Sad new blog tech

This week has been a rather sad week for science and space exploration due to the imminent retirement of the space shuttle discovery. Discovery embarked upon its last launch in order to take a humanoid robot into space. After this mission space shuttle discovery will be retired from use, and then there will be only 2 functioning American space shuttles left. These two shuttles will only have one more launch each before they are retired too though, so this is the beginning of the end of the space shuttle era. After this point, the US will not have any opperating space vehicles and will have to use another countries, or a private companies shuttles in order to do anything is space. Meh :(

Last week in comp sci

Last week we went over array lists in class and they are not too different from what we have done before. The only really difference is that instead of having single [c,h,a,r,s] you can have [st,ri,ngs] in each position. The only thing this does is add a small level of complexity by introducing several new method types. Labs now are becoming more difficult because we do not just have to implement what we just learned in some basic coding and stick an out print at the end, but rather deal with real world problems or codes which would need to be created. While interesting it is much harder and I just hope that I can stay afloat until the AP.

several weeks ago in Comp Sci

Computer science is starting to get rather complicated. We went back into critters again, but there was a bit more depth, and rather then just having some bugs running around in circles, we have to make them create more intricate designs and have introduced a more complicated black plague actor. It took me a few tries to implement the black plague actor (which looks like a rat and is supposed to turn actors around it black) but the trouble was mostly caused by the syntax which we had to learn and the numerous setting and getting commands associated with the actor class. The quiz associated with the topic was also slightly confusing in that many of the answers seemed like they could be right and were very similar. I ended up doing ok on that quiz but did not exactly pass with flying colors. I think I understand the concepts and can move on now though.

Cool new blog tech

The popular video sharing site, youtube now has an app so that it can be viewed in 3D. I think this is getting close to the end of the wave of cool new 3D hardware and software. There is the 3ds, 3d tv, and a lot of new 3d movies, but interest seems to have peaked already. Avatar might have created a new interest in 3d with its epic graphics and feelings, but there seems to be less hype over movies being in 3d and all of the new 3d gadgets coming out. While all these things are still cool, they no longer create awe and excitement as much. This could have two causes. The technology could be either be getting old and stale, or it is starting to be accepted as the norm or a requirement for any new technology. either way I am still interested and hope that more of this technology appears.

Cool new blog Tech

For years computers have surpassed humans at simple or even mildly complex computational and strategic games. They can win at tic tac toe, chess, and even large and complicated video games under the right situations, but now on of the last ways in which computers are inferior to humans is coming under debate. A machine is now being tested as to whether it can think better or faster then a human. Watson, an ibm computer is being pitted against the two biggest jeopardy winners in a contest to see who will win in one epic game of jeopardy. It has already been filmed but it is only being aired tonight and the next three days. Whether or not the questions are good or the show is amusing, this will be a moment for the history books of computers