My Blog

Having this class has really opened my eyes to the world of technology. It has always been fascinating to me but to actually now its roots and how the programming works has made me more excited and comfortable with technology. This class has really made me look back on my life and see how far technology has come and were it is going. I’m only 28 and I can remember when we didn’t have cell phones and pagers just came out. Now we can read and download book with a touch of a button and without going to the library.

Having the comics made reading the material more fun which help me to learn about the on and off switches a computer has and only reading in 1’s and 0’s. Seeing the hole punch cards programmers use to use and how computers are programmed today, it much have been very hard in the beginning. Having to build the computer was something I enjoyed very much. I did have trouble with matching the right components. I wish we had more time to have some hands on with building a computer. I also understand hacking a lot more and that there many different levels of hacking but it does not take a genius to hack just a curious mind.

I also feel like I got to know the people that these fascinating ideas came from. Of course everyone knows Bill Gates but know what contributions he made to technology was new to me. Also people like John Draper and his invention of the little blue box. How the phones phreaking began, how they used tones to control switching equipment that the phone companies used. Also the founders of google and how they are taking over the world because information is power and they seem to have a lot of it. Virtual Reality was a big thing for me because I love to play games but to lean about help me to understand it more. The programs such as Alice, Greenfoot and the scratch were really I think the building blocks of game to see how each aspect of a virtual and 3D world is controlled.

Share This

I have been interacting with virtual worlds since the Nintendo with the power of Mario and to shoot his fire balls. I did not every really pictured myself in the game as I played it. Mostly was played out of nothing else to do for the moment. The more and more I played the more I enjoyed doing it and my love for the virtual world grew. Every new video game console that came out after that was just another character to control. With every new generation of console the reality became more real to me. What I have learned from playing online games is that most people play the game as just a game. I believe that the way they make games today the virtual is so massive that it feels like your actually there well I guess if you have a big enough TV. If you are one of the people that can actually see the world in this way it makes you a great gamer. One of the games I play the most of is the Madden franchise. I love football and this game gives me the feeling like I’m really in the game if one day I could be in a real virtual reality like that it would be awesome. The only bad thing about virtual reality is that it will be open for hacking just like people do with games. I can only imagine how hackers will mess with people then.

Share This

There have been many movies and books written about robots. In 1984 a humanoid robot was created called a Terminator. It was the first “cybernetic organism” of its kind. The machine was called a T-800 and had the ability to “speak naturally, copy the voices of others, and read human handwriting” Consisting of a durable metal endoskeleton covered with functional human skin and blood, these infiltration models can blend into crowds, but can’t stand up to intense scrutiny  these things made it perfect for not being recognized for what it really was- a machine. TheToughest, Smartest, Best Terminators of All Time – Popular Mechanics Built by a military super computer the cyborg is powered by two hydrogen cells. If a cell is damaged it can find alternate power by what is know as heat sink. “A heat sink is a term for a component or assembly that transfers heat generated within a solid material to a fluid medium, such as air or a liquid.” http://en.wikeipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink.  Its frame work consists of electric servomechanisms, a part of it that has motors that are its position control and speed control. The cpu is a room-temperature superconducting artificial neural network which is built to learn more and more to be human so it can carry out it missions better. It can learn to adapt, mimic people’s voices, has cookie cutter phrases preloaded, but it does not quite know how to use different tones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(character_concept.

With all that the  T-800 can do, it is important to learn how it can be stopped. Present day weapons would not hurt this machine, even though its skin can be torn off. If you encounter one of these it would be important that you are good at improvising, hitting it with a car, heating it up then freezing it, or placing a bomb in its chest are a few examples. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/robots/4245140 The scary thing is that in present day there have been laws programmed in to robots that forbide them to hurt or destroy humanity, yet the military is designing robots with guns in their hands for “our protection”

Share This

I like the fact that we will be able to have really intelligent programs. If a program can understand its environment and can us common sense it will make great video games. Having them control parts of out lives I’m not so sure about. People have just made to many movies bout AI killing all humans because mostly, there intelligence exceeds our own. That why I think most people in this country have a hard time with excepting computers with intelligent programs. Two programs they use to make computers and robots appear to exhibit intelligence are neural networks and genetic algorithms. Neural networks use artificial neurons called program objects some input some output connected by wiring that strengthens threw repeated use. Genetic algorithms based on genetic search uses evolution  by picking the best solution and having a better solution in line threw repeated use. Working with the robots has shown me the inter wrokings of how to comunitcate with mechines and that there only going to kill us if we program them too.

Share This

Robots are apart of every day life. Most of them are used to do things that we can not or want done faster. Working with them in class this week I see that people what to create life and use them as a companion in life. They are very fascinating and can be programed to have human behaviors. After watching a few videos in class on the makings of robots that use facial expressions was kind of creepy. I don’t understand why the have to look like little monsters or gremlins. All the fur and big eyes makes them look like they are going to get you. I’m not sure if I will see intelligent androids in my life time but it would be very cool if I did. The idea people that build robots say it will be used to benefit human kind. Which will be good for us but the thing that the wrong people can do with them will be devastating to us. Like the uses of the nanotechnology. Little robots that can be injected into out bloodstream to “repair” us . Need I say more. I believe a lot of good will come from robot but along with it a lot of bad because everything comes in pairs.

Share This

In society today every time you hear of hacking its being used in a destructive manner. Witch are referred to as black hats. Hacking first started when technology started. When studying hacking in class this week I learned about John Draper. He figured out how to use the tones the telephone company used to control switching equipment by using a caption crunch whistle. Then I watched a video with John Draper and Steve Wozniac going around town using pay phones to make random phone calls freely after John created something called a little blue box. This box generated tones 2600Hz electronically. This was called “phone phreaking”. All I have to say about that is wow. I believe hacker are just like everyone else. You have experts in every aspect of life and the name given to the ones most knowledgeable in computers are called hackers. I can see why people are so scared of them tho. Our whole lives are in computers and with a few key strokes hackers could delete our very existence.

We also discussed in class the different types of malware like computer viruses, Trojan horses, worms and logic bombs. I think computers are like everything having a yen and a yang. Malware is the bad to the good. The one I find most fascinating is the logic bomb. This could be activated by date/time or any number of logical triggers. Next is the Trojan horse which makes me think of the movie Troy every time I hear the name. It masquerades as something else until it gets you then you find out what it really is. The best thing is to have good protection on your computer. I believe no matter how good or how much protection you bestow on your computer its always open for attack.

Share This

This week I learned about a new programming language called scratch. This is the first time I ever studied in computers and the language you use to communicate with them by studying java. So when we started to learn about scratch I thought to myself, we get to play with cartoons on the computer. I enjoy cartoons and scratch lets you play with them using blocks that you can snap together like Lego’s. You can group together several commands, words or music and by using a forever block that wraps around your commands to play it over and over. When I saw this I thought to myself, were studying something like that in java. This is what java calls loops. I can not wait to play with this more which is giving me a better understanding of the topic of loops that is being studied in java this week.

We watched a video by Randy Pausch. Titled his last speech. He believed in giving something worth the time and the effort of the person giving it. He created a program that will help teach future programmers programming languages like java. That you can interact with in a virtual 3D world. Its animated like scratch but uses a 4th generation language that are pre voiced in little boxes that you can click on. This takes away the problem that beginning programmers have with syntax errors when writing code. In the belief that when you take something hard and learn it in a fun way It make the hard stuff easy. The most interesting part about his speech is that its for the future and you can apply it in your life and in your studies.

Share This

This weeks assignment has been challenging for me. Creating a web page from scratch is no joke but I think I pulled it together quite nicely. Some of the  HTML tags are a little hard to understand and wapping text around pictures. I never knew what went into making what I am calling a true web page. Most of my time was spent on uploading it to a web sever which I was still not able to get my pictures on my page but they are in the file so I do not know what is going on. The whole set up of filezilla is interesting. We aslo learned how SQL is used to manipulate  the data in a database. Which is controlled by four statements, insert, update, delete and select. All tho I know I will need to learn more about building a web page from scrap to use in the future. We also learned how databases are composed of organization files and the struture of that. Before taking this class over the summer I worked with some files that have a one to many relationship I  know now that I just want to be a programmer and let the software designers do there thing.

Share This

This week we tried out a assembly language simulator. Which simulates what goes on inside a central processing unit. I understand the concept of it but its just been a little hard for me to grasp the whole workings of it. Maybe will go over it some more in class. If not, have to remember to ask questions about it. Other than that this week has been the easiest of most weeks. Some of the concepts of binary i am still working to grasp but its pretty straight forward. Almost like doing simple math. It really help me to understand so I can write programs for my other class. I look at any computer now and all I see is codes running. Its kind of funny. The OS Functionality was the most interesting because it controls everything. Interface, security, networking and many other fascinating things. The coolest thing is how it can stretch RAM or create virtual memory.

Share This

This week in class we talked about hardware. Such as, Computer monitor, Keyboard, CPU and other input and output devices. If i was to build my very own personal computer it would consist of these parts. I would use a antec lanboy case and it would be air blue color. This case stood out to me because its so big I can do anything with it. The fetchers about this case excites me. It suspends drives in mid-air for vibration and noise resistance. Your can put up to 15 exhaust fans on it. Water cooling ready Which excited me the most because I have never seen anything like that before. Eight expansion slots for triple graphics card configurations. Comes with three fans installed and the side panels open for easy access. Also a tray slides out the back to mount your motherboard too. http://www.xoxide.com/anteclanboyairblue.html A X8DTN+-F- Server Board. Which is very cool. It has two processor supports, 64 bit processing, max memory 192 GB and on-board video. I have no idea why i need all that but when seeing it all i could do is rub my hands together. http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=X8DTNFO&vid=428&src=F To match my motherboard I have two Intel Core i7-2006K. All i saw was 3.8GHz turbo boost. That is some super power and I was sold.                                                                                 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=19-115070&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo Picking out a nice graphic card that has low power, low noise and to give me the be blue-ray experiences and maybe play a few games on. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-GIGABYTE-_-14125363 This sound card would be the best one for me Sound blaster audigy SE 7.1.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003 I think it can pump out whatever I want. Maybe even make a studio but it will defiantly go with my Sony SSF-7000 floor speakers with a peak power handling of 200 watts here comes the boom. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SSF-7000-Floor-Standing-Speaker-Woofer/dp/B000OG4E2U/ref=sr_1_45?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1316305895&sr=1-45 The HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245 would be a nice hard drive capacity of 2TB. It will go perfectly with my samsung blue-ray combo. It does everything writes Cd’s and DVDs at fast speeds and plays everything. Very sleek looking. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XIM3QK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0027MB4PY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0EK57H8CYZK0WB8BM632

The RAM I will be using are four CORSAIR VENGEANCE CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B. Which will come in handy for my gaming studio extravaganza. I also like the color of them. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspxItem=N82E16820145345 This keyboard i have chosen is very comfortable to work with and comes with a high definition laser mouse. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Microsoft-Natural-Wireless-Ergonomic-Desktop 7000/10929524?findingMethod=rr#Item+Description They are wireless so i can sit on my couch work or play viewing it on my TV screen. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Element-ELGFT401/14321389 I choose a regular TV screen because I can just do anything with it and I can just connect a hdmi cable from the TV to the computer and it works just fine. To power my machine ill use a tx750 or who knows i may need a generator or two when I’m done. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Power+Supplies-_-Corsair-_-17139021 My system may get very hot so to cool it off ill put it on ice with a liquid cooling kit seiftech h20-220  http://www.amazon.com/Swiftech-H20-220-Ultima-liquid-cooling/dp/B000BMILZI with a 32oz bottle of primo chill. http://www.amazon.com/Swiftech-H20-220-Ultima-liquid-cooling/dp/B000BMILZI The software I would use is windows 7 ultimate. If your going to go, go all out. After that you wont need for nothing. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/en_US/pd/productID.216647200/categoryID.50726100

Now that I have all the piece time to put it together. After taking everything out of the packages I will start with the mother board which holds two cpu’s. Lift up the side leavers where the cpu’s drop into place. After lining up the groves on the cpu placing them in there slots lock down the leavers. Taking my four sticks of RAM and sliding them down in the slots in front of the cpu’s. Placing  two on each side. Using a little presser until the little arms on the side lifts up. Now opening the case from the back slide out the tray for the mother board and attach with screws. After I locate my hard drive then open the side door to my case and attach it to the suspended leavers facing outward from the side. Snap into place. Moving down to the next level under my hard drive is were I suspend my all in one optical drive and snap into place. Making sure its facing outward too. Connect the the optical wires to the mother board. The ones that say power switch, reset switch and the hard drive light. Making sure to match up the positive and negative for the hard drive light. Plug in the usb cords. Then mount my power supply to the bottom of the cage right under the mother board tray. To connect the graphic card slide into place on the mother board lock into place with screws. Now connecting the supplemental and the atx power cords into the marked spaces. Time to install my liquid cooling system. Install the hose to the water block. Connect the water block to the back of the mother board right behind where the cpu is. Mount the radiator to the top of the inside of the case above the  mother board tray. Cut and connect the other end of the hose to the radiator. Attach the reservoir to the bottom of the case underneath the suspended drive and blue ray player. Cut and connect the hose from the radiator to the reservoir. Remove the video card’s built-in cooler by unscrewing it from the board. Attach the board to the water block. Make sure not to put to much pressure to the mother board, do not want to warp it. Now mount my pump to the bottom of the cage and run the hose from that to the mother board. Add the cooling juice to the reservoir. Ready to boot up windows.

Share This