Etoys supports the DC input

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

  Hello,

  It's been available for a while, but I'd like to announce that Etoys
running on XO supports the DC input.

  To try it:

  - Launch Etoys.
  - Drag out the "Object Catalog" from the Tresure Box.
  - Go to "Multimedia" category in the Object Catalog.
  - Drag out "WorldStethoscope".
  - Right click on the instantiated WorldStethoscope and click on the
    light blue eye icon to open its viewer.
  - Click on "basic" category header to get a menu, and choose "sound"
    to go to sound category.
  - Press Start in the WS.  Some of the numbers in the viewer start
    changing.  Whisle into the microphone.
  - Press Menu of WS, and choose "add a graph...".  May be pick
    "sonogram".
  - You can open more than one graph on the same data.  Press Menu of
    WS, and choose "add a graph...".  May be pick "spectrum."  You can
    see sonogram and spectrum graph (and signal if you open it) at the
    same time.
  - Connect a sensor to the jack.  Press "AC" button to switch to
    "DC".
  - The tiles can be used in the Etoys tile scripting, so kids can
    make stuff with them.

etc., etc.

The UI needs one more face lift, but it works ok.  If you don't have
XO, you can still buy the WorldStethoscope hardware
(http://www.academianetwork.co.jp/service/) that converts the sensor
output to audio and do effectively the same thing on any computer with
a sound input.

The version in 764 has a little bug so that it leaves the mic LED on
even after quitting Etoys (it is fixed in the latest Joyride).  But it
is usable.

-- Yoshiki