Randy's Blog

Writing this blog is a very sad thing for me to do.  I have really enjoyed this class very much and I am very depressed that it has to come to an end.  I am really happy to have had Dr. Brown as a teacher to start my college classes again after being out for so long.

At the beginning of this class I was very timid at all of the information we was going to be covering, but looking back it was a very good course.  I have never ever thought about having to build my own computer.  I was always the type to know enough about computers so that I would  know what to have in my own computer but never thought about building my own computer.  Dr. Brown’s comics and class lectures make it really easy to learn the process on building the PC.

The Assembly Language simulator was really neat to watch the internal workings of the PC.  Watching the simulator made it easier to understand how the computer works with the memory and registries to do the arithmetic’s of figuring out problems.  This was very cool.

Web design was something really cool to go through and have over with.  Writing and designing a web page in HTML was something nice to learn and understand but I am very glad that is over with.  There are so many programs out there to make web design so much easier and they make the web pages look so much better than designing one with HTML.  Although learning to design a web page writing HTML makes a person really appreciate the other programs that are out there.

Writing a scratch program was very interesting.  I believe I put too much thought into it which made it seem more difficult then it really was.  The process of me coming up with an idea to make was harder then the actual writing the program.

Security, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality was the most fun of my semester.  All of this stuff has always been interesting to me.  I just wished that we had a longer semester to learn more or dig deeper into this stuff.

I am really sad this class is over.  I have learned so much and this class was so much fun.  Playing with the Lego Mindstorms was definitely my most fun of the class.  Whenever I can play with toys and learn all at the same time, that is most definitely going to be fun.  Like I said at the beginning of this blog I am happy that this class was my first class back into college and this class makes me look forward to the other semesters that I have left.  I do wish all of you the very best in your learning’s in this class and in all of your others onto your future degree seeking classes.

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Gaming has played more a part of my life then virtual reality.  I don’t even play much of the games that are based on role playing, like first player shooting games.  I do play a lot of sports and racing games.  So I do have a little virtual reality in my games as I feel like a race car driver or the coach and or quarterback of a football team.  Of course as these games progress the virtual reality in them on making me feel I am in the game grows with each version. 

I believe my first football game was Techno Bowl.  It was flat men like figures that would only move left to right across the screen.  The plays to choose from were very generic.  Now the John Madden football games are as good as 3D.  The playbooks go right along with each teams playbook.  The weather plays a part of the game play.  The wind changes the direction of the ball in the air.  The rain or cold snow plays a part on completing passes.  The field even deteriorates during play where the players can slip with their footing.  The game is so real it really does feel you are in the game.  The racing games have come along just as far.  From games like Pole Position where you would just go around a course and when you went off the road or hit something you would just explode the car in pieces.  Now with games like Nascar have gone to car damage making the car go slower.  Going to the pits to fix the car and get gas a new tires.  And they even have ways to set up car ownerships so you can hire everyone and play your virtual world on how good your team could compete in nascar.  These games give us the best way we may ever experience these kind of dreams.  I have read interview of nascar drivers, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., say that the Nascar games are so realistic that before he races at a track that he will race it on the Nascar on his playstation.  He says the track line for the best track times are right on the money where he usually runs on raceday.  I thought that was amazing.

With all the research in mind control devices I think that virtual reality games are going to become a big part of life.  There was a movie a few years ago named Demolishing Man, with Sylvester Stallone.  In that movie Sylvester was a cop that was frozen to preserve for years.  When he was thawed out he was way in the future.  In this future a woman enticed him with sex, which he was all for.  But his version of sex and hers was different in this time.  In this future “sex” was done by putting this head device on.  This head device was made to control the brain activities and make the person feel and believe that they are actually having sex when they aren’t touching anyone, or anything.  Even though this movie was science fiction I believe that this is the path we are headed with the research into mind control.  I can’t wait to see what’s in our future

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This week’s class was very cool.  AI has always been very interesting to me.  I have watched many movies that touch on AI and they really get a person thinking.  AI can be a little scary too.  I can’t help but think that if there are machines made to look and think like us then that could make us finding jobs even harder then it is now.  When robotics were introduced to the manufacturing world it definitely made manufaturing a lot quicker and more reliable then people.  And robotics can pick up things that are very heavy.  AI to me goes even deeper then that.  I feel that they could take over human lifes if they are truly intelligent.  The rules that are programmed into the AI could make them extremely dangerous because they couldn’t be stopped like humans…so in terms would make them “super-humans”.  Although I really enjoy the technology going in the AI direction I almost hope it never makes it there.

This week in lab was fun with the Lego Mindstorms was amazingly fun.  They are extremely easy to program.  Setting up our robots to do line following was very fun.  Even when the robot wouldn’t seem to work right it didn’t seem to overwhelming to find out where the error was to correct the problem and get the robot doing what it was ment to do.  These labs make me see how fun it would be to do the robot wars.

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This week was the most awesomest week ever!!!  Yes I said that word on purpose.  This week has made me feel like a kid again.  Building the Lego robots was probably the most fun I have ever had at school before.  It is really cool to be able to build the robots and then program them to do certain tasks.  Having the sensors was pretty cool to program.  It was a really great way to get into the robotics world.  I wander if I can get Santa to bring me a Mindstorm for Christmas?

Watching all the robotic links in class was pretty cool.  I can not believe how far that robotics have come in this short time.  Watching the robot jump and run and roller skate was so amazing.  But I am afraid to see how far this goes.  Having robots deliver things or build things and stuff like that I think is really cool.  Having robots live and learn and everything just like humans do and make them human like I am very afraid of.  I am very afraid to think that robots are going to become smarter than humans and at that point we will be in trouble to keep them under control, since they will be smart enough to overcome any controls or boundaries that we could put in front of them.  Just very scary.  I totally can’t wait for next week to see what we learn.

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Besides my Scratch program this week was one of my favorite weeks.  I have always found Security and Viruses etc. so interesting in the computer field.  With my current job’s focus primarily security I have a hard time coming out of the physical world and looking at security in an electrical plane.

Security is probably one thing that is on most every one’s mind most often.  Maybe not to the point where the person actually thinks of the word security but about the things that they are doing or their kids are doing and making sure they are safe.  Security is not too much different in the computer field…although it is much more difficult.  Over the years I have learned that no matter what security precautions you take there is never a 100% guarantee from accidents, viruses or hacks.  But I have learned that the least amount of risks you take that the frequency of your accidents may reduce.  Also, the better prepared you are about the risks, the better you will handle the issue if and when it arrives.

One thing that I feel will never change is that the people that want to do evil with things seem to be one step ahead of the security in which to prevent it.  It really seems that for every step in prevention one takes there is two steps that are already ahead of it.  I see this everyday in my job and read about it everyday in the computer world.

Security for computers and people will always be around and a needed profession.

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This week we learned about designing a program with Scratch.  I feel the same way about this as I did about HTML, except with HTML I knew it was something that could be used.  With Scratch I do not see any relevant usage besides what is going to be graded in this class.  I also am not looking forward to this designing thing again.  As I previously stated in my HTML blog I do not do well with designing off of a blank form.

I can’t even get my thought process started on this one.  I look at the examples and everything and they look cool, but I can’t think of anything that I want to do for my project.  With all that said I know that this Scratch designing will be a “head fake” as Randy Pausch states.  Although his way was to have loads of fun while learning something difficult.  With Scratch it almost seems the exact opposite…not having any fun and learning something simple.

Well this is a first glance too.  Maybe once I get started in it I will see the fun and relevance to the whole thing, and if not…well I want a good grade and have to do it anyway.

I loved the Randy Pausch speech as well.  He was very energetic and very upbeat despite what was in store for him.  He is the kind of speaker that I really enjoy listening to.  He keeps people laughing and thinking throughout the speech.  I can definitely see how he got so many people to take his college courses and how he was able to accomplish so much in his life.  He was a terrific person.

Until next week.

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This week we learned more about HTML to help with the design of our web pages.  I am getting the hang of this HTML stuff.  I think if I were giving enough time that I could make a really attractive web site.  I would really like to have 3 or 4 weeks on nothing but web design to really dig in and learn more on the style sheets and what they do for our web pages and how they look.  This segment on web design and HTML in my opinion is just not long enough.

SQL was very nice to learn about.  It is very cool to watch how simple language can now be used to pull information from tables and sort them the way you want them to be.  I would really like more time in this to play and see what different things do.  It feels we only touched the surface on what could be done with this.  I still get confused a little bit on when to write what commands…like “select” and “where” and all that stuff.  I can do pretty good on looking at a command and tell what info would be pulled from the table but I would definitely need a lot more practice to be able to write commands from a description like Dr. Brown did in class.

This week was extremely fun for me and I am enjoying how much I am learning in this class.

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This week we have started learning about designing of a web page using HTML.  I feel very intimidated about this.  It seems like there is a lot of information coming at me that I just can’t put a handle on.  We are learning that we can control every output of the website through our series of codes.  The hard part to remember is what codes do what.  There are so many codes and so little time!!!!  I would really enjoy this portion of the class if we had more time to learn about HTML and the designing of web pages.

I am more the type of person that doesn’t design things out of thin air.  I am more of a person that if you give me a blueprint or a list of instructions, I will get it done.  I can take other people’s designs and give my opinion to make their’s better, but when it comes to designing something from nothing I just go blank.  Designing a web page from scratch seems a lot like making a sculpture or a painting out of nothing.  So with that said I am a little timid when I think I have to design my own web page and the contents within out of nothing.

In class Dr. Brown made everything look so simple.  I took notes, paid as much attention as I could humanly possible…and I am having the most trouble on my web page.  I am just trying to insert a simple picture and can not get it to load into my page.  I have looked at the examples and have done everything the same way and am not having any luck what so ever.  As of this moment I believe paying someone else a thousand dollars would be better then me doing my own web pages from now on.

Found out that my problem on posting images was a one letter error.  I was putting the jpeg file as .JPEG instead of .JPG.  Yep it was something that simple that was almost causing me to throw my computer out the window and then run it over with a steam roller and then cover it up with concrete.  All is going according to plan right now.  I will say that designing web pages is not my “cup of tea”.

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This week we learned about Software.  We also got the chance to play around with the Assembly Language Simulator.  The simulator is something that I find very interesting and confusing all at the same time.  To me it seems really like a puzzle and I love puzzles.  I don’t always figure them out, but I do enjoy a good brain teaser.  The simulator was cool to see the commands be converted to machine code and then loaded into the RAM locations.  Being able to proceed through the steps one at a time and see the information go through the registers and being added and subtracted and then being outputted was really cool to watch. 

Although, I am happy to not have had to make my own code to make the simulator work I think it would have been a good puzzle to figure out.  Being able to have the simulator open while taking the quiz really helped me understand the whole process even more.  The questions on the quiz are worded just right and being able to put them into the simulator and look for the answers helped me Ace the exam and also understand the workings of the simulator as well.  This was a good tool to see the basic workings on a step by step process of what is going on very very quickly in the computer all the time.

Very Good Week.

Can’t wait to learn more next week.

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I wanted to build a computer with the working family in mind.  I want to build this computer to be fast as possible without sending the parents to get a second job nor having to get a second mortgage on the house.  I wanted to build my computer so that it will be cool for the kids and also functional for everything that they may need it for.

CASE

NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $69.99

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-ComputerCases-_-NA-_-NA

MOTHERBOARD

Intel BOXDH55TC LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard  
$93.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121394&cm_re=micro_atx_motherboard-_-13-121-394-_-Product

PROCESSOR

Intel Core i5 650 Processor BX80616I5650 – 3.20GHz, LGA 1156, 4MB L3 Cache, Dual-Core, Built-in Graphics Core, Retail Processor with Fan
$179.99

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5581941&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

RAM

Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/8G                                      
$180.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134928

HARD DRIVE

Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB Internal hard drive – 300 MBps – 7200 rpm
$79.99

http://www.buy.com/prod/seagate-1-5tb-barracuda-sata-7200rpm-3-5-32mb-cache-internal-hard/q/sellerid/2083092/loc/101/208921110.html

POWER SUPPLY

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
$109.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

VIDEO CARD

ATI 100-505606 FirePro V4800 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card                                                                                            
$162.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195096

INTERNAL CARD READER

Rosewill RCR-AK-IM5002 USB2.0 75 in 1 internal Card Reader w/ 3 ports USB2.0 Hub / eSATA port / Extra silver face plate / SATA Power
$21.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223113&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Card+Reader/Adapter-_-Rosewill-_-20223113

CD/DVD DRIVE

Plextor PX-B320SA Blu Ray Combo Writer – BD-R 6X, DVD+R 16X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD-RAM 12X, CD-R 48X, SATA, Lightscribe              
$109.99

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4957046&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

MONITOR

ViewSonic VX2250wm-LED Black 21.5″ 5ms Full HD LED Backlight LCD monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 DC 10,000,000:1 (1,000:1) w/Speakers
$169.99       

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116442&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Monitors+-+LCD+Flat+Panel-_-ViewSonic-_-24116442

KEYBOARD AND MOUSE

Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 Keyboard and Mouse – XSA-00001
$49.99

http://www.buy.com/prod/microsoft-wireless-laser-desktop-6000-keyboard-and-mouse/q/sellerid/14981974/loc/101/208286765.html

OPERATING SYSTEM

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade                        
$109.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116713&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Software+-+Operating+Systems-_-Microsoft-_-32116713

I would start with the Motherboard and install the Processor and heatsink and cooling fan that came with the processor.

I would then place the motherboard into place and screw it in.  I would plug in the preinstalled case wiring to the motherboard.

I would then place the power supply into its proper place and fasten it down.

I would then place the hard drive into place and screw it in.

The CD ROM would be the next thing slid into place and fastened down.

The Internal Card Reader is the next thing I would install and fasten down.

I would then snap into place the video card into the PCI express slot.

I would then install the RAM into the slots.

Then I would plug all power wires and SATA wires into the CD/DVD drive, the Hard Drive, the Motherboard, and the internal card reader.

I would double check to make sure all cooling fans and all cables are connected to the proper places

Then I would tie up the loose cables to make it look appealing to the eye.

I would then close up the case and plug in the monitor and keyboard and mouse cables.  I would get out the OS of my choice, which would probably be Windows 7 at this time and install that to the system on boot up.  After the install of the operating system I would install all the device drivers, anti-virus.  I would then install the network cable and download any and all updates. 

$1339.88  Total System Price

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