Last year I helped develop a web site for Raytheon. Raytheon worked on a roller coaster simulation that opened at Disney’s Epcot center last Fall. They also support a really great cause, teaching kids about math. The goal was to build a web site that could mimic the Disney ride experience, and also integrate some educational challenges for kids. The result is a highly animated game that lets visitors solve math problems to build a roller coaster. The kids then “ride” the coaster they build. This is very similar to how the Disney experience works at the park.

The web site was submitted to the 2010 Webby awards competition, and has been selected as one of the top 5 choices in the “Youth” category. Now its up to the general public to vote for their favorite. We have some really tough competition since the other sites are basically extensions of TV-based media. We are up against PBS Kids, National Geographic Kids, and BBC Blast. So if you are reading this (and I know you are), please consider voting for “Sum of All Thrills” by Raytheon. You can vote here, and you will find a link to the Web site there as well.

Michael Shaffner was nice enough to invite me back for another presentation. Last Fall I spoke to the group about the GAIA Flash Framework. This time it’s all about physics in Flash. I had the opportunity to use the AS3 port of Box2D on a very recent project that is set to launch on 1/15/10. It was a tricky package to learn, but I was able to find some great tutorials on the Web. Hopefully I can put together some coherent thoughts on how to get a kick-start into coding this stuff, and present that to the group.

The best resources I found were some samples posted by Emmanualle Feronato. He was kind enough to provide demos and code samples for many of the basic concepts in Box2D. From there I was able to produce a few class files that are generic enough to jump start any Box2D project I might want to develop. The original C++ code was written by Erin Catto, and the AS3 port was made possible by Colin Northway.

So I am planning to put something together that I can post here as well. Maybe not another full-blown SLide_rocket presentation, but some samples and a link to the web site we hope to launch soon. The AUG meetup is on January 18th, downtown.