Privacy

There is a lot of information that we want and need to keep private, but is there such a thing as privacy with networked computers? Some people may believe that there is no concrete way to be sure that their information is private, while others take the stance that privacy is attainable if the right precautions are taken.

First, it is important to know how your security can be breached. Websites are able to look like trusted websites, but in reality are just taking your passwords and PIN numbers. Sites might give viruses to your computer, or people may be able to find information on you if your passwords are not secure enough.

So, how can you protect your information? I think the answer is: with knowledge. You have to be aware of the dangers of sharing information on the internet, or on a network. It is very important to understand that once you put something on the internet it is very easy for it to be spread to websites and people that it was not intended for. Knowing is half the battle, since you can then learn how to combat the dangers.

Once the dangers are understood, you can begin to protect yourself. Always make sure that your computers security is updated, and create passwords with numbers and letters that include some capitalizations and are not obvious (such as your birthday). Also, be careful of the information shared over the internet. Only share information to people you trust and over networks that you are positive are secure. Furthermore, realize that there is always a chance that your privacy can be invaded.

Being able to communicate and share ideas, or pictures over the internet is wonderful, but can also lead to bad situations. Always be aware and be careful!

Relating to Other Courses

This course material relates well to my course, Minds and Machines. Minds and Machines is about the philosophical issues that arise in artificial intelligence. It is very helpful to understand the way today's computers work and how they developed, since it shows the gradual changes that needed to be made to create better machines as well as the future potential that computers have. In my other course, since we are looking at the problems that occur when trying to create an artificially intelligent machine and how to overcome them, it is necessary to understand the possibilities and limitations of computers. In both courses, a few similar topics have been discussed, such as Turing machines. Although the courses differ greatly, it is wonderful to have computer science as a strong foundation to build off of and understand the problems in AI.

Recursion

This week, the topic was recursion. Recursion was interesting because it was a conditional, and in order to solve it you needed to use the smaller, previously solved portion of itself. I do feel confident about the material this week because as long and I understand what the base is, for example what "d" is at zero, then I can complete the larger recursions by using what I have learned in past lectures about functions. The difficult part is when there are many steps to making the next object, such as rotating 90 degrees and overlaying, because I tend to get confused. However, as long as I answer the question slowly and build on it piece by piece from my previous knowledge, it is not too confusing. I do like all the cool shapes and patterns that can be made though!

Project 1: Sneeze

Project 1 was about replicating how a virus spreads. I liked this project because it was fun to try and get it running properly, but that also made the project frustrating! I found that, at first, I made a lot of careless errors such as missing brackets, putting functions in the wrong order, or forgetting to add information for the conditionals. I continued to fix all my errors, and slowly parts the project were getting completed. I did get stuck on one part, which was so frustrating, and yet the answer was so simple. It was the best feeling when I finally did not have any errors and the program ran smoothly! It was interesting to increase or decrease the virulence, immunity, and duration since it changed the way the virus spread across the population. Overall, I liked this project since I was able to apply what I've learned in class and tutorial to the project, which helps me to remember the material.

Images

In class last week and in this week's tutorial we learned how to decompose and reconstruct images, which I found really fun! At first, I didn't understand how to stretch the height or width of the image, but through practice and re-watching the DrRacket videos I learned that it is the product of the images height and width that matters. Then I began experimenting with different heights and widths to see the different distorted pictures I could make. I also found it interesting to make pictures more blue or red or green, especially on pictures that were very rich in colour.
In order to learn and remember the new material, I find it very helpful to try out the new functions on a variety of pictures and to change the numbers of everything to see exactly what that function can do.  For example, I tried the swap function for all of the colours on the chameleon image, which was beautiful to see!