ttrentha's blog

when signed up for intro to computer science i was expecting another easy class that would help boost my gpa but be boring in the procees. maybe i would meet some people make a friend butt ultimatly chose the class as a filler. first impressions when i walked in were to be expected professor is probaly crazy class mates who knows. expectations were wrong though when dr.brown spoke in class he was knowledgeable and explained content very clearly. the classmates were fun to be around and werent in the dark on any subject that was brought up.
the class at first had a learning curve when binary and assembly languages were the topic for a couple weeks but that was the hardest about it. from that point on the class become fun. as we talked about security and networks etc…we looked at the more villanous side of hacking and where it started and how the term hacker does not mean a villan. but someone who wants to know how something works and how to use it.
towards the end of the semester we talked about robots nuerals networks etc.. how could they affect us when they can feel emotion or sense when something is right or wrong. over all this was a great class and i would advise anybody who has a any interest to take csit 1110 and david brown for a teacher you will not be dissapointed.

video games are an important part of life today because they have become so common. to me games are a great way to relieve stress or socialize with friends and make new ones. a con to video games is that younger children can get there hands on games like grand theft auto and it may infact change the way they think the world is suppposed to be. but when controlled i think video games and anything of the sort can be a positive influence on anybody.

i found the lego robots very interesting and fun to work with. also the language to program these bots is very easy to pick up and use. for around 250 bucks these bots are a great value and they are made in a way that even a young person can pick up and have running within a few minutes or so.

although ai is an interesting topic it puts a scary thought in my mind. If a computer can be tought to learn you cannot set perimeters on what it can and cant learn. it would be a great advancement in science and if there would be some way to make the machine or eventually the android to not figure out that it is better then humans in almost every way it could be a very useful and innovative tool.

my first impression of the alice program although i have not looked at it alot it seems to be easier then a typed program. being new to the programming thing i hope that it will give an entry level impression. now onto the last lecture. Randys lecture was ironic being named the last lecture it gave a lightened mood to the hole situation. When he spoke about how he got to where he was and even being denied entry to the school he dreamed of going to. The most interesting to me was how he achieved his goals and the one about becoming a disney imagineer truly struck me aas a great achievment. all in all a great lecture from a man who achieved his dreams and has most likely inspired thousands.

this turned out to be alot easier then i expected it to be when we started. i have wanted to start my own website for a good while but could never figure out how to get one up a running but now that i know how to code html by hand i will most likely get a site up and running that will be maintained over some period of time. coding the one in class put a little put up a little bit of a fight when it came to putting in pictures (mostly syntax error) but after it became easier and easier to get it to work.when my site becomes reality i will put in a link so stop by and check it out.

This lesson has showed me how to program at the lowest level. it has showed me that later on when i can program my own program or game i can go in and make it run smoothly and as fast as it possibly through parts that require some kind of performance. the psuedo computer was a major help to it suprising how much watching the parts work and do the calculations will actually help you understand what is going on under the “skin” of your computer.

To build a working computer is a simple but slightly tedious project. To start you will need a few parts they are a mother board, cpu or chip, video card, hard drive, power supply, memory (ram), the case they fit in, optical drive and screws to put it all in . A list of links for these parts can be found at the bottom of the post. Now to start take your cpu or chip and attach to the mother board it only fits one way so it should not be difficult. After that take the cpu cooler and attach it on top of the cpu and plug it into the mother board. Now take your memory/ram and slide it into the slotes depending on the mother bpard these will be a color such as blue or green. now take the mother board and attach it to the case via the gold pegs on one side this will only work one way and does require a little bit of effort. next take out the hard drive case and screw the hardrive into it and attach back to case. next the power supply will simply just slide into the case and then you can plug it in where indicated. now would be the time to plug in any wires such as firewire or sata cables. you can now put the video card in it simply snaps into the clips where indicated but be sure it clicks when you put it in or it could fall out when being used. now you can plug in all your cables for power etc and enjoy your new computer. the parts listed below are not top of the line but good for an entry level rig for a novice builder.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=EM945G-P4-3000-R&cat=MBB&cpc=MBBbsc

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5210409&Sku

=I69-1870

http://www.bing.com/shopping/Silent-775D-CPU-Thermaltake-Silent-775D-CPU-Cooler/search?q=

cpu%20coolers%20for%20sale&p1=[CommerceService%20scenario%3d%22o%22%20docid%3d%224F2F5E48B78FF769E7FB%22]
&wf=Commerce&FORM=ENCA4

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2795126&Sku=TSD-500AAKS

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4956973&Sku=B52-3016

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5034920&Sku=P450-4884

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282860&Sku=P33-6074

http://www.alienware.com/accessories/gear-shop-Detail.aspx?ItemId=17565&CatId=1031

To me binary can seem very boring or uninteresting but if you take a closer look at the overall picture of it its amazing what you can do with it. The reason i think it is because it enables humans to talk to a computer in a certain way. Yes your just giving it orders but talking to it none the less. Converting these numbers is very simple the problem i have with is doing the hexadecimal and the base eight numbers don’t know why they just seem to stump me from time to time. What helped me was when Dr.brown showed the other way of converting the hexadecimals instead of the division technique.

My name is tyler trentham and this is my first ever blog. A few things about me i like to play guitar first of all it helps me relax i also contribute to the site http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ and http://olga.net/ which is currently down for the time being. When im not at school i hold a part time job working on and or building pro stock drag cars for local racers or sponsors.