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