zajebisty

This is a blog of Theresa Konieczny for the INF 101 class (Introduction to Informatics). For any random people stumbling across this I will quickly explain that Informatics is a new field being offered at Indiana University. I highly suggest you drop whatever you are doing and transfer to IU and take this class, as you get credit for playing around on the internet. And I will further quickly explain to my instructors that I am just kidding as I am sure I will get a lot out of this class :))

niedziela, stycznia 22, 2006

I enjoyed Monday's lecture, particularily the part about the early home computers. My dad had a model I TRS-80, so I was disappointed it "didn't make the history books". I'd like to include a picture of ME with the old TRS-80, but my parents are in Arizona for the cold months, so I'll have to wait until Spring to see if they can dig any up. But meanwhile, here's a picture I found online..
I peeked ahead at the first installation of the individual project, and must admit I find the Black Box to be perplexing! But I guess we'll learn more tomorrow..

piątek, stycznia 20, 2006

I liked the intro to Andy Clark's Natural Born Cyborg chapter describing his visit to the Black Hole (even before I found it was Prof Rocha who took him there!!)So here is a link to the Black Hole website. In case you are too busy to check out this link here is a picture of one of the big chunky techno type machines he mentions in his intro..
Further along in the reading he writes of the "wearable remembrance agent" giving a detailed description of its usage. I found this to be a little disturbing, not just because of the traceability of ones movements, but also in what it could do to one's brain. If we don't use the connections in our brains they can shut down on us. For example, I have a son who has horrendous vision in one eye and perfect in the other. If left unattended the brain could opt just to use the good eye, possibly eventually causing the connection to the bad eye to shut down.




This isn't his normal eye patch!!!!!
Luckily the problem was discovered, and he wears a patch a few hours a day over the good eye in order to keep the connection between the bad eye and the brain active. It seems that having two memory systems, the virtual RA system and the actual brain might not be the best idea. Perhaps the brain's connection to its own memory reserves would weaken as it went unused.







Out of fairness, I am including a picture of my other son, alongside his hero..
don't forget to visit infoport
2 quick questions for the instructors: why isn't my colspan working in the bottom table??? why are there large breaks before the tops of my tables???? only answer if it's not too much of a hassle to scour my code!! thanks!!

piątek, stycznia 13, 2006

Library of Babel
I thought the Library of Babel story was interesting, definitely something to make one think. I wondered about the hexagonal construction of the library rooms. Was the choice of this shape related somehow, to the choice in nature by bees to optimize their room space by building hives in hexagons? Or maybe it was because they can be arranged side by side to form a grid (as often used in war games...). Such a layout is more appropriate for wandering about randomally and possibly gettting lost, than a simple grid of squares would have been.

Testing, testing, first post of new blog!!!!!! Will it worked or am I doomed in this class from the beginning????? testing colors out... yeah bold colors too.. olive green italicized post..