Google Comes to Lenoir

I know they've been talking about this for a while, but I was excited to find out that they have confirmed their plans to build a large scale computer data center in Lenoir! This will open up alot of technology jobs for people in Lenoir and surrounding areas. -


http://www.newstopic.net/articles/2007/01/19/news/26googlesearchends.txt

Neural Networks

Neural Networks must be one of the most difficult things to develop in the programming world, but I feel they are the future of computers, and technology in general. Neural Networks are modelled after the neurons in the human brain that allow us to learn. When you create a neural network on a machine, you give it the capability of learning through examples, just like we do.

Over the course of however long it will take, I would like to learn more about Neural Networks and eventually make my own. Here is a really cool site:http://franck.fleurey.free.fr/NeuralNetwork/ where someone made a neural network library in C#

How to get around Array Limitations

If you are a C# programmer, you have most likely used an Array at some point. You will probably find that Arrays have many limitations, mainly that once they are created, their size is fixed, and you can't add objects to it without creating a new array. So how do we get around this?

Collections; Like arrays, collections enable you to maintain groups of objects, but unlike arrays collections can include more advanced functionality, such as controlling access to the objects they contain, searching and sorting, etc.
Arrays are implemented as an instance of the System.Array class and are just on type of what are known as collection classes. Much of the functionality of a collection comes through implementing interfaces from the System.Collections namespace, thus standardizing collection syntax.

Since the collection functionality is available through interfaces you aren't limited to using basic collection clases such as System.Array. Instead, you can create your own customized collection classes.

Open Source Spybotics

For Christmas about five years ago, my parents got me a lego spybotic. I don't know if anyone remembers them, or has seen one before, but in my opinion they were ahead of their time. I was almost too young when they got it for me, and could hardly get it to do anything. Yesterday I was cleaning out our utility building and came across it. I had just about forgotten about it.

It came with some "kiddie" software where you could hook it to your computer and "design missions" where it would maneuver around obsticles, find it's way to a light source, go towards a sound etc. I got to thinking about how cool this thing would be if you had complete control over programming it. Then you could use the full potential of it's sensors, and it would be fun practice for a career in artificial intelligence.

Just for the fun, I googled "Open Source Spybotics" and came across an open source IDE called Bricx Command Center. Believe it or not, a university had thought the same thing as me, that spybotics had a lot of potential if there was a way to have complete control over them, with out using the given software. So they built an open source IDE to do just that. I've been having alot of fun with it!

I guess this story has two lessons, there really is an open source peice of software for literally any need you can think of. Open Source keeps on amazing me. Also, just when you think you're too old for something, you can come up with a neat use for it :P

NASA Open Source

I recently learned that much of the software NASA uses for it's missions is open source, and can be freely downloaded. Also, it is made up, in part, by community contributions. Maybe in the future I'll be able to contribute!

http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov/

HP supports Linux and Open Source

"HP simplifies the integration of open source and Linux! "
http://http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/309906-0-0-0-121.html

Young Coders

Today I came across a really unique online community: http://www.youngcoders.com. When I joined it, I really didn't know what all it had to offer, because it appeared to just be the usual forum. Still it was appealing to me because it is young people (well college and down) who are interested in the same things as me. But after joining I was invited to join member groups, which I had never heard of before. These groups had different topics such as magazine group, game design group, wiki group, etc. Each group works as a team to accomplish something. For example the magazine groups puts out a weekly YC club magazine, the others are self explanitory.

Anyway, it's a really neat community and I think you should check it out!

Java

I've been checking out what careers are open at all the major computer companies such as IBM, Dell, and even NASA, to see what type of computer programming jobs they have open. Every single one is hiring Java programmers. I had heard of java before, but didn't know anything about it, so I decided to check it out. There must be a reason everyone is switching from C++ to this.

Well it is very similar to C++. It is completely cross platform and can run on any machine that has the java runtime environment on it. It can be completely coded in notepad, and there is also a free IDE available to download called netbeans, which is a similar environment to Sharp Develop, in which you can drag and drop controls onto a form.

Anyway, this is what I've been up to lately. I found a really good site, "Introduction to Computer Science using Java". It teaches you the language inside and out, it's free, and it is from a colleges computer science course, which is what I am going to major in. What more can you ask for? http://chortle.ccsu.edu/CS151/cs151java.html#01

Enjoy!

I'm back!!!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I don't know why teachers wait until the last few weeks of school to give you about a years worth of work to do. But I'm out of school for the summer and have nothing better to do, so I'll be posting often!

As I said, I've been very busy lately, and don't really have anything to talk about (I need to get myself back up to date on everything going on ;). I've been trying to learn more about blender, and I created myself a desktop background. Feel free to use if if you like it :P. It took about 10 minutes, it's just a simple particle effect, but it looks cool. Enjoy!