My Blog

I just had my last day of actual class in CSIT1110 before our last exam on Monday.  It definitely went by very fast. I learned a lot thought these 5 months.  I started with the basics of computers and where they started and then ended up in the future of technology, which to me seems kind of scary.  There were several things I loved about this class, and now that I think about it I cant really think of any bad things about the class.  I learned so much stuff that of right now has already helped me in my current job. I just got the job i’m in college for, and when I was being interviewed there were several questions about technology that I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for this class.

Ill start this off by explaining why I loved this class.  I was in school for two years taking accounting, sociology, math, science and all those other boring classes. I didn’t do very well in a couple of those classes cause I wasn’t able to pay attention to any of the material, so I ended up taking a year off to find a major that I was interested in.  I love working on and with computers so I looked into a Computer Science degree and all the classes seemed very interesting. I started this class in Aug. and after the first day I knew I would really like it.  The best part I think is Dr. Brown does not use books which is a big plus for me. He has his own book written using several pictures so really it is like a comic book. This makes it very easy to study the material and to pay attention in class and also he uses several videos that help show you what he is teaching. All most all of the topics you go over you will have a fun project thats hands on to what your learning so if your a little confused at first about what hes teaching you will end up getting it when you finish your project.

Most of the things I have learned in this class are about current events and what technological advances are going on right now. We learned a good portion about robotics and HTML coding which were very interesting to me.  You also learn about the first computers that were built and the tasks that certain people accomplished with them.  Overall I think if your major has to do with computers and your interested in having some technological background this class will be a good learning experience.  Also if your just taking it do get a feel for what you want to do it will also be good cause he shows several different topics, so if you don’t like the class but like a certain segment you can follow that path. I am very glad I took this class and hopefully if Dr. Brown has any other classes I will make sure I am in them. I hope who ever is reading this will find it helpful. Good Luck

Share This

This week were learning about virtual worlds and video games which are very similar. We have watched several videos on how technology has changed throughout the year and now that we have got to the video game segment i have seen first hand how this has happened its very interesting to see how video games have changed and to see the future of video games. I hope im still interested in video games when im older so i can experience them. This segment of the class is another ive been waiting for.  It has been very fun and interesting to learn everything about them. Here is a picture of my avatar i use in Call of Duty on the Xbox 360. Sorry it looks small

Share This

This week we learned about artificial intelligence so far it has been very interesting. Ive learned alot so far about A.I. that i had no idea about. The segment on video games was also cool and to learn how they have become the number 1 entertainment choice in the world. We also have worked on the robots again this week which is really fun it sucks we cant work with them more but we ran into several problems with ours it was fun because we had to keep changing several functions to make ours work. Next week is Virtual reality so im interested to see what thats like cause i know a little about it but im sure theres still a lot to learn.

Share This

I have been waiting to work with robots since day one of finding out that id be working with them. I have always been curious to see how complicated they are to program and to see if it was easy to understand. They seem very difficult to program and we learned about all the problems you encounter while working with them. We built Lego robots and are programming them to move, so far it is a lot of fun and somewhat difficult because they don’t always do what you want them to. I am very excited that we will be working with them again next week and hopefully we can get ours to work correctly we were having some problems before. But to sum it all up these robots are a great learning tool to get you to learn the basics of how robotics works.  It is a lot of fun and im glad were working with them.

Share This

First off ive always been curious on how viruses are made and how hacking is done. So I was glad to see that I would be learning about them. He showed us  a website that would show us the basics of hacking, which i thought was neat. We started off learning about hacking which was really cool. We learned about John Draper and how he learned how to make free phone calls, which i think is funny how back then you could get into trouble for. We also learned about the different history behind some of the most notorious hackers and what the did to accomplish there tasks. And finally viruses, he showed us the difference between all the different types of computer viruses there were. So now I’ve learned a lot about all this and I will probably look into the website he showed us Hackthissite.org it seems like fun.

Share This

I just learned Scratch and so far it seems really fun.  Ive started my project and so far its just time consuming but im having a lot of fun with it.  It gives you the freedom to basically do whatever you can imagine, and ive always loved animating things so i know i should pick it up pretty fast. im still not sure what im going to do with my animation, ive basically just been messing around with it to see how to do everything works. But overall I think scrath is another more fun assignment then a work assignment.  We  watched The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch earlier and it was very interesting to see his childhood dreams and how he accomplished some of his dreams. He also spoke about the dreams he did not accomplish and how those are the dreams he got the most out of in life. It made me think about my goals in life and how im trying to accomplish them.  Im doing fairly well right now my biggest is getting a job I enjoy which involves working on computers.  Im finishing up the hiring process at Blount Memorial Hospital to be a PC Analyst, so im very excited to start this job and see what I can learn.

Share This

I just finished my HTML page it was actually a lot of fun. I got to control everything from fonts to coloring. It seems like a useful trait to have learned and i hope my other classes in the future get to use it. Looking at the web has changed a lot for me because now i see how much goes into making a web site, everything is is all different types of code. I think knowing the basics of HTML will help me greatly if i ever want to create a website in the future. This week we have learned about SQL and databases. Databases are a very broad subject i learned a lot about what makes a database and what they do. It seemed kind of confusing but after i went back over my the comic again and took the quiz it seemed to be pretty easy. SQL is still kind of confusing to me i get what it does in a nut shell but i am still having some trouble going through it all., the quiz  made me understand it a little more though.

Share This

This week were learning how to use HTML so far it doesn’t seem to complicated.  I was kind of lost when he first started talking about it and showed us how to do it, but theres several videos you can watch that teach you how easy it is.  Ive started my page and so far its kind of fun cause you have full control over everything on your page.  Its also fun cause you can be creative and change colors and fonts.  Overall i think this will be more fun and not actual work.  I’m not done with it yet its due a week from today so ill have to update this and say if it gets any harder but for now i do not see that happening.

Share This

Today we were taught how to use the Assembly language Simulator (ALS).  It was  a little confusing at first but after doing all the examples and Dr. Brown explaining it to me it all came together.  The main thing to do is really focus on each step slowly while going through the practice problems.  Its also helped me understand how different things are transferred to the RAM and how registers work.  It gets very interesting once you see the big picture.  Its very helpful cause instead of writing all of this down doing it by hand, (Which may help some of you to better understand it) it takes all the numbers and places them where they need to go for you.  It is a very useful tool and I’m glad Ive learned to use it.

Share This

Well to start off my computer I had to think what is the main reason i need one and a price.  I have around 1000 dollars to get everything software and hardware.  I like to play video games and browse the internet so basically i just need a one a little above average.  Id start off buying my computer case then from there id need to research a motherboard.  I picked a ECS with Intel Core i3 530 Processor it had great reviews so that also helped me choose it.  Also by reading the reviews i found that Crucial DDR3 4 gig RAM was very good with the motherboard so i picked that type.  Next i figured id look for a 750 nWatt Power Supply, i found a thermaltake power supply i picked this one because Ive used one in the past and had great results from it.  Next i found a good deal on a 1 TB Western Digital hard drive and a samsung CD DVD burner.  Ive always used western digital and never had any problems so i made that my first choice for a hard drive.  Next i need a video card since the one thats built in to the motherboard wouldn’t be very good for gaming.  I found a Sapphire Radeon for fairly cheap and also got great reviews.  I now need a decent sound card to make my gaming and music better so i found an ASUS sound card and from experience ASUS has never let me down in anyway so it was also my first choice.  Now for building the actual computer id start by installing the motherboard to the computer case.  It comes with an extra fan so id plug that in next, then id slide in the RAM to the two slots, i usually do this first because sometimes its hard to do later with power supply and all the wires everywhere. Next id put in the power supply, afterwards id screw in the hard drive to make sure it wouldn’t slide around and cause problems.  Id then lock in the new video card and sound card.  Id do this first because again i want to do all the wires last.  Next id finish up with the CD DVD burner.  I thought about a floppy drive but those are not really in use that much today except for old documents that id want to open and i can use for reformatting a windows 98, to make a boot disk.  After all this is complete my computer should turn on and be working fine.  Also Ill have to buy an operating system and some other software to complete my computer.

Computer Case Mid Tower Computer Casr $105.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4675290&Sku=T925-1321

Motherboard with CPU: Intel Core i3 530 Processor, $200.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5687594&Sku=B69-4153

Memory: Crucial DDR3 4 gig kit, (2- 2gig chips) $91.00

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT2KIT25664BA1067

Power Supply: 750 nWatt Power Supply $85.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6624657&csid=_25

Hard Drive: 1 TB Western Digital 5900 RPM  $60.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4691121&Sku=TSD-1000AS4

CD DVD-RW Burner: Sansung $20.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5541391&Sku=S203-8582%20OEM

Video Card: Sapphire Dual Head $125.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5660536&Sku=A271-5774

Sound Card: ASUS Sound Card $70.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3759080&Sku=A455-2621

Optional:

Floppy Drives External Floppy Disk for support purposes $20.00

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1489134&CatId=287

Share This