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.