The Dangers of Floating Point Numbers

As I've mentioned previously I'm participating in One Game a Month. My January game was Yet Another Space Shooter. My February game is a platform game that doesn't yet have a name. It's coming along nicely but I have run into some interesting problems along the way. As it turns out platform games can be …

January 1GAM – Yet Another Space Shooter

I'm participating in One Game a Month (1GAM). Its a open project where people all over the world agree to produce one game each calendar month. There's no prizes or money involved. Its just a personal challenge. I recently completed an interactive Python programming course on coursera.org, game development essentially. I finished the course feeling inspired …

Wikis And Collaboration (And Moodle)

Giving students the opportunity to learn to work within a team is a recurring theme in many educational institutions. Collaboration is required in virtually all work places so schools and universities are always looking for opportunities to get students off the individual assessment treadmill and to embrace tasks that are more about "we" instead of …

Moodle Email Configuration – Could Not Authenticate With Gmail

Today I realized that the Moodle installations on my laptop were not able to send email notifications. I have previously used the smtp (email) server of an Australian Internet service provider without any problem. One of the downsides of traveling through Asia is that you tend to see far more of the security precautions companies …

Moodle Development Machine Speedy(ish) Setup Script

Note: In the time since this was originally published I have updated the script based on the feedback I received here and to set up the currently supported branches. I recently had to set up the laptop I will be taking on the road with me. While traveling I will be continuing my work as …

Managing Large Groups In Moodle

Setting up and managing large groups of students can be tiresome. Fortunately Moodle provides a few tools to help ease the pain. Firstly, automatic group creation. Simply specify how many groups you would like or how many students you want per group and Moodle will do the rest. With a few clicks of the mouse …