Oct/6 Assignment 1. Response to csc104
Why did you choose CSC104? what do you hope to get out of the course?
Both of my parents majored computer science, and I remember when I was little occasionally mom and dad would buy computer parts to upgrade our home computer instead of buying a new one. Although I hated this (since I wanted a brand new computer), I remember my parents really enjoying their search for part through internet and offline stores.
When my mom was told to get married or attend a nursing school, she refused to follow traditional female role of being a caretaker inside or outside the home and jumped into a field that was concentrated by men. However she excelled, and loved new technology that she continued to her masters where she has met my dad who was receiving honors and scholarships for his excellence.
Given this type of family history, I was intrigued by computer science yet was overwhelmed by media representations and math/science was not my top subjects neither, so I never took the step to really know what it was. Although it was my parent's education and skills in computer science that allowed immigrating in Canada possible, my parents never pursued careers in computer science due to language barriers and when the time came, their knowledge was very much outdated.
Since this course was provided for students in social sciences, it didn't seem too overwhelming. Also even though my parent's knowledge in computers are now outdated, I took this course to really know what my parents loved and enjoyed to do when they were young.
However, even when syllabus was provided for this course, I did not understand any of the languages, or tools it claimed will be using. I went to my first class with nothing on my mind, to the point that I was not even properly prepared, taking pen and paper for notes instead of my laptop to follow along the instructions of the professor. (Which helps tremendously compared to pen and paper!)
What did you expect programming to be like? and how does it compare with your experiences i n the course so far?
I realize despite the family history in computer science, I never talked or had interest in computer programming to the point that my expectation of programming was all about what I see in the media, especially Matrix, or media perception of hackers with digits flying about in the screen. When compared to my experiences in class, it is nothing like that.
Everything on the screen are legible, straight forward, clean and easy to understand, not jumbles of codes in secretive messages. Everything is meant to be there, and has reasons to be there, unlike what I thought was big mess of codes.
So far I am breaking the barriers that I have built between myself and programming. I guess I built this barrier as it looked absolutely foreign.
What do you find interesting so far?
Since courses are about the most basic commands and functions, I find it interesting that the easy things that we do on our computers and phones such as bringing an image, cropping, flipping, zooming in and out, are all structured through this programming logic.
I now understand that I can flip a photo horizontally on my phone because the buttons I click to do so has been defined to flip-horizontal the selected image.
What do you find hard so far? is the course easier or harder than you expected?
The course is niether hard nor easy...yet. My absolute absence of any knowledge in computer science gives a clean slate to understand and take in any instructions without bias or objection.
However because it is a clean slate, if I miss a class, or do not follow up with a class by repeating exercises at home, it gets complicated and hard.
Although whether I attend class or follow up or not, I do find it hard and frustrating to the fact that I am working with a program, not a human. If I accidentally write something in capital , forget/add more parenthesis, spelling, orders, or any things that human consider minor mistakes will be considered major in Dr.racket and will not compute.This is sometimes very frustrating!
Furthermore, it is extremely hard to keep interactions area clean! keeping it clean speeds up my learning process as I can trace my steps or reread the command.
Yet being a beginner, mistakes are ALWAYS made and the red error comments makes me hard to trace my previous interactions. It also stress me out! the red fonts is so eye catching.
I end up clearing them often sometimes that I delete my definitions that I have to re define again.
Lastly and related to my messy interaction area in Dr. racket, I have hard time linking functions with functions, for example, the leprechaun exercise.
Not only math frightens me, it is in it's own order, / 2 5 not 2/5!
How do you study for the quizzes? are you satisfied with your performance on them? if not what do you plan to change?
I study for quizzes by following up, or repeating what the professor have done during class at home, as well as the exercises provided prior to the quiz. I sometimes study from the textbook provided which sometimes clarify any questions I have.
I am yet satisfied with my performance because I had problems with my laptop and Dr.racket installing that I was unable to follow up with classes often or properly with CSC language installed correctly. However this should not be a problem in the future as laptop has been replaced!
Are there any specific Computer science topic you're interested in?
The makings and development of AI, or Artificial Intelligence! But I know nothing yet. Not even enough to say something here. However, I enjoyed watching movies where AI tries to takeover humanity.
Meanwhile the closest AI I have is Siri. I have yet to use that too.
Talking to an inanimate object is too weird for me and I still feel like I can do things faster than Siri.
Both of my parents majored computer science, and I remember when I was little occasionally mom and dad would buy computer parts to upgrade our home computer instead of buying a new one. Although I hated this (since I wanted a brand new computer), I remember my parents really enjoying their search for part through internet and offline stores.
When my mom was told to get married or attend a nursing school, she refused to follow traditional female role of being a caretaker inside or outside the home and jumped into a field that was concentrated by men. However she excelled, and loved new technology that she continued to her masters where she has met my dad who was receiving honors and scholarships for his excellence.
Given this type of family history, I was intrigued by computer science yet was overwhelmed by media representations and math/science was not my top subjects neither, so I never took the step to really know what it was. Although it was my parent's education and skills in computer science that allowed immigrating in Canada possible, my parents never pursued careers in computer science due to language barriers and when the time came, their knowledge was very much outdated.
However, even when syllabus was provided for this course, I did not understand any of the languages, or tools it claimed will be using. I went to my first class with nothing on my mind, to the point that I was not even properly prepared, taking pen and paper for notes instead of my laptop to follow along the instructions of the professor. (Which helps tremendously compared to pen and paper!)
What did you expect programming to be like? and how does it compare with your experiences i n the course so far?
I realize despite the family history in computer science, I never talked or had interest in computer programming to the point that my expectation of programming was all about what I see in the media, especially Matrix, or media perception of hackers with digits flying about in the screen. When compared to my experiences in class, it is nothing like that.
Everything on the screen are legible, straight forward, clean and easy to understand, not jumbles of codes in secretive messages. Everything is meant to be there, and has reasons to be there, unlike what I thought was big mess of codes.
So far I am breaking the barriers that I have built between myself and programming. I guess I built this barrier as it looked absolutely foreign.
What do you find interesting so far?
Since courses are about the most basic commands and functions, I find it interesting that the easy things that we do on our computers and phones such as bringing an image, cropping, flipping, zooming in and out, are all structured through this programming logic.
I now understand that I can flip a photo horizontally on my phone because the buttons I click to do so has been defined to flip-horizontal the selected image.
What do you find hard so far? is the course easier or harder than you expected?
The course is niether hard nor easy...yet. My absolute absence of any knowledge in computer science gives a clean slate to understand and take in any instructions without bias or objection.
However because it is a clean slate, if I miss a class, or do not follow up with a class by repeating exercises at home, it gets complicated and hard.
Although whether I attend class or follow up or not, I do find it hard and frustrating to the fact that I am working with a program, not a human. If I accidentally write something in capital , forget/add more parenthesis, spelling, orders, or any things that human consider minor mistakes will be considered major in Dr.racket and will not compute.This is sometimes very frustrating!
Furthermore, it is extremely hard to keep interactions area clean! keeping it clean speeds up my learning process as I can trace my steps or reread the command.
Yet being a beginner, mistakes are ALWAYS made and the red error comments makes me hard to trace my previous interactions. It also stress me out! the red fonts is so eye catching.
I end up clearing them often sometimes that I delete my definitions that I have to re define again.
Lastly and related to my messy interaction area in Dr. racket, I have hard time linking functions with functions, for example, the leprechaun exercise.
Not only math frightens me, it is in it's own order, / 2 5 not 2/5!
How do you study for the quizzes? are you satisfied with your performance on them? if not what do you plan to change?
I study for quizzes by following up, or repeating what the professor have done during class at home, as well as the exercises provided prior to the quiz. I sometimes study from the textbook provided which sometimes clarify any questions I have.
I am yet satisfied with my performance because I had problems with my laptop and Dr.racket installing that I was unable to follow up with classes often or properly with CSC language installed correctly. However this should not be a problem in the future as laptop has been replaced!
Are there any specific Computer science topic you're interested in?
The makings and development of AI, or Artificial Intelligence! But I know nothing yet. Not even enough to say something here. However, I enjoyed watching movies where AI tries to takeover humanity.
Meanwhile the closest AI I have is Siri. I have yet to use that too.
Talking to an inanimate object is too weird for me and I still feel like I can do things faster than Siri.
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