so now my fucking laptop modem doesn't work. amazing.

i DID find something cool today - my final from computer essentials a couple years ago. imho, its worth posting.



1. This semester you were exposed to many different topics that helped to better reveal to you the nature of computing, and its impact on society, accomplishing tasks, and creating endless new possibilities of discovery and adventure. Explain for me, in terms of control, efficiency, and resource utilization, the various advantages as well as disadvantages brought on by high-level vs. low-level languages/details of looking at the solving of a problem.

High-level languages, control-wise, bring a much needed simplicity to modern computing. The higher level a language is, the more simplistic the commands become. With an operating system such as Windows, for example, clicking on a folder for a directory opens it, as opposed to having to type in the bash commands line by line in a non-GUI version of Linux. This is also apparent in The Matrix. The users - Neo, Trinity, Morpheous, Cipher, Mouse, Switch, and Apoc - are able to use the Construct to "load" equipment for themselves, or to simply call their operator to have a help file basically uploaded into their heads. The operators - Tank and Dozer - look at the code of the Matrix itself, deciphering it as it goes along and changing bits of the code line-by-line. The operators in The Matrix are using a very low-level language, similar to using assembly code, DOS, or a bash line Linux, while the users who have jacked into the Matrix are using a very high-level language, where they simply ask for things, and their software (the Construct) loads it for them. They don't need to know how everything works for it to still function. This also increases efficiency, on one front. The fact that Neo can simply ask for anything and have it given to him speeds things up dramatically. If he had to edit and recompile the code by himself, it would take far more time, resources, effort, and knowledge than using the high-level language ability of calling his operators. The available resources are also utilized much more efficiently if all controlled and allocated by a singular entity. In a real-world example, if you load up a screaming deathmatch of Battlefield 2142, your processor, RAM, video card, sound card, and other components all scream for resources. In a low-level language, one would have to program how each component would get what resources, how they would be routed to the components, and what portions to use. In a higher-level language, one could simply program what was supposed to happen when you, for example, clicked to fire. With the lower-level language, you'd have to allocate resources to the mouse-click, then the processor, the video card, then the sound card, instead of basically telling the game engine that you're making your character shoot.

2. Define, in your own words, what RAM is, and how it is useful to a conventional computer system.

RAM, in its most simple form, is like someone's short-term memory. In the movie Memento, Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a man with no short-term memory due to a severe head injury he sustains while intervening in his wife's murder. Leonard is like a computer without RAM, constantly questioning what he's doing, and trying to figure out why he's doing it in the first place. Computers use RAM to store useful information and data relevant to what they're doing at the time. For example, you've just loaded up Half-Life 2 and you're running around fragging innocents and blowing random architechture into oblivion. Your computer's RAM may be keeping all of the textures in the current area in "short-term memory," allowing it to be accessed much faster than if it were reading off the hard drive. Without RAM, a computer could look up while being pursued by a man with a gun and think, "So... What am I doing...? Oh, I'm chasing this guy." Then it would chase after him.

3. What are 3 components found in a traditional CPU? Pick one, and upon looking up some additional information, explain the significance the component has on either the computer system as a whole or the rest of the CPU.

A traditional CPU is compromised of an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), a Register Array, and Random Access Memory (RAM). The ALU is basically the Black Lion of the computer system (Yes, that was a Voltron reference on a final exam). It controls the use of both the register array and the RAM, leading the computer in its obvious defeat of King Zarkon's forces. While the ALU does the boring, yet amazingly important, job of performing mathematical and logical operations, the rest of the CPU interacts and helps the computer system run. The ALU is like the body and head of a computer's CPU, being the block that everything builds fom and also the brains behind the entire production.

4. When we discussed High-Performance Computing, I brought up the issue of transparency, and described it as the process of making some feature of the system appear as a single entity and indistinguishable to the end-user. We discussed some examples in particular: user transparency, data transparency, among others.

I'd like for you to think about some more specific examples of "resource" transparency and describe the impact they would have in a High-Performance Computing environment to the end-user. Just one is fine, but give a specific example along with a description.

While SPACEWAR was the "father" of modern computing as we know it, something far more interesting comes to mind when I think of that old computer game: Global Thermonuclear War. That's right, Wargames. David Lightman, played by Matthew Broderick, dials into a computer system where he plays a game called Global Thermonuclear War. The computer he's using, however, is networked to Department of Defense computers around the world, giving him the correct information about nuclear silos in different countries and the ammuntion he has at his disposal to destroy his enemies. These resources were transparent to him, as he didn't realize that they were available at all. He thought he was playing a video game, while the rest of the world thought that what his computer was simulating, transparent to them, was real. This was all completely unknown to Lightman (Broderick), as he thought the computer in front of him had all this information by itself, not realizing it was networked to thousands of others. Resource transparency can be a very bad thing, if used incorrectly.

There was a bunch of mathtype stuff here.

12. Make up a question that would be worthy of showing up on a final exam for this class:
a) Clearly state the question and any necessary supporting information. Make sure it reflects on the topics and concepts we covered in this course.

Describe how, in object-oriented programming, children CAN NOT touch their parents' private parts.

b) Think it through to ensure it requires a thought provoking written response.

Oh, I think that's going to envoke a lot of thought.

c) Give me your response to your question.

Object-oriented programming uses parent-child relationships. The top object in the hierarchy has all permissions, and can access its own private parts/files, and all of the private parts/files of the children underneath it in the hierarchy. The children, lower in the hierarchy, can only access their own private parts, and the private parts of the objects underneath them.