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This class feels like a whirlwind of information. The discussions in the class are fascinating enough to keep even the biggest technology-skeptic entertained. Learning everything from binary to robotics put everything into perspective when thinking about whether or not technology will lead our future. The best class to take in order to find out exactly what you are interested in and want to do if you’re certain of going into the field of electronics.

The labs were fantastic, but, as i said before, the lectures were much more interesting to me. You never realize how many questions you have about technology until your presented with the answers.

The best lectures are definitely found in the later part of the class. Once you begin to talk about programming and artificial intelligence things really start to take off. These discussions start to connect you with a world that’s all around us that most people don’t even know is there.

People may think that this class is just a stepping stone for the major, but I believe that Dr. Brown has made it a little bit more than that. This class, for me, can be summed up as a foreign table of contents that has been translated. I can store this information away and know what to expect with the things that you’ve learned how to see.

By the end of this class, most people got to know their surroundings and our peers as well. Even at times of little social contact, it was still a good feeling to be in a room of like-minded people. It was a great year, and a great class.

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Talking about virtual reality this week was more nostalgic than anything. It reminded me of when I was younger and would play Final Fantasy VII and Diablo II. I used to spend hours of my early high school life online playing with friends and cousins. I remembered that feeling of completely immersing yourself in another world where you can be whoever you design yourself to be.

Recently I did play a new game called God of War III, and this game blew me away. The graphics, story line, and game-play were so immensely impressive compared to the last time I played video games that I got sucked in immediately. Your character is a fallen god. You run through the world killing titans and the gods of Olympus trying to redeem your previous life. As you play you learn about Greek mythology and actually are able to interact with a world that people could only imagine a few decades ago.

Virtual reality is the future. Since the beginning of time, people have searched for various escapes from their every day life. This was accomplished through reading, games, or drugs. Now-a-days the games people play have taken on a life of their own (in some cases this is almost literal). Within the next few years we will see the emergence of new technologies allowing games to become fully interactive utilizing more and more of the human brain. This will cause the user to feel more and more attached to this separate reality. In the future almost all learning, vacation, and social interactions will most likely take place in a virtual world.

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This past week was all about artificial intelligence, or A.I. This was when we really started getting in depth about robotics and started playing a bit more with the Lego Mindstorm robots.

It was much harder than first assumed to program these little guys to do what you really wanted them to do. It makes you stop for a second and respect the processes that go on in our brain every day. The simplest task, the common sense based ones, are the ones that are hardest for robots to understand. If you want a robot to follow a line, you can’t just tell it to, you have to actually tell it to sense the line in one way or another and correct itself if the line isn’t there anymore in the case of a turn or swivel in the shape of the path. For humans it consists of simply looking at the line, realizing a color difference, a basic understanding of the shape, and all that follows is motor controls telling us to follow what is there.

If you really break it down to its most rudimentary form anything can be programmed into a robot to appear human-like. All of our processes and emotions are based on hormone release and reaction to stimuli. The real trick, what makes us incredibly unique compared to robots and A.I., is the incredible way that organisms are able to create chemically with no outside resources besides food and water.

If a robot is to reach the point of true intelligence with thought out responses to stimuli then I believe that, in a way, we will still be superior. If another human is required it takes time, but no real outside resources as I said before. If a robot is to reproduce on its own it will still need the materials needed to build a replacement. Our reproduction happens without thought, subconsciously. everyone knows that metal resources and naturally occurring conductors in the environment are not infinite and neither are food sources, but which do you think are more common?

The real solution for the future is not purely robotic or human, but bionic. If the best of both worlds were combined we would be a much more resilient species. Or would we become a different species? What sort of discrimination would be experienced? Not everyone sees pure logic as an answer so of course many would refuse this. In class some questions that were brought up, I feel, are the questions that will drive our future and our childrens’ future. If we replace one part of our body with robotics, are we still who we were before the addition? What if the part of our body that is replaced is a “thought-firing” neuron? At what point do we stop being ourselves and something entirely different?

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Robots have come an incredibly long way in the past couple centuries. From dreams to living rooms. Not only have the ideas of what a robot are have changed, but the ideas of what they can do evolved as well. The idea of robots goes the way back to the early science fiction writers talking about inanimate objects comming to life and fulfilling that human desire to create. It’s the same reason that children play with clay to make little figures and pretend their alive. One absolute is that we as a species will always strive to replicate ourselves: in one way or another.

I believe that in the end we will never be satisfied. Again, much like a child playing with a toy, the inexperienced youth will not stop wanting more and more characters that can do more and more to try to catch up with their imagination. Our imagination is an incredible and a facinating curse. Will the things we create be so fortunate? Or will they be structured to live out of programmable servitude?

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Hacking is a scary thing. When I showed the video we watched in class about anonymous to my roommate I remembered everything that was said about them in class. It makes me think of a herd of nerds plowing through the internet with a swarm of pestilence following them wherever they go. It seems like they’re they good guys though (hopefully). I think that when you have that much power good and evil don’t exist, only entertainment and boredom.

It’s also scary to think about all of the information that is out on the internet and the dozens of different ways to alter, access, or change that information remotely. Someone’s entire life could be changed with a symphony of programming done by someone who is willing to go through the paces.

As is the case with anything frightening, all of this security/hacking war is extremely impressive. You can almost look at it as a driving force behind the philosophy of technology and its growth. A computer is one thing but to wield everything that is possible through it and push the boundaries of the “e=mc2″ of hardware and software is incredible and borderline monstrous.

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Learning to use Scratch after watching Pausch’s “Last Lecture” really put things into perspective. It’s all about having fun while learning something important about the world. Technology is the future whether you like it or not so you might as well have a good time while figuring it out.

Scratch is much  easier than it first appears to be. Once you start getting the hang of it, the sky is the limit. Everything flows together in a uniform and logical way that it almost writes itself. It gives templates for familiar methods and actions like “if” and “do…while” statements that are used in just about every programming language allowing for the foundation of a bridge for later use.

I’m excited to figure out what Alice is capable of.

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This week we learned more about HTML, programming, and the storage of and management of databases. This information scares me a little bit and makes me question the psychology of future generations.

It’s interesting when uploading your own web page to a server. It’s almost as if your getting an article published or something. Suddenly it’s out there and people can read it no matter how much of babbling dribble it may be. The world just has to close its eyes and take it.

Something that scares me quite a bit is information that’s being shared over the internet and on the web. I will be browsing a page and suddenly see my facebook friends’ pictures all over an advertisement asking if I know these people and that they use a certain brand so I should to. That’s almost like a salesman coming up to you, knowing you name, your family, your interests, everything you’ve ever bought, and everywhere you’ve ever shopped. I think in the real world I would be inclined to sock that person in the jaw. Databases are pure informational storage and management. You can find anything you want once stored onto one of these. The funny thing is that it’s not hard to find anything anymore relating to information about people at all. Someone can think that they’re invisible but with the right know-how anyone can be found.

I guess that this is a two sided devil because it does help find people who don’t need to be hidden or that are running from justice and what-not, but is it really necessary for the every-day Joe and Jane: NO. Not everyone is malevolent or out to step on heads to succeed.

I fear that in the future everyone will be raised to be so paranoid that there will be no interpersonal interaction and communication will be done through the 3” glass of the internet.

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I never really thought that I would be able to learn how to design a simple web page in less than a week. HTML is not too complicated to figure out, and it’s fun to see what you type out being created as a web page. It’s exciting to think of later down the road when I can integrate programming languages with websites to make them do anything my imagination can think of.

From what I understand HTML is the architecture of a web page. It is the foundation that is laid down to create the frame and “guts” of what you see when you open up a browser. Once this is developed then you can add features to the structure with programming languages in order to snazzy things up a little bit. It’s amazing to think that a little over 20 years ago this was only a concept in someone’s head, and now it is used by billions of people every day across the entire planet.

Last week I had a basic understand of how web pages were made, but had no idea how to write HTML. It’s amazing to wonder what I will know how to do next week.

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This week we were taught how to use an assembly language program. I think this is in order to more completely understand the entire workings of a computer. As we typed the code you could actually start to see that you were writing a command with three bits telling it where the command was going to go with the next four bits and which registry was going to be involved if necessary with the final bit, for example: 101 1111 1. You could then realize that it’s not too difficult to tell the computer that it should subtract, add, jump, or store anything from the registry and even output it onto the “output” section of the program. This sort of simulates a slowed down and 1/1000000000th scale of what is going on within parts of the computer.

We’ve also been talking heavily about software use and growth in the last forty or fifty years. Ideas that have flowed out since the dawn of the computer and even before have been way ahead of their time.

It’s no wonder that no one really moved on the early concepts of people like Doug Engelbart and Arthur C. Clarke. They’re ideas and inventions seemed outlandish, complicated, and silly for the time. Now the things they wrote about and demonstrated are driving the entire world economy. They knew that a computer would one day be either a manipulated personality or a full on box with a brain.

I completely agree with the comparison between magic and software. In its beginnings I’m wholly surprised that no one was burned at the stake for the things that a computer was able to do. Even at it’s simplest level, on and off switches, a computer could start to accomplish things faster than a human hand by “casting a spell” with the language as Alan Moore believed. I’m sure this scared a large percentage of people, and made some believe that maybe we were the ones becoming obsolete.

One day (probably in the next few year), the Star-Trek-ish computer will be developed with a completely vocal or even mental communication. We will start to have conversations with machines instead of people, and children will be taught to read by a “nanny program” of some sort. Every aspect of our life will be in the hands of the computer. Some modern programs that will evolve and include all of these things: computer programs teaching babies to read through videos and interactive games, Rosetta Stone, health care software that actually can tell when someone is going to die, algorithms for whether or not someone is compatible for a relationship, computers designing other machines based on efficiency models, and so many more. These will merely develop into more convoluted thinking machines, and maybe one day obtain consciousness.

But who knows… maybe I’m way wrong. Probably not.

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If I had the time and money to put together a PC right now I think the parts and assembly would be something like this:

Case
Antec P183 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129061
$139.99

The Antec P183 is a great case for a reasonable price.  It has exceptional strengths for cooling (which will be essential with an HD drive, HD video card, and an i7 processor), reduced sound, and 11 expandable drive bays.

Motherboard
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665
$199.99

A great processor for less money with everything you need to get started including i7 CPU type with 6 2.0 USB inputs and an onboard Realtek audio chipset. It also has 6 240 pin DDR3 memory slots, onboard LAN chipset, and even a decent 5 year warrenty.

Processor
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211
$299.99

A small price to pay for a top-of-the-line processor that can deliver great performance with any task large or small. I’m not much of a gamer, so the processing speed would be mainly for handling the other hardware on the motherboard and a lot of multimedia multitasking.
With a quad core 3.06 Ghz processing power, DDR3 memory controller, and large cache there would be little that couldn’t be done.

Video card
GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333
$199.99

An extreme video card for extreme multimedia exchanges and HD graphics to use with the Blu Ray combo CD/DVD drive. The N460OC is capable of dishing out insane graphics while still having efficient cooling technologies. This is a gaming video card so it will be used as such from time to time, but in my experience gaming cards are made to handle the most intense of payloads.

CD/DVD
HP BD240I Blu Ray Combo Drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5611949&Sku=L12-1368
$89.99

The BD240I is well rounded, powerful, and efficient. It reads pretty much every media type that comes in cd form, but also boasts exceptional read and write speed. With the strong video card and mother board, there should be no problem playing high definition audio and video that are necessary to entertain. Blu Ray! What else is there to say?

Power supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
$109.99

With all of the power hungry hardware included in this PC there needs to be a strong and steady power supply. With 750 Watts backing up all of the equipment it shouldn’t be too hard to maintain a comfortable environment for the i7 processor and all of its hardware companions. The CMPSU-750TX is highly marked for it’s energy efficiency and has received exceptional user reviews across the board.

Hard drive
Seagate Constellation ES ST31000524NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148590

$149.99

A large hard drive is a must in this day-and-age. The Seagate Constellation delivers capacity and efficiency with 1TB of hard drive, a 32 MB cache, 7200 RPM, and PowerChoice technology for saving power when idled.

Memory
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224
$179.99

6GB of DDR3 memory for under $200. The Corsair Dominator is an exceptional set of 3 2GB DDR3 memory cards. It has Dual-Path Heat eXchange technology to keep cool and is designed for use with Intel i7 systems. With proven performance and 10 time Desktop Memory Customer Choice Award outstanding performance is a guarantee.

Cooler
CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

$79.99

The Corsair CWCH50-1 is a high performance liquid cooling unit made for high overclocking while maintaining low temperatures and still taking up less space than other cooling systems. This unit is made for the 1366 socket that is found on the quad core i7 that I mentioned earlier. It has a, “closed-loop design with integrated pump and reservoir for zero maintenance and easy installation.”

As far as other input devices go I would use a 1080p 42” Samsung flat screen with Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers. The mouse and keyboard would be basic HP issued from a PC bundle a few years ago.

Assembly
First I would install the CPU onto the motherboard by lifting up the CPU lever and  inserting it into the CPU slot aligning it in the correct way with the socket. I would then install the cooling unit on top of the CPU by lining it up and latching down the sides and plugging the power into the motherboard (luckily the cooling unit I chose is very easy to install).

Next, I would install the 3 2GB DDR3 memory into the dual channel slots on the motherboard by simply lining them up with the slots and gently pushing them in until the clamps snap in on the sides.

After the metal back plate, that holds all of the output and input hardware, is snapped into the case I will insert the motherboard by sliding the connectors into place with the back plate and lining up the motherboard to the gold stand-offs and screw it into place with narrow thread screws.

To install the hard drive you have to remove the drive cage. To do this remove the screws and take out the drive fan to pull out the drive cage. Slide the drive into the back of the drive cage and line it up with the screw holes and screw it in using the screws that came with the drive. After installing the drive into the drive cage, re-insert it into the tower in the reverse manner that it was taken out i.e. drive cage goes in first followed by the cooling fan with the knob facing the outside and at the bottom right corner. Then screw the cage back into place.

Now I will install the CD/DVD drive which is going to be from the front of the case. Un-screw the drive cover and insert the hardware. Once inserted screw it in and you’re done with the CD/DVD drive.

Installing the front panel connectors is fairly easy to do next. Plug the connectors into the connection block by matching up the correlating connections: power supply to power supply, hard drive light to hard drive light, etc. Once that is done slide the connector into place on the mother board.

After installing the connectors I would install the USB, Audio, firewire, and any other input/output cables that are available. Simply match them up with the keyed areas on the motherboard and plug them in making sure not to mix up the USB and firewire.

To install the power supply simply slide it into the case where allocated by the directions (my case has a separate compartment for the power supply for cooling efficiency) and screw it in. Once the power supply is in plug in the cables for the components of the computer. Just match up the pins and the cables will be color coded too so it shouldn’t be too tough to figure out which cable goes where.

Install the graphics card by sliding into the PCI express slot (if it’s a PCI express card) and snapping it into place once lined up with the slot. This action will be extremely similar to installing the memory cards.

Finally install all of the power connectors. Install the primary power next to the CPU and the secondary near the video card. After that, install the video card power into the video card. Next install the SATA power wires into the optical drive (CD/DVD) and into the hard drive. Once done I install all of the power for my cooling fans.

AND There it is! A new computer built for business or even pleasure.

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