Reflection

 Reflection

Well I learned a lot of stuff in this class, not just about english because I learned a lot about some interesting facts and other cultures. This class helped me a lot to be confident when talking in english, and I really appreciate that. My greatest achievement was to improve speech, because I do not have any ocassion to speak in english, almost never, just on travels or when I meet someone who is not from Costa Rica and does not talk spanish.

In professional matters the course has been so helpful for me, the most useful and complete information is in english and beside that, if I had a doubt or something most good forums are in english so I had to talk with some other people, and they only speak english, at the end english really helped me a lot in most courses.

As it has been really helpful to me, I want other people to at least try to participate in class, indeed I push them to participate so they lose the fear of participating in class. English is really important nowadays for anything, so I am always pushing friends and others to learn english, to do not be afraid of it, and I tell them how english can help them in their professional and personal life. 

Glen Urbina

Binary code

 Binary code

      Binary code is a way of representing text, numbers, and instructions in two digits, 1 and 0. It can be done by assigning a binary number to each particular symbol or instruction. So 8 binary digits have 256 combinations, and each combination can be assigned to a symbol, a letter, an instruction or just be taken as a number. For example, the binary code for the letter "A" is 01000001,"B" is 01000010 and "C" is 01000011. So essentially, binary code is translation of a language to ones and zeros.

Why binary code?
Because of the cost, decimal circuits increase the cost exponentially for every digit you have and require much more controlling circuitry, just compare the 100 combinations of decimal system against the 4 combinations that binary has. Also binary is more efficiently. If you have taken a basic electronics course you can understand easily why computers and devices use binary code.

How does it work?
Essentially, 1 means on and 0 means off. A lot of circuits recognize those patterns and send electrical signals, each combination has a different output,  path. The CPU is preprogrammed to understand patterns and how it has to respond. For example there is a pattern to turn on each pixel on a screen with a color, shape and size and that’s how images are displayed on a computer’s screen.

Binary is really useful in today’s world and it has been proven by itself through all the devices that use binary, we can almost say that all devices use binary. This language has transformed the world into a faster, clearer and stronger technologically based society with unlimited possibilities.

Sources: 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5165013/why-do-computers-work-in-binary

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4759517_binary-code-work.html

Internet

   Internet

    Nowadays internet is one of the most important technologies, it has made our life a lot easier, we can find information, communicate with other people, share music and files, watch a movie, etc. Every year more and more devices are made to use internet in some way, to communicate, update information, to download media content, and others tasks. 

So how does it work?

It is easier to understand it if we look at it like two main components.

Hardware 

This category includes cables, computers, satellites, radios, modems, cellphones, etc. In others words all physical objects.

Each one of these elements is a connection, but we will categorize them in:

• End point clients:  smartphones, computers, tablets, modems and devices that uses internet and a user uses to navigate in the web, to get updates share media, etc.

• Servers: machines that have the information we seek in the internet, such as Wikipedia. They have several servers that contain all the information that is in Wikipedia.

• Nodes: they serve as a connecting point, and can be cables like the modem cables, or signals and radios like Wi-Fi and cellphone towers.

             Protocols.

      Protocols are a set of rules that machines follow to complete a task, this is why internet works. Those protocols make devices understand between them, so they talk in the same language. These protocols also provide the methods of communication.

So in the simplest way, the end point clients communicate via nodes to servers, always following the protocols. But to be connected to the internet you need to be connected to an Internet Service Provider like the ICE for example, they are a node that connects you with the rest of the web.

Sources:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet.htm

Development Cycle

Development cycle

Every program has to start somewhere. There is the most basic cycle that we usually use to make a program:

•  Have an idea

• Define who is going to be the user

• Define the environment in which the program will run on.

• Pick  a language to use.

• Design to program, doing the basic structure of it and what it will do.

• Write the program.

• Test the program yourself and fix errors you discover.

• Give the program to people who can be a possible user.

• *With the suggestions and comments that these people will give you, fix errors and implement some of these suggestions.

•  Release the program, if there are errors repeat the last step given and give updates.*

     Something important as the program itself, is the Documentation, usually programmers do not make programs for themselves or for personal use. Users may need information about the program and how to use it, and some other important information like the limitations and reach of it. 

     Also the documentation is so important to companies or users, so if they want to maintain or improve their systems/programs and hire someone else, those programmers will need to understand what we did and how they will need to work.

    When it comes to proffesional matters, the documentation should be clear, because if the program does not do something that was on the documentation used for the contract, does not do something that was advertised, or is not clear, the company or user can put a demand or generate problems.

Sources:

 http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-life-cycle-of-a-typical-computer-program.html 

http://noobite.com/programming/how-important-is-a-programs-documentation/

Introduction to programming

Programming

                Programming is a process in which you have to design, write, test, debug and maintain source codes of computer programs. The source code is written in specific programming language. There are hundreds of programming languages, some of the most used are:

• C#

• C++

• Java

• Visual Basic .Net

• Unix

• Python

     Some of those languages are compatible between them, others don’t. For programming are used compilers, and each language has their own specific compilers. Basically a compiler translates the source code (keywords, operations, logic matters and others) to the computer language that is often binary code(just zeros and ones, for example 100111101101). I will use Java that is one of the most used and best know languages, and on Netbeans compiler. 

    Netbeans has a package that contains several classes, main classes, and others class-like objects that have a special purpose. Each class has methods in which you can make the program to do something or have behavior, and a constructor in which you can make that class like an object, so you can have several classes with the code but have different data so you will not need to create more classes with the same code to have different data, also you can copy, move, delete those objects. Main classes basically call all other classes, but can also make those classes as objects and use the methods in them.

• Packages
• Classes and class-like objects
• Main class
• Classes
• JFrame
• JPanel
• Etc 

    There are a lot of keywords for most basic and advanced functions, and you can combine them to do whatever you want. You cannot use those keywords to identify a variable or something, and these are reserved just for programming.In this image you can see some of Netbeans keywords:

 Each one has a function, and can be used for several things, everything depends in where and with what you use them.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming

       

               

Reflection of the class

My entrance to this course was really an accident, my speaking, reading and listening skills are really good. As a matter of fact my score was at the limit for English course four. So when I first entered I was really angry and disappointed that I had to take the course. My real goal was to finish the course successfully.

During class I got really bored and saw the exercises as a joke for my level of English and the level the class was supposed to have. With the passing of time I began to see that although I had really good skills I was still missing some elements of the class. Since I was a small kid I have been speaking English freely and naturally, I never paid attention to small grammatical issues or other types of issues. Issues were I think I got better during the course.

At first my commitment was not as big as it should’ve been, the disappointment of not passing the ELASH had eaten my motivation and I was really angry with myself. Even though this happened at the beginning I think that during the course my commitment kept on growing stronger and stronger.

My language issues have gone better, some things such as conjugation and vocabulary grew over the time of the course. I still feel I have to overcome some conjugation errors in things like past participle. I think the course has made me a better person and a better English speaker. I expect to do well on the course. 

Introduction and Objectives

Welcome to Glenn`s and Eric`s E-Portfolio.

     The purpose and objective of my E-Blog is to try to inform my fellow classmates at least a little about what law school is. You will find information about the new anti tabaco law passed by the Costa Rican Government, about law in the medieval era, the IRAC method, and a little bit about what prescription and expiration means in law.

Law is present in everything, law regulates the lives of human beings daily, it is really important to have at least a notion about what law is, what it does, and how it is made.

     Now, on the other hand, in the systems engineering area my purpose is to inform people about stuff about programming, the development cycle programmers use, how does the internet work and finally the binary code on devices.

    In today's world technology is everywhere and is used to make our life easier. Basically my career consists on programming computers, cellphones and several electronics devices to do a task and have a specific behavior.

    Systems engineering is always implemented or related to others careers such as electronics, or any other career to make a product like calculators, computers, communication devices, translators, compilers, video game consoles, toys, and wide variety of things. So I think is good to know how most devices work since we use them every day like computers, cellphones, and a wide variety of devices.