Well, after months of deliberation, Sunfleck Software has finally decided to provide all our applications to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons License. Its our way of giving something back to the community. Granted, we don’t make much money this way, especially since we also refuse to supplement our income by allowing advertising on our site. For that reason donations are always welcome (hint, hint).

Over the years we’ve offered our software applications at minimal charge, with 25% of the revenue donated to charity. But now, we want to go one better and offer them for free.  I guess this is our humble contribution to the free software movement.

Sidebar - there is now a free culture movement with people such as Nina Paley leading the way. Or the many artists such as Allison Crow (personal favourite) posting their music on Jamendo for free download. Way to go, guys.

Our future efforts will be even more expansive. Not only will the applications be free to users, but they will be more universally available and accessible. Our current game, currently under development with the working title “Solarium”, will be playable on Mac, PC or Linux operating systems, with no downloads required. Moreover, we are soliciting your participation through ideas, comments and so on. So go for it – use our stuff and in the process, help make it better.

Its always a good feeling to have successfully reached a goal – especially when getting there demands years of hard work and dedication.  Small wonder then that formal celebrations of  the completion of high school or college are so popular. Personally though, I’ve never really bought into that whole thing. Maybe its my aversion to rituals in general. With three university degrees to my name, I’ve never attended a university graduation day. Until now.

My son, Nathan, graduated with a BA in classical studies from a large university last month. Five years of work. Five years of striving. So the whole family attended the ceremonies. And I must admit it was inspiring. A beautiful venue, beautiful music and thoughtful speeches. It was sometimes moving, sometimes funny, but always full of energy and hope. It reminded me of what the day really represents – the sad closing of a chapter and the excitement of opening a new one.

So here’s Nathan’s graduation day. Hopefully it captures the moment.

Well, I guess when it comes to the topic of drumming, I should be blogging about drumming up business, if anything. But I’m not really concerned about that. No, I’d like to talk about drumming up something much more important – a sense of living and a sense of spirit.

Drums are the pulse, the heartbeat of life. The power of rhythm can be experienced by anyone, but most acutely when we’re making the music ourselves. As in a drum circle. I belong to such a circle, and believe me, we get all kinds of people who find a sense of community and sharing through drums. And the sound, when we find that sweet spot, is pretty amazing.

Drumming can also be part of a spiritual journey. Ever see the movie, The Visitor? It’s an amazing story of redemption. A washed-up college professor has basically given up on life but is reborn through his inadvertent discovery of new friends and their life of drumming. The drum ultimately gives him energy and awakens his need to be involved in this world. And so it can for you.

So next time you’re walking by a group of street musicians with drums, stop and have a listen, maybe have a go at it. Give yourself some time to feel the music. You’ll feel what I’m talking about.

It’s as simple as this:
(be patient – sometimes this YouTube video is slow to load)

“I do science”. That’s a phrase which sums up my job as a research biologist. Scientists often use this phrase to define their role in the creation of new knowledge and the pursuit of a better understanding of our universe. I too, thrill in the moment of discovery. It’s a nice feeling when experiments actually work and your hypothesis stands the test. I also (as all scientists) endure the times when the experiments just won’t work and literally months are spent just spinning wheels. (I won’t even get into the frustrations of managing as opposed to doing science). But we survive because of our passion.

So what does any of this have to do with Sunfleck Software? A few years ago I began to learn to write software programs. As a matter of fact, it came about because of one of my projects in biology. I began to really enjoy this new activity, and before I knew it, I was hooked and moon-lighting for Sunfleck Software as a developer. It’s been said that the act of writing software is more of an art than a science. I guess I would agree. Even though the code itself must obey extremely rigid rules in order to run, the process of putting that code together in such a way that something useful emerges is a highly creative process. And then there is the challenge of creating a program which is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. This requires at least some ability and creativity in graphical design.

But wait… I would argue that doing science is also an act of creation. Many don’t understand that it takes a unique kind of thinking to put together experiments which unambiguously answer a question or test a hypothesis. The term “elegant” has sometimes been used to describe such experiments. The thing is, creation and imagination in scientific research produces intangibles such as data, information and knowledge. True, widgets often eventually arise from this research, but that is the thrust of technology, not science. Creativity in code-writing produces something quite different… a product. A tangible piece of software which can be used to educate, organize, entertain… virtually anything the user wants from it. For me, this is a new kind of endeavor, and I look forward to doing a lot more of it.

At Sunfleck Software, we’re passionate about education. Therefore one of our new initiatives is to develop educational programs. Our first offering will be a game-like program aimed at students ages 8 to 12. The objective will be to explore and develop an appreciation for plants. The students will develop a virtual garden, but with a twist… they will need it to survive on another planet. This will allow the students to think about issues such as (1) how they will get the plants and other resources needed for the garden to this new planet (2) what plants need in order to grow, (3) the role of other organisms in the garden (4) recycling of elements in the environment (5) how plants respond to their environment, and so on. The learning possibilities are endless. Furthermore, we’re going for maximum reach – kids will be able to play the game on Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms, online in any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera), as well as offline. All made possible by the latest Microsoft Silverlight technology. Can’t beat that for accessibility!

We need a catchy title for this new adventure. This is where you come in. Just to get you thinking, here’s a few possibilities:

Star Gardens
Green Things
Pineapple Planet
Green Galaxy
Pumpkins on Pluto
Pineapple Express to Mars
Mars, Melons and Mashed Potatoes

Please, let us know what you think of these titles, or feel free to suggest your own. If we use your suggestion, you’ll be acknowledged in the program credits. Just think of that!

We’re listening.

Just when you thought PeopleTracker couldn’t get any better (we’re a modest lot at Sunfleck Software), we’ve added a new feature. You now have the option of adding photos of friends and family to the database. The image will be displayed each time you call up information on a person or couple (anniversary pictures may also be entered). These images can be changed any time you like, and since they are copies, will not affect your ability to edit, move or delete the originals.

For those of you who are interested in giving PeopleTracker as a gift on CD, we now offer a pretty cool feature which is not available from other software companies. At no charge, we will incorporate a message to the recipient right in the program. Say what you like and put the message where you like, its up to you.

Lastly, we now offer (probably on a permanent basis) a free copy of Sunfleck Temperature Converter with each purchase of PeopleTracker. Its a handy little program to convert among temperature scales, and even offers over 50 interesting facts about temperature.

We always appreciate feedback about our programs and policies so please let us know what you think. Thanks.

A sunfleck is basically a bright spot or dapple of light. The term is frequently used in an ecological context to describe bright spots of light reaching the forest floor. They result from the random movement of tree leaves tossed about in a breeze on a sunny day. This has huge consequences for the plants living in the understory. Plants often acclimate to local light conditions by producing leaves adapted to full sun (curiously enough, called sun leaves) or to full shade (shade leaves). Imagine being a small plant growing quietly in the shadow of large trees. Suddenly a sunfleck arrives, bathing your shade leaves in brilliant light. What a jolt. Leaf temperature suddenly climbs, water rapidly evaporates from your leaf surfaces and photosynthesis rate goes way up. Then just as quickly, the light disappears. Back to normal, only to have the light return a few seconds later. No such thing as getting used to your environment, because it’s always changing. The transient changes in biochemistry produced by sunflecks are fascinating and are the subject of ongoing scientific study. For example click here or here.

Photo by Blentley (Flickr)