Computer systems and whatnot

We use computers everyday for tasks ranging from simple to complex. We use computers because we’re too lazy to find out the answers to anything on our own, and since computers are able to process information much faster than a normal human being. Computers are important because they revolutionize the world and make everything better and (yawns), okay, this boring me already. So here’s the deal: I use my ipod everyday to listen to music. Why? Because I like music. And no, I don’t mean an iphone, I mean a legitimate, living, breathing, ipod. Cause those totally exist.

Anyways, this system is very common and not unique since it’s so common. Surely every good American citizen knows what an ipod is, and if they don’t I’d like to know what rock they’re living under so I can join them. It gets scary up here on the surface. I’m just kidding, don’t look so offended over there! To be more specific about what I’m talking about exactly, I will be discussing the ipod nano, 2008 model.

So, you want to be a millionaire? Well, this is the wrong place for you, my friend. Instead I’ll tell you all about the ipod and why you should mortgage your home to buy these expensive and awesome devices!

How did the magical ipod first come to be? Many believe that Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, created the ipod. They’re what we call “wrong.” According to a somewhat reliable article I read, the idea of an mp3 player first came from Kane Kramer, a British inventor who first thought of a portable music playing device way back in 1979. That means the ipod has been around for about >grabs calculator< 35 years. Unfortunately for Kramer, his business wasn’t very successful and he couldn’t afford to keep the patent on his invention. As for the ipod nano  specifically, the device was constructed by inventor Tony Fadell, who had the help of Steve Jobs and other engineers to make his idea come to life.

How difficult would life be without this system? A hard question to answer, really. I don’t know about you, but listening to music is one of the few things that keep me sane. With that said, not much would change aside from concerts would become much more popular and more people would be inclined to learn how to play an instrument to have music more readily available.

That's it for this blog. 

Here's my sources:

http://ipod.about.com/od/understandingipodmodels/a/invented-ipod.htm 

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ipod/ipod-faq/ipod-inventor-designer-font-used-where-to-buy.html

Things I Do EveryDay Blah Blah Blah

Since I do many monotonous and otherwise uninteresting things each day, let’s first talk about the dining centers for this blog. One thing I do everyday is irritate the workers there by ordering ridiculous amounts of food, things that aren’t available that day, or stating that the food is bad or that I want everything available. As you know by now, I’m a silly, sarcastic, and completely unserious person with anything involving life. So, for anyone who wants to learn how to brighten the day of dining center workers, here are a few simple steps so you too can be a common annoyance!

            Surely you know that you must enter the dining center, swipe your card, get a tray, etc, so let’s not get too technical with this. I’m going to have a simple algorithm, and you can practice your skills and evolve into a greater annoyance in no time!

For our simple algorithm, you must first have a blunt and outgoing personality to make your skills shine. No one wants to hear such quotes from someone who is timid, now do they? Second, you must examine the food and see if any of it looks good. It won’t, trust me. There might be a good item or two, but ignore those, you don’t want to compliment anyone here. Third, you must have an idea of what you want once you see the food. That way you can plan your humorous quote accordingly. Next, once you’ve decided for something in particular, ask for five thousand pieces of it. The staff should look at you as if you’re crazy, and then say something along the lines of “Sorry, we can’t give you that.” Which usually sounds like “blah, blah, blah” to me as I don’t really listen to their response often. Your next move is to abort your plan, as we are starting you off as a beginner. Do this by saying, “awww man.” Or something lame in general to act as if you care. So…I guess the algorithm would go:

Be outgoing and awesome

Then,

Look at disgusting cafeteria food

Option 1. If not good, then proceed

Option 2. If good, move on, you’re just wasting your time and probably aren’t human

Then,

Say dumb phrase to make cafeteria worker laugh

Then

Abort mission

Or something like that.

 There, I’ve successfully shown you an algo-mo-rithm to get you a reputation as a source of comic relief and probably frustration.

            I don’t think it would be very difficult to operate a machine using this algorithm, since machines don’t really have emotions and therefore don’t care about anyone’s feelings. You would simply have the machine detect what food is available at the dining center, and afterward have it demand some ridiculous amount of food, depending on what is available. Why you’d ever program a computer to do this is a bit questionable and is a bit of a jerk move but hey, give me some credit if this ever gets built.

            Well, there’s my 400 word limit right there. If you care to keep reading, another thing I do each day is stretch. I practice martial arts, so it’s kind of important to keep myself from breaking in half. Hold on for a minute while I think of a way to put this into an algorithm.

>5 hours later<

            I got nothing, yo. I guess it would go something like:

            Sit down

            Then

            Stretch out legs as wide as you can

            Then,

            Lean towards your right leg and stretch for 30 seconds

            Then,

            Do to left side,

            Then stretch towards center for 30 seconds.

            So yeah, a computer can’t really do that since they don’t have muscles and it would be useless for them to stretch anything. You could probably have them stretch a human being, but man would that be weird. Okay let’s not talk about this anymore.

End of this blog.

History of Computer Programmers

            Since I found no one else particularly interesting at all within computer science, I decided why not do this blog on Ada Lovelace? I’m not going to lie, I found it interesting that a woman was the first computer programmer, which I guess made it more interesting to write about.

            She was born in 1815 somewhere in England to Lord Byron and Lady Byron. Her mother was a mathematician and wanted her daughter to study mathematics as well. Her genius could first be examined by the fact she created designs for flying machines when she was only fourteen years old. I don’t know about you, but when I was fourteen I could barely decide what to wear, let alone create a design for anything. Sometime when she was seventeen in 1833, she met Charles Babbage. The two, being genius mathematician awesome people, talked about math stuff regarding everything mathematical. I found the fact that she could do this at the age of seventeen very impressive.

            She married William King in 1835, who was ten years older than her, becoming the Countess of Lovelace (just throwing that in there, I found it made her sound really cool. “Countess of Lovelace” has a nice ring, don’t you think?). She had three children whom were never actually named in the article.

            Sometime in 1834 Charles Babbage had decided to create the Analytical Engine, which was a calculating machine that was never finished during his lifetime. This is important because Ada wrote notes on the machine she literally called Notes. These notes are the very reason she is famous (as if being a genius mathematician wasn’t enough). Within the notes it talks about how she understood Babbage’s Analytical Engine and how great at math she was.

            She died at the age of 37 in 1852 due to cancer. Sadly she was buried by her dad that she never knew (her parents had some serious issues. It was sort of like an old soap opera, but with less fainting.).

            If she were still kicking, I’d ask her two questions. My first would be, “Why didn’t you complete your plans with the flying machine?” I feel as though such an invention could’ve revolutionized the world much earlier, but probably would’ve been quite impossible to build, now that I think about it…Any who, my second question would be “Has anyone inspired you to be the person you are?” Since she had so many contributions to the Analytical Engine and is considered the world’s first computer programmer, I wonder if anyone special in her life pushed her to make her the person she was.

That’s all for now.

https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html <---The source of my info

Computer Science Blog 1

Computer Science blog 1

I am Jarelle Easterwood, a sophomore majoring in computer science from Kansas City, Kansas. It’s not that great of a place, in fact I’ve visited funerals and watched shows on television about the evolution of socks that were far more interesting. It didn’t help that I was raised in a neighborhood inhabited mainly by the elderly. Sure, it was peaceful, but with no other kids around, it helped increase my boredom.

            That’s how my long list of hobbies started. I won’t bore you with basic stuff everyone says such as, “I like to read,” or “Singing is cool!” Instead, just know that I’m a fighter. Literally. I am a black belt in taekwondo and a green belt in Shotokan. I’ve been doing martial arts since I was a kid, and I plan to keep doing it until I’m pushing daisies or I break myself somehow. With sports like those, it’s not that hard to do. I have other interests, but for now let’s move on.

            So, why did I choose computer science? Well, while in high school I took architecture classes for three years straight, thinking I’d become an architect. I knew I wasn’t after the third year, when I left the class with “what was I thinking?” repeating through my mind. Seeing these architect majors suffering in college, I know I definitely made the right choice. As for the whole computer science thing, well, while I was open option and invading lectures and clubs just because, I came into contact with many computer science majors for some reason. Some of them were struggling with coding, and I found that lots of people enter this major not knowing much about it. I had spent lots of my time coding and creating websites at home when I was younger, though I had very little idea of what I was actually doing. And after lots of thinking and willpower, I decided, “why not study computer science?”

            If that made any sense, I am not sure.

            Since I’m bored, let’s talk about why I chose to come to K-State. When I was in high school and deciding what to do for college, my friends decided to randomly visit K-State, so I tagged along. Once my foot touched the ground of the campus it was cold as hell and I wanted to go back home. However, the people were very nice, the campus looked cool, and they had a fantastic architecture program (which would later become useless once I came to my senses, of course.).     

That's the end of this blog. Stay tuned for more.