Week 6

I'm sure that after this week's classes everyone will set their facebook profiles on lockdown (especially after the results of Thursday's "stalking" assignment). There really is an enormous amount of personal information out there. Of course, the option still exists to not put personal information onto someone's server (and most people make this decision consciously, by not blogging, etc.). But, with credit card information, traffic records, Amazon purchases, even electronic medical records (though my dad, a family doctor, swears by them), total privacy doesn't really exist in the same way it did before our generation. On a completely different note, I'm excited and completely surprised to be to talking about 4chan in an academic setting. Never thought that this could be college. Who knew?

Week 5

This week begun with guest speaker Ray Russell; computer science professor, amateur meteorologist, and runner; who talked a bit about Born to Run and his experience training for marathons and the like. That discussion also included foot problems (as Ray put it: 90% of runners sustain injuries; the 10% who don't are lying), which inspired me to go barefoot as much as possible, though I am definitely not a runner. Also, I will definitely share fatsecret.com with anyone who needs an excessive amount of data about personal nutrition. 

Week 4

Tuesday's class is what I thought this class would look like - intelligent discussion of the way the world of technology is going (scary stuff, according to PBS), with a few laughs thrown in. I'll admit that my preparation for the discussion wasn't the best, but I still got a lot out of hearing everyone's opinions. I'm pretty excited for next Tuesday's RescueTime data, though I'm sure I'll get pretty bad scores. 

I snuck into Convocation late, but I caught the last part of the falling man story. It was fascinating that someone could remember and recount such a traumatic event, and to survive was even more astounding. I thoroughly enjoyed Born to Run. To me, it was an exciting introduction to a sport that I knew little about, as well as a reminder of what it can mean to be human, of what our bodies can accomplish on their own. It convinced me to let my feet air out once in awhile. 

Week 3

This week's classes have really made me question my study habits. The video on Tuesday reminded me a lot of my childhood - spent engrossed in video games (well, it wasn't a world of warcraft addiction, but I'll admit I've spent a considerable amount of time alone with an xbox). I've successfully avoided becoming a multitasker for most of my life, but it seems inevitable now, with the amount of hardware I'm using just for school - laptop, smart phone, tablet, TI-84 haha. I need to loosen up.

Second Week

As the second week of 1515 draws to a close, I think this class is getting better. Prof. Park's bit passing game was a nice way to begin understanding the complexity of computer networks. And the "magic" trick will impress all my friends lol.
Thursday was the first time this really seemed like a class with our "field trip" to the library to learn about finding scholarly articles and journals for research. I've used similar databases to research for my high school graduation project, so using these should be no biggie.

First Week

The first week of Dissecting the Internet was interesting to say the least. The class was a bit of a change from my normal high school classes, but I've been absorbed in internet culture before in my life, so why not learn more? 


Thursday's reading from Blown to Bits and the binary counting lesson (and ASCII) were fascinating - learning the basics of computer language. The iclicker quizzes were cool too.


As for improvements, I can't think of any yet. we'll see how the class goes.


Until next time
Ryan

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