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Showing posts from November, 2018

Current Events #10 (MP3 #1)

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     For almost the beginning of human history people have been facilitating commerce, the method of which changing from time period from to time period. The earliest method of commerce was barter. In short, a good or service from one party is exchanged for a good or service from another party. As time went on other methods of commerce formed involving a form of currency. Early currencies consisted of things that everyone wanted such as gold, silver, furs, and even spices like salt. Currency eventually became paper, with the holder being able to go to a bank an exchange it for gold in some cases. In the modern day most countries use paper bills and metal coins as their form of currency but a new form of currency gained a lot of attention just a year ago, cryptocurrency.      Cryptocurrency, unlike the other forms of currency before it, is completly digital. Unlike with material currency, which you can use to buy something from a physical store, cryptocurre...
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Why do we need a programming language?

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     One way to think of programs is that they are a set of instructions given to the computer to execute certain operations. These instructions are written by humans but not in a human language. Computers don't understand basic human words, they understand binary. We see the number 7 as "7" but computers see it in a string of 0s and 1s as "0111". When it comes to instructing computers human programmers must make sure that the computer is able to understand it but if programmers were to give all instructions in binary it would become difficult for the instructors themselves to understand what they are doing. This is where programming languages come in.      What a programming language allows programmers to do is to give instructions to the computer in such way that both human and CPU will understand. A programmer essentially tells the computer to retrieve and store various values to different variables and objects throughout their code. These instruction...
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Lab 11 Reflection

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     In Lab 11 we worked with inserting our favicon into the address bar of our webpage about favicons. The first thing we did was duplicate the files for Lab 9, the lab dealing with internal CSS, and change the names to fit Lab 11. In the code some relative paths needed to be changed to adjust to the change in nomenclature. After that what we did was pretty simple, really only one new line of code was added between the <head> tags. This was a <link> tag that allowed for our favicon to be displayed in the address bar. The formatting of the link tag was quite simple, following the format that we used to link our Lab 10 HTML file to its CSS file. The rel was "icon", the type was "img/png" though this is subject to change based on the file type of the favicon, and the href was the relative path to the favicon file. There was one attribute that was new to adding favicons though, sizes. In the sizes attribute we specify the size of the favicon it is already o...
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Lab 10 Reflection

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     In Lab 10 we used external CSS to stylize our webpage about our favicon. The same way we started lab 9 we opened up a new HTML file. But instead of setting up the style tags we opened up another document, a .css file. Before continuing any further I made sure both of these files were saved in the same folder. Then, in the HTML file I linked the document to the CSS file in the head using the <link> tag. The link tag had 3 attributes; rel, type, and href. The rel, or relation to the document, was "stylesheet" and the type, for type of document, was "text/css". For href I was able to put the name of the CSS file since the CSS and HTML file were in the same folder, so it will be able to find the stylesheet.      After linking the two files the way I stylized the webpage was just like how I stylized the webpage for lab 9. The way I selected items and changed the value of their property remained the same because CSS is used the same way in between ...
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Lab 9 Reflection

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     In Lab 9 we employed the use of internal CSS to make a webpage about our favicon. The first thing we did was open up a new HTML document. Before I did anything I set up the <styles> tags in between the <head> tags in the document. The reason I did this was because in between these style tags I could change the look of my page through use of CSS. After doing this I continued as usual, adding elements in the body of the HTML document that I wanted in my page. But when it came to changing looks I went to the style tags instead of using inline CSS like I did before.      CSS works differently from the <styles> tags than from inline. When working with CSS from these tags you must first use a selector to select the item; usually an element, class, or id; that you want to change the look of. Once you've typed the selector of the item you must insert curly brackets after the selector. Inside these curly brackets is where most of the styling ...
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Met Trip

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     When I went to the Met one of the pieces that really stood out to me was a piece called Autumn Rhythm. Autumn Rhythm was made by Jackson Pollock, a famous artist known for his distinct splatter art, which took him three years to complete spanning from 1947 to 1950. Autumn Rhythm is another one of Pollock's abstract splatter art; to grossly oversimplify it is a bunch of random splatters and splashes of paint put onto one canvas. The way this piece was created was no different from how Pollock created his other pieces, Pollock would dip certain objects in paint, such as hard brushes, and let the paint drip onto the canvas as he moved around it. Layers and layers of drips and spots of varying colors later a piece is finished. The piece was displayed under fairly bright lighting, which helps us notice the various dark paints Pollock used to create this work. The negative space is primarily the bare canvas underneath. This bareness helps emphasize the technique used to cr...
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Current Events #9 (MP2 #5)

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     Transportation, especially in major cities such as New York or London, has gotten more diverse in recent years. Your choices aren't limited to subway or bus; now you can ride a bike, share a cab with others, take a cab and track where it is, and even rent a smart car for the day. With greater choices in transportation has come more competition among different transportation firms and technology is a key factor in the 'Taxi Wars'. In the UK a firm called Autocab hopes to compete with Uber's ever growing influence in the taxi industry. Uber allows users to download an app that they can use to call a taxi and track where it is. This use of technology gave Uber an advantage over many of the UK's local taxi firm that had no such app until now. Autocab has developed an app called Streetcars which allows the user to essentially do what they would be able to do with Uber but with local taxi firms accross the UK. The app uses an iGo network which allows it to be downloa...
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Project 1 Reflection

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     The first project tested us on our skills we learned from the 7 previous labs this year and our visual design skills from last year. The objective was to create a website about 3 of our favorite movies. We started by wire framing, or doing a rough plan of how our website would work on paper. The way I planned my site was to have a central hub, or index file, that would list links to all three movies which would have a webpage of their own. The central page also contained a link to the list of copyrighted material used. We also needed to plan the directory on our computer. Inside the root folder there was a labs and project folder. The project folder housed the folder for project 1. Within this folder would be my index.html (home page), movie folders for each movie, and an image folder for all images used. Within the movie folders would be the html file for each movie.      Next came actually making the site. I needed to gather all the graphics and i...
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WBL Workshop #2

     The second WBL workshop dealt with building our resumes. A resume is how you advertise your value as an employee to your potential employers. It is a way for an employer to get the gist of the skills and abilities a potential employer retains and whether they are worthy of the position. A good resume includes information valuable to the employer such as contact info, an objective, education, experience, and extracurriculars. With an objective on your resume you are able to express your interests and the type of job you want which helps employers know what you want to do at their company. Education and experience helps the employer know how qualified you are. Degrees, attendance at certain universities, roles at jobs, and obligations at job help indicate to an employer your skills and your value as a candidate. Extracurriculars are additional things you want the employer to know that you've done which are not the main thing of your experience but nice bonus points tow...
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Lab 8 Reflection

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     In Lab 8 we created a flash talk page, which was essentially a webpage with a playable video. The first thing we did was pick a topic to research from a list of topics. These topics dealt with things such as hacking, net neutrality, and Internet censorship. I chose to research TCP/IP and DNS hacking. After we chose a topic we had to research it. The research included the negative aspects and positive aspects of the subject as well as connections we can make to what we learned so far and the new things we learned from the research. The research was conducted online with Wikipedia being used as only one source and other sources being credible and noted down. After all the facts were written down we had to compile a script for the video. The scripts was to be 300 words so that the video could be 2 minutes long. To make the scripts I made 3-4 sections focusing on different aspects of my research. For example, the first part of my script was dedicated to explaining what t...
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Favicons

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     Favicons are small square graphics, ranging from 17 x 17 px to 28 x 28 px in preferred size, that give a graphical representation of the site the user is visiting. The favicon appear in the address bar on the left. The main reason websites use favicons is to improve their user's experience. Favicons, by giving a graphical representation of their site, make it easy for the user to recognize the site they're on while they might be switching tabs or scrolling through a list of bookmarks. A favicon adds to a website's uniqueness by making it stand out and different from other sites through use of graphics.      To create a favicon you need a favicon generator, a software where you can design your favicon. Sites may be owned by businesses that have logos to represent themselves but when it comes to favicons simply converting the image file for the logo into a .ico (file format that favicons use) may not be optimal. Favicons have a limited size, biggest siz...
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Current Events #8 (MP2 #4)

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     In recent years elections have been held with some form of electronic involvement in ballot counting. Some states have the voter fill a paper ballot out and feed into a machine to be counted whereas in others voters use a machine to choose their candidates while internally the machine punches in a ballot. The use of electronics make counting votes a bit easier and allow for results to be received fast but ever since the 2016 election, controversial not only for the candidates but for interference from Russia, there has been concern about the security of these machines.      One type of electronic ballot used in many states uses an internal cellular modem to transmit results. While the results are fast the security is questionable. The machines being connected to a cellular network makes them overlap with wireless networks. This increases the chances a hacker can interfere with early results. As a matter of fact, hackers could use a portable cell pho...
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HTTP, HTML, and Waterfall

     Web pages on the World Wide Web use a code called HTML which is used to make web pages. A single website can have many HTML files contained within it but the purpose of these files is to be eventually accessible by the user. The way these files will eventually get to the user is through HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). HTTP is a protocol that determines how the user can request and receive data, such as web pages, on the Internet. In short, the user sends requests for a piece of data with an identifier, typically a URL, and the server will send back the requested info.      When one loads a web page it takes time to load everything on the page (such as pictures and hyperlinks) depending on the content of the page. The chart of a website's load time is called a waterfall and through this chart you can view how long certain elements, such as pictures, take to load one after the other. Certain types of web pages have different general load sequences....
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WBL Workshop #1

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     WBL (Work Based Learning) is an opportunity for students to learn skills in school they can utilize in real life jobs. By doing this students work towards developing skills they can use to attain their desired job or career. Web Design is a CTE course that involves WBL. In Web Design there are  54 units of WBL. Included are 30 hours of community service that need to be completed within 3 years. Some community service opportunities will be offered throughout the year so students don't feel like they won't be able to complete my community service hours or they were not given the opportunity to do so. Internships are also a requirement throughout the years this academy. I am currently a Junior and I have completed one paid internship. Students will also attend a variety of career fairs, giving them the opportunity to search job options/paths.      In addition to these things WBL includes workshops, CTE Expos, Resume making, and guest speakers. At...
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