This Week in The OpenLab: October 8th Edition

Warning:  Do not watch unless you like to see cockroaches being turned into robots!  More on this below!

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REMINDER:  STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES

Last week we mentioned we’re looking for more qualified students to write for our award-winning (or soon to be) student blog, The Buzz.  Those submissions are ongoing, and the deadline isn’t until the 10th, so be sure to get those applications in.  In addition, we want to emphasize that we’d love to hear from faculty:  if you know a student who would be good for the position, please do let us know.

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FEATURED COURSE:  INS AND OUTS OF PHYSICAL COMPUTING

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We don’t always know what they’re talking about, but we had a great time looking through the work being done in this course.  Lovely, detailed descriptions of controllers, actuators, and sensors, and exemplary student interaction in the comments.  It’s wonderful to see students who are obviously passionate about the class and what they’re doing in it.  And yes, the site even has links to cockroach dissection, live and onstage, which we have posted at the top of this edition of This Week.  Watch at your own risk.

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FEATURED TIP:  SOUNDCLOUD

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A few weeks back we mentioned that we’d added a Soundcloud plugin that would allow you to embed a Soundcloud file.  Well, to be more clear, WordPress has added an oEmbed functionality for Soundcloud.  What this means is that you can add Soundcloud directly to your post by copying and pasting the URL of the Soundcloud file, and YOU DON’T have to use the “share” dialogue box to copy either the iFrame code (which will never work on the OpenLab without a plugin) or the WordPress code. Using oEmbed makes things very easy, but it is a change if you’re used to doing things the old way.

You can check out this list for the complete and up to date sites that WordPress has added to its oEmbed list.  As of this writing, the OpenLab is using Version 3.5.2, though we will be updating again soon.

As always contact us with any questions!

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