My Blog

Coming into class, I had no idea of what to expect. I regret to say that I initially took this class for my major…BUT, with that said, this class has changed my life. Because of Dr. Brown’s class, I’m planning on getting a minor in computer programming, as well as working towards my PhD in Bioenergy. To say that this class has greatly helped shape my future would be an understatement. This class is eye-opening and inspiring, so when you step into Dr. Brown’s classroom be prepared to have your mind blown. From binary, to robots, to simple programming, to building computers and beyond, this class is highly thought-provoking (and if you find this not to be true then you must be either very pretentious or omniscient).

If I could offer any advice to incoming students (who want an A), it would be the following:

• Do your quizzes on time, because the points can add up
• Actually check out the links and video pages Dr. Brown puts up (They always have something cool to view or read, regardless of what your interests may be)
• Manage your time wisely when creating your HTML site
• STUDY YOUR QUIZZES TO PREP FOR THE EXAMS(helped me get A’s on every test)

My favorite assignment for this semester was creating a video in Scratch. Scratch is a great tool for understanding the fundamentals of simple programming, and I had a lot of fun working with it. I still have the program on my personal computer at home, and I plan on creating some games using Scratch in my free time. Also, our field trip to ORNL was great! I am seeking out an internship there because of it!

Overall, this class was very empowering, and I appreciate the great effort that Dr. Brown put into making our semester a good one!

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I’ve always been interested in games of any fashion, especially virtual games. I started with DOS as my first portal for gaming. I remember that the first Sim City I played took somewhere around 5-7 floppy disks to install. Later, I became thrilled with mega game packs that contained over 50 games on one CD! I played for hours upon hours on the computer, and at my elementary school, time was set aside for interacting with computers as well. From writing papers to playing the Oregon Trail, school also helped to solidify my interest in new technology.

Later on, after years playing on Super NES, SEGA Genesis, and Nintendo 64, I purchased a Playstation 2 (I was so into Nintendo at the time that I boycotted Playstation originally until the second generation system came out). The PS2 was like a completely different world. Having such expansive gaming capabilities astounded me. As games began to get even larger and more visually stunning, I became more interested in getting my hands on the latest and greatest games. Just like I boycotted Playstation, I initially swore that I would never succumb to buying an Xbox . . . apparently, I lied.  When I purchased the Xbox 360, I was initially into offline co-op and single player games. I used to have such a fascination with the Grand Theft Auto series that I purchased numerous types of memorabilia, as well as owning two life-size cardboard cut-outs from two of the GTA games. Then I got into Xbox Live’s online co-op and multiplayer gaming capabilities, and the rest is history. I’m currently into the Call of Duty series, as well as Fallout and the Left 4 Dead series (I have an affinity for anything zombie). Most of the multiplayer games I played have an incredibly low amount of female players and I plan to change this. I play games online with my boyfriend regularly. Currently, our favorite thing to play as a team is Call of Duty’s zombie map known as “Five,” in which you get survive waves of zombie hordes in the Pentagon while playing as Nixon, Castro, or JFK.

If it’s not easy to tell by now, I see gaming as a positive thing. Gaming connects us to the world and helps us to explore our own imaginations. In gaming, anything is possible, and since this idea is also how I view our world, I feel that virtual reality and “physical” reality go hand in hand.

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This week, our class used the Lego Mindstorm robots to experiment with robotics and programming. It didn’t take long to get the hang of the programming and I enjoyed the outcome of the results. For example, when Dr. Brown asked us to program our robots to line follow, the initial programming took a bit of thought (our group had the updated 2.0 robot). But, once we were able to work out all the kinks, it was incredibly gratifying  to watch our robot complete the task!

Dr. Brown’s lecture on robotics was really inspiring for me. The video of Asimo identifying new objects using the properties of other objects was awesome! It’s quite funny that some people are leery of perpetuating robots in society. Those that are fearful of the ultimate effects must fail to realize just how many robots we already have existing with us today. Robots have helped to increase our standard of living, along with boosting our productivity . I am excited to see what happens next with robotics.

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This week’s lecture on hacking, viruses, and security was one of my favorite lectures thus far. For so many years, I’ve heard all about spyware, adware, yadda, yadda, yadda, and how you should protect your computer from it all, yet no one typically explains what it is! Now that I understand what is actually happening, I realize just how powerful hacking and viruses can be. It’s incredible that hackers have learned to capture other computers remotely and program them into zombies that carry out any task given by the hacker. Also, learning the differences between worms and viruses helped show me the varying degrees of damage that can be inflicted on a system. The lecture made me more curious about hacking and security, and I’m interested in learning more information from the hack this site website as well!

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Scratch is an awesome way to learn the fundamentals of programming. I’m interested in the process of setting up my project and how simply Scratch teaches the basics. The program also helps me to analyze each step (with detail) as I program my project, and it’s very rewarding to view the result of my efforts. 

I just wish I had more time to come up with an idea that was more polished, so that I can show the true potential of Scratch, because watching the video of Randy Pausch’s speech helped me to see the importance and meaning behind his program.

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HTML has interested me for years, and completing this assignment felt like an accomplishment. Creating an html page from scratch really puts things into perspective. Now, when I visit a site, I realize the effort that it’s taken someone to make the site look as good as it does! Also, I appreciate how user-friendly sites are because of that same effort.  I enjoy the fact that learning to create pages with html coding is a relatively simple process, and that it can produce such great results.

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Years ago, I taught myself a good bit of html coding to tweak a profile I had on one of those soul-sucking social networking sites. I loved the way coding allowed me to be more creative and take part in the manipulation of my profile. When Dr. Brown gave my class this assignment I was extremely excited, but unfortunately, I procrastinated (like a total idiot). I thought I could immediately call upon my old html knowledge from years ago to get me through making a site. I was wrong! There is still a bit of a learning curve to get the flow of html, and regardless of how much I thought I knew, it still took more time than I allotted myself (so, to future CSIT students that may read this: TAKE TIME TO DO THIS ASSIGNMENT). Needless to say, I regret not spending more time before the assignment was due, because here I sit, just having uploaded my site. I don’t care about being penalized or the crappy grade I’ll probably get because of it. This assignment was fantastic and in the end I did put a great amount of effort in making a simple but organized website. Even though it took longer than I had planned, I’m proud of what I created, and that matters more to me than a perfect score.

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Ahhh! This was not a good week for me. I took the Assembly Language Simulator quiz and found it really difficult. I understand the concept of plugging in the commands and the process that follows suit. However, entering any data, other than the set programs given, was a challenge.  I couldn’t get the simulator to respond in the way I felt it should for the looooooongest time! It took me two hours to take my quiz, even though I had used the simulator to familiarize myself days before.  As result of my efforts,  I got full credit on the quiz.

I enjoy the fact that every concept in this class expands on the next. This method allows me to get a more linear idea of the evolution of the computer and delve deeper into its internal structure. I feel that Dr. Brown’s teaching methods will definitely help me excel in this course. Although I’m confident that I will do well, I’m hoping that the first exam will go more smoothly than my experience with the Assembly Language Simulator!

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Learning binary was surprisingly easy! Dr. Brown gave a short and to-the-point explanation of how to convert decimal to binary and it was easy to immediately pick up on the method.  I’ve always wanted to know how to convert decimal to binary, and vice versa, so it was nice to finally learn! I made the mistake of taking my binary problems quiz before studying hexadecimal, and i ended up not making the grade I would have liked to make! But, now I know hexadecimal very well because of it!

Nothing thus far is too confusing for me. I definitely realize that staying caught up in class is essential in CSIT, because the ideas we are studying now keep building on one another.  I’m excited about what’s to come!

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