last day!

Let us omit project 3K from your list, but I definitely want to see your results for 3A and 3B. Today you may choose to work on either of these or on your Logo final project. 3A and 3B must be submitted by the end of class today. The final project is due at 6 pm on Friday.

Access day one

Today, Projects 3A, 3B, and 3K in the green book. (These are projects 12A and 12B if you have the enormous green book.) Please complete A and B and mail them to yourself before Wednesday's class.

Alive Day

I encourage all students to attend the Alive Day showing in AA 158 (across from the computer lab) at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20. Marine Michael Jernigan, one of the wounded Iraq veterans featured in the HBO program, is a student on this campus, and he will be speaking at this event.

final project and Logo inspiration

Click here for details on your final project.
Due date: Friday, May 9, at 6 p.m.

Great art sites:

Very colorful and inspiring! click

Lots of color and 3D click

Give these plenty of time to load! click

Old favorites click

for Monday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 23

Today we will talk more about x-y geometry in Logo. Then you can choose to use either x-y or turtle geometry in your program.

We will also talk about random numbers. This means choosing a number by chance, not knowing in advance what it will be. This is how computers simulate playing cards and rolling dice. (Cards and dice are truly random, in a fair game; in a computer, since it's a program, it's pseudo-random.)

See page 10 of the handout for a random walk. See the program bug for a simple, silly example.

Working by yourself or with your partner, write a program surprise with (at least!) these three elements:

• randomly chosen regular polygon or star


• drawn in a randomly chosen location


• in a randomly chosen color

You'll need three sets of if statements to make this work. See page 10 for one set of if statements.

I usually prefer to work with a set of colors that I have chosen in advance, but you can make your colors completely random — the post below this one tells how.

Suggestion: work on the three required elements separately, then combine them. Everything you need to know is in the Logo handout! The beauty of programming is that you don't have to do it in a prescribed way; you are free to invent your own alternative way of doing things.

Submit your work by showing it to me at your desk, then copying the text of your program (with all its procedures) into an e-mail to me. If you work with another student, then make sure that both programmers send me the e-mail.

Random colors, filling an enclosed space

I usually do random colors by selecting one from a set of several using if statments (e.g., if :rn = 2 [...set pen to second color choice...]), but here's a way of making your color even more unknown:

to randomColor

make "myRed random 256
make "myGreen random 256
make "myBlue random 256

setpc (list :myRed :myGreen :myBlue)
setfc (list :myRed :myGreen :myBlue)

end

Here are methods for making a square frame in the center of the screen and then filling with random colors:

to centerSquare

penup

; go to lower right corner of square
bk 300 rt 90 fd 300 lt 90
pendown
repeat 4 [fd 600 lt 90]

; back to center
penup
fd 300 lt 90 fd 300 rt 90

end

to centerSquareColors
hideturtle
clearscreen
repeat 100 [
randomColor
centerSquare
fill
wait 75
]
showturtle
end


Logo day 3

Objective 1: to understand the idea of writing a procedure rather than commanding the turtle one line at a time.

Objective 2: using a procedure within a procedure and a loop, make a flower out of a squiggle. Like this:

to squiggle
... your code for a squiggle here ...
end

to flower
repeat X [
squiggle
rt Y
... or lt Y ...
... optional fd N or bk N ...
... or some combination of these ...
]
end

Certain choices for X and Y will guarantee a wonderful rotational symmetry. But what are they? Figure that out.

Objective 3: a word flower. I will show you a simple example.

Objective 5: to enhance our drawings with color that is changed by the program.

Logo day 1

Today I will bring hard copies of my minimum opus on Logo, which you may also view here — click.

In case you're at a machine without Logo, download this, which is MSW Logo by George Mills et al.

I do hope that you will find this art site as inspirational as I do.

Here's a concise list of commands for Logo, which is taken from this wonderful complete college course in computing with Logo.

You can also read Brian Harvey's books online (scroll down the page) — click. Serious fun.

Programming day one

First thing to do: Move everything you want to keep from the machine you have been using to your webspace using Filezilla. We are going to change some seats around.

Second: We will begin programming today. Here's my presentation on Basic programming. You will get a hard copy, too.

Week 9: PowerPoint

Current assignment: a judiciously composed PowerPoint based on your ten-item web bibliography.

Judicious? You shouldn't even try to show everything. Pick some of the best stuff, and use PowerPoint tools to make good illustrations of your thoughts.

Many links on PowerPoint style follow. Check them out — they're fun!

This project is due via e-mail by 8 am, Monday, March 24. Submit it by sending me a zip file of your PowerPoint attached to an e-mail.

Tufte's lament click

Derek Miller's collection click includes two exemplary photos

Death to PowerPoints? not really click

viral video showing a popular minimalist style
click

"Presentations are as much about slides as poetry is about handwriting," according to Doc Searls click

two strictly HTML alternatives to PowerPoint: S5 click and Slidy click — small file sizes, as portable as websurfing, accessible to us with our knowledge of CSS!

Excel day two

Today's two Excel projects are described on handouts. Here is the file for the first.

Super-long URLs

A student showed me that the URL for a reference she found via the NVCC library website was one of those amazingly long ones, and although we worked on it for several minutes, we couldn't find a short version of the same URL. (Maybe there isn't one.) So if you get one of those, it is OK to say, "Click here for source," and make a link to the source.

But only for the amazingly long kind of URL! Ordinary medium-long URLs should still be cited in the given form.

Remind-o: Web bibiliography due Friday

Your web bibliography is due Friday at 8 a.m. How you submit it is by sending me a link to your page, which must be running in your NVCC webspace.

Here's a recap on the assignment.

Here's a link to the how-to on Filezilla. Yes, you can follow these directions to get Filezilla on your home computer.

Warning! The college servers will be getting some maintenance on Friday morning from 12:00 a.m. to 2 a.m. (I just got an e-mail.) Your work is still due at 8 a.m.

Excel day one

I note that about half the class claims some experience with Excel. Therefore, my plan is to show some Excel techniques that I find most useful, then turn you loose to work on today's project, which is project 2G beginning on page 177.

Please note that correct use of formulas and formats is required!

If you don't have a lot of experience using Excel already, then I recommend going through the steps of projects 2A and 2B first.

Get today's files here

I mean, here.

Day 1 for MS Office

Today we begin working on Microsoft Office programs, for which you need your green book. I will post files here. Today we have Word projects 1H_Invitation, 1H_Letterhead, 1I_Fax_Cover, and 1I_Fax_Machine.

Warning! computer cleaning

All of the computers in room AA 156 (our classroom) are going to be hosed off on Friday, February 15. Save your work before that happens!

Save by uploading to your webspace, or by e-mailing to yourself (in a zip file, natch), or by copying to a thumb drive.

110 day nine: stylesheets

Today we start writing HTML with stylesheets, which make good layouts easier, compared to tables. In fact, most web pages combine the two techniques. Here's a template to use.

Also today we will talk about your research assignment, which is due at 8 a.m. on Friday, February 29.

Day 8, I think: whitespace

Click here for a page without whitespace. See how much better to see how it looks with whitespace?

Day 7: formatting HTML with tables

In old-school HTML, our only tool for controlling layout on the screen was to use rectangular tables and tables within tables. The method is crude and cumbersome, but effective. Some work with tables will make you salivate when we get to stylesheets, next meeting.

To see today's handout, click here.

References in the book:

• Chapter 3 generally


• simple examples, beginning page 83




• table, tr, td tags


• align, border, bordercolor attributes


• cellspacing, cellpadding attributes


• bgcolor attribute


• colspan, rowspan attribute

On pages 97, 100, and 110 you can see some sample formats. Look at some of your favorite webpages for rectangular tables.

Assignment for today: Make four (4!) webpages. Use the drawings on the handout for models. Fill the cells of the table with pleasing colors, chosen from combinations that you find using the color chooser. When you have finished all four, show them to me.

Day 6: protocols and uploading

(revised after class to say what we actually did)

Today we will begin with a short discussion of Internet protocols. Then we will talk about uploading files to the web using Filezilla FTP.

Get Filezilla FTP here. Be sure to get the client program.

When you use Filezilla, you will need to specify:

host:  www.student.nvcc.edu
username: nvstu\yourID (example, vfitton)
password:
port: (leave blank)

then click Quickconnect.

On the left, go through the file tree to get to your Desktop and the web folder you created on it.

On the right, if you can't yet see a folder with your name in the Remote window, click on the folder tree and find it. (Sorry to be so vague, but we were getting varying results in the lab.)

Pick up the entire web folder from the Desktop on the left and drop it on the folder with your name on the right. In the filename folder, lower right, double click on the web folder that should now be visible, and make sure it's got what it should.

In the browser, use this URL:

www.student.nvcc.edu/home/yourID/web/yourPage.html

substituting your own LAN ID and page names. When successful, send me an e-mail with the URL. Send it to everyone!

Click the same Quickconnect button to close your connection with the server.

day five: tables in web pages, color

On Monday we began a 32-minute biography. Today let us complete a one-hour biography, after a discussion of color.
Here are some beautiful color links:

• all the web-safe colors
• an alternative ordering of web-safe colors
• colors and their goofy web-safe names
• color neighbors
• this one is a little complex, but beautiful

Biography requirements:

• all new content
• at least two colors
• at least two fonts
• at least two pictures
• at least four links
• and last, but not least, all the links must work!

When this is finished — homework! — zip the whole web folder and send it to me (vfitton at nvcc.edu) with subject line "110 web biography" and tell me the name of your page in the body of your letter.

Here's a silly bio I made a few years ago — click. And here is another page I made about one of my interests — click.

Day three: making web pages

Don't know yet if our zip problem is fixed. It will be soon, no doubt. Meanwhile, today,we will:

• discuss file types
• discuss the Windows file system
• make a web page

In working on the web page, we'll be going back and forth between two applications:

• the browser, Internet Explorer or Firefox, for admiring our work and for looking for ideas
• the editor, TextPad, for writing the HTML code for our page

Follow these steps:

• Create a folder called web on the desktop.
• In the browser, do View / Source on this page, then copy and paste it into the editor.
  Make changes to please yourself in the code.
• In TextPad, do File/Save As to save the code. Name it pagezero.html and put it in the web folder.
• Now admire your page in the browser!
  Make some changes, and admire it even more.

After pagezero comes pageone.

Reading assignment: pages 23 to 38 of the text by Felke-Morris (brown cover). The reference pages from 221 to 259 suggest lots of fun things to do, as well as where we're going.

Day two: everyday definitions and tasks

Today we will discuss two view (at least!) of a computer system and define some fundamental terms.

Assignment: Zip together three files to be names as we go along and attach them in an e-mail to me.

Day one, spring 2008

Welcome to CSC 110!

Today's agenda:

• introductory rituals: syllabus and survey
• LAN and VCCS account names and passwords —
  click here, see item 1
• Safari database — click here
• e-mail to instructor, vfitton@nvcc.edu

For the e-mail, which you may send from anywhere, please include the following:

• 110 as the first thing in the subject line
• your real name
• title of Safari book that you choose and a link to it
• your LAN ID for using NVCC computers
• your NovaConnect ID

Final project due Monday, December 17, by 6 pm!

Here's another copy of the specs.

Access day 3

So sorry that this is the last day of class!

Here are the files for today, from Chapter 13 of the Go book: file 1 13A, file 13B Access, and file 13B Excel.

110 database day one

Today we will work with the program Access. Here is a file to download for the book's Project 12A — we'll use this for an example — and then there will be a second project for you to do. We will do more of this on Tuesday.

Questions on your final project are also welcome, of course!

Random colors

Most people did random colors by selecting one from a set of several using if statments (e.g., if :rn = 2 [...set pen to second color choice...]), but here's a way of making an even more unknown color:


to randomColor

make "myRed random 256
make "myGreen random 256
make "myBlue random 256

setpc (list :myRed :myGreen :myBlue)
setfc (list :myRed :myGreen :myBlue)

end


The syntax of making a list took a little while to figure out!

Supposing that you are calling the code for making a square frame in the center of the screen centerSquare, this code will fill it with color, over and over:


to go
cs

repeat 50 [
randomColor
centerSquare
fill

wait 35
]

end


Final project

It's a program with a lot of latitude and a few strict requirements. For complete information, click here.

I will be happy to help. It's best to e-mail me your code and then come see me. Second best: e-mail me your code and call me while you're at your computer. For design help, be sure to ask before final exams begin.

Due before Monday, December 17, at 6 p.m.

Logo day 5

Still looking for that sweet surprise...

Logo day 4

Today we will talk about x-y geometry in Logo. Then you can choose to use either x-y or turtle geometry in your program.

Working with your partner, finish the program surprise with (at least!) these three elements:

• randomly chosen regular polygon


• drawn in a randomly chosen location


• in a randomly chosen color

Randomly means not known in advance, with each possible outcome equally likely.

Suggestion: work on the three required elements separately, then combine them. Everything you need to know is in the Logo handout! The beauty of programming is that you don't have to do it in a prescribed way; you are free to invent your own alternative way of doing things.

Submit your work by showing it to me at your desk, then copying the text of your program (with all its procedures) into an e-mail to me. Make sure that both programmers' names are included.

It is OK to make a diffeent program of equal complexity, but check with me first!

New Logo gallery

Check this out!

Logo day 3

Today's topics:

• saving your program



• making a regular polygon of n sides



• using random numbers

Today's assignment: write a program called surprise that draws a regular polygon whose number of sides and color are randomly chosen. For this, you will need to decide in advance on a collection of colors.

If this is easy for you, then snazz it up — ask for suggestions if you need them.

Here's a link to my page of Logo miscellanies.

Logo colors galore

Last week we talked about how colors are made: a familiar topic, since we had looked at binary numbers and RGB before. The syntax of Logo requires a list of three values in the range [0, 255] for each color component: for example,

      setpc [255 0 0]

to set pencolor all red, no green, no blue.

We also talked about writing subprograms, such as:


to square :n
repeat 4 [
fd :n
rt 90
]
end


Page 16 of the handout tells us how to write a procedure that allows us to use color names of our own choosing:


to blue
op [0 0 255]
end


With this, we can say, setpc blue rather than setpc [0 0 255]. This excellent technique is one of many great things offered by Simone Rudge here.

I encourage you to make a palette of your own pet colors.

You can see my variations on the Rudge technique in these files — one, two.

Logo day 2

Thoughts for the day:

• It's a lot easier to think of drawing a square by saying
  
          square
  
  than by saying
  
          repeat 4 [fd 100 rt 90]
  


• It's a lot easier to think about what you're doing if you say
  
          repeat 8 [ square rt 360/8 ]
  
  than if you say
  
          repeat 8 [ repeat 4 [ fd 100 rt 90 ] rt 360/8]
  
  — isn't it?



• It sure would be nice if all the squares weren't the same size, wouldn't it?



• And it sure would be cool if not all the polygons were squares.

Logo day 1

Today I will bring hard copies of my minimum opus on Logo, which you may also view here — click.

In case you're at a machine without Logo, download this, which is MSW Logo by George Mills et al.

I do hope that you will find this art site as inspirational as I do.

Here's a concise list of commands for Logo, which is taken from this wonderful complete college course in computing with Logo.

You can also read Brian Harvey's books online (scroll down the page) — click. Serious fun.

BASIC PowerPoint still evolving

Try it, you'll like it — click

Programming day 3

Here's a presentation on programming we've done so far: click

Today, flowcharts and some more looping and arithmetic. The big challenge: allow the user to enter numbers and find their average.

Programming day one

Resetting the clock here...

Today we start programming mdash; our reason to live! Handouts will be provided. You can get started by checking out a language called Liberty Basic using your fave search engine.

Day umpteen + 1: a snootful of PowerPoint

Current assignment, due via e-mail by 5 pm, Friday, October 19: a judiciously composed PowerPoint based on your ten-itme web bibliography.

Judicious? You shouldn't even try to show everything. Pick some of the best stuff, and use PowerPoint tools to make good illustrations of your thoughts.

Many links follow.

Tufte's lament click

Derek Miller's collection click includes two exemplary photos

Death to PowerPoints? not really click

viral video showing a popular minimalist style
click

"Presentations are as much about slides as poetry is about handwriting," according to Doc Searls click

two strictly HTML alternatives to PowerPoint: S5 click and Slidy click — small file sizes, as portable as websurfing, accessible to us with our knowledge of CSS!

Lovely fractal drawings

Links to programs here and here...

Mathematically beautiful screen savers

Delicious. Click here.

Software to explore

If you like spending your time trying out software you used to get along without (who, me?), then I recommend this page of links from the Shareware Industry Awards.

iPhone and the "cheap revolution"

This article from the Wall Street Journal says that it's users in Eastern Europe and India whose spending power requires our prices to drop. Interesting!

This link will die soon, so click now.

One laptop per child

OLPC is an effort to get cheap laptops into the hands of children around the world. See the video from David Pogue at the New York Times; visit the site at laptop.org.

Submitting the web page assignment

You will submit two ways: one, a hard copy in my mailbox; the other, a URL for your web page on your NVCC web space.

Will I check your links and code? Yes.

To see all the specs again, click here.

Day 13: more Excel

Today's assignment, due not later than Thursday, October 11, is Project 11D, loan calculations, on pages 817 - 820 of our textbook.

You must use formulas for this assignment to work! Be sure to do Paste Special with FORMULAS and formats.

E-mail me your finished workbook with both pages.

Day twelve: intro to Excel worksheets

Today we will be doing Chapter 9 of the textbook. I will demonstrate a sample like Project 9A, but somewhat simplified.

Your assignment is Project 9I, pages 665 - 667, which is due by 11 a.m. on Thursday, less than 48 hours from now. If you prefer to work independently rather than follow the demonstration, please do.

Day eleven: a research paper

Before beginning today's work, we'll talk more about XML files.

Here's a page of XML examples. Look at the ones in the top group. You can see that their structure is just like HTML, but where HTML is about appearance, XML is about content. Any programmer can write a programs to use XML-formatted content.

To learn more, try keywords "XML tutorial," "XML examples," etc. in a search engine.

Microsoft has learned from history and published a great deal of description of how it uses XML in Office 2007. This will make it possible for Microsoft's rivals to read and write Office 2007 documents.

Our work for the day: formatting a research paper. See projects 6B, beginning on page 354, and 6-Oh, beginning on page 406. E-mail me the result of 6-Oh when you have finished it.

Here is a very interesting page on evolving citation practices for electronic resources in APA style. The APA handout for a sample paper is at the bottom of this page.

Want to try Office 2007 at home? free 60-day trial

Want to stick with Office 2003, but need to read 2007 files? free download