My Blog

This semester has been very entertaining for me in school because it is my last semester before I graduate at Pellissippi. I took classes that I was mostly just interested in, and taking this class has been a really good decision. Since the beginning of this class I knew I would enjoy it. We started out learning to the history of computers, which was cool because most of the people I have never heard of and should of known because they started what is now the computer. The week after that we did Binary. I was kind of uncertain about this subject, but honestly this was one of my favorite weeks in the class. I do not like math at all so I was thinking great I am not going to understand this, but I did and it was easy and fun at the same time. The next to weeks after that were getting use to the software and hardware. I did learn alot these two weeks that I should of known before hand. but didn’t. The first month I loved this class and I really liked blogging which I never did, and the quizzes were great and easy and would help your grade. The tests in this class were knowledge just what you learned in class. He was not trying to trick you or anything.

The next month of the class we learned about networking and databases and security and language! There is so much to learn in these chapters but still very entertaining. My favorite one of these would be the security and language. I liked the programming language because it kind of felt like a code I knew and no one else did. When we did security we did Scratch. I enjoyed scratch because it was the first programming language that I have dealt with and It was really fun! In the network part of this chapter we learned about HTML. I already have seen HTML, but never knew what it stood for or why we use it. Then we did Robots.. this week I honestly was having senioritis, and was wanting to sleep and was ready to graduate, and I really regret that. I wish that I could of been there more to learn and play with the robots more than I was. We did artificial intelligence and virtual reality. I liked virtual reality and wish we had more time to play with Alice. I enjoyed scratch so I knew I would like Alice, but I will probably download Alice on my free time.

This class has been one of my favorite classes that I have taken at Pellissippi. My favorite part of this class was making my own webpage. I got to put my interests in there and make it any color I wanted to and put my favorite pictures onto it! I learned sooo much in this class that I can take to the next level of my education and also just dealing with computers in general. I highly recommend this class. In the beginning I thought it would be overwhelming and too much, but i’m glad I stayed with it!

I really enjoy the virtual world games. I usually play Sims games on a regular basis. My favorite sims game is sims cast away. It is fun because you get to build different objects and keep people alive by feeding and showering them.  The pros I think with video games are that they can be very entertaining and a good replacement for watching t.v. The bad thing about playing video games is that it can take up too much time, and it is really hard to disconnect yourself by playing them. This week will be fun because I enjoyed scratch so I know I will enjoy this.

Today in class we watched a movie on Ray Kurtzweil, it was an very interesting and a great movie. I would recommend it to people that are intersted in future computer intelligence. This week we learned about artifiial intelligence which is probably my favorite subject! I really enjoy the sims games. Every time I play sims cast away I stay on it for at least six hours! These games are very addicting and they are fun because you feel like you are in the game. In cast away you have to make sure you feed the sim, talk to other sims, bath, and collect materials to stay alive and build places to keep you safe and warm. I really enioy these games! We also played with our robots in the lab, which were very interesting. It is really neat that you control what you want them to do. This week was fun!!

This week in lab I had a more difficult time because I missed class Monday so today in lab it was much harder to learn how to put the robots together and working. The robot experience would have probably been more fun if I was here for both days, but it was just complicated to figure out by not being here. I really enjoyed the video today in class on the robot race though! It’s hard to miss a class in here because you feel like you are very behind in everything, but hopefully I will keep up by next week, other than that today was a great day in class!

This week was really interesting in class. I enjoyed learning about all the different viruses you can get on a computer. I only knew that if you weren’t careful you could potentially get a viruses on your computer, but I did not know that you could get so many different kinds in different ways. It is crazy how people develop these viruses for their benefit to get information from people, it’s like stealing without actually leaving your chair. It was cool to see the different people that went to jail for hacking. I have not seen any movies about hacking, but I will point that on my to do list! The scratch is still fun, and I have worked with it a lot to understand what different codes mean when you put them together, but it is still taking me awhile to put all my stuff together to make an actual script. Hopefully by next week I will have something that looks good instead of just beginner looks. Overall, this week has been fun!

This week has probably been the funnest week in the class! It is taking me awhile to understand the details about scratch. I really enjoy how you can choice what kind of animal you want to use, and what background to start with. This was just my second day working with Scratch so I still need some time to figure out what I want my story line to be. The video by Randy Pausch was really interesting. It was a great video and he had some great points, but the whole video all I could think about was how he had cancer and was dieing…even though he didn’t talk about that. He should of waiting to tell the audience that until the end because it made everything he talked about so sad. I really thought it was cool that he did all the goals he wanted to do because that does not happen often. He succeeded in so much in his life that it was sad that he died. He had a great personality and was a good public speaker. I really enjoyed the end when he said the speech was for his children. Overall, this week was very interesting!

When starting my page last week I was very very confused, especially when uploading the pictures. I was on the computer for at least three hours a day trying to figure everything out, and I was still in the beginning process. I tried using the websites that are located on D2L, but those did not help much. I decided to look through my notes which then I started plugging different codes into my computer notepad and saw what they came out with, which helped a lot!  The one problem I still have trouble with is the ordered and unordered lists. I never knew anything really about HTML, but now I feel confident that I know what I am doing. This week with the SQL and database was pretty hard to understand. I enjoyed figuring out what to translate the SQL to, but it is still pretty tricky.

This week has been really tough for me, I have been writing all the notes down in class and thought I understood everything, but it is harder than it seems. I know I will really enjoy putting the webpage together next week, but I am having trouble uploading my pictures onto the notepad to put on the web page. I am not understanding how to put my links onto the notepad to put on the webpage. When I put the link onto the notepad it shows the link, but you can not click on it. The hand coding HTML has been really difficult for me. I can see how it could be easy if someone already knew about it, but I have never done it before so my page is not coming out the way I visioned it to. Hopefully over the weekend I will be able to figure it out more.

I have worked on putting all the numbers in the Assemble language simulator and trying to figure out what every different part does. I am getting that what ever I put in the assembler it will do as I tell it to do. It is cool how it converts the numbers into binary in the different row. The CPU has the register and the instruction counter. I learned that the STOP tells you to stop, and when you press load that puts the numbers into the register box. When you put READ in there it will do exactly what you tell it to do..so that means read it. It sound very simple, but I am still having difficulties with it, but I am still practicing on it to get more familiar with it. Everything this semester is coming together, but I would have to say that even though the machine simulator is suppose to be simple, I do not think I am at the point of believing that yet. I am understanding most of the concepts and still enjoying the class a lot. The only piece I would say is missing would be  this one. I feel that I pretty much understood everything until now, but not saying that I wont get it after trying a couple more times. Overall, I am still loving the class!

I started out with not knowing pretty much anything about what is in a computer so I decided to start with watching the videos on how to build a computer to learn a little something, which helped.

The first item I started with was the motherboard the cost of it is $179.99, and it is a MSI X58 Pro-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard 3-way SLI, CFX ready, EZOC + true Blue-ray audio. I was interested about this motherboard because the comments for the feedback got me interested when they said it was easy to set up and it was my first time building a computer so I wanted something easy to learn.  =                                                     http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813130226

The next item was the CPU. The only thing I knew to start with was that the motherboard was LGA 1366 so I had to find a CPU to match that. The cost of the CPU I chose is $294.99. It is an Intel core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06 GHz 4x 256 KB L2 cache 8MB L3 cache LGA 1366 130w Quad-Core Processor I chose this CPU because I wanted programs to run fast with Microsoft word. = http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115211

The RAM that I got is the CORSAIR vengeance 4GB 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600 Desktop memory model CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9. This RAM is $56.99. I liked this one because it was a good price and seemed reliable. =                    http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820233141

The video card I got costs $279.99. It is an EVGA Superclocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti 256-bit PCI express 2.0*16 HDCP Ready SLI support video card. I wanted this video card because it was suppose to be fast and it had super clock on it and free shipping. = http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130610

The Case I chose is $89.99. It is an LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B Black Aluminum/ SECC ATX Mid tower computer case. This computer case was interesting to me because I like how it is all black color, and wanted it aluminum. It is a good size, and was looking for something quiet. = http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811112154

The Keyboard and mouse is $69.99. It is a Longitech cordless desktop wave pro keyboard/mouse combo. It includes rechargeable MX 1100 cordless laser mouse. The one item I had to have was a cordless mouse, and I got one! I really like how you do not have to be attached to your computer with the mouse so it was perfect for me. = http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?Edpno=4082510&,sku=L23-8125

The Power supply is $109.99. It is an CORSAIR CMPSU-750 Tx 750w ATX 12v/ EPS 12v SLI ready crossfire ready 80 PLUS certified Active PFC compatible with core i7 power supply. I wanted lots of power since my computer has a great battery right now that was a big decision on why I chose this one. = http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817139006

The Hard drive is $169.99. It is a Western Digital My Book essential 3TB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 Black external Hard drive. I wanted this one because it had a lot of storage to put music, photos on it and I wanted one that was pretty big as well. =  http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136749

The Monitor is $179.99. It is a Viewsonic VA2431 wm 24″ class widescreen LCD monitor- 1080p, 1920 x 1080, 16:9, 100,000:1 dynamic, 1000:1 native, Integrated speakers. I wanted this monitor to be black and wanted it to as big as a t.v. would be. = http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?Edpno=6052509&sku=v18-2412

The first thing I would do is take the motherboard out of the case and add the CPU to it.  Add the video card and then I would add the CPU cooler and the the memory. I would plug the power into the motherboard. Put the ram in and screw it in. I would then have to connect the motherboard. Then add my hard drive then screw it in. Plug in all the  power supply cords and the monitor. Then I would plug in the keyboard and mouse.

I had a great time trying to figure out what items to chose for my computer and learned soooo much!