AH – LAMP Server Configuration

So the mini notebooks only have windows XP on them, this OS is no longer supported by Microsoft so the first order of business for you is to install a new secure OS. I chose to install Linux Mint on my machine.

The project will more than likely require a web and database server and server side scripting language. I chose to configure the laptop as a LAMP server, a quick web search brought up this site.

You can update your HTML, CSS, MySQL, and PHP skills using codecademy or W3Schools.

CodeCombat

cclogoIf you want to improve your Python skills this holiday, you could use CodeCombat.

To add a little bit of competition I have created a Clan that you can join to see how anyone else in the clan is doing. So join the clan and show us what you can do!

Advanced Higher – Project Ideas

Suitable projects could include, but are not limited to, the following: Designing and developing a:

  • program/information system that processes, stores and allows updating of sporting or other results
  • 2–dimensional game with ability to pause and store state of the game and restart, such as Connect 4, Battleships, Minesweeper, Noughts & Crosses, Chess, Draughts, Sudoku, etc
  • small social media website, that allows registered users to blog and share information
  • database-driven website, that allows users to search content and display, edit and update it appropriately
  • multi-player card game such as ‘Top Trumps’ or a card-matching game
  • question-based quiz, that randomises questions, processes and stores results, for example ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’, ‘Mastermind’, ‘Pointless’
  • simulation of the operation of a queue, a stack or a sort algorithm, or other similar computing science concept/process
  • interactive computer assisted learning tool that gathers and stores information
  • or any other projects offering similar challenge and complexity to the candidate

A question from the floor

I have been asked a few questions by a higher pupil I thought I might share the answers with you.

1.) Can you explain object orientated code ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/z3fgcdm/revision/7

OOC is similar to procedural languages. The main difference is in how the program is organised. While procedural languages tend to have all functions built into the program and keep the contents of the variable separate from the program. A OO language would make use of objects to store the program and data, this object can then be cloned and acted upon separately.

2.) Can you explain 2’s complement to me and how to convert negative number and real numbers into binary ? e.g -120, 0.16 etc..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zsnbr82/revision/3

Two’s complement is a method of storing negative integers in binary. The first digit can the thought of as both sign and magnatude so-128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

1      0    0   0   0  0 0 1   = -127 as it is -128+1

3.)What are the use of <meta> tags ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/z96psbk/revision/2
Meta tags are used in HTML to describe the contents of the page. For example the name of the author or version of HTML used. They can also be used by search engines to categorise pages.

4.) What are the purpose of tag styles,ID’s and classes ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/z96psbk/revision/2

These are used in CSS to change the appearance of a web page. ID’s and classes are selectors. You might want to memorise something like

p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_syntax.asp

5.)Differences between client side and server side scripting ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/ztj2xnb/revision/4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/ztj2xnb/revision/5

Client side scripting is when the processing is done on the clients machine, using a language like Javascript. Server side scripting processes the the script on the server, like PHP. A day to day example would be booking a ticket for the cinema, the website would allow the user to enter their details. The Client side scripting would check that the details are valid (date formatted correctly etc.) before passing the data back to the server. The server would then use server side scripting to adjust the contents of the database to store the booking.

Higher – Technical Implementation Hardware Requirements – Revision

Comparison of

  • input devices
    • Digital Camera
      • Resolution – Measured in mega pixels, typically the larger the better.
      • Optical Zoom – How close you can make the image appear without losing any quality.
    • Touch Screen
      • Resistive – Single touch
      • Capacitive – Multi touch
  • output devices
    • Printers
      • Resolution – Measured in DPI (dots per inch)
      • Speed – Measured in PPM (pages per minute)
      • Type – Laser or Ink Jet
    • Monitors
      • Size – Measured diagonally in inches (9″,21″)
      • Resolution – Measured in pixels (1920×1080)
      • Type – LCD/TFT uses a flat panel of coloured cells to change the colour of the light shining through it. OLED uses a  matrix of tiny LEDs to produce an image.
  • processor type – How many bits can be processed in a single operation (16bit, 32bit, 64bit )
  • number of processors – Single Core, the processor can appear to do more than one thing at a time using time slicing.  Multi core, different processes are run on different cores.
  • Processor speed (Hz) – The number of times per second the processors voltage is switched, this allows the processor to carry out an operation. Typically measured in Gigahertz (GHz).
  • memory
    • RAM – Volatile, losses contents when power disconnected. Dynamic, requires constant refreshing to remember contents.
    • ROM – Non Volatile, contents kept when power disconnected. Not writeable, contents can not be changed.
    • cache – Located on (or very near) processor. Static, contents do not need refreshing.
  • device type
    • Desktop – Used for tasks that require a fair amount of processing power and storage.
    • Laptop – Portable devices that use a battery and keyboard.
    • Tablet – Ultra Portable device that uses a battery and touch screen.
    • Smartphone – Small Ultra Portable device that uses a batter and small touch screen.

Higher – Coding (Revision)

Scripting

Including sections of program code in your website, to help make it more dynamic or interactive, is called scripting.

Client-side scripting

  •  A section of code is sent to the client computer and executed there, in the browser.
  • It is commonly used to add interactive elements to a webpage.
  • JavaScript is a language commonly used for client-side scripting.

Server-side scripting

  • A section of code is executed by the web server.
  • It is commonly used to create dynamic webpages, often connected to a database on the server.
  • Popular languages for server-side scripting include PHP, ASP, Perl and ColdFusion.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO is the process of improving the ranking of your webpage in search engine results, in order to increase traffic.

Some SEO techniques include:

  • Making sure each page of your site has a unique, concise and descriptive title contained in the <title> tag.
  • Using the description <meta> tag to include a summary of each page.
  • Using concise URLs.
  • Submit an XML sitemap to the companies which run the search engines
  • Using brief, descriptive filenames and alt text for images

Search engines and web crawlers

  • A web crawler (aka spider) is a piece of software which follows links from web page to web page, analyses the text on each page, and indexes the pages with related keywords.
  • Search engines then use this index to find relevant pages when you carry out a search.

Optimisation of code

Load times of webpages affect traffic. By making code more efficient, file sizes, and therefore load times, can be reduced.

Some techniques include:

  • Using a single CSS file to hold all the formatting information for the site.
  • Putting all JavaScript into a single external file, to reduce fetches from the server.
  • Remove/reduce internal commentary and white space.

Thank you to C O’Toole & A Madill from Braidhurst High School for allowing me to edit and publish this here.

National 5 – Technical Implementation hardware requirements (Revision)

  • Input devices – put data into the processor e.g scanner, keyboard, mouse
  • output devices – display data from the processor e.g. monitor, printer, projector,
  • Processor type – dual, triple and quad code 
    • speed (Hz) – 1.8GHz to 3.4Ghz (faster)
  • Random Access Memory – used for current files, temporary storage of data which is lost if the device is switched off.
  • Read Only Memory – ROM retains its memory even after the computer is turned off.

Device types

  • Supercomputer – large processing power and memory, used by large organisations.
  • Desktop – processing power but not portable.
  • laptop – portable but generally less powerful than a desk top
  • tablet – portable but no physical keyboard.
  • smartphone – use 3G or connect to wifi. same functions as a tablet.