Today I started working on my final website. I spent about an hour looking up color schemes to implement into my website. I then started recoding the entire website because I wanted it to read nicer when looking at the code. I got a good portion of it done today, so I will have to finish it next week. I worked on making it reactive to browser resizing so it can fit on a screen better for some people.
In block two, I needed to make three different coin flip models using PHP. The final one asks for the number of coins you want to flip and outputs the number of heads and tails were recorded. We also had to implement form validation, which doesn't allow for code to be written in the form. It strips all slashes any HTML elements like headers and lists, which prevents users from messing with our code. I enjoyed learning all of this information because it shows you some of what is included in most modern websites.
Today I worked on Krista's projects. One of them had me change the website's background to a random hex code every time the page refreshed. The most challenging one was the one where I had to save the background with cookies. It was difficult because it took me a bit to get the logic correct to choose between cookies and what was selected. My favorite project was the dice roll project because I loved figuring out how to make the frequency graph.
Today I worked with HTML forms and PHP. I learned that PHP acts as a PHP file and an HTML file. I learned about the difference between push and get when retrieving information from the HTML forms. I learned that push is more secure than get because get puts the data into the URL of the website. I prefer push because it's more secure and requires the same amount of work as get.
Today I started learning PHP using a document to record functions we research. Our goal with this document was to compare PHP to JavaScript. I like JavaScript better because it is better for coding simulations, but I believe that PHP is more useful for most other websites since PHP files are hidden and can interact with HTML forms.
Today I decided to change my project to a coronavirus model because even if I figured out the angels in the first ten minutes, I wouldn't have time to implement all of the animals. The model works by having 100 people in a world, and they move around randomly. If an infected person touches a non-infected person, the non-infected person becomes an infected person. after 300 steps, an infected person will have a 4% chance to die. If they die, they disappear and get removed from the simulation. If they survive, they become immune to the virus.
Today I was very stressed because the project is due tomorrow, and I still haven't figured out the angle script. I have tried everything to get my script to work. I asked Ernie what I should do, and he postponed all of the mini-projects until next week. I also reduce the amount of animals in the simulation. I finished the system model for the project and got back to work on the angles. I ended up working after hours to try to get my code to work.
Today I rewrote the entire program a second time. I also added console logs to figure out why cranes were linked to each other. I figured out that the coordinates were linked to only one crane with the id of 0. I fixed this issue quickly and tried to implement the angle code. I didn't get to finish implementing because my day had ended. I decided to finish the next day.
Today I rewrote the entire program to make sure nothing in it was interfering with the angle function. The only thing I accomplished with the rewrite was making the code shorter by implementing functions for making the circles. After I rewrote the program and did some more testing, I gave up and did some more of the mini-projects.
Today I was debugging the angle script the entire day. I had researched the angles for over 6 hours, and I couldn't find any that worked. I created a different version of the code with only one crane and one seed to test the code. Every time I found one that worked with the test code, I implemented it into the main code. When I did this, the code would break and send half of the cranes in one direction and the other half in another direction. The rest of the day, I worked on the mini-projects to come back to it the next day.
Today, I started work on coding the barebones of the animals. I started with the red cranes because they didn't have any predators and only ate plants. I created the spawn function, which would place a random number around the canvas randomly. I started to work on the code for every crane to find the closest seed, grass, or herb and find the angle needed to travel to get to that object. I had a few problems with this, so I left it and finished the movement script. The way the crane moves is by using a function that uses an angel provided and makes the hypotenuse length 5.
Today I started work on making the day and night cycle. Each day and night is supposed to split into four different phases. The way I intended it to work was to let a phase play out for 30 seconds and then switch it to the next phase. After the fourth phase finished, the first phase of the night would start. I couldn't get the cycle to work correctly because all of the ways I researched to pause/wait for x amount of time would pause the program entirely.
Today, I started work on the various plants that will be added to the simulation. I started with bamboo. The way bamboo is generated is similar to how seeds are generated, the main difference being that only one group spawns. After I had done the generation, I worked on the grow function, which gives each bamboo a 25% chance to reproduce, spawning another bamboo randomly in a 50 by 50-pixel radius. I couldn't get it to both left and right, so it just ended up spawning left of the original. I decided to leave it and debug it in the final version. I then copied the code for every other plant there is.
Today I finished the planning document for the ecosystem project. After that, I started working on making the basic plant script. I started out coding the seeds because they would be the easiest to code. The way they are generated is that the program chooses a random number of seed patches that spawn a random amount of seeds. After that, I implemented a wait function that pauses a specific part of the program for the given amount of time. I would have done more, but the day ended, and I didn't want to look at words for the rest of the day.
Today was the first day of the summer session. The summer is split into four blocks, each two weeks long. This first block, we are working on a modeling project and using Inkscape and gimp for picture editing. I spent most of my day today planning out the modeling project. I decided to make a large scale ecosystem project. The ecosystem includes about 15 animals and seven plants. each animal is going to have a different way it behaves with a custom made a.i. After I planned a little, I started working on some of the code for the project.
Today, we used Little Fe, a mini supercomputer to do some simulations a normal computer couldn't do. We learned about how Little Fe split its workload evenly among the CPU's. WE learned some of the commands we could use to operate Little Fe as well as nano, the built in text editor. I love learning about computer hardware so I was very excited to learn about how to link multiple CPU's together.
Today, Aaron gave us a lesson on parallel computing by giving us assignments in a work book that demonstrated what parallel computing does. We had to fill out a digital workbook meanwhile updating our work status on a spreadsheet. When everyone was finished Aaron gave us the next step/assignment to complete. While doing the assignment, we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of parallel computing.
Today Achyuta and I presented our second group project on water vapor molecules in a chamber. It went well. I've enjoyed working with Achyuta, and hope to work with him again in the future. I hope he feels the same. Besides our presentation, two other groups presented their projects, each of which was on gas models. I appreciated the visuals of the different states of matter. I also enjoyed learning about the various natural occurrences of orbit, pollination, and the spread of the coronavirus. In all, it was a good day.
Today we made a big mistake. Because of our poor version controll we made a mstake and can't fing out what it is. We had to rewrite the code we had already started. I am honestly glad this happened though because it allowed ou program to handle more particles that the original. I added the logic of the four different buttons and which ones are active when. Achyuta figured out the math with the colliding particles.
Today we started our second group project. Me and Achyuta are parteners. We decided on doing a thermodynamics model. Today we started to write code for bouncing particles. We used a base website as a template for our porject. We are planning on haveing many thousand particles in the space at one time. I focused on making the HTML part of the project while Achyuta started the JavaScript.
Today, Aaron taught us more JavaScript, like the use of arrays and "for" loops. The purpose of the lesson was to teach us how to create multiple objects with the same properties without having to copy and paste code over 100 times. I stayed ahead of Aaron most of the lesson except for the creation of the array, as it was the only section I didn't know how to do.I was paired with Achyuta to work together as a team on the second group project. But, because he was absent, I don't yet have a topic.
Today Aaron was teaching us more JavaScript. The way we created the code was very different that I would do it, but it made me realize that adding that many variables could help a lot in the future. I didn't agree with all of the version control and feel as if the different versions could have more added to them than waht was added. but overall I thought it was a informative lesson and I learned a lot.
Today we learned a little bit of JavaScript. Dr. Panoff explained to us that knowing the fundamentals of programming is better than knowing a programming language. I'm excited to learn JavaScript. I'm also excited for what we are going to program with JavaScript. Learning JavaScript will be easier to learn because I have already learned python. I'm looking forward to the Spring sesion and the next project.
Ben and I presented our Predator Prey project. Everybody else also presented their projects as well. One of the projects that particularly interested me was the firefighter model. Instead of being automatic in the firefighter moving around, it was controlled by a person. It also used randomness for where the fire started. The fire truck only arrived after 6 seconds because, on average, it takes a fire truck 6 minutes to get to a fire. I felt that me and Ben did a good job presenting, but we forgot to demonstrate our VenSim model.
Today Ben and I completed the VenSim model for our project. Because we were using 3 related levels it took a long time to tune it properly. I had also started coding the website we will present the project on. I had a few issues getting the css file to work but eventually got things the way we wanted it to be.
Today was our first day of our first project. The project is to make a predator prey model in VenSim and Agent Cubes. I was paired with Ben. Ben unfortunately was not here today, but I managed to finish the Agent cubes model. I had to learn a little bit more about agent cubes from Dr. Panoff before I could really get going on the coding. I decided that instead of doing just 1 predator and 1 prey, I would do flowers, Bugs, and Birds. I had to give all of my shapes wierd names because I messed up in the agent creation earlier so I named them tseroF, Flouuer, Buq, and Birb. The only thing left to do is the VenSim model which should be easier than the Agent Cubes model.
Today, Dr. Panoff taught us about agent cubes. Agent Cubes is a coding platform that uses "block" structure. Block structure is coding with drag and drop rather than typing by hand. We learned how to use Agent Cubes and made a model of sick and healthy people. We started by creating "agents," which are groups of multiple "shapes." "shapes" are textures for your different elements. We created the healthy people and coded them to move. We then created sick people and coded them to move and to infect healthy people. Lastly, we coded doctors that the user controlled. We also got groups for our first project.
Today, Aaron gave us a lesson on the various ways to use VenSim. We created many different VenSim Models including atomic decay, population in durham, Rabits and Wolves, and much more. I learned a lot about VenSim and how to use it to make things look nicer and easy to read.
Today, we learned how to model data with Excel and VenSim. We modeled the example of rabbits reproducing and total population. We then added a variable we called "competition." this made it so that the rabbit population eventually stopped growing. We did this to teach us the hard part of coding before we learn the easy part.
Today we learned how to code in excel and why there are inconsistencies in computers. We plugged in equations into excel and forced excel to show us what it actually calculated. This led to some interesting results because excel thinks that 3/6 - 1/6 - 1/6 - 1/6 is 2.7E-17, which is a tiny number. We also compared Excel to google sheets.
On the second day of my Shodor apprenticeship, We learned workplace ethics. Ron came in looking odd because he dressed very unprofessionally. Ron wore plastic bags around his ankles, wore sweat pants, wore a windbreaker backward, wore an untied tie, and wore a hat with sunglasses. Ron was very unprofessional and didn't even know what he was teaching. After a little, he left and came back, looking professional. We then learned workplace ethics and had a great lesson.
Dr. Panoff then Taught us about seemingly random things that are calculated patterns. He showed us a few examples with card tricks.
Today, we went over the Shodor Apprentice Handbook and what to and not to do. We also set up CyberDuck, Which allows us to use Shodor files at home. While we were setting up CyberDuck, I finished early, so I created a simple Python program that counts up in binary. I later made it so that it put those numbers into a text file so I could put them on a website.