CS 352 Lecture 5 – Makefiles
Dear students, I’ve gotten some emails about homework structure, C++, and Makefiles. I had a completely different discussion planned, but I think our time is best spent addressing your concerns. Today, then, we will create a skeletal C++ project that can be built with a Makefile. You may want to check out a few tutorials […]
CS 352 Lecture 4 – Relays
Dear students, We looked last time at the elements of electronic circuits: switches, voltage sources, resistance, and some sort of output device—in our case, an LED. In putting these parts together in various ways, you can build a piece of technology with a very fixed purpose. If you want the hardware to do something else, […]
CS 145 Lecture 4 – Math Class
Dear students, Yesterday we had our first lab. I was very impressed by your positive attitudes toward learning and the way you helped each other. Lab days are a bit grueling for me, as I am on my feet from 8 AM to 5 PM being relied on by others, but your energy and friendliness […]
CS 491 Meeting 2 – Sketches
Dear students, Most of today will be spent by you giving sketches of your game ideas. Here are some questions to keep in mind as we discuss: How will it be fun? What will be learned? How can the challenges of the game be introduced in chunks? Here’s your TODO list: Your Create Task is […]
CS 145 Lecture 3 – Hello Again, Java
Dear students, We start today with a little segment I like to call What Does This Do?. I show you a short snippet of code, you slurp it into your brain, swish it around a few times, and figure out what it does. The task would be much easier if I picked good meaningful names […]
CS 352 Lecture 3 – Electricity for Computer Scientists
Dear students, Today we step have a look at the foundation of our technology: electricity. Let me preface by admitting that I am no expert in this field. My understanding of this field is patched together through unstructured fiddling; it has many holes and assumptions that threaten its collapse. We discuss it now because this […]
CS 145 Lecture 2 – Hello, Java
Dear students, Last time we peaked into a primary activity of computer science: organizing process. We started this adventure using Madeup, but today we’ll jump into Java, the language we will spend most of our time with this semester and next. Java is a language developed by Sun Microsystems. It surged to popularity because in […]
CS 352 Lecture 2 – Bases
Dear students, Last time we looked at how aliens might encode a message and send it to us. After class I was thinking about the suggestion that they use ASCII. But this would really be quite a leap for them, because the only alphabet that they know that we understand is Morse. All the communication […]
CS 145 Lecture 1 – Main
Dear students, Welcome to CS 145: Introduction to Object-oriented Programming. This is the first course in the computer science major, but lots of other folks take it too. In fact, I will show a quick breakdown of all the different majors. What prompted you to take this class? Very few high schools teach such a […]
CS 352 Lecture 1 – Alien Protocols
Dear students, Welcome to CS 352: Computer Architecture. Ernest Hemingway is said to have written a story in just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” The story of this class can be stated with just two words: “Abstractions leak.” Our forebears have worked very hard to make computers understand our computational desires at […]