required the computer to analyse potential moves - breadth first search - while also preventing the other player from winning.


As did this....Minimax
This requires you to play against and beat the computer using skill this was a good one to do for developing the computer logic for making moves as the numbers come up arbitrarily.The instructions in this are for a different game (The instructions never got finished!) you must try and beat your opponent (try and beeat the computer) by getting either the smallest or largest result.

Frogs
Simple game of can you get the frogs to the other side, this main view is from an isometric perspective. The number of frogs can be changed dynamically and the moves you've made are recorded, tabulated and can be replayed.

Magic Squares
A simple game to play but not so simple to complete. If you like Sudoku you might like this!

Boat
Another nice one to play. Can you get the bugs all other to the other side!

Jugs
This one was another one where the recording and replay was seen as useful.


Some others from way back!
Angle Fit
Maximum Remainder
Tensprint

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Projects at MRM

I've worked on several projects at MRM Worldwide (www.mrmworlwide.com) Here are some of the more significant ones...

www.msnsearchstar.com

www.msnsearchladder.com

www.microsoft.com/dynamics/everyonegetsit/default.mspx

www.microsoft.com/uk/office/newday/default.mspx

http://int-crackthecode.mrmpweb.co.uk


Answer
0 (Homepage/login)
tcp/ip
1 (top left)
62658591
2 (top right)
0011000100110111
3 (bottom left)
25257
4 (bottom right)
1257632


A True 3d Carousel for a Microsoft Page - used a pretty useful component for this one.
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/amazingoffice/

Another 3d Carousel for the newspaper and marketing association no component this time.
http://nma.mrmpweb.co.uk/brand-landing-page/

An app whose development is near completion is the Unilever - Walls Kids Fun
http://uni-kidsfun.mrmpweb.co.uk/en-GB/index.html
Or if you prefer in French!
http://uni-kidsfun.mrmpweb.co.uk/fr-fr/index.html

Microsoft being a big client of ours has meant that I have been learning Silverlight the first app I worked on being a simple videoplayer. Except that compare to Flash it's not so simple this was done in the older version of Silverlight(1.0) That uses javascript!
http://microsoft-mnp-uk.mrmpweb.co.uk/uk/expression/webharmony/default.aspx
The new version of Silverlight (used to be 1.1 now called 2.0) is out soon. This uses .net languages -and in particular the one I have done some work in - c sharp.

Imagine Cup 2007
This application was developed forMicrosoft as a facebook application it used the user profile pic and the friends pic in conjunction with a .swf and server side code to create and save an image of a friend or users face superimposed on a customisable robot. Unfortunately as it was part of a competition that has now closed its no longer available.