SOFT6007 Late Submissions

If you did not successfully upload your assignment to Blackboard before the deadline it is late. 5.5 marks will be deducted from your overall grade.

The next deadline is Friday 11 Dec at noon.

Remember to run your pages through the validator and to submit your files as a single .ZIP file.

SOFT6007 Class 12.4 W

Students worked on the assignment. Attendance was poor

SOFT6008 CA Results

Hi

There provisions results for the CA so far are here

Please note that these results are provisional. The may be revised upwards or downwards slightly.

SOFT6007 Classes 12.2 & 12.3 & 12.4

I wasn't there for the first hour. I was in a meeting that ran over.

I asked students to run their pages through the validator.

Students worked on that.

SOFT6007 Class 12.2 & 12.3

Attendance was poor.

I asked students to run their pages through the validator.

Students worked on that.

SOFT6008 Class 12.4

We didn't have a lecture this week.

That conclude our business.

Good luck with the assignment and with the assessments for your other modules.

SOFT6008 Classes 13.2. & 13.3 B

Nobody turned up to class.

SOFT6008 Class 12.3 A

Attendance was poor.

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6008 Classes 12.2 & 12.3

Attendance was poor.

One student worked on the assignment and the others worked on stuff for another module.

SOFT6008 No lecture tomorrow, but labs as usual

We won't have any lecture tomorrow at 1. I don't really have anything to add.  We will have all the labs as usual though, so if you have any questions you can come along to your lab.

If you are struggling you may want to more of the labs.

0900 IT2.1

1000 IT2.1

1100 C128

1600 C128

1700 C128

Between 1200 and 1600 if you camp out in C218 I will be popping in from time to time.

The deadline is noon on Friday. 
It's Friday 11 Dec

SOFT6007 CA results so far

The CA results so far are available here.

The results are sorted by the last 4 digits of your ID number.

45% of the marks for the module have now been allocated. The remaining 55% are for the assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 12.1 W

Only four students came to class. They worked on the assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 12.1 B

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6007 Class 12.1

I talked a bit about Erasmus.

We looked at hosting and domain names

SOFT6008 Class 12.1 & 12.2 A

Only two students came to class. The worked on the assignment.

SOFT6007 Class 11.4 W

Nobody turned up

SOFT6007 Class 11.2 & 11.3 & 11.4 N

Students worked on the assignment.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6007 Class 11.2 & 11.3 W

Attendance was poor. Students worked on the assignment.

I asked students to consolidate now rather than starting new sections. I also asked them to run all their pages through the validator.

SOFT6008 Class 11.2 & 11.3 B

Students worked on the assignment. Most seem to be nearly finished now.

SOFT6008 Class 11.4

We had an exam

SOFT6008 Class 11.3 W

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6008-W Class 11.2 & 11.3

Some students worked on the assignment and some studied for the exam.

Those that were working on the assignment see to be nearly there.

SOFT6008 Class 11.1 W

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 11.1 B

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6007 Class 11.1

We had an exam.  Most students finished quite quickly.

Some students didn't put their names on their answers. That is consuming some of my time!

SOFT6008 Class 11.1 & 11.2 A

Students worked on the assignment.

I had to leave a bit early to be in place for an exam

SOFT6007 Class 10.4 W

Students worked on the assigment

SOFT6007 Class 10.2 & 10.3 & 10.4 W

Students worked on the assigment

SOFT6008 Cookies

Don't forget that cookies won't work locally in Safari or Chrome. You have to use Firefox. 

SOFT6008 Class 10.2 & 10.3 B

Attendance was very poor. Students worked in the assignment. 

Students didn't want to see my Photoshop party pieces because they have finished making their images for the assignment. 

SOFT6008 Class 10.4

No one brought any questions so I gave students a sample exam to work through. For the second half hour of the class I talked students through a solution and we discussed different options. 

I emailed the sample to everyone later on

SOFT6008 Class 10.3 A

I showed students a few useful tricks in Photoshop

SOFT6008 Classes 10.2 & 10.3 W

Students worked in the assignment. 

SOFT6008 Class 10.1 W

Students worked on the assignment.

I have requested that Photoshop be installed in IT2.1 since we don't have labs in the locations where its is already installed.

SOFT6008 Class 10.1 B

Students worked on the assignment.

There was no Photoshop in the lab so I said I would show students a few tricks in the next lab. However it seems that most students already have done their images, so there may be no need. We'll see.

SOFT6007 Class 10.1

We looked at Intellectual Property (although we didn't get beyond Copyright)

We might continue that conversation next week, or we might move on to something else.

SOFT6008 Class 10.1 & 10.2 A

Students worked on the assignment.

I showed students a few useful part tricks in Photoshop

SOFT6007 Class 09.4 W

I talked about the Lab and CMYK colour systems, and the differences between GIF, JPEG, & PNG. Next week I hope to have a lab on image formats, provided I can get Photoshop installed in C123x

SOFT6007 Classes 09.2 & 09.3 & 09.4

09.2
Students worked on the assignment

09.3
I talked about the Lab and CMYK colour systems, and the differences between GIF, JPEG, & PNG. Next week I hope to have a lab on image formats, provided I can get Photoshop installed in C123x

09.4
Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6007 Class 09.2 & 09.3 W

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6007 Class 10.2 & 10.3 N

Students worked on the assigment

SOFT6008 Classes 09.02 & 09.3 B

Only two students came to class.

SOFT6008 Class 09.4

I e-mailed students an outline of today's class in advance so they could decide whether or not it was worth coming. Most decided it wasn't.

We finished of the coding of cookies.

I explained how cookies are used to track people online and may students seemed genuinely horrified, although probably not enough to quite Facebook.

I spoke a bit about how to tackle the assignment. I might come up with a small example.

[As promised example is now online]

SOFT6008 Class 09.3 A

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 09.2 & 09.3 W

Students worked on the assignment.

SOFT6007 Class 08.4 W

Attendance was very poor. In fairness, everyone I met in CIT this week seemed a bit tired. Me too.

SOFT6008 Class 09.1 W

Students worked on the assignment. Most I spoke to were still working on Part A

SOFT6008 Class 09.1 B

Students worked on the assignment.

We had to evacuate due to a fire alarm. Some of us found ourselves in C128 where we carried on. Sorry if we lost you in the commotion.

Most students I spoke to are finished Part A, and the others are nearly there. But I've no idea who those I haven't seen are doing.

SOFT6007 Class 09.1

We looed at digital representations of colour. We looked at HSB & RGB

Students might enjoy this RGB game

SOFT6008 Class 09.1 & 09.2 A

Students worked on the assignment. Many are finished Part A

SOFT6008 Classes 08.2 & 08.3 & 08.4 N

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6007 Class 08.2 & 08.3 W

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6008 Exam 25 November

We will have a 1-hour exam at 1300 on 25 November.

This will be a closed book exam. No bags, notes, phones, pencil cases, nor calculators will be allowed in the exam hall.

Students may use pen or pencil, but sharing of rubbers will not be allowed.

Students must bring their ID cards with them.

Please arrive early so that we can start on time.

SOFT6007 Exam 23 November

We will have a 1-hour exam at 1200 on 23 November. The exam will be on JavaScript.

This will be a closed book exam. No bags, notes, phones, pencil cases, nor calculators will be allowed in the exam hall.

Students may use pen or pencil, but sharing of rubbers will not be allowed.

Students must bring their ID cards with them.

Please arrive early so that we can start on time.

SOFT6008 Class 08.4

We talked briefly about Part A of the assignment.

We looked at the Mr. Spud Head example and the T-Shirt example.

We began our look at cookies. Slides 2015-JS03d.pdf

audio SOFT6008-08-4-20151104.mp3

If you are interested you can read more about he privacy implications of cookies at
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/08/online-privacy

SOFT6008 Class 08.3 A

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6008 Assignment Part A

I have put some text values on the blog and clarified a few things about the requirements.

SOFT6008 Classes 08.2 & 08.3 W

Students worked on the assignment. Progress is slow but steady.

SOFT6008 Deadline extension

The deadline for Part A of the Assignment (checksums) has been extended to Noon on Friday 13 November

SOFT6008 Class 08.1 W

Students worked on code for the assignment.

SOFT6007 Class 08.1

We had an exam.

SOFT6008 Class 08.1 & 08.2 A

Attendance in class was good today, but I was disappointed to learn that many students are only starting work on the assignment now.

I had to leave early to be in place for an exam with another class.

SOFT6007 JavaScript re-cap

If you missed the classes on JavaScript last week, this video might go some way to filling in the gaps in your knowledge. (If you're in a hurry skip to 19:00)

SOFT6007 Classes 07.2 & 07.3 & 07.4

Students worked on the assignment.

I saw little evidence that students who missed the classes on JavaScript last week had adressed the gaps in their knowledge in the meantime.

SOFT6007 Classes 07.2 & 07.3

Students worked on the assignment.

I saw little evidence that students who missed the classes on JavaScript last week had adressed the gaps in their knowledge in the meantime.

SOFT6008 Classes 07.2 & 07.3 B

Students worked on coding checksums. 

Attendance was poor

SOFT6008 Class 07.4

We looked at some more checksum calculations for user inout validation and I talked a bit about how one might code them.


When discussing the PPSN I drew students' attention to the relationship between the loop counter (n) and the multiplier.

n	multiplier
0	8
1	7
2	6
3	5
4	4
5	3
6	2

The multiplier is 8-n


When discussing the henkilötunnus I wasn't clear on whether the start of the list of check letters was considered 0 or 1. It's 0. So 311280-999J is a valid henkilötunnus.
I have updated the slides so this is clearer.

SOFT6008-07-4-20151028.mp3

SOFT6008 Class 07.3 A

Students worked on coding checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6008 Class 07.2 & 07.3 W

Students worked on coding checksums

Holiday

Monday 27 October a holiday in Ireland.

SOFT6007 Class 06.4 W

Nobody turned up to class

SOFT6007 Class 06.2 & 06.3 & 06.4 N

I asked students to look at the spec for the assignment so that I could answer any questions they might have.

We looked at JavaScript and I talked students through the Coin Toss & Dice Game examples.  I asked students to take a look at the code and made sure they understand it.

Students who understand the code should be able to extend it to make a slot machine.

Everybody left after two hours.

Slides: 2015-JS01b.pdf

SOFT6007 Assignment Spec update

I emailed an update of the spec to all students. The updated spec does not require a JavaScript game to be included.

SOFT6007 Slot machine images

These might be useful for the slot machine exercise:

SOFT6007 Class 06.2 & 06.3 W

I asked students to look at the spec for the assignment so that I could answer any questions they might have.

We looked at JavaScript and I talked students through the Coin Toss & Dice Game examples.  I asked students to take a look at the code and made sure they understand it.

Students who understand the code should be able to extend it to make a slot machine.

Slides: 2015-JS01b.pdf

SOFT6008 Attendance Week 06

Attendance for Week 06 was 45%

SOFT6008 Class 06.2 & 06.3 B

Students worked on coding checksum calculations for the assignment

SOFT6008 Class 06.4

We looked at different ways to code the Luhn algorithm.

We looked at EAN, ISBN, and PPSN algorithms

Audio: SOFT6008-06-4-20151021.mp3

SOFT6008 Assessment 1 Results

The results of assessment 1 are here sorted by the last 4 digits of your ID number.

I was disappointed by the results. A number of students have not yet mastered be very basics.  These students need to go back to the very start of the course and work forwards from there.

SOFT6008 Class 06.3 A

Students worked on coding the checksums.

Only three students came to class

SOFT6008 Class 06.2 & 06.3

Students worked on coding checksum validations.  Most are still working on the credit card. We will look at that in the lecture today.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 W

Students worked on coding the credit card checksum.  Many students are weak programmers and are struggling with the logic.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 B

Students worked on coding various checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6007 Class 06.1

We looked at how to do a three column layout in CSS.

It was very slow because the machine in the room was not cooperating. I will go over it again in the labs.

SOFT6008 Class 06.1 & 06.2 A

Students worked on coding various checksums.

Attendance was poor

SOFT6007 Class 05.4 W

We looked at using Google Fonts to add an interesting font to the page.

SOFT6007 Classes 05.2 05.3 05.4 N

05.2 I asked students to experiment with different CSS properties. We looked at the font property shorthand again and I asked students to experiment with that. I asked students to experiment with relative sizes using em

05.3 We looked at classes and IDs and I asked students to colour code their timetables using classes

05.4 We used Google Fonts to add an interesting font to the page

SOFT6007 Class 05.2 & 05.3 W

05.2 I asked students to experiment with different CSS properties.

We looked at the font property shorthand again and I asked students to experiment with that. 

I asked students to experiment with relative sizes using em

05.3

We looked at classes and IDs and I asked students to colour code their timetables using classes

SOFT6008 Class 05.2 &05.3 B

Students worked on coding the Luhn algorithm and some looked at some others too.

SOFT6008 Luhn Algorithm Patent

If you didn't like my explanation of the Luhn's Algorithm check out the original patent
http://www.google.com/patents/US2950048

SOFT6008 Class 05.4 Exam

We had an exam from 1230-1400.  I will send an email once I have the results organised.

The font for the code caused some confusions because l2 looked like 12.  I did my best to clear that up on the day, but it may not have been enough.  Here's a PDF of the exam and a version of it in a different font.  Please take a look at them both.

If you feel that you were disadvantaged by the typography of the exam, please send me an e-mail by noon on Wednesday (21st) and I will set aside your result.  I will get back to you with a time for a different exam, that will address the same learning outcomes.  However, before making this choice please be aware that the exam will likely be after 1800 some evening, will take less than an hour, and may not be open book.  Also it won't be a best-out-of-two scenario.  The mark you get for the second exam will be on only mark you will get.

I have no reason to believe that anyone was disadvantaged by the typography.  But if someone was I would like to try to redress it now while we have time rather than later.

SOFT6008 Class 05.3

Some students worked on the credit card check sum code, but other got ready for today's exam by reviewing code.

SOFT6008 The Google

I cannot stress enough the importance of trying to write code for yourself.  Googling for solutions is of limited value.  Students need to learn to write code from scratch.  That the the point of the programme they are enrolled on.  I've been doing this while now and in my experience obsessive Googlers tend not to be successful because they don't learn the skills they need.  Students are unlikely to learn much from other people's code.

If you try to write the code yourself I am happy to help you.  If your objective is to steal code and put all your efforts into covering your tracks, then you are wasting your time and mine.

No one is going to pay you Google code for a living.

SOFT6008 Class 05.2 & 05.3 W

Students continued working on the credit card validation.  Progress was slower than I had expected.  I think students are struggling with going from the problem definition to the algorithm.  The JavaScript code per se doesn't see to be an issue.

SOFT6008 Class 05.1 B

Stduenst worked on coding the Luhn algorithm in JavaScript

SOFT6007 Class 05.1

We looked at CSS. I stressed the importance of keeping the content and styling information separate and told students to never used embedded nor inline styles.

SOFT6008 Class 05.1 & 05.2 A

I asked students to write code for the Luhn checksum algorithm used for credit cards.

SOFT6008 Attendance

The attendance rate in Week 04 was 64%. That's a slight improvement on earlier weeks, but it's still low.

SOFT6008 Exam reminder

The exam will run from 1230 to 1400 in the Melbourne Exam Hall on next Wednesday 14 October.

It won't be a long exam but I booked a 2-hour slot just in case someone needs a bit of extra time.

This is a one-sheet exam. Student will be permitted to bring a single A4 sheet of notes (front-and-back).

This will be worth 20% of the final mark for the module. All students registered for the module need to attend in order to get full marks.

You should have received a sample by e-mail.

Please enter and leave quietly.

SOFT6007 Class 04.2 & 04.3 & 04.4

Students worked on coding up the form.

We had a brief introduction to CSS and students styled the timetables they completed in previously

SOFT6007 Class 04.2 & 04.3 W

Students worked on coding up the form. Most are done now or nearly done.

We may move on to something new in the next class.

SOFT6008 Class 04.2 & 04.3 B

I asked student to start coding up the Luhn algorithm for check sum calculations. It was slow going. But we will look at it again in the next lab.

SOFT6008 Class 04.4

I talked a little bit about the slot machine exercise and the exam next week.

We began our look at user input validation and checksums.

slides: 2015-JS04.pdf  (check notes page for most recent version)


code: Phone Number Checker


audio: SOFT6008-04-4-20151007.mp3

HTML5 Audio tag

MP3 

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 A

Students worked on the phone cost calculator. As with other lab groups it is the logic that is slowing people down and not the javascript as such.

SOFT6008 Feedback on exercise 1

Individual feedback is here:
2015-SOFT6008slot-feedback3.htm

I didn't  make note of any instances of copying. But I did have a word with some students.

For assessments worth marks I would investigate possible cheating more thoroughly.

SOFT6008 Call Cost Calculator Tips

Some students have struggled with the logic required to complete the call cost calculator exercise.

Once the first two price plans have been coded correctly the rest are easy.

The pre-pay plan is simple because each minute, text, or mb used is charged per unit.

If if mins were 8c, texts 6c, and data 2c per mb
the calculation looks something like:

total = mins * .08 + texts *.06 + mbs * .02

However where a plan comes with some free usage for a set minimum fee and this need to be accounted for.

Suppose a price plan costs €20 and comes with 50 free minutes and customers are charged 8c per extra minute.

It's tempting to say that
extramins = mins - 50

But wherever mins in less than 50, the phone company would be giving money back for unused minutes. It's only correct to say extramins = mins - 50 when mins is greater than 50. Furthermore, if mins is less than 50 then the number of extra minutes is zero.

So the code would look something like

if mins > 50 then
     extramins = mins - 50
else
     extramins = 0
end if

This is the pice of the puzzle that most students who had difficultly failed to figure out.

However the calculation of the extra minutes, texts, and data are independent of each other.

Eventually the final calculation might look something like:
totalcost = 20 + extramins * .08 + extratexts *.07 + extradata * .03

It doesn't make sense to check to see
if (mins > 50) && (texts > 100) && (data >100)

The extra minutes, extra texts, and extra data, must be calculated independently of each other.


The javascript part of the exercise didn't seem to pose any major problems for students.  Students who are weak in programming may want to revisit some of the exercises they did in first year.

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 & 04.2 W

Students worked on extending the phone cost calculator. That has taken much longer than I was expecting. I think some students are struggling with simple programming issues. The javascript portions of the problem don't seem to be giving rise to any of the difficulties.

Students who were finished with that exercise took a look at checksums and some started coding.

SOFT6008 Attendance

The attendance rate for the first three weeks of semester was 57%. This isn't good. Coming to class can have a big impact on a student's chances of passing this module.

SOFT6008 User Input Validation

Video on User Input Validation

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 B

Most students worked on the call cost calculator. I advised them to concentrate on getting the first two plans completed correctly before starting the others.

I asked students who were done to take a look at the video on User Input Validation

SOFT6007 Class 04.1

We looked at semantic tags and forms.

I mentioned that we will have an assessment soon.probably in Week 06. I will get back to students about this.

SOFT6008 Class 04.1 & 04.2 A

Students worked on extending the call cost calculator example. Many students struggled with the logic, rather than the HTML. I advised them to concentrate on getting the first two plans completed correctly before starting the others.  It's useful to focus on the extra number of minutes, extra number of texts, and extra data.

SOFT6007 Class 03.4 W

We had a rather hurried introduction to forms and students got stuck in and coded one up. 

We we have a more leisurely look at forms in the lecture next week

SOFT6007 Class 03.2 03.3 & 03.4 N

Most students completed the table exercises including those requiring colspan and rowspan.  Students did not finish them should complete them outside of class.

We had a brief look at forms and I gave out a printout with different kinds of inputs. We will look at these more closely in the lecture next week.

I asked students to complete a form exercise. (see below)

SOFT6007 Form Exercise

Code a HTML page with a  form for a computer club

Join page containing a form

• Parent's full name
• Parent's Email
• Child's name
• Age of child (7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, or 16)
• Tick a box if they are willing to volunteer
• Do they own a laptop computer?
• Do they own a raspberry PI?
• Prove they are not a computer – choose their favourite colour
• Submit and Reset buttons

·         Use http://atlantis.cit.ie/displayvalues.php to verify that your form sends the data from the form to the server

SOFT6007 Class 03.2 & 03.3 W

I asked students to modify the timetables completed last week to account for double classes. This didn't take very long, But a few students didn't do the timetable last week and so had to first catch up.

I asked student to code the exercise we did class on Monday.

Only 6 students turned up to class this morning.

I asked students who were done to take a look at HTML forms. We will be looking at forms next.

In future we will not wait for students to catch up, Students who miss a lecture or practical session will be expected to figure out what happened and catch up in their own time,.

SOFT6008 Class 03.2 & 03.3 B

Most students began work on modifying the call cost calculator. 

Some it here put the finishing touches to the slot machine. 

Please submit the slot machines today. 

SOFT6008 Class 03.4 A

Students worked the slot machine exercise.

SOFT6008 Class 03.3 & 03.4 W

Some students worked on completing the slot machine. Most are done.

Others starting looking at the call cost calculator.

SOFT6008 Assignment Statement Review

Some students in the class are struggling with assignment statements and expressions

An assignment states changes the value of the variable (left of the equals sign) to the value of the expression (on the right if the equals sign)

Suppose the variable
a holds 20 and
b holds 15


Consider the following statement

a = b + 4;

This asks the computer to calculate the value of (b + 4), which is 19, and put it into the variable a.

So after this statement is executed
a holds 19 and
b holds 15

Note that using b in an expression on the right of the equals does not cause be to be altered.

Only the variable on the left of the equals is changed.



x - 20 is an expression
It will evaluate to something depending on the value of x
It does not DO anything. No variables are ever altered by an expression.

y = x - 20
This statement takes whatever is in x, subtracts 20 from it, and puts the answer into y.
x remains unchanged



Shorthand

There are shorthand assignments that can also be used and these are popular with many programmers

x += y is the same as x = x + y
x++ is the same as x = x + 1
x -- is the same as x = x - 1

However you may chose to stick to the long form in order to avoid confusion

SOFT6008 Attendance

Although I don't have a fully up-to-date class list yet, my initial analysis of attendance rates so far gives me cause for concern.

In Week 1 it was 50% and in Week 2 it was 57%.
[When the class list is finalised these figures might go up or down slightly. But not by much.]

It's really important that students come to class. In my opinion its the single most important factor in success in this module.

SOFT6008 Class 03.1 B

I asked students to add money to the slot machine. Most are well on their way.  I expect we will have time on Thursday morning to get that finished.

A set of students had solutions so similar that they would be considered to have infringed the regulations if it were an assignment . I advised them to not work together in future in order to avoid the risks.

SOFT6008 Initialising variables

Code that is in a function inside the head is executed only when the function is called.

Code that is in the head but not in a function is executed once before the page loads. So you can initialise variables this way. But you cannot modify the DOM in there because it doesn't exist yet.

Code that is in the body is executed once as the page is loaded.

So the money variable can be initialised in the body or in the head (outside the function). But it can only be displayed on the page inside the function.

SOFT6008 Class 03.1 B

I asked students to add money to the slot machine. Most have that done, but a few joined the module late or left their previous work at home.

A set of students had solutions so similar that they would be considered to have infringed the regulations if it were an assignment . I advised them to not work together in future in order to avoid the risks.

SOFT6007 Class 03.1

I gave a speech about attendance.

We did a quick review of tables in HTML and then I explained colspan and rowspan.

I gave students an exercise to complete in class in groups.

SOFT6008 Class 03.1 & 03.2 A

I reminded students that it's important to turn up to class.

I asked student to add money to the slot machine. Most completed this, but a few are still catching up.

SOFT6007 Class 02.4 W

I briefly talked about HTML entities.

I explained how tables are specified in HTML and asked students to code their class timetables in HTML

SOFT6007 Tables

This is a video about HTML tables.

For simplicity the image tags in this video don't have their alt width & height tags.

SOFT6007 Class 03.2 & 03.3 & 03.4

03.2
Students worked on getting the nested list exercise finished. This is tricky, but worthwhile.

Students who were completed and had their work checked by me went for a coffee break.

03.3

I talked about ASCII, code pages, and HTML entities.

I asked student who were finished their nested lists to take a look at the tables video.

03.4

We looked at tables. I talked students through sample page 3

I asked student to code their timetables in HTML. Not all finished that today.

SOFT6007 Class 02.2 & 02.3

Students worked on the nested list exercise. That took a bit longer than I expected. This is a tricky exercise, but it illustrates the structure of HTML very well.

Some students missed class before and so I referred them to an online video on lists.

SOFT6007 Lists tutorial

If you missed the class on lists or need a recap this video might help.

SOFT6008 Class 02.2 & 02.3

I asked student to add money to their slot machines.

Most made good progress, but some have fallen behind already.

Attendance was poor -- only 7 students.

SOFT6008 Next up ..

Next up in the labs I would like you to add money your slot machine. And have a think about the appropriate level of rewards so that the game doesn't end too quickly nor last forever.

SOFT6008 Class 02.4

I spoke a little bit about how it's important to work though the examples rather than just finding one online and considering yourself done.

We looked at number inputs and range inputs in HTM5. And how to use onchange.

Everything we discussed is encapsulated in the phone cost calculator v3.

The issue of number v. string types in JavaScript came up again and we kind of concluded that I worry about that more than I should.

SOFT6008 Extra class

OK. So that didn't work out. I was late because I couldn't find the room. And then when I did find it there was no computer there. And I was missing a cable for mine. Just one of those days.

Apologies to those of you who took the time and effort to come along.

We will make up the time later in the semester.

SOFT6008 Class 02.3 A

I asked students to complete the slot machine and then to take a look at the call cost calculator in advance of class.

I appreciate that many of you were already done, but I keep to keep the various lab groups in sync for the moment.

I was a bit distracted today and didn't give you all the attention you deserved. Sorry about that.

SOFT6008 Class 02.2 & 02.3 W

I asked students to complete the slot machine and then to take a look at the call cost calculator in advance of class.

I appreciate that many of you were already done, but I keep to keep the various lab groups in sync for the moment.

I was a bit distracted today and didn't give you all the attention you deserved. Sorry about that.

SOFT6008 Extra lecture this week

Hi Guys

I have to be somewhere else on Wednesday 30 September at 1300 and so I can't make class.  So we will have an extra class this Wednesday at 1200 in A123L.

We will have class as usual following this at 1300 in C214.

We will have no lecture on Wednesday 30 September. But we will have all the lab classes as usual.

Interesting Videos about GIFs

Animated GIFs

GIF or JIF

SOFT6008 Class 02.1 W

I asked students to code a slot machines using the coins and dice examples as a model. It should give prizes for three of a kind and two of a kind. We will continue with this in the labs on Wednesday. But it should be completed by noon on Wednesday.

SOFT6008 Class 02.1 B

I asked student to finish off the slot machine by giving different winner messages for three of a kind and tow of a kind.

When students were finished they look at the call cost calculator.

SOFT6007 Class 02.1

I talked about how the origins of the Internet have an impact on how it works today.

I explained that http is just one of many protocols.

We followed the steps involved from clicking on a link to displaying a webpage.

I gave out a  handout on HTML entities. But we didn't discuss it.

SOFT6008 Class 02.1 & 02.2 A

Students worked on coding the slot machine with prizes for 3 of a kind and 2 of a kind.

Everybody got there in the end.

Well done!

SOFT6008 Week 01 Recap

In the lecture we looked at the Document Object Model and a number of examples using images and random numbers for simple games of chance.

Before the next lecture I expect student to have built a slot machine by extending the examples provided.

I may ask a few students to send me their working slot machine in advance of the lecture and ask them to talk us through it.

SOFT6007 Week 01 Recap

Good job guys!

I asked a lot of you in the labs this week, but I was keen for us to make a start. Don't worry if the Nested List was a bit tricky just give it some time over the weekend. The important thing about HTML is the structure. It's all about the structure.

Get used to using the validator at validator.w3.org

We looked at
structure of a HTML document
strong and em [51]
links - a tag (relative & absolute paths) [77-84]
images - omg tag [99-100]
unordered lists [66]
ordered lists [65]
nested lists [68]


you can find more in the text book at the page [numbers] I've listed

Please find out about
Definition lists [67]

If you haven't got the nested list sorted please work on it over the weekend.

This video about using images in web pages might be useful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z2qSMwfFaw

SOFT6007 Class 01.2 01.3 01.4 N

HTML

Links

Images

Order lists

Unordered lists

Nested lists

I gave students a nested list exercise but it was a bit tricky

SOFT6007 Class 01.3 & 01.4 W

We looked at

Links, relative paths

Lists, nested lists

Doctype

Validator

I gave students an exercise on nested lists. But I think it was a bit soon for that. I think they need more time to digest it,

SOFT6008 Class 01.1 & 01.2 B

Introduction to JavaScript

Examples

Hello

Random image

I asked students to take the coins and dice examples and extend them to make a slot machine. 

SOFT6008 Class 01.4

I intriduced the DOM and explained how getElemenyById is used to mdoify the properties of elements on a page.

W3e looked at
coin toss
rollover
dice

In the lab students will try to make a slot machine by modifying this code.

SOFT6008 Class 01.3 A

Another example of generating HTML on the fly using document.write

• Random Image

I asked students to add alt width and height tags. Students who were able to do that get what's going on. 

I mentioned ceil and floor as alternatives to round. 

SOFT6008 Class 01.2 & 01.3 W

IIntroductions
Assessment plan

Introduction to JavaScript

• 2015-JS01a.pdf

Examples of generating HTML on the fly using document.write

• Hello
• Random Image

I mentioned ceil and round as alternatives to round

SOFT6008 Class 01.1 W

Lab cancelled.  I will see you on Wednesday at 0900

SOFT6007 Class 01.1

I introduced myself, but didn't get to speak much about the module.

We had a guest talk by Roisin & Mary how outlined some of the supports available to students at CIT.

SOFT6008 Class 01.2 A

Introduction to JavaScript

• 2015-JS01a.pdf

Time based greeting example

• Hello

SOFT6008 Class 01.1 A

Meet & Greet
Introductions.
Assessment outline.
Suggested texts

SOFT6007 Recommended Text

The recommended textbook for this module is HTML & CSS by Jon Duckett.  It's available in Hardback [978-1118871645] and Paperback [978-1118008188].  It's a great book and I strongly recommend that all student taking this module buy it.


The book is available online from
bookdepository.com Amazon and Easons

SOFT6008 Code Reviews Cancelled

I learned today that I have to have all of the results in by 1700 on Friday 4 September.  It's not practical for me to attempt to do the project presentation we have scheduled and do all the correcting I need to do in that time.

So I am cancelling the meetings we booked for the first week back.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

SOFT6002 Week 12

We had an in-class exam

COMP8035 Classes 12.2 & 12.3

I met with the student and gave some feedback on his latest draft

COMP6021 Classes 12.3 & 12.4

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6008 Classes 12.2 & 12.3

Students worked on the assignment

COMP6021 Class 12.1

I answered students' questions.

SOFT60008 Class 12.1

Nobody came to class.

COMP8035 Class 12.1

One student came to class. I gave him feedback on his latest draft.

SOFT6002 Week 11

Students worked on the final part of the assignment that's due tomorrow.

SOFT6008 Class 11.4

I helped students with the assignment.

COMP8035 Classes 11.2 & 11.3

I met with students and gave feedback on the latest drafts of the research paper.

COMP6021 Classes 11.2 & 11.3

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6008 Classes 11.2 & 11.3

Students worked on the assignment. I'm happy with the progress of those I saw today.

COMP6021 Class 11.2

Students had questions about dithering questions on past papers so we worked through them

SOFT6008 Class 11.1

Nobody turned up. But that's not a surprise. It's all about the lab work now

COMP8035 Class 11.1

I gave students feedback on the latest iterations of their papers. 

I should have any outstanding ones by the next class. 

I gave out a rubric and submission details

Please send any updates as soon as is practical. I would like one or two more iterations before the final submissions. 

COMP6021 Class 11.1

I helped students with the assignment.

SOFT6002 Week 10

Only 1 student came to class. We discussed his assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 10.4

I forgot to go to class! So I arrived really late. Sorry about that.

I met with the students that were there and they talked me through progress on the assignment.

If you were looking for me and went away, I will be in IT2.2 from 1800 today.

COMP8035 Class 10.1 & 10.2

Gave students feedback on drafts

COMP6021 Classes 10.3 & 10.4

Students worked on the assignment

SOFT6008 Class 10.2 & 10.3

Students worked in the assignment.

COMP6021 Class 10.2

Only one student turned up and he didn't have any questions

SOFT6008 Class 10.1

Nobody turned up

COMP6021 Class 10.1

Nobody turned up

SOFT6002 Week 09

We looked at tips information architecture  for websites from the book "Don't make me think". Afterwards we went to the lab and I met with students to discuss their assignment.

SOFT6008 Class 09.4

I met with each student and discussed the assignment

COMP8035 Class 09.2 & 09.3

I gave one student feedback on his draft paper and answered some questions. Mostly students just worked away themselves.

COMP6021 Classes 09.3 & 09.4

I met with students and reviewed how the assignment is going

SOFT6008 Class 09.2 & 09.3

I met with students and helped with the assignment where needed

COMP6021 Class 09.2

looked at how audio is represented digitally.

We looked at Audacity. Although I wasn't able to show students everything that I wanted.
Instead, here are some I made earlier:

Audio Samples

	16 bps	8 bps
22kHz	audio	audio
11kHz	audio	audio
6kHz	audio	audio

This is also a useful resource:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/o/man/digital_audio.html

SOFT6008 Class 09.1

Only two students came to class. At their request we had an ad hoc lab class instead of a lecture.

COMP8035 Class 09.1

I gave feedback to students who gave me drafts.

I briefly met with each of the others.

COMP6021 Class 09.1

We looked at how 3d images work.

I brought some glasses and we looked at some images. We tried to watch Bjork's 3d video but the wifi wasn't happy. So students used their own machines.
https://vimeo.com/101561454

3d will not be on the summer exam.

SOFT6002 Week 08

We had a guest speaker from Univ. de Oviedo who spoke about different aspects of usability and UI.

We looked at Technology (W08-L1), Task Analysis (W08-L2), and Cognitive Walk Throughs (W09).

We spent a good half hour talking about the assessment and the exam.

Part 3 of the assignment is due at noon on Fri 24 April.  Part 4 is due at noon on Fri 01 May.

The in-class exam will be on Thursday 07 May. We will start at 1815.

SOFT6008 Class 08.4

I helped students with their Photoshop issues.

COMP8035 Classes 08.2 & 08.3

Students worked in the research paper.

I met with each studebt briefly to discuss progress.

I'm expecting to see some drafts over the Easter break

COMP6021 Class 08.4 Interlaced Video

I explained interlaced video and how it causes problems for modern displays.

When I was finished talking students worked on the assignment.

COMP6021 Class 08.3 Bock Matching Algorithms

We looked at Block Matching Algorithms (BMAs) and how they contribute to the asymmetry of video compression.

SOFT6008 Classes 08.2 & 08.3

I met with each student to discuss how the assignment is going.

There was no Photoshop in this lab, so some students deferred working on it until tomorrow.

I hope that tomorrow we will get all of the Photoshop work out of the way

COMP6021 Class 08.2

We looked at video compression

SOFT6008 Class 08.1

I talked students through the marking scheme I used for the exam.

We looked at the code for the Time Game.

COMP8035 Class 08.1

I met with each student to discuss progress of the research reports.

I am expecting a first draft to be completed over the Easter break.  Students are also welcome to send shorter extracts before then for feedback.

COMP6021 Class 08.1

We looked at transparency and PNG.

SOFT6002 Week 07

We looked at Metaphors (Slides W06-L2), Requirements Gathering (W08-L1) and Prototyping (W08-L2).

SOFT6008 Class 07.3

We had an in-class exam

COMP8035 Class 07.1 & 07.2

I spoke about topic sentences and paragraph structure.  I gave out a photocopy of an article from a magazine and asked students to mark the topic sentence in each paragraph, and evaluate the extent to which the rest of the paragraph relates to the topic sentence.

I am expecting to drafts of the introduction of the research paper soon.

Interesting videos about Animated GIFs

Is it GIF or JIF?

COMP6021 Class 07.3

We looked at how JPEG works

When I was finished, students used the time to catch up in the dithering stuff they missed

The video below may also be of use

COMP6021 Class 07.2

I gave out some sample exam questions on dithering. But they didn't mean anything because none of the students in class today were in for the last class. Students should catch up using the videos online, and we will come back to those questions if we get time.

I talked a bit about the assignment 

We looked at GIF

SOFT6008 Class 07.1 & 07.2

Students prepared for the exam tomorrow.

COMP6021 Class 07.1

We looked at dithering.

We looked at dithering in Photoshop on a 10x10 pixel image. Students The student did some experiments with dithering in Photoshop.

This video might also be useful

SOFT6002 Week 06

There was one student in class. I had a look at a draft of his assignment submission.

SOFT6008 Class 06.4

I showed students a few more Photoshop party tricks that might be useful for the assignment.

Students continued work on the assignment. 

COMP8035 Classes 06.1 & 06.2

I met with students who have not yet committed to a research paper topic and discussed some ideas with them.

Then I met with the others.

SOFT6008 Euro Checksum

You this fake note have passed your checksum test?

https://twitter.com/PSNINewry/status/575401924800999424/photo/1

COMP6021 Class 06.4

We used Photoshop to convert an image to indexed colour. Students downloaded various images and experimented with different settings [but didn't use dithering].

In the next class we will look at dithering.

COMP6021 Class 06.3

We looked at lossy compression, interpolation, and indexed colour.

SOFT6008 Class 06.3

I quickly ran through how to make portions of an a image semi-transparent so that colours or patterns underneath it are visible.

Students continued working on the assignment.

I e-mailed students a sample exam for the assessment next week.

SOFT6008 Class 06.2

Students worked on the assignment.

We looked at some examples of the assignments that were submitted last semester. Lots of ideas there.

COMP6021 Class 06.2

We looked at the RGB, Lab, and CMYK colour systems. I also mentioned Pantone

See also Capsure

This video may be of use

SOFT6008 Class 06.1

I talked students through the specification for the assignment and described what was meant by each part.

We looked at the new HTML 5 input types, and the valid and invalid pseudo classes. We looked at how forms can validate input onSubmit.

[update spec document to follow]

COMP6021 Class 06.1 Digital Colour

We began our look at colour and how it is represented.

Thine video may be of use

SOFT6008 Class 05.4

We looked at Cookies.

COMP8035 Classes 05.2 & 05.3

I met with students to discuss their research reports. All the students I spoke to had committed to a topic or were close to doing so. There isn't really much time to delay.

COMP6021 Class 05.4

We used Photoshop to experiment with different resolutions and pixel depths. I asked students to download a large image and to do some messing about of their own

COMP6021 Class 05.3

We looked at digitisation.

We considered quantisation of temperature and then temperature over time. We looked at how B&W images are digitized.

This video may also be of use

SOFT6008 Class 05.3

Students continued coding check sums for input validation. 

We will have to move on from this soon

SOFT6008 Class 05.2

I gave back the corrected exam solutions with feedback.

We looked at a solution to the question and examined some of the pitfalls and common errors. 

We decided that the exam will be held on Thursday 19 March during the 1300 class.  This will be a one-sheet exam. Student will be permitted to bring a single A4 sheet of notes to the exam. Students may not share sheets during the exam.

Students should think about what gave them trouble in Tuesdays exam and use that as a guide when filling up the one-sheet.

COMP6021 Class 05.2

I gave students two exam questions from past papers on LZW. Student worked on them alone, and then we worked out the answers on the board.

SOFT6008 Class 05.1

We will have an in-class exam in 2 weeks worth 40% of the module.

Today students did a sample exam.

COMP8035 Class 05.1

I met with some of the student to discuss their topics for the research paper but I didn't get to everyone. I outlined that students need to move beyond the "x is fab!" phase, and do some critical analysis.

I want student to decided on a research paper topic by the end of this we and get started on it.

I updated the schedule for the blog posts. The post expected in Week 08 is now due in Week 07

SOFT6002 Change Blindness

This site illustrates the issue of change blindness very well.

http://www.gocognitive.net/demo/change-blindness

What lessons can we draw from this?

COMP6021 Class 05.1 LZW

We looked at the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm for encoding text

SOFT6002 Week 04

We looked at Human Memory (slides: W05-L1) and Mental Models (W06-L1)

After coffee we went to the lab and examined three websites for usability issues.

SOFT6008 Class 04.4

I gave students a quick tour of Photoshop. Some basic Photoshop skills will be required for the assignment. Some students had fun with Photoshop.

We looked at the Mr. Spud Head example and I thought it wold be a good exercise for students to go make something similar. Understanding layers is key to getting that working. I forgot to point out that JPEG does not support transparency, so the images must be saved as PNG files.

COMP8035 Classes 04.1 & 04.2

I met with each student and gave feedback on the blog posts. Different students make different kinds of errors. So hopefully they can be avoided. The first of those posts isn't due until tomorrow. So there is time for corrections.

I discussed paper topics with each student.

COMP6021 Class 04.4 - tutorial

Students had very few questions so once we were done we left early

COMP6021 Class 04.3

We did two examples of Huffman coding with 8 symbols.

SOFT6008 Classes 04.2 & 04.3

Students continued coding checksum calculations. These will be incorporated into the assignment eventually.

COMP6021 Class 04.2

I planned to do exercises on generating UTF-8 and on Huffman coding. However the UTF-8 proved tricker than we expected, so we will do the Huffman in the next class.

We converted the following to UTF-8, but it took us a while to figure out how do deal with padding zeros.


1F498 
11110000:10011111:10010010:10011000 
f09f9298




1F46B 
11110000:10011111:10010001:10101011 
f09f91ab





1F600
11110000:10011111:10011000:10000000 
 f09f9880

SOFT6008 Class 04.1

Apologies for the late start. My calendar led me astray and I obeyed.

We reviewed various JavaScript versions of the Luhn algorithm found online. Some we didn't like. 

From https://gist.github.com/DiegoSalazar/4075533 (modified by Colin slightly)

This code addresses the problem of strings of unknown length by starting at the end and counting down and keep track of what to do by toggling bEven. However we were initially puzzled by the (nDigit *= 2)  which is both a test and a statement.

function valid_credit_card(value) {




// The Luhn Algorithm. It's so pretty.


var nCheck = 0, nDigit = 0, bEven = false;




 


for (var n = value.length - 1; n >= 0; n--) {


var cDigit = value.charAt(n),


nDigit = parseInt(cDigit, 10);


 


if (bEven) {


if ((nDigit *= 2) > 9) nDigit -= 9;


}


 


nCheck += nDigit;


bEven = !bEven;


}


 


return (nCheck % 10) == 0;


}







This code was interesting because it used the fact that JavaScript can add an internet to a string and get a string. That's a small bit strange.  The expected test to see if the product of the *2 > 10 isn't there, because the digits will get added up anyway in the second part of the code.



  // Run through each single digit to create a new string. Even digits
  // are multiplied by two, odd digits are left alone.

  t = "";
  for (i = 0; i < r.length; i++) {
    c = parseInt(r.charAt(i), 10);
    if (i % 2 != 0)
      c *= 2;
    t = t + c;
  }

  // Finally, add up all the single digits in this string.

  n = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < t.length; i++) {
    c = parseInt(t.charAt(i), 10);
    n = n + c;
  }





This code handles odd and even length strings even though it starts at the beginning and words forward. The i % 2 == parity) test looks like our i % 2 == 0, except the desired value 0 or 1 is set beforehand, depending on whether the length is ever or odd. 

function checkLuhn(input)
{
  var sum = 0;
  var numdigits = input.length;
  var parity = numdigits % 2;
  for(var i=0; i < numdigits; i++) {
    var digit = parseInt(input.charAt(i))
    if(i % 2 == parity) digit *= 2;
    if(digit > 9) digit -= 9;
    sum += digit;
  }
  return (sum % 10) == 0;
}




The following examples we considered to be too clever and too cryptic. I pointed out that short clever code isn't always a good thing, because the programmer that comes after might not be able to understand it.


https://gist.github.com/ShirtlessKirk/2134376

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12310837/implementation-of-luhn-algorithm

http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Luhn_test_of_credit_card_numbers#JavaScript

SOFT6002 Interesting Video & Article

Worth a look

This article is also worth a read
http://www.theatlantic.com/product/archive/2014/08/the-hamburger-menu-debate/379145/

COMP6021 Class 04.1

[No recording of today's class. Sound too bad]

We played Hangman to illustrate the point that letters in English do not occur with the same frequencies.  We looked at how compression can be used to represent information using fewer bits.

We looked at Huffman's algorithm for devising optimal variable length codes.

To be honest, the video I made below says it better than I did in class anyway. (I hope my best work isn't behind me!)

Video on Variable Length Codes

I gave students an exercise to complete in time for the next class.

SOFT6002 Week 03

We discussed the assignment a bit and assigned students to groups. But it's not really a group project.

We covered the Ecological Theory of Perception (slides W03-L2) and Graphical Coding (W04-L1).

You should have two sets of slides per week. If you are missing any please let me know.

SOFT6008 Class 03.4

Attendance was poor today. I'm told there are some pressing social engagements this week.

Students worked on checksum calculations. We'll be another week at least at those. Perhaps even longer.

Someone figured out the French checksum calculation. It is different from how I described. So if you are tackling that, talk to me first.

COMP8035 Classes 03.2 & 03.3

I brought peper copies of journals again. But they weren't as popular as the last day. I met with most students. From what I can see students are certainly looking in the right places for their research. Journals are very different from random webpages found online.

Most students seem to have a few ideas for the research paper now. That is how it should be.

So, so far, so good.

COMP6021 Class 03.4 & 03.4

We attempted to do an experiment to see how many bytes are required to store a Japanese character in UTF-8 but could paste Japanese into any of the text editors. 

Students did an exam question on decoding UTF-8 and then encoded a message. 

SOFT6008 Class 03.2 & 03.3

Students started coding the Luhn algorithm. Some finished and moved into other checksums. 

COMP6021 Class 03.2 - 日本語 and 💔

We continued our looked at Unicode. We looked at how writing works in Japanese, and briefly mentioned Emoji.

SOFT6008 Class 03.1

We looked a a variety of different check sum calculations.

It looks like my understanding of the check sum used on French ID numbers may be incorrect. Someone is going to figure that out for me.

Writing Workshops

A series of English Academic Writing Workshops will begin today, delivered by Helen Breen. These workshops are free to all students.  The workshops will be held in B231, as follows:

http://alc.cit.ie/resources/reportwriting

 

·         Tuesday 17th Feb Using online referencing and e-books, room B231, 1-2pm

·         Thursday 19th Feb Online resources to help your writing, room B231, 1-2pm

·         Tuesday 24th Feb Most common writing errors, room B231, 1-2pm

·         Thursday 26th Feb Critical thinking skills, room B231, 1-2pm

 

·         Tuesday 3rd March Using online referencing and e-books, room B231, 1-2pm

·         Thursday 5th  March Online resources to help your writing, room B231,1-2pm

·         Tuesday 10th March Most common writing errors, room B231, 1-2pm

·         Thursday 12th March Critical thinking skills, room B231, 1-2pm

 

 

 

 all students are welcome to attend free of charge