COMP6021 Exam

The final was on 15 December (Wednesday morning)

The solutions and marking scheme are now available online. However if you are still studying for exams do not waste time pouring over solutions to exams you have already take. There will be time for that later.

The results will not be published until some time in January. I won't have anything further to say until then.

Except that it's been a pleasure doing business with you.

Good luck with the rest of your exams.

Games Research Survey

A masters student in Computing, conducting research in the area of ethics in the virtual world, has a brief (5 tickbox) question survey directed at people who play online games, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, etc. The anonymous survey is a part of an investigation into the relationships formed between gamers and their avatars.

If possible, please complete the survey. It will only take a couple of seconds. Feel free to forward the survey link onto anyone that you feel might be relevant.

Survey Link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BHZ9JDY

If you have any further questions, or input, the student in question, James O'Sullivan, can be contacted at james.c.osullivan@mycit.ie

COMP7004 Textbook

Ethics & Technology by Tavani is the recommended textbook for this course. ISBN:978-0470509500

The Second Edition of this book will also suffice. A copy of the second edition is available in the library.

COMP6021 Re: Exam format?

Hi
There won't generally be much mixing up of topics in any one question. For the most part it's one question = one topic.
Colin M
Colin Manning, Dept. of Computing
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland
On 14 Dec 2010, at 14:02, *********wrote:
> So any chance you could tell me what format the exam will be in, like 4 questions do 2 etc. and will each question be a mix of topics or topic specific.

COMP7004 Useful sites

Office of the Data Protection Commissioner


Digital Rights Ireland

COMP7004 Recommended Podcasts

Students taking this module are expected to familiarize themselves with current ethical issues facing the computing profession and the wider society. The issue of privacy is often discussed in the media. These podcasts and websites often discuss topics relevant to this modules. Interested students should subscribe to them.

Marketplace Tech Report podcast site sitefeed

NPR Technology podcast site

BBC Technology News site

Podcast of Stories about "Privacy" from NPR

Not as useful for this class, but still very interesting:
On The Media podcast site

COMP7004 Computing Ethics

The CRN for this module is 21108.

Students should check their mail in mid January for instructions from the registrar's office on how to register.

SOFT6001 Last Chance for Assessment 3

Any student who missed Assessemnt 3 should immediately contact Colin by e-mail or SMS. I expect there will be an opportunity to sit the assessment some day this week.

SOFT6001 Student Comments

Please feel free to leave comments on the course.

SOFT6001 Week 12

We had an in-class written exam.

I didn't get a chance to properly say goodbye to people. It's been a pleasure working with you. Good luck with your other exams and future plans. I may yet darken your door again, some time in the future.

COMP6021 Tutorials

If any students in this module are interested in having a tutorial, please let me know in advance.

SOFT6001 Extreme Weather

Some students may find it difficult to make it to class for the assessment on Thursday night. Students should not take unnecessary risks in order to make it to the exam.

I plan to offer a further opportunity to sit the assessment some time next week. However, it would be foolish for any student to use this as an opportunity to put off the exam. There is no guarantee that the exam will be on a day or at time that suits you.

So come if you can. Don't come if you can't do so safely.

CMOD6001 Student Comments

Please leave comments on this module. What worked for you? What didn't?

They can be anonymous if you like. And you can wait until after you get your final results too.

COMP6021 Student Comments

Please leave comments on this module. What worked for you? What didn't?

They can be anonymous if you like. And you can wait until after you get your final results too.

COMP6021 CA Results

Hi

The results of the Continuous Assessment component of this module are now available. The CA accounts for 20%. The remaining 80% comes from the final exam.

COMP6021 Class 29 (tutorial)

No one turned up

SOFT6001 Week 11

We had a tutorial. A good number of students turned up, but they didn't have a lot of questions.

The exam will be next week. We will start at 1815.

COMP6021 Class 28 (tutorial)

Nobody came.

CMOD6001 Class 29

We had the world premieres of the lip dub videos. I was impressed.

This was our last class.

Good luck with your exams. I will see you all again soon, depending on which modules you are taking.

CMOD6001 Class 28

Some students met groups to make some decisions about their videos. I didn't want to see the videos, because I want to be surprised tomorrow.

COMP6021 Class 27 (tutorial)

Nobody turned up, so I went away.

COMP6021 Class 26

We had a whistle stop tour of some of the topics we should have discussed in more detail but didn't. So at least now there are no "unknown unknows", just "known unknows".

All subsequent classes will be tutorials. So bring questions.

CMOD6001 Presentation Names

Could someone from each group e-mail me the names of the students in their group. I just want to make sure I have everything correct.

If you missed any one of the two days you should e-mail Colin explanation. Failure to do so will cost both you and your group marks.

CMOD6001 Class 27

Presentations. They were all good.

Afterwards I met with groups. Projects seem to be on track

CMOD6001 Class 26

Presentations. Went well

COMP6021 Class Canceled

This afternoon's class is canceled. I feel like crap and I'm going home to bed. There is only so much caffeine and paracetamol you can down, before you have to eventually admit defeat.

COMP6021 Final

The exam for this module will be at 1000 on 15 December 2010 in the CIT Sports Hall.

ITS / ITM APS CA Results

CA results for ITS/ITM SOFT6001 Algorithmic Problem Solving are here:
2010-SOFT6001-ITS3.pdf

Some students have almost passed already and so do not need to score well in the final exam. Others need more than a pass in the final to pass over all.

The column NEEDS specifies what students need to score in the final assessment to be sure of a pass mark.

COMP6021 Class 25

We looked at block matching algorithms for motion compensated video compression. Mostly because I know all about it and think it's cool. Now 10 more people know all about it, but the number of people who think it's cool is unchanged.

We probably will discuss only a few more things in the next class. The rest of classes will be given over to tutorials.

Free Choice Modules

Information about the Free Choice Module for next semester is available at

tinyurl.com/compfreechoice

SOFT6001 Withdrawals

Some students have done a runner. This is fine.

If you do a runner though, make sure to formally withdraw from the module. If you do not withdraw then CIT will, quite rightly, want its money. And should you want to stay on at CIT, you will, quite rightly, be expected to pay up before progressing.

So it makes sense to do the paperwork.

EV.COM1 APS SOFT6001 Cancelled

There is no Algorithmic Problem Solving class this Thursday night.

Apologies for the short notice

CMOD6001 Class 25

We were supposed to have presentations today but the group wasn't ready.

We might fit them in another day.

Students had ad hoc group meetings and the class rep got some SU related issues sorted.

Colin

COMP6021 JPEG Compression Ratios

You can see the effects of JPEG compression by saving this TV test pattern at various quality settings. Pay particular to the line patterns and the edges. You'll need to convert it to RGB mode after opening.

[Info about video compression] [Media Data Formats]

CMOD6001 Presentations

Students who want to use my laptop for the presentations should e-mail the a PDF of the slides in advance of the class.

SOFT6001 Week 09

[Thursday Evening]
We did some exercises with loops.

Everybody got there, eventually.

Week 09 Exercises

COMP6021 Class 24

We looked at video compression and MPEG.

Many students left with a headache. Mighty stuff.

CMOD6001 Class 24

Colin brought chocolate.

Students met in groups for the first half of the class.

Students did a time management exercise.

Handout on Chicago Style references.

CMOD6001 Class 23

Wed.
We did an exercise that required groupwork and communication.

COMP6021 Class 23

One of these images has just 100th the color information of the other

We looked at how JPEG works. That was hard work.

Using Photoshop and Lab channels we simulated subsampling of the chrominance channel to see just how much one can get away with.

We looked at the effects of adjusting the quality settings of JPEGs in Photoshop's Save for Web preview.

A good day's work.

COMP6021 Class 22

We looked at Transparency, Alpha channels, RGBA, & PNG.

The screen capture software messed up so it will be a while before the video is online.

Use of Dictionaties in Exams

... students ... whose first language is not English ... may be entitled to the use of an English dictionary and extra time depending on their level of English.  Please note this is at the discretion of the Head of Department.

Any student seeking such a provision for their exams should fill in the attached form and have it signed by their Head of Department. They may be allowed up to 10 minutes per exam, but this is at the discretion of the Head of Dept.

The student should bring the original signed form to their exams for the attention of the invigilator at the start of the exam. They should also bring a copy of the form to Ruth Murphy, Exams Organisation Office, based at the Admissions counter on the ground floor of the Administration Building.

Please see the attached updated form and explanatory information.  Please note these documents can be downloaded from the Exams webpage on the CIT website: http://www.cit.ie/exams#english_language_

CMOD6001 Class 22

From now on this hour will be a tutorial only. So attendance is not required. It does make for a handy group meeting time though.

Students had project group meetings

I offered to meet with students individually to discuss the paper. But only one was interested.

I checked in with the groups on the progress being made with the projects. I get the feeling that the groups are not being realistic about their schedules.

SOFT6001 Week 08

We looked at loops. Loos can be very tricky.

notes and video
Loop exercises

The Microsoft ELSEIF:
When I am Emperor of the World the ELSEIF will be first against the wall.

Many programming languages nest IFs like this:

IF x < 10 THEN
      B = 9
ELSE
     IF x< 20 THEN
          B = 10
     ELSE
          IF x < 30 THEN
               B = 11
          ELSE
               B = 12
          ENDIF
     ENDIF
ENDIF

Notice how there is an ENDIF for every IF.

In VB is it possible to say:


IF x < 10 THEN
      B = 9
ELSEIF x< 20 THEN
          B = 10
ELSEIF x < 30 THEN
               B = 11
ELSE
               B = 12
ENDIF

Here the nested structure is lost. This is very inelegant.

COMP6021 Class 21 (Tutorial)

No body came to the tutorial with questions. I was really tired so I sent them away.

The tutorial plan doesn't seem to be working, so I think we will re-instate the Thursday class as an actual lecture and then have a whole bunch of tutorials at the end of the semester when they might be more productive.

CMOD6001 Class 21

I asked students to meet in their presentation groups.

Students that do not attend class will very likely end up in separate groups of their own.

CMOD6001 Class 20

There were not enough students class for any kind of meaning group work. So class was canceled.

COMP6021 Class 20 (Lab)

Students worked away on their assignment.

I asked students who were finished to experiment with animated GIFs.

COMP6021 Class 19

We looked at how GIF works.

Class only took 40 minutes, but I never keep people just for the sake of it.

SOFT6001 Assessment Results

I have put the results of the group work and last week's exam online. You can find your result using the last four digits of your ID number (unless it starts with zero(s)).

If you do not know your student ID number, I am not prepared to find it for you.

There are some students for whom I do not have ID numbers because they have not yet signed up for the class.  I am not prepared to give those student their results by some other means.

CMOD6001 Class 19

I hadn't made it clear enough that today's class was a tutorial. More students came than might have, had they known.


We settled on 2000 words for the paper.

Seeing as we were all here anyway I met with the (video) groups.

HEA report on drop out rates

A HEA report on dropout levels found that only 73% of students who start computing courses progress to second year. Of all the courses in the country computing courses fare the worst.

A success rate of 73% at CIT would be considered a very good year. Our retention rates are much lower. The report does compare the university sector with the IOT sector, but does not compare individual institutes. This is probably wise.

The report found that there was a correlation between the number of points required to get onto a course, and the retention rate.  Retention rates in medicine are much higher. But it would be crazy, of course, to conclude that computing is more difficult than medicine. One can conclude that students with higher points in the leaving cert do better than those who have low points. But we didn't need a HEA report to tell us that.

SOFT6001 Assessment

We will have an in-class exam on 02 December at 1815.

If you know you can't make this, please let me know well in advance and I will try to find you an alternative.

SOFT6001 Week 07

I explained why I haven't corrected the exams from last week yet.

This week's exercise was the the same as the exam, but just Part B.

This was tougher than it looks. The devil is in the detail.

COMP6021 Class 18

We had a tutorial.

We went over
Interpolation
Dithering (with numbers)
Huffman coding

There was a question about whether arithmetic coding could come up in the exam. You cannot rule it out, but if it comes up it will be smaller than the example we did in class.

GIF is mentioned a lot in the sample questions. We will see GIF in class soon.

Huffman's original paper is here for anyone who is interested.

CMOD6001 Tomorrow's class is a tutorial

Class on Friday 28 will be a tutorial.  I will use that time to help students with any difficulties they are having with the assessments.

I will not take attendance.

CMOD6001 Deadlines

Draft of Paper - 13 November (sooner if you expect decent feedback)

Final Paper - 20 November


Presentations:
12 November - Online Reputation
18 November - Gold Farming, Monotizing Music in the Digital Age
19 November - RFID & Privacy, Prediction Markets

Each student in the group must speak, but students need not speak for equal lengths of time.
Every student must attend every presentation. If a student misses a presentation, it will affect both their individual mark and their group's mark.

Videos are due 25 November at 0900.
Every student must attend this class. If a student misses a presentation, it will affect both their individual mark and their group's mark.

Any student that misses a required class because of illness, should provide a cert from a doctor.

CMOD6001 Class 18

I gave tips for giving presentations.

We set dates for the various assessments.

COMP6021 Tutorial Reminder

This is just a reminder that today's class is s tutorial. Attendance is not required.

Come with questions or specific issues.

CMOD6001 Class 17

I spoke very briefly about the feedback I left in TurnItIn on the drafts of the introductions to the paper. I talked about the structure the paper might take.

I gave out a handout on common mistakes.

We agreed that another opportunity for feedback would be good. Drafts can be submitted to "Draft 2" up to 22 November. Submit draft early for early feedback.

The final paper is due on 20 November.

I met with some students about their introduction drafts.

I asked students to hold project meetings. One group already met today. Another group just refused.

I now have the URL for each group's blog. All meetings should be documented in the blog.

COMP6021 Class 17

I talked briefly about what the results of the assessment mean. I asked students if there was anything I should be doing differently.

I showed another way to solve the dithering question, that was a bit less abstract.

Students continued working on the image compression assignment.

COMP6021 Class 16 - Exam

There was an in-class assessment.

The results are here sorted by the last 4 digits of student ID number. They were not very good and suggest that some students need to modify their study strategies for this module if they are to be successful in it. They were marked out of 10. Student that got 0/10 would likely have picked up a few marks were it marked out of 100.

Suggested solutions below:

CMOD6001 Paper Introductions corected

I have read all the introductions that were submitted. Students can read individual comments by logging back into TurnItIn.

Some general point that came up:
I believe I made the plagiarism point very clearly. I certainly made it repeatedly. But I probably won't make it again.

Some students didn't get organized enough to submit anything. Other students just threw something together. I don't know which is worse. But both classes of student have lost a valuable opportunity for some early feedback.

We will talk about style and tone in class some day soon. For this kind of writing it is best not to talk about "I" "me" nor "the reader". Also stuff like "in this paper I will talk about ..." is best avoided.

Make your point. What are you saying? Just say it. There is no need for big words nor flowery language. Thinking clearly and writing clearly is what matters most.

Some students took this exercise seriously. They got feedback, some of it harsh, all of it useful. Well done to them.

SOFT6001 Week 06

We had an in-class exam.  However there was a surprise fire drill and we had to evacuate the building. We continued the exam on our return.

I don't yet know if the exam is valid or not. As soon as I know I will be post to the blog.

COMP6021 Class 15

We looked at how 3-D images are displayed. We saw some anaglyphs and watched a Bjork music video in 3-D.

CMOD6001 Class 16

We discussed the project. I spoke about holding meetings.

Students should have their groups formed by the end of class and set up the blogs fairly soon. Meetings must be documented on the blog, as must individual student contributions.

Meetings:

• Agenda
• Attendance and location time
• Review of last meeting.
• What happened since. Who did what.
• What decisions.
• Action Items. Who will do what
• Set time and place for the next meeting

CMOD6001 Class 15

This was an optional class. 3 students came along to discuss the project.

Some things that came up

Need to pick group fairly soon
any song
doesn't need to be one take

CMOD6001 Class un-cancelled

The thing that would have cause me to miss today's class did not come to pass. However, having cancelled the class I am not now going to un-cancel it.

I will be in the room though ans any students or groups that want to meet with me to discuss the assessments and projects can do so.

COMP6021 Class 14

I showed students what they needed to do in Photoshop to complete the assignment. I gave out images, but students are also free to choose their own.

CMOD6001 Class cancelled 20 Oct 2010

This Wednesday's class is cancelled. Apologies for the short notice.

COMP6021 Class 13

We fixed the in-class assessment date for next week. 1200 26 Oct 2010. B229.

We looked at color lookup tables (CLUTs) and dithering. We put some numbers on dithering and saw two examples. Check the podcast feed for more examples.

COMP6021 Colour Blind?

If you are colour blind you should probably let Colin know.

COMP6021 Assignment

Image compression requires a trade-off between image quality and file size. If the compression ratio is set too high the image quality becomes unacceptable. If it is set too low, bits are wasted. Finding the right point on the cost-quality curve can be a challenge.

Take three very different high resolution images of dimensions greater than 600 x 800 pixels.

For each image:

• Resize (or crop if you must) the image to size 600 x 800.
• Save the image with increasingly fewer colors, with and without dithering, until you believe you have found the best settings for the image.
• Demonstrate that pushing the compression ration further would produce poor results
• Graph the size of the image against the number of colors, with and without dithering on the same graph

Write a report outlining your results. The report should contain sample images.

I will bring images to the lab.

Put the report online and e-mail the URL to Colin before noon on Friday 05 November

CMOD6001 Project Groups & Blogs

Groups for the final project seem to have formed already.

Each student should join a group this week. Each group should start a blog (at blogger.com. I can help you with this the next time we are in a computer lab) to document the progress of the project and to store the minutes of each meeting. This blog should also reflect the individual contributions of each member.

E-mail the URL of the blog to Colin

CMOD6001 Class 14

The projector wouldn't talk to my laptop.

I asked student to form groups where no two students are writing the same paper topic, and asked each student to explain the background of the area to everyone else in the group.

Students must upload a first draft of the introduction to the paper to Turnitin by noon on Fri 22 October.

I gave out handouts on the comma.

I was impressed with the discussions students had. I feel like students have bought into this module and I appreciate it. It was a big ask.

audio:
cmod6001-14-20101015.m4a

SOFT6001 Exam in Week 06

We will have an in-class assessment on 21 October.

This will be an individual assessment, not a group exercise.

It will be worth 10/100 of your overall mark.

The in class group exercises that you do every week contribute 30/100. The remaining 60/100 comes from the exam at the end-ish if the semester.

So if you do well in it you will have almost passed the module.

If you have work commitments on that night and can't make the exam, please let me know and I will try to find an alternative plan for you.

SOFT6001 Week 05

All groups did very well on tonight's problem. I am very pleased.

I did feel though that not everybody had read the comments I posted on last week problem.

SOFT6001 Week 05 - tonight's problem

Tonight's problem is here is you are keen to make a start

COMP6021 Class 12

We looked at image sub-sampling, pixel resizing, and interpolation.

I thought today's class was especially dull, but maybe it was just me.

Homework:
A row of pure black pixels, is followed by a missing row, that is followed by pure red (R:255 G:255: B:255) pixels. If the missing row is interpolated what RGB values would you expect the missing pixels to have?

COMP6021 Class now full

This class is now full. No more students will be permitted to register.

If you wanted to take this class and missed out please e-mail me and I will let you know when it is next offered.

CMOD6001 Class canceled 2010-11-17

There will be no CMOD6001 class on 17 November.

COMP6021 Class Canceled 2010-11-17

There will be no COMP6021 class on Nov 17

CMOD6001 Class 13

I asked student to think about cyber etiquette and to come up with a list of recommendations that could server as a guide.

One group still has to send me a list.

audio:
cmod6001-13-20101014.m4a

CMOD6001 Class 12

I gave out handouts on note taking.

We discussed the marking of Assessment 1.

We talked about the project and decided on a Lip Dub video. We will discuss more about that in a later class.

Students researched their papers. I met with each student to discuss how they were getting on with the paper.

audio
cmod6001-12-20101013.m4a

COMP6021 Class 11

Students worked on fax coding for the first half of the class.

We looked at digital color. HSB, RGB, Lab, CMYK

I gave students a color safari exercise.

COMP6021 Class 10

We looked at coding 1-bit images and fax machines.

Fax machines use run-length encoding, a modified Huffman code, and sometimes even a form of difference coding.

Deana the amazing human fax machine was the first to decode the image of the happy face
 with a goatee.

Homework:
Code an image on a 12x12 grid. Add it as a comment to the blog.

CMOD6001 Assessment 1 results available

I have completed grading student submissions for Assessment 1. Most student should be able to see their marks out of 10 by logging into turnitin again.

Each student's mark was based both on the student's ability to discuss the job in class and the student's submission to turnitin. The ability to discuss the job in class counted for a lot.

CMOD6001 Class 11

We completed our look at the jobs.

Students should upload their submission to TurnItIn over the weekend. By Monday it will be too late.

Audio
cmod6001-11-20101008

SOFT6001 Week 04

IF & Flowcharts

Problem:
Write a program that inputs three numbers and outputs the smallest of the three

Some solutions

COMP6021 Class 09

We discussed how perception in part reality, part biology, and part culture.

We saw the Gorilla video on YouTube. Some people don't even see the gorilla, but everyone in this claims claims that they did.

We looked at the physics of light, and the biology of vision. The I asked why there are 7 colours in the rainbow and argued that it is just because somebody made that up.

I fantasized about being the leader of North Korea and changing the way everybody names colours.

The way we think about color is very cultural. Irish has no word for pink. This interesting article from Wikipedia on the Japanese color 青  and this article on distinguishing blue from green across cultures make the same point quite well.

CMOD6001 Class 10

We talked a little bit about the free choice. I explained how pass by compensation works and discussed the appeals process.

The we looked at some more jobs.

I showed students a lip dub YouTube and asked if they were up to making one of their own as a project. No one seemed that convinced so we might do something more boring.

audio:
cmod6001-10-20101007.m4a

CMOD6001 Class 09

We looked at some of the job specifications from earlier in the semester. Some students have not completed this task to my satisfaction.


I randomly distributed  topics for the upcoming writing exercise. More on that in future classes.

audio
cmod6001-09-20101006.m4a

COMP6021 Class 08

We looked at how Blanck & White images can be digitized.

main themes:

• Sample rate - dots per inch
• Quantization levels - pixel depth

We saw examples of the same image with different sample rates and different quantization levels

Students used Photoshop to alter the pixel depth of a grayscale image

COMP6021 Class 07

We looked at how audio might be coded.

The main points were

• analog audio technology - electrical analog for compressed air
• sub-sampling
• quantization level reduction
• relative encoding

Modern audio coding techniques are much more complex in reality

CMOD6001 Assessment 1 Due

All students should submit Assessment 1 using turnitin.com

The course code and password will be set to you by e-mail.

Students will also be expected to discuss their submission in class next week. Failure to turn up to class may result in a student getting zero for this assessment. If you are sick you should get a sick cert from your doctor.

CMOD6001 Class 08

We continued working through the process of writing a paper. Having brainstormed yesterday, today we looked at how to structure all the ideas along various themes. I gave out copies of the white boards from yesterday, and students worked in groups at putting a structure on everything.

We devised a possible outline for a paper.

cmod6001-08-20101001.m4a

Blog Shortcuts

The entries on this blog for EV.COM1 SOFT6001 can now be reached by simply going to http://soft6001.tk

The entries on this blog for COMP6021 can now be reached by going to http://comp6021.tk . The podcast feed for iTunes is http://comp6021podcast.tk/

This should save a few seconds. They all add up!

SOFT6001 Week 03

We looked at constants, variables, types, expressions, and precedence.
video: aps-week03-1.m4v

Slides

I gave out an exercise sheet to be completed at home.

I talked student through a problem and sample solution.


Students worked on tonight's problem set

I went through solutions to tonight's problems for those students that wanted to stay.

Finished up at 2130.

SOFT6001 Week 03 Problem Set

Tonight's problem set for anyone who wants a sneak preview.

Here's a sample problem and solution.

COMP6021 Class 06

We talked about digitization, quantization levels, and sample rates.

CMOD6001 Class 07

We completed the exercise on plagiarism. I was disappointed that students didn't complete this overnight like I asked.

We started to look at how one might go about writing a paper. We are going to work through "Is illegally downloading music wrong?" Students brainstormed in groups. When brainstorming it is important not to censor yourself or others. And don't try to develop the issue, just record as many ideas as you can.

audio:
cmod6001-07-20100930.m4a

CMOD6001 Class 06

We talked some more about plagiarism. Students did a group exercise on plagiarism, but we didn't get time to finish. I asked one student from each group to take responsibility for finishing up. We will continue with this exercise tomorrow.

Audio
cmod6001-06-20100929.m4a

COMP6021 Class 05

We looked at Lepem-Ziv-Welch coding. The slides in class had mistakes. So they will be different for the PDFs.

I gave an exercise. Most students seemed to get what was going on.

Some students used the second hour to catch up.

COMP6021 Class 04

We looked at arithmetic coding.

SOFT6001 Timetable changes

Following complains from a student last night about overcrowding in the lab, I spoke with the head of the department today.

To avoid over-crowding in future the class will be broken into two groups.
One group will have class from 1800-1950 and the other group will have class from 2000-2150.

I have assigned each student to a group based on the order in which students registered for the module. However if a student in the first group can find a student in the second group to swap with them, they may do so. However changes will be allowed only on a one-for-one basis. I will provide details of the groups in the next class, and allow a few minutes for some horse trading.

The new groups will the apply from Week 04.

CMOD6001 Class 05

No students turned up for today's class.

SOFT6001 Week 02

We looked at Otto the Robot

Students worked on Otto problems and tested them in the lab

Pavel & Piotr wow the prize for the best code.

Audio:
soft6001-week02.m4a

CMOD6001 Class 04

I asked students to figure out in groups the various reasons WHY students come to college. We discussed some of the answers. I asked students to figure out WHY they are at college. It's an important question to ask.

Audio
cmod6001-04-20100922.m4a

COMP6021 Class 03

We looked at the frequencies of the characters used in some students' text messages. There were one or two surprises.

I asked students to construct variable length codes for some of the characters using Huffman's algorithm. This gave the new students in the class a chance to catch up. We did that on the board. Some students had slightly different trees. If the small-left-big-right rule is not enforeced then the resulting VLCs are different, albiet with the correct lengths.

We discussed the prefix problem briefly and the overhead of tree transmission.

I explained that Huffman's algorithm requires prior knowledge of the data.

I explained that sometimes special comma codes are used to help the receiver recover if some data is lost in transmission.

Perhaps the word "town" is actually more frequent in text messages say "q". We thought about how whole words could also be given codes.

We finished up a good bit early so that the new students could use the lab time to catch up. But they didn't.

CMOD6001 Another Interesting Article

There is a less serious look at college life in today's Irish Times. It's fun, but it has a useful lesson.

There is a feature in this week's Expicit magazine about life at CIT.

COMP6021 Class 02

We recapped our discussions on ASCII.

We talked a little a bit about Unicode. Although you can buy whole books on Unicode, conceptually it is just the mother of all tables. More at Wikipedia or Unicode.org.

We played hangman to illustrate that letter occur with different frequencies. We talked about Variable Length Codes and Huffman coding, but not in detail.

Out of class work:
Watch the online class on Hufmann coding.
Count up the character frequencies of your last 10ish text messages and enter them into this spreadsheet. E-mail it back to Colin when done.

CMOD6001 Interesting Article

There was an interesting article in today's Irish Times.

CMOD6001 Class 03

We talked about recognition for prior learning (RPL) and Erasmus.

For more information about RPL contact phil.oleary@cit.ie. She will be able to help you.

Cliona.McGuane@cit.ie manages Erasmus for the Dept. of Computing. She has a web page about it.

Audio
cmod6001-03-20200917.m4a

CMOD6001 Class 02

Introductions.

I explained the modular system. I talked about the free choice options.

I talked students through the course descriptor for this module.

Handouts
CMOD6001 Course Descriptor

Audio
cmod6001-02-20100916.m4a

SOFT6001 EV.COM Week 01

Since this was the students' first class at CIT, I talked students through the various features of the module descriptor and explained what they meant. We discussed NFQ, ECTS, learning outcomes, and assessment types.

I briefly outlined how recognition for prior learning (RPL) works. Students interested in applying for RPL for modules should contact phil.oleary@cit.ie. She can talk you through the different options. Students interested in applying for RPL for this module should talk to me first.

Students should check this blog regularly. I will post information, notices, and links to notes. Students should take care to distinguish between the daytime and evening versions of this module. However, information relating to one group may be useful to the other.

The shortcut for EV.COM1 SOFT6001 on this blog is
http://colinmcit.blogspot.com/search/label/SOFT6001%20EV.COM1

After coffee we looked at some problems. In groups students worked on

• how to make a cup of coffee
• how to get the No.5 bus from Patrick St. to CIT
• how to sharpen a pencil

We saw that explaining how to do these things was not easy and we discussed some of the  difficulties


We looked at

• Sequence
• Selection
• Repetition

Images

IMG_0037.JPG


Audio
soft6001-week01a.m4a
soft6001-week01b.m4a

COMP6021 Class 01

We took a look at the module descriptor and I talked a bit about the module in general.

We looked at how bits can be used to represent things in the real world. They can have meaning as long as there is some agreement on a scheme for interpreting them. Bits by themselves have no meaning.

EXERCISE:
I asked students to go find an ASCII table online and to write out their name in bits. ASCII can use 7 or 8 bits. Don't forget the space between your first and last names.

Uppercase A is 1000001. Lowercase a is 1100001. Space is 0100000.

My name is 01000011 01101111 01101100 01101001 01101110 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111.

Binary values don't have spaces in them, but it makes them easier for humans to read.

CMOD6001 Class 01 Lab

Introductions.

This was our first class but we will talk more about the module in in the next class.

Job exercise

COMP6021 Media Data Formats Podcast

Students can subscribe to the podcast for this module in iTunes by choosing Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast ... and entering this URL

http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/comp6021/comp6021.xml

Once you have subscribed to the podcast content will turn up in your iTunes automagically. If you do not have broadband at home Colin can show you how to download content at CIT for take-away.

COMP6021 Media Data Formats

Following the Free Choice meeting today COMP6021 Media Data Formats is a few students shy of the ideal number to run, but I expect will will pick up a few stragglers. In any event this module is running this semester, for the first time ever.

Please check back here for details. I hope to maybe to start classes this week, but that might be very ambitious. In any event I will soon have details of some online resources for students, so check back here.

Bookmark the blog for this module : http://colinmcit.blogspot.com/search/label/COMP6021

SOFT6001 Class 02B & 03B

This class was very quiet.

How to make a cup of coffee
How to make a cup of tea
How to get the bus from Patrick St. to CIT
How to sharpen a pencil

[no handout]

Sequence, Selection, Repetition

SOFT6001 Class 02A & 03A

This group was very lively and noisy.


How to make a cup of coffee
How to make a cup of tea
How to get the bus from Patrick St. to CIT
How to sharpen a pencil

Software development with handout

Sequence, Selection, Repetition

SOFT6001 Class 01

Introductions.
How SOFT6001 Algorithm Problem Solving fits in with Programming Fundamentals. "Wax on Wax off"
Directions for forming lab groups
How to make a cup of coffee

Cheating

This summer a student from the department of Computing was advised that, following a decision of the Examinations Infringements Board, he could not continue his studies at CIT until 2012 . This is perhaps as harsh a punishment as has every been handed down to a CIT student caught cheating. While this is not a good result for the student, it is a good result for all other students. If the awards given to students who graduate are to have any value in the marketplace then they have to mean something. When students who are not competent in their profession field gain their awards by deception they devalue the awards. It is also very unfair to students who study hard to pass, if other students can pass by cheating.

It is clear that CIT is now prepared to take cheating seriously and deal with it. This is good for everybody.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this new reality to affect student behaviour.

SOFT6007 Exam Images & Text

There are two images required for the exam.

chiliPepper.gif  and dancingChili.gif

Text:
Chili pepper (from Nahuatl chilli, chilli pepper, chilli, chillie, chili, and chile) is the fruit of the plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Although botanically speaking, the fruit of capsicums are berries, the peppers are considered as vegetables (e.g. bell peppers) or spices (e.g. cayenne pepper) for culinary purposes based on factors including fleshiness and intensity of flavor.
Chili peppers originated both in the Americas and in India. After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili pepper spread across the world, used in both food and medicine. The scale is named after its creator, American chemist Wilbur Scoville, who developed a test for rating the pungency of chili peppers by determining how much the ground pepper must be diluted in water so that the capsaicinoid content cannot be tasted. An alternative method for quantitative analysis uses high-performance liquid chromatography, making it possible to directly measure capsaicinoid content. 

Pimiento        100-500        Spain         
Pepperoncini    100-500        Italy         
Pasilla         250-4000       Mexico        
Santa Fe Grande 500-700        America       
Hatch           1000-2500      New Mexico    
Jalapeno        2500-8000      Mexico        
Tabasco         30000-50000    Mexico        
Cayenne         30000-50000    French Guiana 
Tien Tsin       50000-75000    China         
Thai            50000-100000   Thailand      
Scotch bonnet   100000-350000  Carribean     
Red Habanero    300000-475000  Mexico        
Bhut Jolokia    1000000+       India          

SOFT6008 Autumn List

DEADLINE: NOON 30 AUGUST 2010

List of submissions:

Ronan E: Submitted. But further submission required.
Niamh S: Submitted. But further submission required.
Megan H: Planning to submit
Jordan G: Planning to submit
Jason O: Planning to submit
Thomas D: Planning to submit

Last updated 1154 24 08 2010

Early submissions might get feedback.

SOFT6008 Autumn repeats

I would be grateful if students planning to submit for the repeat of this module could contact me by e-mail to let me know. That way I will have a list I can use to check that I have all the submissions, and a way to contact each student.

E-mail is the easiest way but also the most risky. Students should ZIP up the entire site and e-ail it as an attachment. Raw HTML files that contain JavaScript will not make it through the CIT firewall. There should be no need for large image files, so the ZIP file should be small enough to make it through the firewall's max size limit too.

DEADLINE: NOON 30 AUGUST 2010

Students may also post a CD to Colin Manning, Dept. of Computing, Cork Insitiute of Technology, Rossa Ave, Cork. Cds delivered by hand should also fine me provided that they are correctly addressed as above.

SOFT6007 Autumn Repeat

The repeat assessment for Web Development Fundamentals will be held on September 6 2010 at 0930 in IT 1.3

SOFT6008 Repeat

The repeat for this module is project based.

The specification is now available.

Details of how and when to submit will be posted later.

SOFT6007 Repeat Autumn 2010

The repeat assessment for this module will be an in-class lab exam. This assessment will be worth 100%.

This assessment will not be organized by the exams office, so it will not appear on your timetable. For details of the time and location of this assessment students should check this blog closer to the date.

So far the expected date is in the first week of September.

SOFT6008 Review

This module was not a big success. Many students struggled right from the beginning and never really got on top of things. I think they many have lacked the required programming skills coming into the module. The results for this module were disappointing but not surprising. I haven't yet figured out what I will do differently next year to improve matters.

Many students did not attend class often enough. There is not a lot I can do about that.

We should have dealt more with the Document Object Model and modifying CSS properties. I don't think we did enough of that. Next time this module is offered I will try to get more of that in.

I believe that a small number of students cheated. Some withdrew their submissions and some others had their work referred to the Registrar's office for further investigation. Continuous Assessment is a much better form of assessment for some subjects. However it can be easily undermined by cheating. At present at CIT the consequences of cheating are so few, that the cost-benefit balance makes cheating profitable, in the main. I think the tide is turning, however, and perhaps word will get out that cheating is riskier than students think.

SOFT6007 Review

I was pleased with how SOFT6007 went this year. I think I and the other lecturers teaching on the module to other students did a better job of it this year than last. We also did a good job of ensuring that all the students taking the module did much the same.

I think the assessments this year were more realistic and provided enough of a challenge to the students while still being easy enough to do. I got much more CSS done this year than last year. I had been kind of avoiding it a bit up to now, but if it absolutely necessary that students learn CSS early. I think we did just the right amount of JavaScript.

I found that I progressed very quickly at the start of the semester. But although I was making great progress, I did not bring all the students with me. I will have to watch that in future, and take it slower at the beginning. I think I will have to be stricter on attendance next year. Attendance is the key to success for a module like this.

The results were poor. Students that passed did very well indeed, but they were few. The evening class did better, but that is not surprising. Evening students are a self selected sample and they can drop a class more easily. So that alone can account for the difference. However there was a marked difference in worth ethic also. This year's COM1 class is probably the least interested group of Computing students I have ever encountered.

I believe that a number of students cheated on Assessment 3 for this module. I did not have sufficient evidence to refer the issue to the registrar's office. I might, however, have fewer open lab based assessments in future. I will certainly have to watch students more closely if I do.

SOFT6007 EV Week 12

We an an in-class assessment

This was our last class for this module. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you all properly.

Good luck with your plans for the future

SOFT6007 Assessment 2

This screen shot shows the list of Assessment 2 submissions that I have to date. If you submitted, but your folder does not appear here please e-mail me.

SOFT6007 Class 45

We used this class time for student hand ups of Assessment 3. There were may fewer submissions than I was expecting.

After today Assessment 3 will be late. Students should try to find me in person or should e-mail me a zipped version of their site.

There will be no labs this week. There will be no lecture on Friday morning.

SOFT6008 Class 48

We used class time for students to hand up Assessment 2.

I advised students that anyone who wanted to withdraw their submission for Assignment 1 was free to do so.

I also advised students that as part of the assessment process some students might be asked to meet with me and go through the code they wrote.

SOFT6008 Classes 45, 46, & 47

Monday was a holiday

SOFT6007 Class 44

[Friday 30 April]
Students worked on Assessment 2.

Most were running their code through the validator. Ensuring that code in compliant is probably the most useful things students can do with their time at this stage.

Some issues that came up:
Google maps will generate bad code. As long as the rest of the page is otherwise compliant it's OK
Colin's sample form is very shabby. Code modeled on it will also be shabby, but this is OK


ALL the other pages should validate and be 100% strict xhtml 1.0. If the validator is happy, I'm happy. If it is not, I am not.

SOFT6007 Class 42 & 43 A

We had an in-class assessment

SOFT6007 Class 42 & 43

We had an in class assessment.


SOFT6007 COM Group B Assessment 3

SOFT6008 Assessment 1 Submissions

This PDF shows all the SOFT6007 Assessment 2 submissions I have received to date.

If you submitted this assessment and it is not on the list please send me an e-mail.

Does anyone want to claim ownership of "AAA"?

SOFT6007 Assessment 2 Submissions

This PDF shows all the SOFT6007 Assessment 2 submissions I have received to date.

If you submitted this assessment and it is not on the list please send me an e-mail.

SOFT6007 EV Week 11

We looked at the coins example.

I asked students to do a variation of this where the coins are thrown twice. If the fist throw is the same as the second the player wins.

Some students continued to work on Assessment 2. I worked with them until 2035 at which time I asked them to submit or defer until next week.

SOFT6007 Class 41

We looked at the coins example and students wrote a variation of it as an exercise.

SOFT6008 Class 44x

We had an extra class in C128 at 1800

SOFT6007 Class 41

We looked at coins.html

I specified a variation and asked student to write the code for it.

SOFT6008 Class 44

Following discussions with the class we opted for an out of class assessment for assessment 2.

There will be an extra class at 1800 for students who want it.

SOFT6008 Assessment 2

Following discussions with the class we have opted for an out-of-class exercise rather than an in-class one. Students should be aware that my internal plagiarism threshold has been turned to its most sensitive setting. Students are not permitted to swap code.

The code you need is in files called cart0.html and cart1.html

When working it should look something like this

The code you have been provided with is a partial implementation of a shopping cart using JavaScript. The cart is stored as a long string in a cookie called "shoppingcart". ## is used to separate each item from the next. The data fields for each item (ID, Name, quantity, unit cost) are separated by #.




From the table display of the cart on cart1.html it should be possible for items to be added, subtracted, and deleted from the shopping cart. However the code is incomplete and only add has been implemented.



This implementation is somewhat old-fashioned because it does not used the JavaScript to modify the appearance of the page using the DOM after it has been written. Instead any change to a value causes the cart to be written to the cookie and the page reloaded. The page is reloaded by window.location.reload()



One uncommon feature of the code it that the JavaScript, in addition to outputting HTML also outputs some JavaScript. This is how the onclick method is passed the correct parameter. The parameter is written when the table is displayed.




Complete the code so that:
1. The price is displayed. A place holder for this code has already been provided. So you just need to write the function.

2. The price is displayed in Euro and not cent. (19.99 and not 1999). You should implement this with the aid of a function. (The video outlining the functionality of the code does not show this.)



3. The total cost of the items in the cart is displayed (ideally in an additional row of the table in the price column)

.

4. Items can be subtracted from the cart. If the number of copies of an item is zero it should not appear at all.



5. Items can be removed from the cart entirely.

6. If the cart is empty the text "Shopping Cart Empty" is displayed instead of the table. (The video outlining the functionality of the code does not show this.)




You may modify the code in any way you see fit. However all of these features can be added by adding code. You need not delete any existing code.

Submission details:

Students should rename cart0 and cart1 to so that they include their names. e.g dandeman0.html dandeman1.html

These files and the associated images should be archived into a zip file and emailed to Colin. Alternatively it can be submitted in plain text on a CD or USB stick.

The deadline is 1700 Tuesday 4 may.

SOFT6007 Assessment 1 Marking Scheme

Here is the marking scheme I used for Assignment 1. It is not very detailed but I hope it will provide some information to students.  I marked the assessments out of 10.

SITTING 1
11 Put all content into 1 table
11 colspan=2
11 links between pages
11 HTML OK
11 "attributes"


SITTING2
1 ROWSPAN=2
1 ROWSPAN=4
1 COLSPAN=2
1111 NESTED LIST
1 IMG TAG ALL CORRECT
11 HTML OK


SITTING 3
111111 IMAGE MAP
11 TABLE STRUCTURE
1 HTML OK and &s
1 PageS

SOFT6008

Class will go ahead today as scheduled

SOFT6008 Classs 41, 42, 43 cancelled

Sorry. From the blog it looks like I didn't warn of this advance. I knew on Friday last that I wouldn't make it.

We have had 2 additional classes up to now. I had planned to do an extra one next Monday to make up the missing class, but Monday is a holiday. If there is interest we can have an extra lab today at 1800. It doesn't make sense for me to offer an extra class next week after the deadline.

SOFT6007 Class 38 & 39

There was someone in C128 when we arrived there today. We have only been squatting in this room, because I never requested the timetable change. In the confusion we lost a few people on the way.

From now on our classes will be where they are timetabled. So Thursday 1100-1300 is in IT1.3 and Thursday 1600-1800 will be in IT2.2. In particular the assessment 3 will be in the scheduled rooms.

Students worked on Assignment 2

SOFT6007 Character Encoding Tip

Paste one of the following into head tag of each html page

meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"

or

meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-2"

or

meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1250"

Blogger got upset so I couldn't but in the obvious "<" and ">"

Thanks to Billy Lynch for that

SOFT6007 Sample form

Form

SOFT6007 EV Week 10

We discussed registration issues. Some students asked me to check their status.

We looked at a Three Column layout HTML CSS

We looked at some more JavaScript.
Example: coin toss
Assessment 3 will be along those lines only more complex.

SOFT6007 Class 40 is canceled

Friday's 1100 class is canceled.

SOFT6007 Classes canceled

Thursday's lab class from 11-13 is canceled because I have a meeting.

The later lab class will go ahead as planned.

SOFT6007 Class 37

We looked again at HTML and CSS using this 3 column floating centre.

page: threecolumn.html css: threecolumn.css

SOFT6008 Class 40

Students worked on their code.

I hope to have details of assessment 2 soon.

SOFT6008 Class 39

Students worked on trying to code the shopping cart. As usual progress varied considerably from student to student.

SOFT6008 Class 38

Students worked on getting to grips with cookies and the shopping cart concept.

SOFT6008 Assessment 2

Assessment 2 will be an in-class assignment. It will be in C128 at 1300-1500 on 03 May 2010.

I expect to provide more detail before then.

SOFT6008 Class 37 X

We did an extra class (just in case)

We thought a bit about how we might implement a shopping cart using a cookie to store a single string. The trick is designing the string in a way that it is easy to get desired information in and out of it.

video

SOFT6008 Class 37

We looked at onclick and innerHTML

example: increment.html

video

SOFT6007 Class 36

Today was fairly quiet. I helped a few students with their CSS. I get the feeling that the students don't really get CSS. I'll try to correct that, if it's not too late.

SOFT6007 Class 35 A

We looked at how to do a rollover in JavaScript

rollover

SOFT6007 Class 34 A

We looked at the code for the Coin Toss Game

coins.html

SOFT6007 Class 34 & 35 B

We looked at how to make a very simple game in JavaScript

coins.html

SOFT6007 Assessment Deadlines

Assessment 3 will be an on-class exercise that will reply heavily on the use of JavaScript. It will be an open book exam. You will be permitted to use any resources you wish, but may not communicate with anyone else.


Day Students

Assessment 2 Web Site is due on Tuesday 4 May by 1800. The 1700 class is an obvious slot during which to hand it up, but before then is fine too.

Assessment 3 In-class exercise will take place on Thursday 29 April. Group B 1100-1300 in IT2.3. Group A 1600-1800 in IT2.2. If you have a laptop please bring it.
If you already know that you cannot make this date for some good reason, let me know and it may be possible for you to take it with the evening students. (A sporting event of some kind, is not a good reason.)

Night Students
Assessment 2 is due on by 2100 Wednesday 28 April.

Assessment 3 will take place on Wednesday 05 May.

SOFT6007 Week 09

We agreed on 28 April as the deadline for the Assessment 2. Students should deliver the work to me on USB stick or CD during class on 28 April, or before.

Assessment 3 will be an in-class exercise on the evening of 5 May.

We looked at Cascading Style Sheets, had a break, then looked at JavaScript.

SOFT6007 Forms

The form for Assignment 2 should send the data using GET to http://atlantis.cit.ie/displayvalues.php

SOFT6007 Class 33

I briefly discussed the results of assessment 1.

We started to look at JavaScript.

Video

Slides Time Based Greeting Random Image

SOFT6007 Assessment 1 Results

The results for Assessment 1 are now online. The first column shows the last 4 digits of the Student ID number. (Where there are fewer than 4 digits the missing digits are preceeding zeros). The second column shows the student's mark.

If your number does not appear it may be that you are not registered. Please e-mail Colin so that he can check that there is not a mistake. If you are not registered you will not receive your result until you are.

If you think the mark may be incorrect please e-mail Colin so he can check. It might be a transcription error, for example.

SOFT6008 Copying code

Students should be careful about copying code from other students. Copying code from other students and using it in assignments is not acceptable. Using code that you did not write yourself will very likely result in disciplinary action.

SOFT6008 Class 36

Some students are still working on Assignment 1.

I asked the remaining students to continue working with cookies.

SOFT6008 Class 35

(Some) Students continued working with cookies. Assignment 2 will very likely rely heavily on the use of cookies.

SOFT6008 Class 34

Students started to get to grips with cookies.

There's a prerecorded video on cookies as well as the handout from before the break.

SOFT6008 Class 33

Most of the time was taken up with students submitting their assessments.

Any work that wasn't submitted by noon, is now late. A 10% late penalty applies to work submitted in the first week. So students who are late might be wise to take their time and make sure the work is complete.

Any students who got into difficulty and think they would be better off taking the extra time and 10% penalty, are free to do so. Please advise me of your intentions.

SOFT6007 EV COM Registration Issues

By my reconning there are in excess of 40 students taking this class by night.

The registration system is so far only aware of 22. Of those 22 only 10 are actually fully registered.

The registration system in place for evening students is far from perfect. However the semester is nearly over at this stage so if you are not fully registered you would want to get getting that sorted. At some point, quite soon, unregistered students will find that it is simply too late.

Students not registering properly has caused a number of problems. The most tragic is that the number of students taking the module would have justified the module being offered on a second night. This would have afforded students who can't make it on Wednesday a second opportunity to come to class. Another problem is that it is not possible for me to enter marks into the students records system for students who are not registered for a class. Entering student marks in dribs and drabs is very time consuming. This can also cause delays and errors.

SOFT6007 Class 32

I asked students to publish a personal webiste using their H drives.

None did.

SOFT6007 Publishing a Web Site

If you save a file called index.html in the root of your H drive, your folder becomes web accessable. This is a very easy way to publish a website.

The URL for the site will be
http://mcom.cit.ie/students/kcomp_7_y1/R00012345/
where R00012345 is your student number.

Have fun!

SOFT6007 Class 31 A

Some students did some work. But most were too full of that Friday feeling.

SOFT6007 Class 30 A

We looked at CSS.


We looked again at the French Songs CSS exmaple. There's a good bit of CSS in there to decipher.

We took a look at some examples of using CSS to layout a page, that got progressively complex. The final example could be used as a basis for much of Assignment 2.
Float1 Float2 Float3 Float4 Float5 Float6 Float7


I asked students to watch this YouTube tutorial on CSS.

SOFT6007 Class 31 B

Students started work on some CSS pages of their own.

Some students had questions about Assessment 2.
It's worth 40%
You will need forms. If you want to make a start on forms over the Spring Break everything you need can be found here (notes) and here (video)

Some students didn;t do any work at all. I'm not anyone's mammy.

SOFT6007 Class 30 B

I asked students to watch this YouTube tutorial on CSS. But there was no sound on the machines in the lab. So that didn't work out.

We looked again at the French Songs CSS exmaple. There's a good bit of CSS in there to dechipher.

We took a look at some examples of using CSS to layout a page, that got progressively complex. The final example could be used as a basis for much of Assignment 2.
Float1 Float2 Float3 Float4 Float5 Float6 Float7

SOFT6007 EV COM1 Assessment 1

We did an assessment

I am not happy that some students did not take seriously the instructions prohibiting communication. This is very serious. These students should consider themselves to be on Yellow Cards.

The plan to do some work after everyone was done didn't work out.

That puts us a bit behind. Students should watch the videos of the day time classes thta dealt with CSS and check the blog over the break for any updates.

The specification for Assessment is online. But we didn't get to talk about it. Student should try to make a start on it.

SOFT6007 Class 29

We looked at the spec for Assessment 2 and discussed it a little.

The projector wouldn't play nice so we had to make do with the printouts Colin brought. We looked at a CSS example. html css

SOFT6008 Class 32

Some serious debugging.

SOFT6008 Class 31

Students continued work of the assessments and on cookies.

Students who have finished the assessment this week should get it to me before the break. There is a good chance I would be able to give early feedback. Any deficiencies can be corrected before the deadline.

SOFT6008 Class 30

We looked at cookies

The handout I gave out in class has some important points in it that I did not discuss in class.

Video of class Slides

SOFT6008 Class 29

Students worked on coding pages for the Assessment.

I advised students that they will be expected to meet with me and talk me though their code as part of the assessment process.

SOFT6007 Class 28

We continued our look at CSS

Slides css.pdf

SOFT6007 Class 26 A

Not much going on

SOFT6007 Class 27 A

We were in C128

Didn't seem to be a whole lot of work going on.

Some students asked about the assignment specification. I should have that very soon.

SOFT6007 Class 27 B

Not much going on really

SOFT6007 Class 26 B

We were in B219. This timetable arrangement will be permanent.

I couldn't find anyone who was doing actual work. I don't know how to force people. Perhaps once I specify the assignment things will pick up.

SOFT6007 EV Week 07

17 March was a holiday.

Don't forget the exam is next week.

SOFT6007 Class 25

We started a bit late because the project would not talk to Colin's laptop.

Only 5 students were in class.

We looked at Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

SOFT6008 Class 28

We looked at how to modify the CSS properties of page elements on a form using getelementbyid. This can be used to highlight user inputs that to not comform to requirements.

formvalidation.html

SOFT6008 Class 27

More coding.

The Assignment 1 specification was locked down and the deadline set at noon on 12 April 2010.