Please pass this on to all the member of the class. I have a list of pupils who borrowed books and have not yet returned them.
Please return all books borrowed, these are required for next years higher class!
Today’s task
The Extremegraph office manager decides to replace her computer with a new all-in-one touch screen
computer, complete with one of the latest 64 bit operating systems. She decides she needs an external
Blu-ray writer to store the high definition video clips which she uses to promote sales of computer
games. Since she uses lots of secure passwords, which are difficult to remember, she decides she
needs password protection software. She also needs a robust external hard drive to take data to
meetings with suppliers.
She decides to purchase:
An all-in-one computer with a 64-bit processor, a minimum of 2 Gigabytes of RAM, a touch
screen, and a 64-bit operating system
• An external Blu-ray writer with a minimum write speed of 4X
• An external solid-state hard drive with a minimum of 128 Gigabytes capacity
• Password protection software
The total budget is set at £2000.
It’s full of stars!
A simple sounding task for today’s lesson.
Create a program that displays a triangle made of stars, it should be 5 stars in height. The output should look similar to the image at the side of the screen.
Visual Basic – Unconditional Loops
How do we roll 100 dice?
We could put in 100 lines to generate the random number and 100 lines to add it to the list box or we can just make use of a FOR…NEXT loop.
This unconditional loop uses an incrementing counter (called counter in the example program) to control the number of repetitions of the loop. Everything between the FOR and NEXT lines is repeated.
What would happen if we wanted to check that the random number generator was really random? How could we test that the numbers are random? Answer after the jump.
Visual Basic Selection Using IF
Programs need to be able to branch and execute different instructions for different conditions. We can do this most simply using the IF statement.
We wanted to modify yesterday’s program so that we could turn it into a game. The user needs to guess the number that has been created by the dice roll. They have only one shot to get it right.
Some programmers noticed that the number the same the first few times they tried it, why do you think it was?
Welcome to New Class
A big welcome to the Int 2 / Higher 2013-2014 group. I am not sure how I am going to tackle the blog for this year but I will have it sorted by August. We talked about the course structure and software development.
Today we started working with VB Express Edition 2008. You were introduced or reminded of the concepts of
- Variables
- Assignment
- Randomisation
- Message boxes
The program we created was a D6 simulator.
- It made use of one Integer variable called RndNo.
- The Randomize command is used to seed the random number generator, so that a new random number is produced on each execution.
- The Int function is used to return only the integer part of a number and ignore the rest.
- The Rnd function is used to create a random number between 0 and 1, we then multiply this by six to get a random number between 0 and 6 before changing that to a whole number (Between 0 and 5) and adding one.
- The MsgBox command displays a window with the contents of the RndNo variable.
Last day!
So the exam is tomorrow at 9am and I am a little disappointed that I haven’t heard from more of you.
If you need help or want questions answered then post a comment, if you don’t want people to know just put that in the comment and I will only post a reply.
If you need some last minute inspiration then try a previous post or check off these. If you need your inspiration more digital then get on Scholar or Pass Computing.
GIF pronounced JIF
Well according to the person who created it. I have to say that I have been pronouncing it G’IF since the 80’s and I am unlikely to change now. It is a good article however.
Panic Dot Com
This was popular last year, so here it is again.
Right you have one week to go. I know a lot of you still have Maths and Physics to get through but you need to focus on Computing. Here is what I would do with a week to go.
- I wouldn’t study outside – its hot and full of distractions
- I would start at 9 and do the following
- Past Paper
- Break
- Marking Past Paper
- Break down wrong answers into core and non core (using the list below – core is likely to come up the exam)
- Revise core
- Lunch
- Revise core
- Break (its about 2pm if the above tasks took you 2hr for the paper and 30 mins a task)
- Revise non core answers
- Look over the topics from the units by picking a half dozen topics each day.
- Download this document. and use this as the basis for some questions on the topics I found hard, as well as, using it to aid revision of the topics in the units (List of Topics at bottom)
- Use the blog, Scholar and other school’s notes to learn the core information I am not sure about.
- I would learn the two images below and be able to describe and compare each of the aditdem elements with each other – E.g. what is the difference between Procedural and Event Driven Languages?
- I would look over and memorise the standard algorithms
- I would buy a £1 calculator that does binary and learn how to use it.
- If I was tired, I would take a break and I would cut down on caffeine.
- I would give my mobile to my parents when I was studying and get it back at breaks (when I was your age this was not an option
)
The above is not a roadmap to success! However, it might help get you the marks you need to change a grade.
Good luck in the exam! Remember ask questions here or to my email account, I will be checking them over the coming week and will try and get a response out ASAP. If you are finding it too warm to study, the class room has air con and I’m sure I could squeeze you in at a desk.
Core – likely to come up in the exam
Computer Systems
- Systems
- application based tests
- Bit map graphics
- CCD
- fetch execute cycle
- file, print and web servers
- FLOPS
- hub, switch, router
- Interface functions
- MIPS
- Network topologies
- operating system functions
- peer to peer Vs client server
- RGB
- software compatibility issues
- standard file formats
- Two’s complement
- utility programs
- Vector graphics
- virus software detection techniques
- Viruses – types, code actions
Software Development
- by value and by reference
- local and global variables
- concatenation and substrings
- design notations
- Evaluation – robustness, reliability, portability, efficiency and maintainability
- iterative
- macros
- maintenance
- module library
- one-dimensional arrays
- personnel
- procedural, declarative and event-driven
- real, integer and boolean variables
- Scope
- scripting languages
- software specification
- stages
- standard algorithms
Multimedia
- Authoring software
- Bluetooth
- CLUT
- codec and container file
- dithering
- MIDI
- MPEG
- PCM, ADPCM
- RAW, RIFF
- RLE, LZW
- Sound file size
- vector graphics
- Video file size
- anti-aliasing
- re-sampling
Unit / Topic
| Computer Systems | |
| Data representation | |
| Computer structure | |
| Peripherals | |
| Networking | |
| Computer software | |
| Software Development | |
| Software development process | |
| Software development languages and environments | |
| High level programming language constructs | |
| Standard algorithms | |
| Multimedia Technology | |
| Development process for multimedia applications | |
| Bit-mapped graphic data | |
| Digitised sound data | |
| Video data | |
| Vector graphics data | |
| Synthesised sound data | |
| Implications of the use of multimedia technology |
Less than two weeks to go!
I have been waiting for a barrage of questions… I guess that you have all been too busy with all your studying. Don’t be put off by the good weather it will still be there when your exams are done and dusted. Get your head down and get on with it.
Here is how to fill the next two weeks (except the days you have other exams).
- Get a marking scheme for a higher past paper, oh look here is one.
- Get an A4 piece of paper and draw a line bisecting it.
- Write the question on one side and the answer on the other.
- Every time you meet an answer you don’t understand go look it up and rewrite the answer in a fashion you do understand.
For example for the paper above and question 4
| 2005 New Q4
Describe the function of a defragmenter.
|
(1 mark for each point – up to max of 3) Lose a mark if talk about ‘memory’ |
| A defragmenter program is used to check that files are contiguous and if not move the separated file blocks into adjacent storage, thereby speeding up the loading of the file. |
This gives a double benefit.
- Familiarisation with past paper questions and the number of and distribution of marks.
- Studying areas of the course you are weak in.
Remember there is no shame in not knowing something, as long as you then do something about it. That’s why I am here, leave a comment or send me an email if you need any help.
Now on the more techy side of the news NASA have bought a quantum computer. This is a truly amazing time to become a computer scientist a brand new field is just opening up.
