slog 9

Today was the last tutorial and the last day of classes! We had our final quiz today. In class this week we learned mostly about privacy, and the issues that can arise regarding computers and privacy. With today's technology, there is hardly any privacy! I enjoyed this weeks lectures. I think the topic of privacy was very interesting.
Overall I have enjoyed this course. As an arts student, I preferred the lectures with discussion, and learning about the history and different aspects of computers. I did not enjoy learning drRacket as much. I found it quite difficult, having no previous knowledge of how to use this type of program. However, there were a lot of resources, such as Professor Heap's web videos and the online textbook that helped me understand it better. I liked the wikipedia assignment, and I have enjoyed keeping this slog! It has helped me to stay focused on this course. I believe that I have learned a lot of new things over the course of the semester, and I am happy that I took this course. I have enjoyed the professor, and the T.A.'s as well. :) The one thing I am looking forward to is no more early morning wake ups!
All I have left to do now is to study for the final exam!

slog 8

Today I worked on solving the problems that Professor Heap posted. One of the problem solving questions was: "You are sitting in front of two drawers. The left drawer contains 64 pennies, the right drawer contains nothing. Can you arrange things so that one of the drawers has 48 pennies, using combinations of the following two operations, L and R?"
The steps to correctly and accurately solving a problem are: understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, looking back and figuring out when and how you're stuck.
To understand the problem and devise my plan, I had to read and understand the two operations L and R. These two operations state:
L: If the left drawer has an even number of pennies, you may transfer half of them to the right drawer. If the left drawer has an odd number of pennies, operation L is disallowed.
R: If the right drawer has an even number of pennies, you may transfer half of them to the left drawer. If the right drawer has an odd number of pennies, operation R is disallowed.
In order to figure out this problem I got a piece of paper and wrote down L and R on a piece of paper. I put 64 on the left side, and 0 on the right. Since the left side had an even number of pennies, I transferred half of the pennies to the right side, using operation L. Now, each drawer would contain 32 pennies. Then I performed operation R and transferred half of the 32 pennies from the right drawer into the left drawer. This left 16 pennies in the right drawer and 48 pennies in the left drawer.
I played around with this pattern using different numbers, and found that it did not work for many of them. For example, if you have 28 pennies in the left and 0 in the right, splitting up the pennies eventually leads to there being odd numbers of pennies in each drawer, therefore you can no longer carry out either of the operations.

slog 7

We are nearing the end of the year! It is the last week of school. Last week we compared life with and without computers, and analyzed how it has changed things such as the workforce. I found this to be an interesting topic, as we are a generation who has typically grown up with computers. We do not really know what it was like to work without computers. It is a completely different lifestyle compared to several generations ago. We also learned about how networks are interconnected by gateways. We learned that browser sessions require trust both from the party that is accessing a website and the party that is providing the website or information to the other party. I enjoyed last weeks lectures. I am currently working on project 2, however I am finding it a bit difficult. I am also starting to review for the exam. I'm not sure what is going to be on it or how hard it will be but hopefully it isn't too bad!

slog 6

Last week we completed the third part of our Wikipedia assignment. It went a lot better than I had expected. It took me a while to get used to everything, and to make sure that I was doing everything correctly. However, Wikipedia has very clear and easy to follow instructions on how to edit the different articles. This made my task a lot easier! I read over the how to sections on Wikipedia, and I contributed by editing the spelling, punctuation, and grammar of some articles. I also added citations to material that was not sourced, and removed some unsourced material. I had to change my articles from the original ones that I was going to use because they had already been edited and no longer had the banner that said they needed work. Overall I learned a lot from this assignment. It was interesting to explore the Wikipedia community, as it was something that I have never attempted before.

slog 5

Last week we had our second test! I found it quite a bit more difficult than the first one. I unfortunately missed the class on binary numbers so I got confused on that section of the test. I think I did decently on the other parts, however it is hard to tell! We didn't have a tutorial Friday morning so I got to sleep in! :) Today we did an exercise sheet. We learned a little bit more about recursion. At first glance I was very confused and did not really understand how to break down the equations and figure out the questions, but as the Professor went over them it became a lot clearer and easier to locate the patterns within. Most of the work in this course appears to be extremely complex, and almost impossible to figure out, however it becomes a lot easier once you take a close look at the question. I am going to complete the tutorial handout that the Professor assigned for this week, so hopefully I will do well on Friday's quiz!

slog 4

So this week has been a little bit more hectic than usual in computer class! On Tuesday, we learned how to make a clock with an hour hand, a minute hand, and a second hand on DrRacket. The things that we are learning how to do on DrRacket are becoming more and more complex! We also have part 2 of our Wikipedia assignment due tomorrow. I spent quite a while going through all of the "Learn How" sections in order to familiarize myself with how to work the website. We also have our second assignment due soon, and I am finding it a little bit tricky, however I am going to spend a lot of time working on it this weekend to get it done!
:)

Slog 3 :)

Last week we had our first unit test! I went into it a bit anxious, and not really knowing what to expect on the test. I wasn't quite sure how to study for a computer science test as I have never had one before. To help me study I went over all of the lecture notes, the assigned chapters from picturing programs and re-watched the DrRacket videos that the Professor posted. I found some of the questions a bit tricky, however I think I did alright overall. I really like how Professor Heap weighs the assignments differently. It takes a little bit of the stress off! Now that I am familiar with the layout of the tests and other assignments, I hope to do well on all other assigned work! I'm also extremely glad that we didn't have a tutorial and quiz the next morning, especially as there was a blizzard. :)
Except for the early wake ups, I am still enjoying the course and am finding it just as interesting as I did at the start of the semester!