First and foremost I would like to say that Dr. Brown is a brilliant professor and an overall “cool cat”. I wasn’t sure what to expect entering this class, but I had a feeling it was going to be fun. ( and like most of the time, I was right lol ) I’m not a huge blogger so this semester has brought me into Perez Hilton’s world, and it’s not as bad as I thought. At the beginning of the year Dr. Brown had us write a blog all about ourselves, and that was no problem at all with my conceited self. After all of those fun and games we moved on to dreaded binary. When I first saw binary in my Hardware class I thought for a second about leaving the computer world. I’m not a huge math fan, and how in the hell can 0+1 equal something other than 1?? After I simmered down and put all trust in the Doctor, it was a cinch. He sat down and basically taught me all of binary in a few short minutes ( plus we both like the same style of pens lol ) After that we moved on to building our own PC. I thought that we would have to find 100s of parts and it was going to take forever, but in this instance I was wrong. It was actually quite simple, fun, and if I ever get the money, I would much rather build my own PC opposed to buying one already assembled. Later on we got into the Assembly Language Simulator. The ingenious program showed us basically how the computer communicates and uses languages, which I have a long way to go to fully understand this concept, but this is why I’m here. After that we moved on to HTML. Back in the myspace days I had a little bit of experience with HTML but no real understanding of it. It is simply a type of language that the computer takes in and puts out graphics, tables, list, and almost anything you see on a website. After HTML, we went into Scratch. Scratch is a great and simple program to show how you can place language into a computer and get the corresponding action. A bit later on we moved to hacking. When I thought of hacking it brought anger to me. So many computers infested, so much frustration, and wanting to pummel whoever created these evil things. Further into I learned that hacking isn’t such a bad thing, and can actually be used in a lot of useful/beneficial ways. Maybe someday I could become the Anti-Hacker Hero and smite all of those evil bastards ruing others PCs lol. Leaving my aspirations to be a super hero, we moved on to what will be the next true super heroes… ROBOTS. This was the coolest and scariest part of the whole class. The advancement in the field of robotics is insane, and we can only hope and pray that our creations don’t have mind of their own someday. If they do, kiss the human race goodbye. At the same time if we can keep the mental aspect maintained then robotics can help the world greatly as it already has, and take us to places we have never imagined. Later on we got to Artificial Intelligence. I used to think that it was a “self-thinking” machine, but that’s not the case at all. I believe a machine can only put out what we put into, but I’m not a genius so who knows. And last but not least we got into virtual reality. I’ve been hooked on Super Mario since I can remember, and if there is a Super Nintendo around ( regardless of what I’m doing ) I will sit down and beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in a few minutes just to recall my childhood. To wrap things up I had a wonderful time in this class and truly enjoyed the wisdom from Dr. Brown. If anyone is reading this and considering taking Dr. Brown’s class, then why are you still considering? Take it dummy lol. Thanks Dr. Brown for all the help and hopefully I’ll see you around. Shalom Brethren.

From five years old and up, it seemed that all I wanted to do is get whatever I had to get done to get to my game. Started from the original Nintendo on to Super Nintendo to Sega Genesis to Sega Saturn to Playstation 1 to XBox to Playstation 2 and currently stopped at Playstation 3. To this very day, once the game is on, I am the plumber people know as Super Mario. At the same time of loving video games, I hate video games, and I will tell you why. Game can be so fun, achieving goals, bonding with your friends etc. etc.. In all actuality, video games are one of the worst drugs ever invented. All of the time people could be outside, finding a husband/wife, meeting new people, traveling and so on are spent in front of a screen. I would have to recall all of the hours I’ve spent in front of a screen. I love all kinds of games, but we have come to an age of everyone constantly starring down in their palms. It seems like the only connection humans have anymore are through virtual worlds. I have no avatars currently because I play only COD4 and sports games right now. Not a big avatar guy really. So to the ones reading this, moderation is the key to life. Have fun and PEACE MON( Jamaican Accent ).

Artificial intelligence is and can be such a powerful thing. The subject makes me think of how we should control this great and terrible thing. In the wrong heads, AI will be the leading candidate ( well the people controlling or formally controlling the AI ) to destroy civilization as we know it. AI is fascinating, but it scares me a tad. I don’t like the fact of anything becoming smarter than human beings, so we should slow our roles because humans are destructive enough. The Mindstorm robots are a bit complex to me and I have a tough time getting the mechanics working, but I have enjoyed my time fiddling around.

Working with these robots are fun and scary at the same time. It is truly amazing that such a small piece of technology can be put together by basically non-tech savvy people to perform basic to pretty intricate operations. These robots make me think of how far robotics has came and what a huge influence it has in our lives, and mainly for  military purposes.

Before Dr. Brown educated myself, I thought of hackers being losers who had nothing to do but make PC users wanna kill themselves. After the lecture I quickly learned that a hacker was not necessarily a bad thing. Hackers have actually kept this country safe on many occasions. Also there are what I like to call anti-hackers. We need this anti-hackers to combat these low lives who just want to hassle your everyday PC user. I also use to think if I had a good anti-virus program that I could download anything I wanted, but this is definitely not the case at all. Once a malicious program is downloaded it is on the computer, and it can hind in every or any nook and cranny you could imagine. What I got out of the lecture was to be smart and careful on the internet, and I would love to gain more knowledge on this subject because I feel I have a personal vendetta against the many people who have ruined my computers through the years. Plus if there happen to be any negative hackers or future hackers reading this blog look out, I’m coming for ya.

Scratch is a simple but somewhat complicated program. The program is a great example of how a computer works. Step by step instructions come out to something really cool. It really puts the process of things like programs and games in layman’s terms, and showed how tie consuming it really is. I look forward to learning more about this programs and others like it. On another note, the lecture that Randy Pausch gave was very inspiring and heart felt. For a man to know he’s dying and still be that positive and full of life is a miracle in itself. The work and dedication he had put in to his career is incredible, and I could only hope to have half of the career that that man had. The majority of the Earth never reaches their full potential, and he has inspired me to do so.

As a younger lad I remember having young ladies set up my myspace page because when I tried to alter my page all that I saw was letters, numbers, and characters. As I got more involved with my own page then I discovered code generators that would do all the hard work for me. I discovered that the codes themselves were not that lengthy and actually quite simple. It has been a long while since I have fiddled with my old myspace page, so this journey back into HTML has been a refreshing wake up call. At sometimes it was a bit frustrating, but all the codes are out their so it’s just time and effort you have to have in making your own website. Making a HTML site from scratch was interesting and amazing to see how text and numbers can be translated into images and almost anything else.

At first glance the ALS seemed to be an extremely complicated program with a whole lot of numbers and what I thought was going to be a whole lot of problems. Other than the terminoligy, the program is very simple and shows basically how software works. All together, learning binary, seeing all the parts of hardware, how it communicates with software, and with the ALS how software operates in a general view. Learning the history of computers and attempting to learn all of the in and outs of hardware, getting up to date with software and practicing will lead me to a great start in the Computer Science field.

Building this PC I had two things in mind, good prices and really cool features. To start things off, how can you beat a free operating system? So I copied Dr. Brown and went with the Ubuntu operating system, and the rest as follows . . . .

Gigabyte GZPH2A30 Mid-Tower Case – ATX, Micro ATX, USB 2.0, No Fan, No PSU, Black

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5205499&CatId=32

$24.99

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Ultra X4 400-Watt Modular Power Supply – 98mm Fan, MicroATX, Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3860496&CatId=4324

$59.99

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Biostar A780L Motherboard – AMD 760G, Socket AM2+, USB, LAN, PCIe, MicroATX
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6620727&CatId=2838

$49.99

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Crucial CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 RealSSD C300 2.5″ Solid State Drive – 64GB, 2.5″, SATA III, 6.0GB/s

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6471999&CatId=5300

$127.99

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AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition AM3 CPU HDZ955FBGMBOX – 3.20GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with Fan

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5752143&Sku=A79-1955

$139.99

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Sony Optiarc SON-AD-7261S-0B 24x DVDRW Drive – DVD±R 24x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-R DL 12x, DVD+R9: 12x, DVD-RAM 12x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 32x SATA, Lightscribe, Black (OEM)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6823137&CatId=89

$24.99

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XFX HD-687A-ZNFE Radeon HD 6870 Video Card – 1024MB, GDDR5, PCIe, Dual mini-Display Port, HDMI, Dual DVI, with FREE Medal Of Honor Game

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7024948&CatId=4224

$249.99

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Asus VG236H 23″ Widescreen HD 3D Monitor – 1080p, 1920×1080, 100000:1 Dynamic, 2ms, Tilt, Includes NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6529575&CatId=4231

$499.99

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Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=383571&Sku=L23-6144

$44.99

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Ultra U12-41310 eXo Bluetooth Mini Keyboard with Touchpad – Integrated Bluetooth Receiver, Rotatable Touchpad, Laser Pointer, Presentation and Multimedia Controls, 3 Year Warranty w/ Registration

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6753651&Sku=U12-41310

$59.99

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Total Cost : $ 1282.90

At first glance, binary was a very scary deal. I thought that learning to add in a different way was going to be impossible. When I sat down and really started to dive in, it started to come bit by bit. After a few videos and guidance from the Doctor, I believe that I have got the basics to binary down pat. Math is not one of my strengths, but I’ll do whatever I have to do to make it in this field.