This will be my final blog which will wrap up my experience and enjoyment of the program. Overall, I felt I learned a lot of new subjects and ideals which opens up my decision to continue further studies in subjects like AI, VR, and Robotics.

I was very interested in going further into gaming and did not realize how easy it was to create a game. I really enjoyed viewing many free programs that I can do at my home. I have worked with Unity and have found various other programs that work with Unity. It was a great advantage to see the tutorials and to actually program the game with little or no programming knowledge.

In conclusion, I wished we would have learned more SQL and Unix which will be used in my further studies. I will not be transferring, but mainly learning new skills I can use in my everyday occupation. I will wrap up this blog advising a continue knowledge in the individual subjects which we were introduced to. I would like to go further into the gaming as well as AI robotics.

- Brian

My experience with Virtual Reality is quite complex. I have always had a passion for this type of work. My first style of gaming started when I learned how to web design. It was mainly pasting html coding in order for a game to load. I would find various games and take little bits of each of them and learn how the html tagging worked. I would then be able to process it as a single environment to create a great looking site with games.

As I continue to work with Unity and various other software; I am gaining additional resources that would allow me to create bigger and better games. Learning about virtual reality will only increase my interest in the subject. As I am seeing sites like second life, and finding ways to build upon it. I would like to one day create a similar site but with many more worlds portraying our everyday continents.

- Brian

AI is a growing field of study. As we continue to grow with the ideas and trial/error; we will continue to make them computer process thought quicker and smarter. As discussed last week regarding the evolution of computers, we will continue to try to get to that point of becoming human without actually being human.

After viewing the comic and seeing the videos; I still have the same thoughts about AI. AI is basically a foundation for a computer to produce results. The computer uses AI abilities to beat the human depending upon how a human tells the computer to process. In game playing; there are three difficulties; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The AI system is made to process depending on one of those traits. This is the reason why AI needs to be artificially set. AI is a great learning tool as it will build that foundation for a human to learn a new task or program. It will start with smaller, easier tasks and grow to the larger more difficult ones.

I have mixed feelings regarding the Lego Mindstorms program. I feel that it’s a great tool to learn how robots work, but I still feel there could be more possibilities. If I was to continue my foundation for robotics; I would look to a more similar type of robot that uses the finch programming to develop. I feel embedded coding would be much more precise to what you would want the robot to function. I believe you would have more opportunity to make the robot evolve in its surroundings and change to the terrain a lot more.

Thanks for reading

- Brian

   I will admit before I started this section of the class; I was not interested one bit. I never became fond of Robotics. As I continue to work with Robotics, I am amazed with the possibilities of what one can do with the Robot. It is really cool to see the code in action as well. I am learning at  a much higher degree when I am actually uploading the code to see it in action.

   I would like to see more increased support for various works when it comes to the robotics in medicine. I think that would be a huge advantage for the industry. I would like to see less focus on the military and more continued growth in education. I think we are learning a great deal of knowledge by using robotics then we are getting from a textbook.

   It also helps to have a professor with the similiar interest to direct the content to the full potential of the robots use.

   – Brian

My ideals about hacking and security have not changed much since reading the articles and seeing the videos. I still feel it is nearly impossible to stop all cyber attacks. The fact that many sites share various banners and pictures is like leaving many windows unlocked even though your doors are locked.

Hackers have a lot more opportunities as the internet grows. If we lock the windows and doors, they will find an area through the crawl space; it’s just that the amount of open areas grow each year. The best medicine we can have is a security system (software/firewall) This does not make it hacker proof, but it makes it more difficult. Just like a burglar seeing security monitored surveillance.

We may not be able to stop them completely, but it maybe easier for them to go next door to the one that doesn’t have the added protection. I think as the technology progresses, we will see hackers getting smarter but the technology professionals being one step ahead. As time continues, it seems to get harder and harder for a hacker but more of a challenge for them.

The best medicine I can say is re-formatting my system every three months. It seems to give me the best results in a high tech world.

Thanks for reading

Brian

  I have to first say how impressive the program Scratch is. To be able to click and drag and set a program makes it fun and easy to learn to program. This is a great tool for kids  getting into the field as well.

  My favorite part was how easy it was to follow tutorials and various other programs in order to pick and choose what would work best for your project. It took an idea I thought would take me years to do and has made it possible in matter of weeks. This is also opening new windows of opportunity with other products out there.

   The comments made by Randy Pausch were extremely lightening. I completely agree that if you can learn something without the mindset that you are actually learning, you will achieve your goals. I always loved that philosophy for the fact that I don’t want to be forced to learn it but rather glide into the knowledge. I believe trial and error make the best teaching methods. Thank you You Tube.

     For a man that is about to lose the most important thing in life; he really kept positive outlooks and continued to grow his childhood dream. I feel I live that everyday. From watching the world fly while I take my time and enjoy every moment. The main reason I left the North is for that aspect. It would go way to quick and I wanted to get back to the roots and just focus on what I enjoy even if it means I won’t be making a ton of money.

     Overall, this week is a crucial week to determine whether I continue this path of knowledge and the video is very inspiring to that aspect.

    Thanks for reading!

               – Brian

The only way I use to ever upload my webpages was to an FTP client. I would use ftp.thesite.com and was also able to view the contents within the explorer. With the added knowledge of doing these with a simple program like notepad, I feel I have gained further knowledge that would allow me to make a full site without the need of additional software.

This is not only cost saving, but makes it possible to develop the site in a quicker smoother process. No need to install any new programs as well as adapt to various changes within the site at any time.

I am currently enrolled in java, and it will be cool to get to know how to implement these programs together to design some interesting material for an upcoming site. I am strongly excited about learning the SQL portion as I have used parts of it through my previous places of employment.

I was mainly following code requests with the programmer but was always curious how the processed worked. Keeping an accurate database makes building search engines as well as login credentials within a website. I think this is a great feature when building sites when it comes to getting more detailed oriented into the site.

This blog will continued to be updated as I progress on my HTML page.

I started with HTML when I was using Frontpage. I learned how to meta tag by adding the tags within the pages.

With the recent teachings of the HTML coding; I am now able to create a complete page without the need of a publisher software. This was very interesting to see the many possibilities of moving pictures around the various text.

I designed pages in the past for various projects that I worked on. I even created an E-Commerce website at one time. I think knowing HTML would have saved me a ton of time due to the fact I could not set the wording where I wanted to on the picture. I also think the multiple pages within the site would help with organization of the website.

I will continue to update this blog as my webpage for the project is not completed. I really want to match this blog with the webpage to explain not only the successes I ran into but also the problems that I found as I created the page.

   My experience with this ALS program was not as good as I am also doing Java and using Netbeans. I just feel that this program is a small piece to what other higher level programs can do.

   Overall, it was good to see how the programming is loaded into the Control Unit, Ram, & Registers, and how this lower level programming can assemble. I think it is a great starting tool when learning programming, but once you grasp what is actually out there, I would not look to come back to this simulator.

This is a fun project cause I am waiting for the 3d style gaming to really get some good footing and see what new technology develops out of it.

I typically buy my motherboard/CPU as a combo. They offer free testing and clock speed. This way you know the motherboard and CPU will be a brother/sister instead of a nosy neighbor.

The first most important part of the computer I think is the case. Without the case, the computer has no home.

The case is from 3btech.net. $69.99 and I dealt with this company many times. They offer great service and reply to any request you have that day. This case is very cool when you have the lights off. It really displays a cool look with water cooling devices which I would add later.

I would also take their option to add a Power Supply as they will give you a discount for buying both together.

This is a viotek 600W 20/24 Pin Power Supply. I chose this because this would help the cooling as well as provide the power needed to add the various addons. This is $29 to add on to the case. They will also position and screw into place for you. It’s not real scary to do, but that is the most trouble I run into when it comes to zapping the computer.

Now the fun part; The motherboard and CPU with fan. Well, I have always been diehard Nvida and Gigabyte fan. I just think they work the best together and that’s only thing I would put in my computer. I like to buy it in pairs as I said in the introduction. Pricewatch is great for showing me the newest and best available on market. I don’t like to buy the most expensive but I do want a solid machine.

This combo is a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3; is able to hold up to 32gb memory, as well as two separate PCIe X16 video cards. This also has attached the AMD fx8150 8 Core processor. This will have onboard sound, so I won’t need to select a sound card unless I wanted a surround sound setup for the computer. This was pulled from PortaTech.com and has a pricetag of $447.75

The great part is they do the testing and put the right fan with the CPU. So far, I now have 4 case fans and the CPU Fan. The last step of the process will be a water cooled system before I add the rest of the hardware. Rest will be just plug and attach.

I am going to install the water cooled fan system now. This is kinda cool depending on what I would buy. I would probably buy this locally cause I would want to see how it operates as well as looks. This is like buying a car online. You won’t know how it feels until you see it live.

    I found this one from TigerDirect.com. Thermaltake  is a well known name. They have great products and great support. Especially when dealing with water type products that can potentially damage your system, you want only the best companies that know the business. Model # is CLW0211 and price is $129.99. Again, this is not needed, but it does make the system run smoother.

   Video Card is to me the only time price doesn’t matter. I really want to go with a 3d style gaming machine but you need a solid video card that can carry you all the way till the end. This one is $194.97 from PortaTech.com The main reason I would wait to build would be until the price of some better video cards come down in price.

    I found this on tigerdirect.com for price of $129.97. Solid Slate drives are nice but I won’t be moving this around much. Therefore, there is no reason to increase the costs on this. I have been a fan of Western Digital since I knew what a hard drive was.

The board max is 1600mhz without having to overclock machine. Therefore, I have 4 x 4gb chips equating to total of 16GB of memory. They are priced on memory-up.com at $98.92 per pair. $197.84

   This was from 3BTech.net again. This one is a 16x Blue Ray with 3D support. It sells for $89.99 and will be my only drive for the computer.

    Keyboard/Mouse combo both wired. I don’t like wireless stuff that is going to never be moved. No reason to use my keyboard 50 feet away. Therefore, Logitech is my first choice in these input devices. $18.73 from 3BTech.net

  HP has a great deal on this 23in LCD Monitor with two 3D Glasses for $269.99

   This webcam is about as nice as they come. It can actually record 1080p video and is more then double then its next competitor. TigerDirect.com has it listed for $99.99 and it will be worth it if you plan on gaming with friends.

    I would also run linux on this system but Win7 is still needed for most of my programs. Therefore I found this for a price of $104.99 on DiscountMountainSoftware.com It says full version but that is a really good price.

Overall, the main system is together and any additional software, devices, etc maybe added down the road. For now, I have a good mean machine.

The Steps I listed the products I would install at that time

1. Case and Power Supply will already be together
2. I would then install the motherboard and connect the Power Supply to the board, the CPU and fan will already be on the board and has already been tested.
3. I would also attach all the fans from the case to the board at this time
4. Next, I would add the cooling fan to the bay. I would then connect this directly to the board.
5. Now I would add the components: Memory, Video Card, Blue Ray Player and secure them into place.
6. Now I am able to hook up the monitor, webcam, keyboard, and mouse and I am ready to boot it up
7. I would then install the Win7 OS via the blue ray player which also acts as my main CD Drive as well.

Total Price: $1783.20          So maybe I will see that price cut in half in two years!