Computer Merit Badge

Boy Scouts

SPSU Sep 2012

okaram@spsu.edu, proth@spsu.edu

Adapted from Jonathan Meek's

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Introductions

Questions

• Ask questions at any time !!!

Online Safety

• Can using the internet harm you ?
• Some tips:
• Know what you're doing
• Don't give up personal information
• Use your brain
• Remember - once posted, it is there forever
• nothing is truly private on the internet
• don't post anything you may not want other people to see (Grandma test)

Computer Effects on Society

• What can you do now with computers ?
• What jobs are not possible without computers ?
• What computer 'things' you, your friends or family use every day ?

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Effects in Science and Technology

• Seti @ Home
• Genome Sequencing
• genes as bits, DNA as strings
• Weather Modeling
• Big Data

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Some computer history

• 1642 Pascal - Analytical Engine
• Ada Lovelace, first 'programmer'
• 1800's
• Babbage's Analytical Engine
• Boole's Boolean logic
• Around World War II
• 1937 Mark-I, uses relays (Aiken)
• 1943-46 Eniac Mauchly-Eckert
• first general purpose electronic computer
• Alan Turing, Father of CS, Colossus, Enigma
• 1945 Von Neuman's Architecture
• Stored programs - programs are data
• Binary, digital

Modern Times

• 1958 Integrated Circuits
• 1970's ARPAnet - Internet precursor
• 1981 IBM Pc
• 1993 NCSA Mosaic - first web browser
• 2005 100 M web sites, youtube
• 2007 iPhone, 1B iTunes songs downloaded

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• What would YOU highlight ?

Different uses for a computer

How do you and your family use Computers?

Parts of a computer

Parts of a computer

• The 'box'
• Central Processing Unit - CPU
• Graphics card - GPU
• Mother board
• RAM
• Hard Drive
• USB, Network, CD, DVD, ...
• Monitor
• Keyboard, Mouse
• Printer
• Network

Images

• You can create/use pictures and drawings
• Raster formats - pixel by pixel
• Vector formats - lines, circles ...
• Compression
• Lossless - can restore original, not everything compressible
• Lossy - discards 'unimportant' info, CANNOT recover
• File formats
• JPEG - raster, lossy, great
• GIF - Raster, lossless, 'old'
• PNG - Replacement for GIF, several compression mechanisms
• SVG - vector, xml based

Sound

• Sound is movement of air
• We use notes etc for music
• MIDI format, records notes
• Sound can require lots of space
• CD 44,000 samples per second, 176,000 bytes/sec
• about 10 MB / minute
• Compression, lossless / lossy
• File formats
• WAV - simple, little compression, lossless
• mp3 - lossy, great compression
• ogg - free, open standard
• slightly better compression than mp3

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Video

• Video is just moving pictures
• display one pic, then the next
• 24-30 frames per sec
• Huge if uncompressed
• 1080p is 1920x1080 pixels, 3 bytes per pixel, 24 frames per sec - about 150 MB / sec
• plus sound !!
• Flash, Smil are equivalent of vector
• File formats
• MPEG2 - DVDs
• mp4 - much better compression
• AVI, ogg ...
• Container formats, different streams

Other file formats

• Text - .txt etc
• and doc, rtf, odt ...
• html - text, pictures, links, the web !
• spreadsheets
• .xls (MS Excel), csv, ...

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What other formats do you use ?

Computers everywhere !

• Computers - desktop, laptop, tablet?
• What other devices have computers ?
• How are they 'smarter' ?

Programming

• What is a program ?
• Instructions for a computer
• Computers are fast but dumb
• you have to tell them EXACTLY what to do
• they don't understand English, you have to speak in their own, very limited, very precise language
• How do we develop a program ?
• Analysis - figure out WHAT we want to do
• Design - plan HOW to do it
• Implementation - Do it, write the code
• Testing - make sure we did it right
• Maintenance - the world changes, we know better
• not waterfall, back and forth

Some Programming languages

• C
• around 1980
• low-level, portable assembler
• Unix
• Java
• used in browser plugins, mobile (android), server
• object-oriented, portable
• Python
• simple, easy to learn
• Javascript
• actually runs on the browser
• which makes it easy to learn !

Software packages

• Which ones do you use ? for what ?

Viruses and Security

• Some people write programs to mess with your computer
• Antiviruses - which one do you use ?
• Or use better OS :) Linux, OSX
• If you use windows, avoid Internet Explorer
• Updating your computer
• patches, security updates
• Keeping data secure
• password protection
• encryption
• external drives
• print and delete !!

How the internet works ?

• Local network
• ethernet, wifi
• Internet - network of networks
• packet based - divide the info in little pieces, packets
• decentralized - nobody knows about all of it
• you send message to router, who sends to other routers ...
• IP address
• we're running out, prepare for IPV6 :)
• Clients and Servers
• Protocols
• HTTP, html, ...

Copyright Laws

• What would happen if we all copy and share all music, DVDs
• how would singers get compensated ? actors ?
• would we have as much music, movies ?
• In USA, we provide copyright to promote the arts
• just because it's available doesn't mean you can copy it
• Use legal downloads
• Use Free Software / Open content
• and consider releasing open content

Computing Careers

• Which jobs use computers today ?

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• How would this change in 10 years ?

Computing Careers

• Very applied field - computing for X
• never boring !!
• Kinds of positions
• Programmer, developer ...
• QA / Testing
• Project leader / manager
• Systems Administrator
• Network Administrator
• Business Analyst
• Computer Security
• IT Manager, CIO, ...

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Learning more about computers

• You may want to learn some programming
• Many jobs involve programming
• spreadsheets, scripts
• economists, data manipulation, ...
• codecademy, codingbat, GameMaker
• Consider a career in computers
• Programming, Computer Science
• Software Engineering - big projects
• Information technology - keeping it running
• Try different software
• The more you know, the more flexible you are !
• Linux, libreoffice, gimp ...

Other tasks

Do THREE of the following:

a. Using a spreadsheet program, develop a food budget for a patrol weekend campout.

b. Using a word processor, write a letter to the parents of your troop's Scouts inviting them to a court of honor.

c. Using a computer graphics program, design and draw a campsite plan for your troop.

d. Using a computer graphics program, create a flier for an upcoming troop event, incorporating both text and some type of visual such as a photograph or illustration.

f. Using a presentation software program of your choice, develop a report about a topic that has been approved by your counselor. Create at least 10 slides.

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Other tasks

Do ONE of the following:

a. Using a database program of your choice, create a troop roster that includes the name, rank, patrol, and telephone number of each Scout. Create a form within the database manager to access each Scout's information individually. Show your counselor how the form works.

b. Using a software package of your choice for computer aided design (CAD), create an engineering-style drawing of a simple object. Include the top, bottom, and at least one side view and the dimensions.

c. Create a blog and use it as an online journal of your Scouting activities, including group discussions and meetings, campouts, and other events. Your blog should have at least five entries and two photographs or illustrations. You need not post the blog to the Internet, but you will need to share it with your counselor. If you decide to go live with your blog, you must first share it with your parents AND counselor and get their approval.

d. Create a Web page for your troop, patrol, school, or place of worship. Include at least three articles and two photographs or illustrations. Your Web page should have at least one link to a Web site that would be of interest to your audience. You need not post the page to the Internet. However, if you decide to do so, you must first share it with your parents AND counselor and get their approval.

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