Jim Regan -- Site Reviews
Constructor
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It's inspiring – in a strange, twisted way – to see people working so diligently to find ingenious means for the rest of us to waste our time. The Rubik's Cube for example – or "automated technical support." Of course, the Web itself has a bit of a reputation as a productivity sinkhole, but if you want to get serious – lava lamp serious – about non-productivity, Constructor is the site for you.
Well, not "site," exactly. Constructor is a one-page-wonder – a Java applet (posted by Soda, a developer of "online concepts, strategies, designs, and programs") which encourages people with absolutely no interest in physics to blissfully investigate the interrelations between such factors as mass, gravity, and kinetic energy. Sounds irresistible, right? Well, to date it's been irresistible enough to draw 250,000 visitors in a single week.
The device attracting so much attention is a construction kit for two-dimensional "walkers" – made of nothing more than springs, muscles, and masses (depicted by lines, circles, and dots). When the page and applet have downloaded (you'll need a 4.x browser, and hopefully a 800x600 screen – or you'll do a lot of scrolling), Constructor reveals a set of control panels, an exercise area, and the "daintywalker" – one of 10 pre-constructed models – moving back and forth, from wall to wall, awaiting your interference. The walker looks something like a wire-frame UFO on legs, and its gentle, seemingly tentative, steps certainly fit its name ... until you start experimenting.
The most obvious thing to do is simply grab one of the masses, and drag it to see how the rest of the model responds. (It's best to use some discretion: At one point I accidentally turned my walker over, leaving it as helpless as a flipped tortoise.) Of course, there are more refined methods of manipulation too. The control panels allow the visitor to regulate the performance of the walker's "muscles," as well as setting the springs' strength, and the arena's friction and gravity. (Move the gravity slider to maximum or the kinetic energy to minimum, and you'll just ruin the walker's whole day.)
Along the top of the window is a series of pull-down menus that allow you to construct your own creation, or load the other pre-fabricated models (options include a worm, an amoeba, a "pushupullme" and a "breaking wave"). You can also dictate whether the walkers are smart enough to turn around when they hit a wall, and you can turn gravity on or off – or even reverse it. (The irresponsible use of some of these controls could raise the issue of cruelty to wireframes.)
So is all this of any practical use? Certainly not! It might be helpful in illustrating basic principles to an introductory physics class, but for most of us, it's more like a game of online solitaire. Constructor does have one major advantage over solitaire, though: When someone looks over your shoulder while you're playing, at least it looks like you're doing something serious.
Constructor can be found at http://sodaplay.com/index.htm.
Jim Regan provides 'Today's Links' to the e--Monitor. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.