Ashley's Exploring Computer Science Blog: 2015

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Scratch: Intro

There are many options under the scripts tab. First, all the blocks are divided into categories. There are 10 categories, and there are varying amounts of coding options within each category:

motion - 18
looks - 19
sound - 13
pen - 11
data - 2
events - 8
control - 11
sensing - 18
operators - 17
more blocks - 2

Another tab in scratch is "costumes". Here, one also has a wide variety of coding options to choose from. There are small icons to choose a costume from the library, which contains over 600 options, to paint a new costume, to upload a costume from a file, and to capture a new costume from the camera. There are also options to undo and redo, as well as to clear, add, and import. There are also 13 other small buttons on the right side of the screen for other controls such as a pencil and paint bucket. There are also buttons to control zoom and color on the bottom of the screen.

"Sounds" is the third tab. There are fewer options in this tab. There are three options for dealing with "new sound": choose sound from library, which houses over a hundred options, record new sound, and upload sound from a file.

Scratch: Name Animation

My Name Project

Monday, November 30, 2015

Thanksgiving with Images

To edit all of my images, I used Adobe Photoshop. For the first image, I brought down the brightness and turned up the contrast. Then I made the hue a little, but not noticeably, greener. I also dialed up the saturation and dialed back the lightness of the image. For the second picture, I brought the brightness down only slightly and turned up the contrast. I left the hue alone, because if I had changed it too much, the pumpkin would have been blue or green or purple. I also played with the saturation, bringing it up a little. I darkened the image. For the third image, I turned the brightness down and increased the contrast a lot. I made the hue slightly greener and saturated the image a lot. Then I darkened the image a bit. For the fourth image, I brought down the brightness and increased the contrast considerably. I didn't touch the hue but turned up the saturation a little bit. I then darkened the image using the lightness controls.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

W3 Schools HTML Quiz

I took the W3 Schools HTML quiz. I scored a 20 out of 25, which is an 80%. I took 4 minutes and 9 seconds to complete the quiz. I guessed on numerous questions, so the results aren't necessarily accurate to what I know. I got the questions about the correct HTML for making a drop-down list, a text area, inserting an image, <iframe>, and HTML comments. Those are things I still need to learn, along with inserting background images and colors.

Friday, November 13, 2015

HTML Tags I've Learned So Far

<html></html> defines an HTML document, goes at the beginning and end of each document
<head></head> defines a document's information
<title></title> defines a document's title
<body></body> defines the document's main parts
<h1></h1> defines a heading (can go through to h8)
<p></p> defines the beginning and end of a paragraph
<br></br> defines a line break
<p align=right> designates that the text will be aligned to the right
<p align=center> designates that the text will be aligned in the center
<em></em> shows emphasis, usually translated into italics
<strong></strong> shows strong emphasis, usually translated into bold text
<cite></cite> used for book titles, etc., usually italics
<b></b> designates bold text
<i></i> designates italicized text

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Intro to HTML

I used a W3 Schools tutorial to ease into HTML. Then I used Notepad to write my own code before using Internet Explorer to run my program.

I want to know more about HTML, more tags and how they work, and how they come together to form an entire webpage, with colors and fonts and images and nice layouts.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Poster Made With Webmaker

Meme Made With Webmaker

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Other Secret Messages

Mia's is corn on the cob.

Beth's is Oogbama is king.

Alyssa's is I don't understand that reference.

My Secret Message

Monday, October 26, 2015

20Q

We played a game online called 20Q, testing artificial intelligence using the Turing Test. The first topic we chose to test was Disney. We selected a Disney character, Dory from Finding Nemo. On the first try, it took the computer seventeen questions to guess the answer correctly, and it did not venture an incorrect guess. On our second try, the computer guessed incorrectly three times before settling on the correct answer of Dory, needing 28 questions to do so. We then selected the music category, and thought of the flute. The first time, the computer needed 20 questions, and guessed incorrectly once by guessing the piccolo, which was close. The second time it also required 20 questions, though it did not guess incorrectly at all. After that, we attempted the classic 20Q in two languages, Portuguese and Spanish, to see how it would be in languages we only half (or less) knew.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Design Tools: Observations of Others' Designs

While observing my classmates' designs on their blogs, I observed a few things. For one, most people used the Native American beadloom software, and the other tool I noticed was the Navajo rug weavework. Most of the designs were relatively simple, and I could see that lines and triangles and points were the things most utilized in creating them. There was also a variety of color between the different designs. Most were symmetrical.

Design Tools: My Own Design: Sun

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Design Tools: African American Cornrows

Design Tools: Navajo Rug Weaver

In this design, I started to use triangles much more often and extensively than I had in any of the previous three designs. In this one, I hardly used any single points, just when I messed up and had to replace a single point. I used lines and triangles the most.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Design Tools: Native American Basket Weavework

I used mostly rectangles to complete this design. I also utilized points at certain times when there was only one point needed. I also used lines, mostly for the legs and the yellow part at the bottom. I was challenged when I made mistakes by accidentally putting in the wrong coordinates, as the incorrect shape or line would replace the correct one previously there. I fixed this by using lines to replace the incorrect lines with the correct ones, while maintaining the part of the shape that had been in the right place.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Design Tools: Native American Beadloom

Friday, September 25, 2015

Post #2: News in Technology

Technology is not only a component for phones and computers, nearly essential parts of our daily lives today. It can also change people’s lives in terms of health. A 26-year-old man was paralyzed five years ago and was finally able to take his first steps in five years on September 24, 2015 because of a technological advancement. The piece of technology is an electrical system that connects the legs and the brain, sidestepping the spinal cord. Bypassing the spinal cord is important because this man’s spinal cord is injured. The technology is not flawless yet, far from it, as it still has some obstacles to overcome. For one, scientists don’t know how it will affect other patients, and if it will work as effectively. It is not magic, either, as patients have to go through reconditioning to strengthen and prepare their muscles for the unfamiliar exertion of walking. The technology includes several pieces: a cap with electrodes, an amplifier in a backpack, a Parastep - which electronically stimulates the legs - and a belt containing a controller for the Parastep.

http://news.health.com/2015/09/24/paralyzed-man-walks-using-technology-that-bypasses-spinal-cord/

Tagxedo: A Description of Me

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Post #1: Introduction

My name is Ashley, and I’m a sophomore. I like to both read and write, and I also like to watch TV shows. Some of my favorite books include Harry Potter, Throne of Glass, Grisha, and Fangirl, while some of my favorite TV shows include Scandal, Modern Family, and How to Get Away with Murder. Another thing I enjoy doing in my free time is watching soccer. At school, some extracurricular activities that I involved in are The New Currency (a literary magazine), Model UN, and mentoring at Coolidge. I love languages, and I can speak both English and Cantonese fluently. I can understand Vietnamese perfectly, though I can speak very little, and I’m learning Spanish in school and Portuguese on my own.

I’m taking this class because I think that having at least basic knowledge of computer science is vital in today’s world, which is so dependent and centered around computers and technology. I hope to come out of the class with this basic knowledge. I look forward to learning how to code, and learning more about search engines and how they work.

Ashley's Exploring Computer Science Blog