I'm out sick today

Nothing serious

COMP6023 Class 25 & 26

We went through the Photoshop needed for Assignment 2. Students with laptops experimented with the different settings, and I talked a bit about the kinds of commentary that might accompany the data

SOFT6007 Shopping List

Things we have yet to cover in class

Posh horizontal list layout
background images
forms

JavaScript

SOFT6007 Class 27 & 28 WEB

I advised students that the specification for Assignment 2 was available online --->

I asked students to sign up to Dropbox and to create a folder called SOFT6007-Joe.Bloggs and to share it with me colin.manning@cit.ie

j

SOFT6007 Class 25 ITM DWEB

We had an in-class exam.

Monday was a holiday

So no classes.

COMP6023 CRN 15762

The CRN for this module has finally arrived. It's 15762. Please check that you are registered.

COMP6023 Essay Choices

Some students have yet to choose an essay topic. I will make the choice for those students soon, if they don't take any action.

SOFT6008 Class 24 COM DWEB

We looked at validating a form and sending its data off to a server.

We also talked a little bit about both assessments. however the spec for Assessment 2 has not been released just yet.

COMP6023 Updates to the Assigment Specifications

I feel the need to modify the assignment specifications in light of events and student concerns.


Google AdSense
Students must attempt to sign up for Google AdWords. Failed attempts must be documented by forward the refusal e-mail or screen shot to Colin. Students who successfully sign up won't get any more marks than those who don't, and will have to settle for huge ad revenues by way of reward.

Public vs. Private
Students who are concerned about their privacy may post an appropriate picture to their profiles in lieu of a picture of themselves.

Students who don't want to post personal information publicly, shouldn't post personal information.

As a last resort students may make their blogs visible only to Colin and the other students in the class. Doing so will not affect their final mark, although it will obviously have an impact on traffic.

Essay Drafts
Seeing as I said students "should" submit drafts, that task is optional. But submitting a draft would be a very good idea.

Deadline
However even when prefaced by a "should" I think it was very clear that not submitting by the deadline will cost marks. The standard CIT late penalties will apply.

Own Work
The work submitted must be the student's own work.

I think that covers everything we discussed up to now. If I do give you an exemption from meeting any of the minimum requirements be sure to insist that I note it here.

COMP6023 Class 24

We talked a little bit more about podcasting.

I showed students how to generate a custom newsfeed based on keywords at the NPR site. This is very powerful since listeners can receive programme segments on subjects that interest them.

Here's a podcast feed about Ireland and one about Cloud. But of course the cloud one can't distinguish between cloud computing and weather talk.

Huffduffer.com is like Pintresting for audio files.

We looked the various tools one might use to record a podcast and saw how audio can be edited. Sample Getting the levels correct is the most important thing

I talked about software post-production noise removal. It works well in certain situations. Here's an example.

COMP6023 Interesting Facebook article

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1025/1224325671388.html

SOFT6007 Class 24 ITM

Students worked away on various exercises.

SOFT6007 Class 21 & 23 ITM

Some students worked on their HTML in preparation for the exam next week. Others worked on their maths in preparation or the exam today.

COMP6023 Class 23

We looked at podcasting.

We might try to make something tomorrow in class just to see what is involved in the process.

I mentioned that Drew of the Dawn & Drew Show was in a band, but couldn't remember the name. It's Rasputina.

COMP6023 Class 21 & 22

We looked at lossy and lossless compression, pixel depth reduction, and dithering.

I talked students through the use of Photoshop for Assessment 2

SOFT6007 Class 24 WEB

Students continued coding

SOFT6007 Class 23 WEB

I asked students to make sure they were good with lists, tables, and imagemaps. If so then make a start on the three column layout for assessment 2.

SOFT6007 Class 22 COM WEB

We looked at class, ID, float, clear, annd a three columns layout in CSS.

I also talked a little bit about Assessment 2

Unfortunately there was no sound on the recording of the class. So it's not posted.

SOFT6007 Class 21 WEB

We looked at ID and float

Students experimented with IDs and floats. Others caught up with things they missed and other reviewed lists in preparation for the exam.

update:
There's no audio on this movie. Here is another class that covers much the same stuff. Although the use of "clear" isn't really addresses

SOFT6008 Class 22 WEB

Students continued coding the checksum exercises.

SOFT6008 Class 23 COM

Students continued coding the checksum exercises.

SOFT6008 Class 22 COM

Students continued coding the checksum exercises.

Some students graduated to tackling cookies, but not many.

SOFT6008 Class 21

Since students didn't like the fill in the blanks exam we saw last week, we had a mock closed book exam in class, where students were given the DNI Checksum calculation and asked to write the code from scratch.

Students should use this experience to figure out what gaps are in their knowledge, how much they can remember off the tops of their heads, and what do they need written down. For the actual exam each student will be permitted to bring one A4 sheet of notes containing anything the student chooses.

audio:SOFT6008-21-ALL-201201022-0940.m4a

SOFT6008 Code

Looking at the solutions to the checksum exercises I noticed that for the PPSN and ISBN (old) a number of students use separate variables because they need to count up and count down at the same time. A cleverer solution figures out the relationship between the loop counter and the other variables, so that only one variable is required.

So if you got those working, try to make them excellent.

If they are giving you trouble, just go for working. And maybe think about it later.

In reality many Spaniards separate the check letter from the number with a -. You could consider accounting for this also.

If you are forcing the user's input to be uppercase, you might want to keep a copy of what they actually entered so that when it comes to giving feedback you can output exactly what they input.



Trivia Quiz:
156478214X was an Irish clue in which riddle?

COMP6023 Week 04 Post

If there were errors in your original Week 04 post you should correct them. Otherwise you won't benefit from the extension.

SOFT6008 Class 20 DWEB COM

We looked some more at cookies. There's a slight complication that needs to be accounted for in the code.

At around half past the hour I gave out a sample exams. This is the kind of exam I have thinking of having on Thursday 08 November. However many students struggled with his format, so I might have another think about it. But the exam will be on the 8th, whatever it looks like.

COMP6023 Essays

The opportunity to submit a first draft of the paper has no passed. Students submitting drafts to TurnItIn should now submit to "Essay Draft 2". The opportunity to submit a second draft is open until October 30.

Even if you are not submitting it might be an idea to log into TurnItIn to make sure that you can see the class, rather than leaving it to the last minute.

Students who have yet to select an essay topic and post the choice to the blog, should do so soon. Some time in the future I will randomly assign essay titles to students who have not made a choice. 

COMP6023 AdSense problems

Some students had problems signing up for AdSense because their applications were rejected. If you were one of those students, please forward me the e-mail from Google.

COMP6023 Class 20

We looked at GIF, JPEG,  PGN and how they work. I outlined some of the main differences and when one should be used in preference to another.

We will have to look at GIF in more detail.

SOFT6007 Class 20 ITM

Students continued coding the imagemaps. I recommended that students tackle the sample exam I gave out the other day so that I could tell them if they were doing OK.

COMP6023 Week 05 suggestions

Students who want to earn more than the minimum marks for Week 05 may want to consider some of the follow options

find and link to

• interesting patents
• interesting or unusual trademarks
• interesting court cases (e.g Walsh Family Foods Limited Spice Burger cases)

express opinions music downloading

express opinions on intellectual property

download some of the work of "GirlTalk" and imagine you are the Judge in a case against him. What would you decide? Is it Fair Use? Is it the musical equivalent of a collage?

COMP6023 NewsU course

I asked students to take an online course at NewsU and to report back with their results and anything they found interesting. Some students have questioned whether this was a task that formed part of the minimum requirements for Week 04, or whether it was a suggestion. Was it an obligation or merely a suggestion.?

The works "should" has a few meanings:  

should |SHo͝od| modal
verb ( 3rd sing. should )
1 used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone's actions: he should have been careful | I think we should trust our people more | you shouldn't have gone. 
• indicating a desirable or expected state: by now students should be able to read with a large degree of independence. 
• used to give or ask advice or suggestions: you should go back to bed | what should I wear? • (I should) used to give advice: I should hold out if I were you.


So clearly "should" could have several meanings. In future I will try to use the word "must" so there is no confusion.

I have reviewed the recording of the class I made on 10 October when I discussed it further and I believe that anyone who was there that day should not have been in any doubt that I meant it to be a requirement.

However, I am still keen for students to take the course. Students may take the course if they wish at this late stage, and provided they complete it and post about it by noon on Monday next, I will assess it as if it had been completed in Week 04.

For minimum marks for Week 04 students must

• summarize what we did in class
• take the course
• take the exam until a score of 80% or greater is achieved
• select the option to have the result sent to me by e-mail

To earn more marks students may

• comment on anything they found interesting about the course, or anything that surprised them
• express an opinion on something related to the course or the content from class

Students who posted nothing in Week 04 may post an entry up to noon on Monday.

Students who took the course and reported their result, but did little else may still report on anything they found especially interesting.

Any students wishing to avail of this opportunity should title the post Week 04 - Late, so as to distinguish it from the Week 05 entry.

The Week 04 entry and the Week 04 - Late entry will be treated as a single entry made on time.

Update: someone asked me in class if they should make a new entry or edit the old one. I said to make a new one. But if there are grammar or spelling mistakes in the old entry they should be corrected.

COMP6023 Essay Choices

Marketing on Social Networks. I have removed this essay from the list of choices because the conflict over which student has chosen it has gone on for too long. And I let the students that chose it know this. A number of students still have to make a choice. Students may take as long as they wish provided they submit as specified in the assessment schedule. No two students may submit papers on the same topic.

SOFT6007 Class 19 ITM

Students continued coding the imagemaps

SOFT6007 Class 17 ITM

We looked at imagemaps. I gave students two imagemap exercises.

I also gave out a sample assessment 1.

SOFT6008 Class 19 WEB

Students continued coding the check digit exercises. A few brave souls decided to tackle cookies.

COMP6023 Class 18

I spent the first half the class meeting with students and going through their blog posts for Week 04. I wanted make sure that students are clear on what is expected of them for the blog. I printed out each student's blog post for Week 04. Before class I corrected spelling and grammar and made notes on how each student could improve his mark. I met with each student individually, highlighted any issues, and outlined how each student might improved his mark for the blog.

Some students said they were not clear that the online course was a requirement for Week 04. I will look into that.

For the second half of the class we continued our look at intellectual property and started our discussion of patents. I'll try to finish up with intellectual property this week.

COMP6023 Class 17

I talked students through what Assignment 2 might look like. However we will have to discuss JPEG and GIF in more detail in class. The GIMP wasn't really suitable for dealing with the GIFs so I will install Photoshop and we can look again at this. However students have enough to be getting on with if they want to make a start on the assignment.

SOFT6007 Class 20 DWEB

Students worked away on the various exercises. Some are not ready for the assessment just yet, but most are.

SOFT6007 Lists Movie

This online lesson on lists might help clear up the nesting. I noticed from the solutions to the sample exam that some students are still struggling with the nesting.

Alternative version available here

SOFT6007 Class 19 WEB

I gave out a sample exam. Some students continued coding the imagemap exercises while others tackled the exam questions. Just remember that the exam might include a question on imagemaps. So they need to be sorted out too.

SOFT6007 Class 18 DWEB ITM

I talked about the history of the Internet and how its origins influence its behaviour today. I also explained that the Internet !=  the web.

I thought today's class wasn't great. A was a bit makey-uppey. I think we will confine ourselves to technical matters in future.

COMP6023 Image and Essay assignments

Please check that you have not chosen the same image or essay topic as another student in the class. if you have please contact the other student and come to some sort of accommodation. Once you have done that please re-post you choices to the blog as a new post.

If needs be I can resolve the conflicts myself by assigning the images and topics myself.

SOFT6007 Assessment 1

We will have an in-class written exam on Tuesday 30 October.

It will be a one-sheet exam. That's like an open book exam, but with only one A4 sheet. One sheet does plenty.

SOFT6007 Imagemaps Movie

I have an online lesson on imagemaps available on YouTube and  here.

SOFT6007 Class 17 WEB

We looked at imagemaps. I asked students to code image maps for the iberia.jpg image and the usa-cities example. Links to both these images are on the notes and slides page --->

SOFT6008 Class 18 DWEB

Students continued coding the check digit exercises

SOFT6008 Class 19 COM

Students continued coding the check digit exercises

SOFT6008 Class 18 COM

Students continued coding the check digit exercises

SOFT6008 Class 17 COM DWEB

^ Movie about cookies on YouTube. Much the same as what we did in class this morning. There's a higher quality version here.


This morning's class:

We started our look at coding cookies.


There are policy issues surrounding the use of cookies also. But we won't really address those. Consumers are increasing aware of cookies and have become concerned. That's why sites like RTE and the BBC are very up front about their use of cookies. Cookies haven't been and aren't always used with the best interests of users in mind. Wikipedia has more on this.

RTE's cookie policy
aboutcookies.org

SOFT6008 Progress

I had a look at the contents of the shared Dropboxes to see what kind of progress students have been making. But it didn't look like much was going on.

There's some individual feedback available here

SOFT6008 Dropbox

If you tried to share a dropbox with me but I rejected it because of the folder name (e.g. "webstuff") then it's best to make a new folder and share that. If you just change the name, it seems that I get an invitation with the old name.

SOFT6008 Class 16 WEB COM

I talked the class through the handout given out in the labs and I outlined different ways students might code the checksum exercises.

we found another typo in the handout. But it's a fairly obvious one.

COMP6023 Class 16

We looked some more at Copyright issues.

Next week (but perhaps not next class) we will look at other kinds of intellectual property.

SOFT6007 Fun with RGB

This RGB game can help you understand the RGB colour system a bit better. But it only works in HTML5 (so you'll need the Chrome or Safari browser)

SOFT6007 Class 16 ITM

Students continued coding their timetables using classes.

All students need to get that sorted this week.

SOFT6007 Class 15 ITM

[Crazy numbering system, I know]

Students cotinued to code their table with CSS classes.

Some students left early to get their heads ready for an maths exam at 1800. I'm fine with that as long as this week's work gets done.

SOFT6007 Class 13 ITM

We looked at classes in CSS. I asked students to colour code their timetables.

COMP6023 Blog Feedback

I spent a good deal of time reading all the blog posts today and I sent each student individual feedback. I'm a small bit concerned that some students may not be fully clear on what what is expected of them. Hopefully the feedback will correct the situation and ensure they do will in this component of the assessment.

A number of issues arose more than once.

Some students didn't do what was asked of them in Week 02.

Many students are struggling with the requirement to use standard English and to get the spelling and grammar correct. We all do. As if to make the point, even the e-mails I sent to some students had mistakes. However there is technology available to help with grammar and spelling and students should use this if they are having difficulty. We are not talking about the difference between who and whom either. Some students are struggling with the basics. Getting the English right is an integral part of this assessment. It's also an essential skill that students should get to grips with.

Students can earn more marks by doing more than merely reporting on what we did in class. Very few students have done so thus far.

Some students didn't really do anything for Week 03. I don't know if this was an oversight or a lack of understand about what is required. I'll be happy to elaborate or clarify if needed.

COMP6023 Class 15

We started our look at Intellectual Property and had an interesting discussion on Copyright.

slides: ip.pdf

Information on the DMCA printer cartridge case I mentioned is available at Wikipedia.

SOFT6008 Class 15 WEB

Students continued working on their code.

It's going a bit slower than I had expected

SOFT6008 Checksum Shopping List

Here's a list of checksum exercises that students should work though:


Euro Banknotes
Credit Card
EAN
PPS Number
Spanish DNI
ISBN-10



Some test cases

IE-PPSN

These numbers are valid in theory
5313197L
1234567T
1234567t
0000000W
0000071w

ES-DNI

These are valid numbers
03457393-X
03457393X
03457393x
03405999-K
70240341-C
70259948-P
70259948p

If these test cases give you trouble read the small print on the ParseInt box!.

I have noticed that in real life Spaniards tend to insert separators between groups of digits to make the DNI number easier to read and it is common to put a dash before the letter (as above). To accommodate this your code should strip out all useless characters from the input before looking at it more closely.

Ensure that your code insists on the correct length
007-X is not valid. But 00000000-X is.

Euro Banknotes

Just take some from your wallet. There are fewer than 26 countries that issue Euro banknotes some some letters never appear at the start of a serial number. Accounting for this would require some very inelegant code. We can't have inelegant code!

Be sure to check some serial numbers that have a zero immediately after the letter. If that gives you trouble ParseInt may be to blame.

SOFT6008 Adding up digits

Adding up all the digits in a number, and then adding those digits up again, until you are left with one, turns out to be the same as doing a MOD 9. Except for 18.

Computationally that's must simpler than extracting and adding digits.

SOFT6008 Class 14 WEB

I gave out a handout of checksums. I asked students to start coding some check digit algorithms for user input validation.Euro banknotes are probably the easiest to start with.

SOFT6007 Class 12 ITM

We looked at classes in CSS. I asked students to colour code their timetables

SOFT6007 Class 16 DWEB

I asked studens to finish off their timetables with colour coded classes.

A number of students are still trying to catch up. We might not be able to wait much longer. This needs to be done and dusted this week.

SOFT6007 Class 15 WEB

I wasn't in for this class

SOFT6007 Class 14 WEB ITM

I talked about prediction markets and the experiment I want students and the experiment I want students to participate in.

It has nothing to do with this module however.

COMP6023 Tuesday's Lab

There will be no COMP6023 Web Publishing class this Tuesday (9 Oct)

SOFT6007 Class 13 DWEB

We looked at classes. I asked student to colour code their timetables

SOFT6008 Class 15 COM

Students continued coding. Some struggled. It's important to build up programs slowly and text as you go. Writing loads of code and then trying to figure out where the problems are takes much longer in the long run.

SOFT6008 Class 14 COM

I gave out a handout on Checksums and asked students to work though them to see how they work. I asked students to start coding some of the. The Euro banknote check digit is probably the easiest one to start with.

SOFT6008 Class 13 WEB COM

We looked at using the DOM to take input from a form, and then modify the contents of the page based on the input


Example: http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6008-2012/code/phonenumbers.html

Well made video

SOFT6008 Class 12 WEB COM

We looked at the use of check digits for user input validation.

There's a handout can has a few more from other countries and tips for coding. There's a typo in the handout. myS.indexOf ("o",5) evaluates to 15, not 10 as stated.


More Euro banknote trivia from Wikipedia

SOFT6007 Class 11 ITM

I rushed things a bit because we had fallen behind the other group what with one thing and another.

we looked at how CSS works and I asked students to style the timetable page they built in previous classes.


Examples: Page 7  and CSS

COMP6023 Copyright

Next week we will discuss Copyright in class

Students should sign-up for and take this (free) course
http://www.newsu.org/courses/online-media-law-basics-bloggers-and-other-publish
and report on their exams scores and any interesting ideas they encountered.

SOFT6007 Class 10 ITM

We looked at colspan and rowspan and I asked students modify their timetables to account for double classes.

A number of students left after the first of today's two classes. This is fine. CIT is not a prison.  But if you miss a class it is your responsibility to figure out what went on, and to make up any ground that may have been lost. Mon-Fri 9-6 was what you signed up for.

SOFT6007 Class 09 ITM

I asked students to add me to a circle in Google+

We looked at tables. I asked students to make a html table of their college timetable.

SOFT6007 Class 12 WEB ITM

We looked at digital colour systems. HSB. RGB. Hex.

Many student were unfamiliar with the Hexadecimal system. This rather cool video, that I wish I had made, does a great job of explaining it.

These videos cover much of the same material as today's class and but one was made with actual coffee!

COMP6023 Class 11

I talked about blogs.

We discussed privacy and anonymity. These might be interesting topics for students to consider in their blog posts for Week 03.

slides: comp6023-blogs.pdf

After class as few students asked about plagiarism and TurnItIn. I don't propose to have any further conversations about what is or is not plagiarism. I believe that was covered sufficiently in other modules that students have already taken.

SOFT6008 Class 11 DWEB

Students continued with the phone code.

Some students got themselves intro trouble with their Boolean algebra

x !=3 || x!=5 || x!=6 is not the same as x !=3 && x!=5 && x!=6

What about  !(x==3 || x==5 || x==6)  ? Is that the same as !=3 && x!=5 && x!=6 ?

SOFT6008 Class 10 DWEB

I asked student to code the phone number testing program we looked at in class.

SOFT6008 Input Validation

Over the next few classes we will be looking a user input validation and check digits.

COMP6023 Class 10

Students modified their blogs a bit and took a look at each other's blogs. Students got to work right away on modifying the blog settings.

A good day's work. Well done guys. We finished up at 1745.

This room can't double as a lecture room because there's no projector.

COMP6023 Class 09

I gave out the assessment schedule for the module and talked the students through it.

SOFT6007 Class 11 WEB

I asked students to style their timetable pages.

Most students got things working right away, but there are a few stragglers.

SOFT6007 Class 10 WEB

I explained about CSS and how to style a page using an external linked CSS file.

video: SOFT6007-10-WEB-20121002-1400.m4v

SOFT6008 Lab Groups

The COM2 lab group is pretty full.

If you are an Erasmus student or a repeat student it might be better if you attended the DWEB2 labs on Wed 0900-1100 IT1.2

SOFT6007 Class 09 DWEB

We looked at colspan and rowspan. I asked student to modify their timetable tables so that they account for double classes.

video: SOFT6007-09-WEB-20121001.m4v

SOFT6008 Class 11 COM

Students continued working on the mobile phone exercise. It took longer than I expected and a few students got into difficulty. When coding in javascript it's very important to code piece by piece and test as you go.

SOFT6008 Class 10 COM

I asked students to code the code example we looked at in class. Code should account for 089 numbers also

SOFT6008 Class 09 COM-WEB

We looked and prompt boxes for user input, the structure of loops in js, and using js for user input validation.

The trickiest thing we saw was the slice method.

video: SOFT6008-09-ALL-20121001.m4v