Miguel de los Reyes

August 13, 2014

Today was fairly uneventful. I continued to work on my chess simulation for most of the day. Each piece is now limited to valid moves, though I have yet to recognize check and checkmate. I also implemented turns and castling, which was a bit of a challenge. I will soon need to add en passant and check recognition, and by then my simulation will be playable. Today might be my last day at Shodor, so I might have to work from home. It has been a good summer at Shodor.

August 12, 2014

Today I spent most of my time working on a two-player chess simulation, which began to shape up very well. I finished creating the board as well as setting up the pieces. I also attempted to make pawns move, which I was able to do successfully. I have yet to allow other pieces move normally, or even implement turns. Hopefully, this will not take too long to add. I am also thinking about adding move history and rotating the board each move.

August 11, 2014

Today I began the morning by teaching the SSP students about variables. This was not too difficult, as they are all intelligent people and followed along well. I later ran reception, which was tiresome as always. I looked at multiple examples of JavaScript physics engine and Bootstrap, as well as using Bootstrap in a test website that is somewhere in my public_html folder. After asking Eric and Phil for suggestions, I decided that I will work on chess for the next few days.

August 8, 2014

Today I lacked things to do, so I asked Eric, who suggested I look into tools like Django, Bootstrap, and Pagerender, which I may work on in the future. I also met with Phil, Aaron, and Keith to discuss teaching programming concepts next Monday, which I look forward to. Hopefully, I will be able to teach well. I also watched the SSP presentations, which were interesting to watch and see. Many of the kids had very creative ideas for their models, which was great. I look forward to next week.

August 7, 2014

Today I spent most of my time helping Alex and Nathan with their Helm's Deep model. Most of the help they needed was with JavaScript, and I was happy to help. I also tested the Peanut programs for Phil, which I found very interesting. I especially liked the fractal generator, which I spent a good bit of time looking at. I also attempted to make the 'winword' program work by adding the needed dictionaries, but sadly, it did not work. Later in the day, I watched Darshan and Ayla compete against Eric and Phil with their towers, which was fun to watch.

August 6, 2014

Today I continued to work on my lightning bugs model, changing the menu to be hideable on click. This took some time as I wanted to use jQuery to simplify my code. I also considered making certain functions in my code part of the bug objects, but decided against it out of laziness. I added start and stop buttons to the model for added functionality. I also had an idea for Shodor's ODAA system. The Wiki would automatically email people on the day of their ODAA. However, this is likely impossible.

August 5, 2014

Today I continued to work on my lightning bugs model, which is now in my portfolio. I have added a menu with options that can be changed while the simulation runs as well as certain options that can be changed before the simulation runs. I have also changed certain behaviors, including the way the bugs calculate their rate. At the suggestion of Phil, I have also included color mapping, which uses Hue/Saturation/Value (hsl) colors that are calculated to illustrate the rate of the bugs. I look to add more functionality later this week.

August 4, 2014

Today marks the beginning of the fourth block, where I will be able to finish the work I have missed from the previous blocks. I worked on my alternate stylesheets for my website, which can be seen when the user clicks my name at the top of the page. I had little work as I was waiting on Eric and Phil to review an HLD before I could work on it, so Kristen assigned me the task of updating the pictures of the interns for the Shodor website. In the afternoon, I was assigned reception, and near the end of the day I was finally able to receive my HLD to work on.

August 1, 2014

Today I finished my Inkscape images, which can be seen in my portfolio. I also added a description and of the circles, which is also in my portfolio. I tried to work on my website HLD, though I am not sure what I will need to write in it. I also fixed bugs and problems with my website's responsiveness, which can be seen when the browser window is resized. I am thinking of converting my portfolio into XML in the same manner as my blog and reading it the same way as well, though it may not be completely the same. Today was a good way to end the week and the third block.

July 31, 2014

Today I was assigned reception in the morning, a task that Nathan asked to do for me. I am extremely grateful, as I would not have shared the same enthusiasm he had about running the front desk. I continued to work on my website, adding responsiveness when the user makes the browser window less wide. I finished my GIMP images, which can be found in my portfolio under 'gallery'. I will be updating this in the future to add my Inkscape images, which I will work on either this week or next.

July 30, 2014

Today we were assigned a new mySQL project by Phil and Joel, which I will complete with other apprentices as a team. Our project is to create a website for a store that users can log in to and 'purchase' from the store, reducing its stock. The 'store owner' will be able to restock the store and add new products. This is very much a challenge, but I believe we can accomplish it. I later worked more on my website, adding the random colors to the rest of my page.

July 29, 2014

Today we covered resume skills with Kristen. We then built our own example resumes, and my resume can be found in the portfolio. Later, Simon Karpen came and spoke with us about technical interviews, which I found very interesting. We were able to practice writing code on a blackboard under certain constraints, which Ishaan and I completed successfully. Later in the day I worked on my website. Rosemary presented her work near the end of the day as well. Eric attempted to assign me more underling after class had ended, which I may be able to do.

July 28, 2014

Today the class was supposed to cover resume skills, but with Kristen busy, we were able to work on our own projects. I helped Ishaan teach the other apprentices recursion and helped them with their JavaScript snowflakes. I also fiddled with JavaScript, adding circles that generate on page load and on click, one of the most important changes I have made to my website of all time. Later in the day Ishaan presented his work from the entire apprenticeship program, which was very exciting to see.

July 25, 2014

Today I worked with other apprentices to do an example build of LittleFe, one of Shodor's miniature supercomputers. I worked on assembling a core and helped others with their cores. I helped shoulder surf the morning workshop as well as monitor them during lunch. After lunch, we worked on ou engineering challenge. We were tasked with working in pairs to create a boat that would hold as many marbles as we specified. Ryan and I predicted our boat would hold 70 marbles, but we underestimated by around 15 marbles. Luckily, our prediction was accurate enough to win us first place and along with it, two Jolly Ranchers.

July 24, 2014

Today in the morning Eric taught us about recursion, which we did did using JavaScript. He then challenged us to make the Koch Snowflake, a fractal generated recursively. I have finished this, but I have yet to finish the styling for the site, and it is not on my website yet. I also have yet to put up my bookmark and stock market websites, which also have more styling work to be done. In the afternoon, I shoulder surfed the Web Design workshop, which was very entertaining.

July 23, 2014

Today in the morning Amal taught us AJAX, which we used to start a new project. The project used JQuery to access data about stocks from Amal's website. The site then displayed the data as a table. I have yet to finish, though it is likely that I will be able to finish this week. In the afternoon, we discussed Electrical Engineering, which I found very fun. Using a capacitor, some resistors, a battery, and a 555 timer, we were able to make an LED flicker on and off. I also received more parts to make a binary LED counter, which I will work on at home.

July 22, 2014

Today the class covered regular expressions. I was documenting while the class covered regular expressions, so I missed out on the lesson. Luckily, I had already familiarized myself with regular expressions. After a quick refresher, I was able to catch myself up to speed. In the afternoon, we covered structural engineering again. We worked in teams to create towers that would support marbles in a cup. I worked with Rebecca to make a tower that was 28.5cm from the base to the cup and supported 114 marbles without falling, though we counted the score at 90 marbles. Luckily, we got first.

July 21, 2014

Today marked the beginning of the third block. We began our advanced programming unit, which covered JavaScript classes and objects. Sadly, I was shoulder surfing for the morning workshop and I missed the concepts covered. In the afternoon we began our unit on engineering, where we used legos and an online applet to learn about the center of gravity of structures. We also used a bridge applet to create structures that would support certain loads.

July 18, 2014

Today we continued our underling work, attempting to convert more files Levi had requested. Much to our disappointment, many of the files we had converted were incorrectly converted. Phil also mentioned creating a bookmark page, which would use mySQL to store a list of bookmarks. Hopefully I will be able to do this even with more projects coming next block. I look forward to the future.

July 17, 2014

Today we continued using mySQL. Joel taught us how to create views of tables, which function similarly to tables themselves. He also discussed 'JOIN' further, and covered 'LIKE'. I missed a few things he said as I had to watch the workshop kids on their break. I finished my Reader website, which is in my portfolio. Ishann, myself, and other apprentices were finally able to finish the task Eric assigned to us for Levi.

July 16, 2014

Today we worked with mySQL again, using PHP to look at joined tables in the browser. I have not yet incorporated these principles into a project, though I will hopefully do so soon. I began working on a project that was prompted by Phil, a page that would run through individual words of a paragraph, inspired by Spritz. Later in the day, Eric graciously assigned me, Ishaan and Rebecca (and later, others as well) the task of converting Word Documents into HTML files. This was likely the most fun I've had in years.

July 15, 2014

Today we continued to use mySQL, working on linking tables as well as continuing to familiarize ourselves with mySQL. I finished my Dynamic Pages site, fixing my CSS and cleaning up the layout, and it is now in my portfolio. I will likely be assigned another task by Phil or Joel soon. I spent the afternoon documenting the "Modeling your World" workshop, and it was great to see younger kids learning the same models and modeling principles I've learned in the past.

July 14, 2014

Today, Joel taught us about mySQL, which we may use for a project related to databases. I find it fairly interesting, and I hope to learn more about it. I also worked on my PHP Dynamic Pages site, which I modeled after Mad Libs. It has not been finished, as I need to fix problems with styling and regular expressions. I decided to learn these today, as I wanted to differentiate 'a' from 'an'. I will probably finish it tomorrow.

July 11, 2014

Today I completed my PHP dice statistics site. I also converted my blog to an XML file, using PHP to extract from the file. I have one PHP assignment to complete, and I'll be able to complete it next week. I'll also be going back and touching up my other assignments, mixing my HTML and PHP more. It's been a fun and productive first week at Shodor and I look forward to the next topic we cover.

July 10, 2014

Today I finished my PHP background selector, which is now in my portfolio. I began work on my PHP dice roller, which I have finished the basics of. I hope to add a chart that can scale itself based on the data given, as well as the capability to switch between viewing the raw data and the chart. Hopefully, I can come up with other ways to improve the tool. I also spent some time helping people with their own PHP.

July 9, 2014

Today I continued to work on my PHP calendar, which I have finished and put on my portfolio page. I also began and finished Dane Joe, which was less challenging especially now that I feel more comfortable putting PHP and HTML together. I have begun work on a background selector, which I believe I can finish soon. I was also able to help a few people with their own calendars and other various PHP projects.

July 8, 2014

Today Joel taught us basic PHP, which we used to create a random hexadecimal color code generator. We also began working on our PHP projects. I chose to work on the calendar, which is proving to be quite difficult due to issues with PHP and the input itself. Hopefully I can find an alternative, if not a solution. I also spent today helping other people with Subversion, HTML, and their own PHP projects.

July 7, 2014

Today begins the second block, and my first day at Shodor since April. I was very excited to come back and continue to learn all sorts of things. Today we discussed Subversion, which is what we'll use to keep track of changes and revisions in our upcoming projects. We discussed some command line and vim topics alongside Subversion, as it is run in command line. I look forward to the rest of the week, and the weeks to come.

April 5, 2014

Today we continued our programming projects. I added a great deal of functionality to our model, giving the user the ability to resize the forest, change the forest to a grid, and displaying the burn radius circle on the cursor. I also helped make the graphics for the trees using GIMP. I've definitely learned a lot from this project, and I am definitely looking forward to presenting our project on the 12th.

March 29, 2014

Today we began our programming projects, which will be written in Javascript. We will be modeling the spread of a forest fire based on a number of variables, including the number of trees, arrangement of trees, spread probability of the fire, etc. This will be completed and presented on the 12th, and hopefully by then our model will be functional and understandable. I hope to learn much from this project.

March 15, 2014

Today we continued discussion of parallel thinking and computing. We learned how to boot BCCD on the machines, as well as how to write algorithms for parallelization of tasks. Aaron and Phil taught the lessons on coding in C, which we then compiled and ran in the terminal. Vikram and Elise, two Shodor interns, taught us about more parallel computing concepts including data vs task parallelization and diminishing returns.

March 8, 2014

Today we discussed a multitude of topics. Aaron and Patricia covered parallel computing in BCCD, which we used to compile and run code, as well as discuss parallel thinking. Mobeen taught the class about computer hardware, and led an activity on finding a computer build under a certain price value, which I found quite interesting. Phil helped the class with parallel computing, and Iain taught us about Conway's Game of Life, which is quite interesting on BCCD.

March 1, 2014

Today we discussed parallel computing using bootable cluster CDs. We familiarized ourselves with the Linux terminal, and used it to run different simulations, including one that modeled a pandemic and another modeling the formation of a galaxy. We also covered the pros and cons of using multiple processors and shared vs. distributed memory, which I found very interesting.

February 1, 2014

Today we presented our modeling projects to the class. I am confident we did well with ours, as we were able to explain our model well and answer all related questions. I was also happy to see the other models that had been made. After our presentations, we covered basic programming techniques with Safari's Javascript console. Hopefully, we will be able to further explore programming concepts.

December 14, 2013

Today is the last Shodor session before we have to present our projects on February the 1st. Our project is done, and I do not think we will have to continue work on our optional workday. I am eager to present, and I am looking forward to seeing the projects of other groups. I also worked on my HTML project and helped others with theirs, though I ended up not changing much on my website.

December 7, 2013

Today we began work on our modeling projects. I worked with my partner Luis, and with hard work we finished our model even with many problems concerning the size of our model. We collected data for our project as well, and will use this data for our presentation. We will continue working on our project next week, and I look forward to our presentation.

November 23, 2013

Today we watched Ron's presentation on Business Ethics. We were assigned a Business Ethics assignment alongside our HTML and modeling projects. Joel taught as well, covering how to connect to Shodor servers from other computers. I also worked on my HTML project, reorganizing files and changing layouts. I am looking forward to the modeling project, on which we will begin working on the 7th and 14th of December.

November 16, 2013

Today we began learning modeling in both Vensim and AgentSheets. Having been part of SSP, I have already been exposed to these techniques; however, I do think it was good practice for a topic I learned almost a year ago. Using the modeling software, we modeled hunger and the factors influencing it, as well as disease and how it spreads. I also worked on my HTML project and I am looking forward to working on our modeling projects, in which the skills we learned today to make our own models and present them.