Data Storage and Binary Numbers

Data is stored in binary. Binary is a base-2 number system that only uses the numbers 0 and 1. Every character we store from our keyboard is stored as a byte of data. One byte equals eight bits. One bit equals either a 0 or a 1. For instance, A = 0000/010. Bits are stored as electrical charges while all data is as a sequence of electrical charges. 3.3 volts and above equals a 1.The number 1 means on, positive, or true. Anything less than 3.3 volts equals a 0. The number 0 means off, negative, or false. All characters (numbers, symbols and letters) are processed and manipulated using the binary number system.

Image by Natty23 (Me!)

Artificial Intelligence

I learned more about Artificial Intelligence and whatever is related to it a while back in my Exploring Computer Science class. One of the things I learned about it was that there are many types of Artificial Intelligence. That's right, and examples of Artificial Intelligence are analyzing text, video games, personal digital assistants, self-driving cars, detecting fraud, and even creating news articles! Even Pandora is related to Artificial Intelligence because how it comes up with playlists for you is pretty unique. It's unique because Pandora comes up with your playlists based on the characteristics of the music played. A positive thing about Artificial Intelligence is that they're reminding us of things that we're forgetting everyday, or more specifically, Cortana, Siri, Google Now, and other virtual assistants like those are. For instance, they're reminding us about doctor appointments, buying groceries, paying the bills, and etc. A negative thing regarding Artificial Intelligence is that we're getting in to augmented reality, which isn't good because God only wants us to interact with the real world, not a fake one that involves the real world or just a fake one in general.

Image by Alejandro Zorrilal Cruz

Data Modeling and Design

Adobe Photoshop was used as a computer-aided design (or C.A.D.) tool in my assignment because (). Photoshop's user-interface was also intuitive to use because most of the tools that it offers are pretty self-explanatory about what they do. You just have to test them out yourself to see what they do exactly. Who knows, maybe those tools will help you in the future! I enjoy using the tool because it's so much fun to edit pictures to make them look right. Besides, I've been using Photoshop for years, so I'm not a beginner when it comes to the program. One advantage of using Photoshop is that you can make images look nicer than their original versions to enhance the appearance of what's around them. However, a disadvantage of using it is that if you aren't very good at using the program, you can end up making the pictures look worse than what they have looked like before and make it look like you were desperate to edit them so bad that you didn't care if you didn't edit them professionally. A CAD tool like Adobe Photoshop can also be used in a negative way when it comes to politics because if someone decides to make fun or accuse a candidate they dislike for some reason by adding their face to an offensive image, people may believe what "happened" in the picture and leave that candidate's side without investigating if the image is false.

IMAGE WILL BE ADDED SOON

Data Collection & Representation

I did an activity about describing a person based on what's in their bedroom by using a picture, list, and a word cloud in my Exploring Computer Science class not too long ago. Along with that, we watched a video that deals with how a story is told by data. Basically, data being represented by a picture is good because you can use it to make a number of unique data sets, draw conclusions from it easily, and is more comprehensive. Not only that, but a computer will be able to make conclusions by using a list too. However, it's also bad because computers will have a hard time trying to come up with conclusions from an image that's representing data. It may even be impossible for them at times! Furthermore, they can't be turned into a data set or graph very easily, and it will also be a challenge to compare it with similar pictures. On the other hand, data being represented by a list is good because conclusions and statistics are also easy to come up with by referring to one, especially if it's a data table or graph. Plus, it's not too hard to compare it to other lists that are similar to it. Unfortunately, the conclusions made by referring to a list are typically not very detailed.

The video that we watched in class for the activity. It was made by TED-ed.

Impact of Computer Mediated Communication

Even though sometimes computer mediated communication can be a good thing, in many ways it's not, especially when your job is involved. One way it can be negative is if you lose your job because at least one or more of your social media accounts has something unprofessional on it, like an image or images of you participating in a party like drinking there, in a suggestive pose with suggestive clothes or your uniform, and etc. Similarly, you can get fired if one or more people posts an unprofessional image or images of you. Another way computer mediated communication can be negative is if you get sued because of it. For instance, if you use something on a blog you own, Facebook, or etc. that isn't yours without permission, you could be sued by the person or people who own it for using it without asking them first.

Image by Natty23 (Me!)

Purchasing a Computer

I recently did a case study with Sebastian Cruz about buying a computer. It's name is the same name as this blog post. The goal of the case study was to know how a computer is assembled and the parts that assemble it, and that’s what I learned during this project. It has impacted my view of computers because now I have a bigger idea about how computers are put together and what things do that. I could also fix it a little more independently if I know how a computer is made and the specific parts that make it. It could apply to your own life too since in case a computer needs to be fixed, you’ll be able to fix it more independently and give you more of an idea about the things that create a computer and how it is created. One challenge I encountered was deciding which website to use for researching computers/components of a computer. I overcame that challenge since my partner managed to find a good site that can help you with that. Another challenge I encountered was trying to fill in a couple of things, like Optical Drives, Ports, and etc. I overcame that challenge when I came up with the possibility that not everything had to be filled in all the time. I don’t believe that there were any questions that I should’ve asked on my interview to help myself with my decision, especially since Sebastian’s interview was used for the case study.

Source: AVADirect

Tech News

The Galaxy Note 7 Smartphone Dies Early Due to Many of Them Going on Fire Randomly

On August 19, 2016, Samsung released its newest smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7. Unfortunately, there was one major problem with the phones. They kept overheating and going on fire. If the owner was even more unlucky, the phone would explode and they might even get seriously hurt. As a result, Samsung urged their customers to return the phone and get either another phone of theirs or a refund. They were even banned from going onto airplanes! Evenetually Samsung sent out the Galaxy Note 7 phones again, only this time they were supposed to be fixed and replace the ones that were defective. Unfortunately, they suffered the same fate as the previous versions. When Samsung couldn't figure out why they were going on fire, especially when they were testing out the phones and none of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that were used in the test went on fire, Samsung made the ultimate decision to completely stop producing anymore Galaxy Note 7 phones for good. Customers who still had them even got fireproof boxes to put the smartphones in when they returned them just in case they did catch on fire in them.

Image Source: Softpedia News

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/11/technology/samsung-galaxy-note-7-discontinued/