The First Sixth Weeks has finally ended but that does not make me any more glad. I am sure there is more work in the future, but I digress. Now this week in Computer Programming, we are going over HTML and using it to make a simple webpage. However, HTML is not for programming, it is a markup language which I believe is just annotated text that connects by tags. The tags start and end with <> with characters in the middle. Frankly, this is very interesting, I mean creating simple webpages that are not wikis are sort of cool. I managed to make a webpage of animated films that I like, albeit it could be improved. But I like it, or maybe that is because I made it. I wonder what can I do further with HTML. And I have just noticed that you can also "Edit HTML" in Blogger as well, is that not a big coincidence? In any case, hopefully I will be able to use this information one day.
Well, aside from HTML, we also went over networks and choosing the most efficient way to choose paths. I am still bad at finding algorithms for things, but at least this activity was easier.
That's it for this week.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Algorithms and Problem Solving
Well, after this week, I have learned that every time I do something on the internet, I basically make data that can be used by anyone if accessed. All this has done is scare me into near paranoia because at any moment, someone can try to use my information against me. That is seriously sick and rude. But then again, this is the internet, and no one gives a rats butt on the internet. It is also sort of getting hard to remember to do my data journal, I am trying to fill in the days but it is getting harder because of the more work that keeps piling on. Besides, I have a daily routine and I go to the same websites everyday anyway. Anyways, the only thing that matters is that be careful on the internet and do not trust search sites because they can use your information against you. That is a pessimistic lesson, isn't' it?
My privacy aside, we also did a problem solving activity. In all truth, the only one that I really understood how to do was the first activity. There was 20 people including you, so that means you can only shake 19 people's hands. The second one was a little more difficult but I could do it. There are two fence posts for every one yard. So if there are 12 yards of fencing, there is going to be 13 fence posts. I am just basing that on logic, but when you involve math into it and turn it into algorithms, my head starts to hurt. Probably because I just got out of Statistics and that class always seems to make my head hurt. Then the third problem was another toughie, and I also did not make an algorithm for this one. Instead I used logic and concluded that since there are 10 people including myself, and if everyone can only shake one time with one person but we need to shake hands with everyone in the room. At first my mind pointed to 9 handshakes, but then what about everyone else? So after I shake hands with that one person, I will shake hands with someone else, then another one, and so on until everyone has shaken hands. So I thought that I will shake hands with 9 people, that person will shake hands with 8 people after he has shaken hands with me. So the equation I thought of was 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1+0=45 handshakes. Then the part with 20 people was the same thing. 19+18+17+16+15+14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+2+1+0=190 handshakes. However, I did not get the problem on the board at all, mainly because I could not see it. So I relied on my group who did get the answer, or what we thought they answer was. After Mr. Stephens told us the algorithm was 2^n, I felt stupid. But that is life, and I guess I might as well learn about this. May be useful in the future, and since I lack common sense sometimes, I especially need this.
My privacy aside, we also did a problem solving activity. In all truth, the only one that I really understood how to do was the first activity. There was 20 people including you, so that means you can only shake 19 people's hands. The second one was a little more difficult but I could do it. There are two fence posts for every one yard. So if there are 12 yards of fencing, there is going to be 13 fence posts. I am just basing that on logic, but when you involve math into it and turn it into algorithms, my head starts to hurt. Probably because I just got out of Statistics and that class always seems to make my head hurt. Then the third problem was another toughie, and I also did not make an algorithm for this one. Instead I used logic and concluded that since there are 10 people including myself, and if everyone can only shake one time with one person but we need to shake hands with everyone in the room. At first my mind pointed to 9 handshakes, but then what about everyone else? So after I shake hands with that one person, I will shake hands with someone else, then another one, and so on until everyone has shaken hands. So I thought that I will shake hands with 9 people, that person will shake hands with 8 people after he has shaken hands with me. So the equation I thought of was 9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1+0=45 handshakes. Then the part with 20 people was the same thing. 19+18+17+16+15+14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+2+1+0=190 handshakes. However, I did not get the problem on the board at all, mainly because I could not see it. So I relied on my group who did get the answer, or what we thought they answer was. After Mr. Stephens told us the algorithm was 2^n, I felt stupid. But that is life, and I guess I might as well learn about this. May be useful in the future, and since I lack common sense sometimes, I especially need this.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Technology changes Privacy
So in this week in class, we were talking about how privacy is affected by the growth of technology and this includes social media sites and other sites that record our data. We also did an activity which made us evaluate a scenario, my group was to present a scenario in which a guy whose wall gets posted by comments of legalizing marijuana. Thus this guy does not get hired by the government. I guess it was not the guy's fault since he couldn't control his friend, but there was always the option of making his profile private so others can not see. It is strange when we can not see the answer. But other than that, we also talked about how privacy is dropped due to recorded information that we usually are not aware of. Netflix, GPS, and cookies record our information and we do not even know about it. I am now nervous about signing up for any kind of website now. Listen up everyone, the world is changing, and it is not going to be good for people who leave their information all over the place! Get better passwords, and get antivirus security software.
On another note, since I was not in class to watch the videos, I had to watch them at home. The one I liked the best was the RSA Animate video because it was the last video I watched last and the one I can remember better. The video talks about the common ideology that people are usually motivated by a reward, usually monetary compensation. This is pretty much accurate for tasks that even just physical labor. The situation that they often presented in the video was the carrot for the mule. The mule will work for the carrot. However, this ideology did not work when rudimentary cognitive skills were needed. The test subjects performed below par or at least worse, and the test subjects were from MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon. These guys were the top of the bracket yet they did terrible when it came to cognitive ability. The world is strange, isn't' it? The lecturer later said that what really motivated us when it came to work was not money, it was mastery, autonomy, and a sense of purpose. Mastery is getting better at something for the sake of being better. He relates this to musicians, somehow I can see that. They are not getting paid much for singing, so all they have is get better at music. It is their drive, their motivation. I also guess that autonomy is a benefit since you are basically making your own rules to work. I liked how he used the business model with free software in it. I do not use Linux but I may want to in the future. Maybe when I become a servant to the money game, I will ask my employer to give me personal autonomy and purpose. Probably will not happen, but I can always dream. What still shocks me is that money is not the panacea for a workers desire.
Well that's all for today folks.
On another note, since I was not in class to watch the videos, I had to watch them at home. The one I liked the best was the RSA Animate video because it was the last video I watched last and the one I can remember better. The video talks about the common ideology that people are usually motivated by a reward, usually monetary compensation. This is pretty much accurate for tasks that even just physical labor. The situation that they often presented in the video was the carrot for the mule. The mule will work for the carrot. However, this ideology did not work when rudimentary cognitive skills were needed. The test subjects performed below par or at least worse, and the test subjects were from MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon. These guys were the top of the bracket yet they did terrible when it came to cognitive ability. The world is strange, isn't' it? The lecturer later said that what really motivated us when it came to work was not money, it was mastery, autonomy, and a sense of purpose. Mastery is getting better at something for the sake of being better. He relates this to musicians, somehow I can see that. They are not getting paid much for singing, so all they have is get better at music. It is their drive, their motivation. I also guess that autonomy is a benefit since you are basically making your own rules to work. I liked how he used the business model with free software in it. I do not use Linux but I may want to in the future. Maybe when I become a servant to the money game, I will ask my employer to give me personal autonomy and purpose. Probably will not happen, but I can always dream. What still shocks me is that money is not the panacea for a workers desire.
Well that's all for today folks.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
2nd Post: Whoohoo!
This week in Computer Programming we learned about Web 2.0 tools. This list stretched from bubble.us to Quick Forget, and it was a fairly entertaining activity. We got into teams of three, and we researched Mapwing, glogster, and wikispaces. I had to research the latter, which proved to be somewhat interesting. Initially, I had known wikispaces to be another website like wikipedia where you can create web pages about various subjects. I was somewhat right and also somewhat wrong. Wikispaces was more personal and could limit those who could access it. Apparently teachers get a free premium account, but everyone can get a free basic account which should suit most people. It was ironic that to learn about Wikispaces, I had to read about its wikipedia page first. In some areas, it resembled a blog because all I was doing was making "posts" in the form of web pages. Even the function to add widgets seemed similar to Blogger. Wikispaces aside, I had actually heard cool websites which I should try out over the weekend. One website in particular caught my attention, stumbler. I never knew that you could just click on a button and then you are on your way to doing something exciting. Another good thing is that it has filters to prevent any undesirable results. All in all, it was a fun activity. That's it for today, see you later.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
First Week of Doing Stuff in CompSci
In the first time of my life, I had learned how to properly search for something. I should not equate Google search with accurateness because everything that may pop up may not be credible. Apparently sites that use .edu and .gov are more credible than .org and .com. This is a surprise for me because I thought .org sites were okay, but I guess I was wrong. Another important thing that surprised me was that 90% of people do not know the CTRL+F function. That is ridiculous, more people should know how to do that. We are living in an age full of technological advances, I was sure that people knew the simplest of operations.
I did not win the scavenger hunt, I felt so sad because I wanted to feel the rush of victory. I guess it was too much for my group and I. Competitions have never been my cup of tea anyway. So there, at least I attempted, that is all that matters. Or at least, that is what I tell myself at night. So that is it for right now, see ya next week.
I did not win the scavenger hunt, I felt so sad because I wanted to feel the rush of victory. I guess it was too much for my group and I. Competitions have never been my cup of tea anyway. So there, at least I attempted, that is all that matters. Or at least, that is what I tell myself at night. So that is it for right now, see ya next week.
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