Yearly revised blog post sum up

Two six weeks ago after taking the six weeks final, I started work on what I now consider to be fairly basic labs. These labs involved having a keyboard input, and a program to calculate simple functions like addition. I had no clue how to do these, until I finished the most basic labs which we had to do, and had to go over the power points several times and ask friends how to start. Once I started though, my growth in each area began to build, growing faster and faster, until around the time of a quiz, at which point I would be prepared and make an ok grade. All the while through I would discuss my work with my peers and teacher in order to get a better understanding of what I was doing. As the concepts were explained to me by the people around me, I worked on my individual labs, I finished up the worksheets, and I watched the presentations on the board, my general knowledge on the subject as a whole and the usage of computers grew. At the beginning of the year my general knowledge on the subject of computers was limited to the use of the internet and a word processor. I could type up my assignments and play games online, but otherwise I was fairly clueless on how to use a computer. I did not know how anything worked, and like many other people, I just hoped that the tech geeks who assembled my computer could do anything for me. Now, even if I do not know how to create computer software from scratch, I understand the basic concepts behind some of java and C+ programming languages. I know how to create codes to calculate equations, output simple graphics, and even create repetitive actions based on an outside situation
My progress throughout the year has worked in much the same way as my weekly and monthly progress would work. At first I had no clue what was going on with the new labs and blog posts and everything, but throughout the year I have settled into a routine. I started without even vaguely understanding the concept, but after the easy bits at the beginning, I began to see how everything fit together. Now the work is a bit harder, and the final will be quite difficult, but there is meant to be a challenge in the end. While at some points, what I was doing at the time seemed ridiculously easy and unnecessary, so I got off task, at other times the labs were fully engaging and immersed the students so completely that it would be a disappointment to leave the class for our next period. Times would be split between the complete calms at the beginning of a subject, to the absolute panic which occurred moments before a quiz or a test. Over all I think that I learned what I both needed to and wanted to at the beginning of the year, so I am looking forwards to the rest of the year.

http://createrandomstuff.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-10-10T21:23:00-07:00&max-results=7
(for some reason this one double posted)

Cool new technology

I recently heard of a new technology that promised to change households everywhere. While this seemed a bit too good to be true, and certainly a far way off from today, it would be very interesting to see them. The new prototype is a multitouch bent desk sized computer, which is the general size and shape as the old arcade machines. It seems like it would integrate technology even more into our lives, because every moment of our life then, even without a computer, would be influenced by our phones or desks. I thought that while interesting and probably fun, it would be nice to have one or two parts of your. While I think that this desk will be interesting and might help some, it will create just another distraction for others. If the technology was refined a bit more so that it did not look like an ugly white brick, then I think that it would be fairly interesting, but at this stage in development, I do not think it will affect anybodies life.

Several weeks ago in comp sci

We have taken a quiz on the old topic and moved onto the new topic of ands/ors. this new topic is just like finding values to a matrix in math; easy, but rather tedious and takes a while when the problems get bigger. The most annoying thing that happens relating to these is when you get one part of the order wrong in a problem and then have to do basically the exact same problem repeatedly but with a slightly different answer. An example was a&&b||c&&d where did and then or then and instead of and then and then or. On some problems this messes up the outputs and becomes really annoying. Otherwise nothing else is new and I mostly get the content.I have noticed that we are doing some review recently, and I think it would be good to step up the review amount in order to get ready for the midterm, because there is nothing like test corrections or retakes for that.

Cool new blog technology

This week on Engadget I read an article about how different tv companies have blocked their video content from being shown on google TV. This has been done apparently because they do not want people to just use their internet in order to view tv shows and not pay for cable. TV companies want to show you as little as possible in order to make you buy a product and thus they do not like to have people watch their videos for free on TV. I think that it is sill that TV companies literally put a block on their website in order for it not to be shown on TV. If people really wanted to watch online shows on their TV, I am pretty sure that they could use their TV as a monitor. The whole debate seems rather silly to me and I think it will annoy some of my peers to see how wrapped up the companies are in profit, rather then the actual product and future of the industry.

Weekly Compsci Update

Last week in Comp Sci, we learned a fair bit. We reinforced the idea of if else if, and started to use loops. We only used for loops to start, which probably simplified the process and made it much easier to understand. The one thing that I made repeated mistakes on though was where to put the semicolons in on for loops. I would always miss one here or there, so I would have errors come up in my programs. This is little more then an annoyance, because it takes little time to fix, but I kinda hope that it will become habit to put the semicolons in the right place soon. Another thing which took me a while to get was right were the for loop stopped. I did not know whether or not you apply the multiplier before or after the Boolean check, but this was resolved by doing several practice problems and having the small portion of the concept re-explained. We also now have a new system of powerpoint presentations which I prefer. Now our screens just have a small bubble which the teacher controls, so that we can work at the same time as we listen and learn, which streamlines the process. That is all for last week cya.

Cool new Blog Tech

This week on Engadget, I read a post about how someone managed to make a gameboy emulator using JAVA. Apparently the only reason that they made the emulator, was in order to prove that java could be useful for such a device. He wanted to show that java was not only useful for creating games, but whole systems. I found this to be pretty cool because up until this point I think that my class mates and I have seen little real world application to what we have been doing, so seeing such a post could remind us that there is more to what we are learning then the ability to find the letter m in compsci. This blog post seemed to show a possible future project for us which made me more excited then ever to be able to do such a thing.

This week in Compsci

Well actually it would be last week, but whatever. It was rather uneventful due to my absence two of the three days of class. On the day that I was there though, I learned about if else if statements and cases. These seemed to be fairly simple, due to their similarities to previous concepts. The only slightly confusing thing about cases, was the need for breaks after every line. One problem I had with the labs that we were supposed to work on was that I did not realize how to use if else ifs at first so I just us if elses. This makes your code really long and complicated with a whole bunch of brackets, so I managed to confuse myself and just make the whole code more complicated then it needed to be. I do not think that these concepts are very difficult so I am glad that we are working on labs a lot more and doing a lot more individual work. A quick explanation of how to use if else ifs and viewing a power point cleared the situation up. Otherwise nothing else happened and the week was uneventful

Cool new Blog Tech

Today I read on engadget about how the ISS (international space station) is marking its tenth anniversary of continuous habitation. This means that there has been someone living in the ISS at all times for the last ten years. I think this is fairly incredible due to the amount of resources which it takes to keep someone alive. It is about 10000 dollars a pound to send matter to the ISS so just getting food up to the ISS is expensive enough. Getting oxygen and keeping sanitary conditions on board are also of concern, so to have been running for 10 years strait, is quite an achievement. I thought this was interesting because it proves that space hotels and residences are not just possible, but quite creatable for those rich enough to afford this. I have recently heard many people talking about a want to go into space or experience 0 gravity, and I thought that it would be neat to see this commercially happen for extended periods of time.

Weekly Comp Sci Update

This week has just been a lot of catch up work for me, so I got little in the way of labs done. Of the labs which I did get to though, I found them to be fairly easy. This week I worked on if else statements, and I seem to have gotten them down fairly well, aside from putting a semicolon where it does not belong, or creating weird syntax, this concept seems fairly self explanatory. Like I mentioned earlier, the one thing I had trouble with was the syntax and punctuation, but a quick tutorial from one of my peers quickly alleviated the situation. Other then that, this week was pretty bland and little else happened.

Cool new blog tech

This week Engadget reported on a human exoskeleton which has been created by Pansonic. Although it only covers your legs and its arms are rather short, it has the ability to make your legs lift 40 extra kilograms. It seems to me that this is the dawn of a new age of robot human integration. It is only a matter of time before these exoskeletons can encompass the body and will be used for military activities. Although I doubt I will be alive to see it, I think it will be fascinating to see the day when such technology can be integrated into every life. After watching the movie Pandora, people might tend to think that such technology could only be bad, but they might be interested to know some of the benefits of it. The technology could help firemen and policemen do their jobs better as well as help people survive stressful situations better. Overall I think that it is a neat technology which will better the quality of life and be fun to play around with

Weekly comp sci update

Last week in computer science we started manipulating and changing strings of text and began using if statements. The only trouble I had with the strings was the formatting and syntax within the program. Other then figuring out the new printing commands it was fairly easy. The if statements were a bit more difficult but only due to the fact that I did not have much time to get the concept on the day we worked on it. I think that going over the power point and go over some of the easier labs then I will get it. I missed last Friday's class so otherwise the week was uneventful.

New blog tech

This week I read about a new study on robots in Engadget. The study found that if a baby sees a robot interacting with someone else in a freindly way, and is then left in a room with that robot for a while, then the baby will beleive that the robot is sentinent. The study showed that the baby will not beleive this unless it sees someone else communicating with the robot before hand though. I thought this was interesting because it shows that the way that a robot behaves is more important than its apearance. I thought that people interested in the "robot appocolypse" would like to see this, because it shows one more way in which a robot could enslave us. They could manipulate the young and then grow a generation of brainwashed soldiers. While this might seem rediculous I thought it was rather funny and might make good material for a sci-fi. Overall I do not think that this study is all that important, but it provided some humorous information which I think others will enjoy.

Weekly comp sci update

This week in computer science we did not do too much. We had one day off and the rest of the time we were either taking a quiz or doing some labs. The labs are starting to get more difficult now too. I think this might be due to the fact that our teacher did not have the opportuninty to present the power point which explained the topic. That normally helps me and at least a few of my other class rooms. These labs are still kind of confusing to me. We have to manipulate strings of text to show individual letters or parts of the phrase. I do not quite get where you put the println stuff and where to define different parameters within the code. This becomes rather agravating when you can do everything but trouble shoot due to the lack of a print. I have tried asking around and hopefully next week we can go over the ppt, but until then I will be in the dark.
:P

New blog tech

This week I found out that google has been doing some pretty nifty stuff recently. Engadget reported that google has developed and is driving robotic cars around California. The cars are still in early stages, but they are able to sense their surroundings and make decisions for humans accordingly. These cars could be safer, and thus need less reinforcements, and because of that more fuel efficient and eco-friendly. I thought that this was a really good idea, because if you can just set your car on cruise, then there should be less accidents due to drunk driving, texting or talking on the phone. If the technology advances enough, then your car might even be able to communicate with other cars, and plan routes to avoid traffic or even drive through intersections safely. I thought that many people just learning how to drive would find it interesting to see how driving might change in the future for the better or worse. The only flaw I saw in this system would be security. If someone could hack into a car, they could remotely control it and drive you off of a cliff. Also, if people become too reliant on the cars to drive and the signal is blocked (as is proper military procedure when invading a country) then the roadways would be clogged and backed up and everyone would be sitting ducks. Aside from those worries, which will probably never happen anyways, I think that this new car is a great idea, and hope that it might be for sale in a few years.

The weekly compsci update

This week, class was pretty tame. We did a couple of labs but none of them were too difficult. I managed to pick out how to do the first few labs and after that it was simple to use the same concepts on slightly different problems. One thing that I noticed, was how annoying order of operations could be within J creater though. We had to make a root solver (using the quadratic formula) but it just wouldn't work for my colleagues and I. After about half an hour of trouble shooting we finally realized that we just needed to put some parenthesis within the equation and it would work. This was really frustrating, because the formula was large enough that it was easy to miss something so simple. Otherwise, class has been pretty good. I am starting to understand the basics of java, and due to the miniature presentations at the start of class, I learn the concepts pretty quickly. That is all for this week, cya later.

Cool new blog technology

This week in blogging I found two really interesting things from Engadget. The first cool thing I found was that Toshiba is coming out with a glasses free 3D TV. It is called the Regza 20GL1, and like in the name it has a 20 inch screen. It comes out in Japan in December but is fairly expensive ($2885). I thought that this was neat because I have heard other people say that 3D TV is a really good idea, but that the glasses are unwieldy and annoying to wear. The people that I have talked to seemed like they would enjoy the 3D TV even if it is not quite as sleek as other TV’s yet and does not have a very large display. The other interesting blog post from Engadget was a pedaling powered monorail. It appeared to be a series of large bubbles on a track which one could get inside and pedal around. This appeared to be pretty ridiculous, but I realized that quite a few people would enjoy it. You would get to whiz around in the sky in a glass bubble powering your vehicle with only your strength. While it may not be a practical method of transportations, because something like that would get congested with traffic pretty quickly at rush hour, it seems like a fun recreational vehicle. I thought that it would be a neat thing to have in parks to transport people from one area to another, and that people would enjoy a new form of ecofriendly exercise.

The weekly compsci update

This week we took the grading period final and worked on several computational math labs. At first I had no clue how to even go about coding these labs but after studying several other labs I managed to input a few lines of code in order to make the computer calculate simple addition problems. Once this was realized I quickly made progress on the rest of the labs. I found that by using similar code on the rest of the calc math labs I could multiply, divide, and do almost any other form of basic math. This made it fairly easy but repetitive to go through the labs. One thing which I found to be very useful was the presentation at the beginning of class right after the test day. I found this to help a lot with understanding how to do the labs. It helped me at least understand the concept of what to do, even if I did not quite understand how to implement them at first. I find that explanations from the teacher generally tend to help. Even If it does not fully explain the lab, it helps me understand the concepts and prepare for tests and quizzes.This week we took the grading period final and worked on several computational math labs. At first I had no clue how to even go about coding these labs but after studying several other labs I managed to input a few lines of code in order to make the computer calculate simple addition problems. Once this was realized I quickly made progress on the rest of the labs. I found that by using similar code on the rest of the calc math labs I could multiply, divide, and do almost any other form of basic math. This made it fairly easy but repetitive to go through the labs. One thing which I found to be very useful was the presentation at the beginning of class right after the test day. I found this to help a lot with understanding how to do the labs. It helped me at least understand the concept of what to do, even if I did not quite understand how to implement them at first. I find that explanations from the teacher generally tend to help. Even If it does not fully explain the lab, it helps me understand the concepts and prepare for tests and quizzes.

The blogs I follow

This week on Endgadget I read an article about a cup holder that is also an Ipod jack. This post struck me as pretty cool at first. I thought that it would be a neat idea to be able to plug in your ipod to your cup holder so that you could listen to your favorite music in the car. I then realized that you could already do this, by simply turning on the radio. The idea of having an Ipod jack in a car with a radio seemed slightly silly to me when you can hear any genre of music on the radio as well as news and talk shows. It seems pointless and repetitive to add a gadget like this to a car. Even if you really want to listen to just your own music, then you can buy some speakers which look much neater and are much more portable than a cup holder. One idea on endgadget which I did like was the Acer Aspire AS5745DG which can run 3D TV. I just thought that it was neat that a fairly cheap (less then 1000 dollars) could run 3D graphics, even though it was a bit of a dissapointment that you still need glasses to view it.

The weekly comp sci update

This week was slightly easier than the last few weeks. we worked on several labs and are learning about how to draw and paint objects. This was difficult at first because I did not understand how each of the variables worked to manipulate whichever shape I was drawing. Through a process of trial and error of changing one variable at a time I managed to figure out which variables manipulated the size, and which manipulated the coordinates. I also learned that the coordinates are measured as the distance from the upper left corner. Once I figured out which variables affected different elements it was simply a matter of seeing how the variables changed with different shapes and how to get everything to line up to make a single recognizable entity. The later part gave me the most trouble especially with the robot lab. It took most of the class period just to align and get all of the body parts to look right. In the end I finished the lab right before class ended and learned the material.

First Comp Sci Blog Post

This year I have begun to take a computer science class which will hopefully be rather fun. This past week, I actually started learning about and using java. The one lab which I found most confusing this week was the inputs lab. At first I had no clue what we were even supposed to do. I originally didn't even know how to define a variable, but after a short explanation from my teacher this soon became clear and it was only a matter of copying, pasting, and a small bit of simple addition programing to do the rest. After you know the "grammar" (put a ' here or a ; there) and understand that spacing and case do actually matter, it becomes much more simple. After you were given the line of code that got input for the keyboard, it was simply a matter of defining and manipulating the variables to finish up the lab. I found this same concept to be true of all labs. One I understood the concept, it was just a matter of repetition and small adjustments to actually get the labs to work. So far I have been doing fairly well but it certainly helps to have the labs individually explained before I start. In class I found that hearing the power points also often helped with the labs rather then just reading the ppt on my own.

I'm back

I am back to reclaim this blog. In other news comp sci is funky.