SUPER-MEGA-FINAL-BEST BLOGPOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Computer Science is over. Here is Mason's comprehensive review of the course!

Computer Science 1 was useful. In the beginning the tutorial programs were effective for complete beginners, and the flexibility of course material in the end was useful for more experienced programmers. However, there were of course some issues that can and should be resolved to make this course a better experience for future students. I will start from the beginning. Scratch, the first teaching program we used, was great if a bit annoying. It taught the basic building blocks of programming without requiring the student to actually learn any syntax. The interface was very navigable and each part of the code had an easy to recognize purpose. For someone who already knew these basic concepts, it was a little boring, but nevertheless it was a useful review. I highly recommend that this program is used again next year.

Moving on to the problem child of the bunch, Alice. I personally hated Alice. It didn't seem to really have a place in the curriculum. It was a teaching program, but its syntax was weird and tried to combine real syntax with the drag-and-drop method of scratch. This was a horrible mix and it made creating programs frustrating and difficult. Further more, it didn't actually let you do much more than Scratch did. Sure, it had the "3-D worlds" but these were very limited and seemed disappointing after putting in all the effort of coding them ("Whew, that's done. Now, let's see what I've accomplished! ...What? It only made the pirate move 2 steps forward? ARGH!!!!!") I see that it was intended to teach more advanced coding concepts, but the only way to do that is with real code, not some strange Frankenstein mixture of two methods. I would suggest that instead of Alice students next year learn some basic, but real, language such as Python or Visual Basic. These are simple enough for someone fresh out of Scratch to pick up while being potent enough to do something worthwhile.

I think the next major thing we did after Alice was start Java. Java is a great programming language. However, it seemed to me that the previous instruction in the course did little to prepare a completely new student for Java. There is a huge leap between Scratch and a real language. Syntax suddenly turns from friendly, easily understood terms into scary symbols that have no business doing what they seem to be doing. This is another reason why a simpler programming language should come first. It shows you what real syntax and coding is going to be like without being too scary. It seemed to me that once people got used to the coding it was a very good experience for everyone. Students got to actually do something cooler than a simple program that would print "Hello World." Or move a pirate slightly.

Once the main Java labs were finished I chose to move on to other languages, wanting to see something I had never done before. The sudden lack of direction in the class was a bit startling. The transition from clear-cut labs to "eh, do whatever you want to learn about" was probably a bit scary for some people which is why they stuck with Java. This is a bit sad because I think it is better for people to learn a bunch of different things. A better way to do it might be giving a small presentation on some suggested courses of action, then requiring everyone to do one or two labs in each language. They would afterwards chose whichever one they liked the best.

The situation after this stayed the same pretty much. I went ahead with Python, and in the end did some C# in VisualStudio. It was nice to get a peek at everything. Overall, It was a good class in which I learned a lot. I hope it served as a good introductory course for other people, and that the suggestions I gave here can help to make this class even better. Good night and good luck.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-05/flatworm-regenerates-new-body-single-cell

Worms have always been known for their ability to regenerate themselves if they are cut in half, but A new study has found that a flat worm can build an entirely new body from a single cell. It is the first time a cell similar to a stem cell has been found in an adult animal, and could pave the way for regeneration of human tissue. I certainly want to be able to grow back an arm if I lose one.

this week in Computer Science

I finished the last XNA project with Peter. It went smoothly, with no comprehension problems. After this I think we will try to make our own simple program from nothing, and then move on to some more advanced tutorials/projects. I was unable to do anything on Friday because I was sick. Hopefully Peter found something specific for us to do.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/new-smartphone-app-helps-target-land-mines-greater-accuracy

Smart phones can now officially do everything. An app developed for these versatile platforms greatly improves the accuracy of images delivered by metal detectors. It identifies vague outlines and suggests whether the detected object is a land mine or not. I see one problem with this though: what is the likelihood that a person walking in a Middle Eastern mine field will have a smart phone on which to put the app?

make-up Post

The post I missed were actually the ones previous to those which you have marked as zeros on gradespeed Mr. Stephens. Checking the dates of my posts on the blog shows that. I am not entirely certain what I did that week, but I think I was attempting to working on a combination of appinventor and pythongames in an attempt to find something to occupy me for the rest of the six weeks. I was unsuccessful, s neither option really interested me, but luckily you stepped in and suggested the visual studio projects, which have proven to be very interesting.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-05/computer-scientists-induce-schizophrenia-neural-network-causing-it-make-ridiculous-claims

The construction of the robot apocalypse is moving right along. Computer scientists have given a neural simulator program schizophrenia, causing it to say crazy things like claiming responsibility for a terrorist bombing. It was done by making the program absorb so much information that it was unable to distinguish between truth and lies. So now the robots are ready, the brains for the robots are ready, and they are now crazy. Excellent.

this week in Computer Science

This week I continued work on Visual Studio with Peter. A major problem in the beginning was the lack of an Xbox controller to test our programs with. This issue grew as the instruction videos placed more and more emphasis on making programs for the Xbox. Luckily on Thursday we were able to get a controller to use the programs we had created. C# is an easy language to learn that is extremely similar to java. It continues to seem to be able to do a wide variety of tasks, most of which have been related to games and display modifications of some kind. Hopefully we wil expand into other areas once we have finished the tutorials.

this week in Computer Science

This week I started C# and pair programming with Peter. C# seems to be a pretty easy language very similar to java. As for pair programming, as I spent most of my time last period going over the basics if Visual Studio I wasn't able to actually try it. However, the concept seems interesting, if possibly a little slow due to each programmer maybe wanting to do things a different way than the other. However, this increased creativity may make things go faster. Only experimentation will tell, but I am optimistic.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-04/single-electron-transistor-stepping-stone-toward-quantum-computing-and-artificial-atoms

The first step towards quantum computers has hopefully been made. Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have designed a 1.5 nm wide transistor that works with just one electron to process information. It's tiny size could be applied in making the extremely complex quantum computers that require such scales, or simply to be able to store and process information at the same time. My only problem is, the probability based quantum computers would be extremely good at organizing a war against mankind. And we are making them smarter.

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http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-03/london-rolls-out-first-fuel-cell-powered-black-cab

Britain is upgrading it's fleet of taxis to become powered solely by fuel cells. Apparently, like so many nations before it, Britain is trying to do something impressive for the 2012 Olympic Games. Hopefully these cars will be kept up afterwards and inspire other nations to do something similar.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/esa-generates-most-sophisticated-geoid-yet-goces-gravity-data

Apparently, the earth's gravity is still not completely uniform even after having billions of years to settle. This map shows the varying levels of gravity around the globe. Unfortunately, this article doesn't explain some of the prominent irregularities in the picture. For instance, why is there a huge surge of gravity in Canada? And why does the level of gravitational pull appear to be severely different from plate to plate?

this week in Computer Science

This week in computer science I worked on nested loops. This is where a loop in inside of another loop. This is useful for drawing images due it being able to repeat more complex patterns that a single loop could. Things have been going very smoothly with the recent labs, so nothing to report.

Loopception!

this week in Computer Science

This week I worked on the boolean labs in python. The Boolean data type is used to store true or false values. This is useful for programs that need to verify a number of things before initiating an action. Pretty much every program does this, so knowing the syntax for python has been very helpful.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/tissue-engineer-prints-replacement-kidney-onstage-ted-2011

In a TED conference (the people Mr. Stephens loves so much) a tissue engineer printed out a human kidney live during the conference. Since it's this easy, hopefully people with damaged organs won't have to wait much longer for factory-made versions of whatever they need.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-03/video-new-microscope-produces-3-d-movies-live-cells-action-microscopy-milestone

This is really really really cool. A fancy new microscope makes 3-D movies of cells, showing every little complex operation inside the cell.

Strings in python

This week in computer science I studied strings. These are needed to do almost everything, from returning calculation results to receiving input from the user. Being python, conversion from other data types to the string data type is very easy.

for loops and while loops

This week in computer science i studied for loops and while loops in python. These allow the programmer to repeat a set of commands for as long as you want. They have an infinite number of applications and are one of the core techniques of programming. As with everything else in python, the syntax required for these loops is extremely simple, making learning them easy.

make-up reflect post Jan. 06

This week in computer science I studied accessor and modifier methods. These allow the transfer and modification of data in a class. These are important because to maintain organization a program needs multiple classes, and different classes will probably need to transfer data.

make-up reflect post Jan. 16

This week in computer science, I studied string objects, which allows the storage of a much wider variety of data including of course strings. This is important because generally people communicate with words, and so they are far more relevant in programs.

make-up share post: Jan. 30

I have decided to move to python. I already know quite a bit about java and would like to expand my language repertoire.Python seems quite elegant which should make it easy to learn. The way to define methods is especially easy.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/nasa-and-darpa-want-100-year-starship-long-they-dont-have-build-it

NASA apparently wants to have deep space ships, but aren't willing to build one themselves. This is just a continuation of the growing trend of relying on the private sector. I can't think of anyone of the top of my head that has more resources than the government of the U.S.A., but they must be out there if NASA expects such a ship to be built.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/new-nasa-reusable-spacecraft-concept-could-serve-multiple-missions-future

NASA is building a starship! Well, sort of. The Nautilus-x, a concept deep-space vehicle, could be constructed and ready to sail by 2020. This ship could take man to Mars easily, and possibly beyond to the Jovian and Saturnian moons. Lessons learned from this ship will pave the way for making interplanetary travel common, and even kick start interstellar travel.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/laser-launched-rockets-could-be-safer-cheaper-and-more-efficient-way-space

NASA wants to use lasers to make rockets get more bang from their (very expensive) fuel. Using ground-based lasers, rockets could be super heated inorder to make the fuel burn hotter. Anything involving lasers is really cool in my opinion, and they seem to be worming their way into every scientific endeavor from particle physics to military research.

This week in Computer Science

This week I studied if, if else, and elif in python. Python continues to be a very elegant and simple language, though not lacking in power. These labs were quite simple, but habits gained from focusing on java for so long have messed up some of my programs. Luckily, due to python's simplicity, I found these syntax errors and fixed them quickly. I look forward to gaining enough knowledge of python to create something more complicated such as a game.

this week in Computer Science

This week I began in earnest my study of the programming language Python. I decided to switch because I already had extensive Java experience and wanted to try something new. I read the PDF files given and completed all exercises with ease. Python is very simple, and appears to be just as capable as Java in most areas. However, its simplicity might make the more complex programs more difficult to create. I look forward to continuing my exploration into this new language.

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http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-01/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-industrial-cyber-sabotage

This is funny and sort of related to our class. As part of their what could possibly go wrong series, Popular Science discussed sabotage of computer systems involved in nuclear power plants. It is suspected that a U.S.-led Israeli lab set a virus on some of Iran's nuclear research centers. I can see why you would want to stop them from doing nuclear research, but if you break the safety systems the whole plant could turn into a nuclear bomb. Which would probably be bad.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/nasa-seeks-help-ham-radio-operators-locate-its-missing-nanosatellite

NASA, a powerful, multi-billion dollar agency owning highly advanced tracking and radio equipment of all kinds has lost a satellite. One month after it was supposed to deploy from a larger satellite it spontaneously ejected and decided to not broadcast in the frequency it was supposed to. Now NASA is asking anybody with the inclination and equipment to look for its satellite. This has a life lesson somewhere in it but I'm not sure what it is.

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http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/navys-free-electron-laser-weapon-takes-big-leap-forward-powerful-new-electron-injector

The Navy has just successfully tested a laser prototype at sea by using it to shoot down a UAV from the deck of a ship. Laser weapons are finally here! I eagerly await flying cars and spaceships.

Share Post: Rant about Brave New World

The epsilons of modern society have one difference between themselves and their counterparts described in Brave New World: they have the capacity to instigate revolution and death. The only way to preserve humanity is to brainwash it and abuse its DNA. This would make the lower class happy with it's position in life and worshipful of the higher classes. Since the world isn't free anyway due to the human body's influence on the human "mind," primitive as it is, this actually increases the total amount of happiness in the universe we foolishly believe we understand without depriving humans of anything they actually want.