Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 16" Moo

Week 16 of Cow Goes Moo was a big week. We started off with Network worksheet where we had to research things that would eventually be on our ergonomics/network test. We learned things like different types of topology, networking devices and different media. On the day I went job shadowing, there was a review sheet and i got it and had to study it the next day.

Then we finally got our final project, which is done in a group of 3. I expected a one giant program, such as a calculator for the final project, instead we got many different programs that each has points for and should make it add up to 100. Easier the program is, the lower the points and I started working on a program that is worth 30 points and it was very, very hard. I spent two classes, just trying to figure out what ascii is and how to use it, and I'm still not done understanding it fully.

Finally, we had a test on ergonomics and network, which I feel very bad about. I did not completely the whole test and do not feel confident about the result. Other than that, the goal for the upcoming classes are the same until the rest of the school, to complete the final project and study for the final exam.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 15" Moo

Week 15 of Cow Goes Moo, we did not do much. The week was cut short by Victoria Day and the Spring Fling Fair. When we were in the class, we focused on completing the big assignment, Lottery Ticket Record Keeping Program and getting it marked. After I finished the basic structure of the program, I added some extra features to the program. I added a function where the user can change the sale record of a previous sale and a one that can show the records of previous sale. Also added the reset button to reset all the records. I did very well for getting the program marked and was satisfied with the result.

Then we did one more lesson of Ergonomics. We talked about the Ideal Workstation to use the computer. Things like adjustable chairs and other furniture and equipments can help to create it. Also the monitor position, brightness or the darkness of the surrounding lights, and surrounding noise can affect the ergonomics of the workplace. In order to not get hurt from doing work, it is important to take a rest at least once a hour and do exercises that can prevent injuries.

Lastly, once we finished the lottery ticket program, we moved on to animation, which is just moving an objective witing Visual Basics form. We used a picture box and moved it up, down, left and right by using the timer function and coordinates. We also made the picture look like it was zooming in by stretching the picture everytime you click it.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 14" Moo

Week 14 of Cow Goes Moo, we got back to full lessons and schedule. We started a new theory, ergonomics, which is really unrelated to programming but is essential for computer working environment. Ergonomics is the application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use. It helps to improve the design of things that we uses and the ways things work in order to create a healthier environment. The ergonomics started out during the World War II in order to improve the performance and safety of military systems to maximize the work efficiency. Creating a more ergonomic environment is quite simple. Things like sitting posture, foot rest, proper chairs and proper height for desks are some of the examples that can be used to create a more ergonomic work place. If not, it can lead to cause problems physically, like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which is caused if the wrist is pressure for too long and not be in a neutral position when working.

We continued from last week on working with arrays. We moved on to create a program that can sort the arrays in order. Then we got our assignment where we had to create a program that keeps the record of daily lottery tickets sale. It records the amount of tickets sold every day for a year and should do multiple functions. It should calculate the number of total days, number of days with no tickets sold, number of days with 50 or more tickets sold, number of days with 50 or less tickets sold, the biggest number of tickets sold in a day, smallest number of tickets sold in a day, and number of days it took to sell at least 200 tickets. I am about 80% finished, need to double check if the functions work properly and create a better interface for the program. It should be done by Tuesday next week.

Some problems I had was when I was working on the Lottery Tickets program, I thought I did the inputting part correct but later found out that it was wrong. It caused me to recreate the codes for all of the things that I finished and start fresh. Also I was struggling already to write the codes and just caused me to race against time. Fortunately all the struggle went away on the last day of the week, and was able to finish the most of the programs, including fixing the old mistakes. With only number of weeks left of school, I would have to focus on the test on ergonomics and the final project soon to receive.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 13" Moo

Week 13 of Cow Goes Moo was a tragic week. This week, for 2 classes we did not work on Visual Basics because of lack of people in class and for a tragic reason. On Monday, we were given a class to finish up a program that determines high, low and average of the marks entered by the user that we started last week. Fortunately I already had it finished last week. I got to work on other subject works in that class.

The other 2 days where I actually worked on some stuff, we learned something new called Arrays. An array is a data structure that stores variable data that has the same data type. It is a group of variable that is given only one name. Each variable that makes up the array is given a number instead of a name which makes it easier to work with using loops among other things. We declare by Dim ArrayName(ArraySize) as DataType. We used this structure to create a program that does several things. It can initialize elements of the array to one, initialize elements of the array with random numbers between 1 and 50, switch the values at either end of the array, and input 10 numbers from the user to change the negative value to positive, calculate the sum of all the numbers and to calculate the product of odd numbered position in product.

This week, I completed the first program using the array structure. However I did not yet get started on the second program and the third program using arrays. I'm expected to work on and finish them next week.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 12" Moo

Week 12 of Cow Goes Moo, there was only one lesson this week. We learned how to draw in Visual Basics using CreateGraphics statement. This involves a lot of mathematical graphing skills and uses the coordinates to draw lines according to the coordinates. Using the the similar format, we also learned to draw circles. However fully understanding this complicated function was not all necessary because it is something extra for us to learn and is not part of the curriculum course.

This week, I had to finish the SIN validation program that I started working on last week and was marked on based on our performace. Also the day when there was the teacher was absent, we worked on some fact finding assignments where we found some unique facts like the first calculator, the number of paqes that can be save into 60G hard drive. We also solved some mind games which was pretty complicated. We also worked on a program where the numbers are being inputted and the user can press either High, Low, or Average button to determine the biggest number, lowest number of the average of all the numbers combined. It was very complicated at the beginning and I had no idea where to start but once I got the an idea of how to develope the program, it was actually very easy to develope.

Lastly we got our previous test back. I did very good, expect that it could've been better considering how confident I was when I wrote the test and some few silly mistakes I made on the test. Overally the week has been satisfying, including garbage pick up and fire drill.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 11" Moo

Week 11 of Cow Goes Moo, we learned several new features of the Visual Basics. After reviewing the different careers related to computers others in the class researched, we learned Timer control which is used to respond to the time event. Once the Timer Control's Enabled property becomes True, it updates and receives an event at every time interval set. The interval is set in milliseconds. However there are few limitations to Timer control, like the maximum interval is only 64767, meaning no more than little over a minute can be set as an interval or the fact that the timer might not be able to keep up with its interval due to its accuracy. We applied the Timer Control to create a stopwatch program where the timer control enabled is set true if the start button is clicked. Another lesson was on the While Loop. This loop is used when the statement needs to be repeated indefinite amount of times and is only stopped if a given condition is matched. Using this, we started working on a program that determines the number of times that a positive even integer can be divided by two and a program that determines if a SIN number is valid.

The program that determines if a SIN number is valid using a While loop is yet completed and is the primary goal for the upcoming week.
The week also included a unit test. I feel I did very good on this test even though the next day in the course of reviewing the questions on the test, I realized I got the last question completely wrong. The day before the test, we had a practise test and review on things learned before. I didn't so particularly well in that practise test and had to study the previous lessons again to prepare for the test. The biggest challenge and the acheivement for the week was the test and I believe its been resolved by studying and reviewing the notes from previous classes.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 10" Moo

Week 10 of Cow Goes Moo, I first started the week by completing the loop programs from last week which I had 4 out of 7 finished. The rest 3 programs were much more complicated than the 4 I've completed. It involved me setting up a n, number value, for calculating and creating a loop. The most complicated one was the final program where I had to develop a program which have to determine if a number inputed is a prime number or not. Then I moved on to creating a slide show using a picture box and a picturebox loop statement. The pictures would appear in sequence when a button is clicked. Next we moved on to learn the Exit For statement. Exit For statement is used when the user wants to exit the For...Next loop in the middle of the loop. We developed a average mark calculating program by using the Inputbox and we can terminate the program by inputing -1.

The most complicated program of the week was the guessing game program. We would use the randomize statement to let the program randomly select a number between 1 to 255 and the user would be given 8 tries to guess collectly with the hints given. either too high or too low. Finally we ended the week with a group project where we had to research 6 different careers related computers and make a report. For every career we divided it up into 4 subtopics, brief descriptions, education/training, potential workplace and the wages. We researched Game Designer, Web Designer, Securities Specialist, Computer Technician, Net Administrator and QA tester.

This week, all of the works were completed and feel comfortable with the skills learned. The challenge faced, by the whole class, was that when we saved a program into the G drive on the schools computers, the programs would not run due to some firewall and security issues. The problem was solved, atleast temperately, by saving the programs on to the USB key. The only problems with this is that we have to remember to bring the USB key everyday. Other than that, it was a week with all the works completed and not much goal for the upcoming week.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 9" Moo

Week 9 of Cow Goes Moo, was another shorten week. The first day of the week, tuesday we finished up the pizza order form program from the previous week. We did learn something new this week. The main focus and skills learned is the loop. Loops are structure that repeats a set of statements. They are four loop statements, For Next, While loops, Do loops and For Each Loops. So far we've only learned the For..Next Statement. It uses a variable counter expressed as i or j or k and loops from For until the Next statement. We were given 7 different programs that uses the For...Next statement. For the rest of the week, we completed the loop work sheet. Total combined 7 different programs we made and uses the togglepoint to follow and learn how the loop operates. We made tables to trace the each steps which the program operates.

The work remaining for the week is the For...Next Statement programs. Out of the 7 programs, I have only completed around 4. If given time, finishing the rest of them is the priority for next week. Another goal for up coming weeks is the test that we probably will have. It is hard to remember the things learned before because there were many days off recently and its hard to keep it updated in my brain.

The challenge faced and the future goal is to check the program more carefully. For the pizza order form, we lost some easy marks because we did not double check the work well enough. For the next program that is being marked, it is important for me to carfully check if any small details are not finished.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 8" Moo

Week 8 of Cow Goes Moo,nothing new was learned because we had no lesson this week. Being a short 4 day week plus working on our big group project, we did not have any leesons. We did have some in between tips regarding on the group project. The project was given on monday. It was to develop a Pizza Palace Order Form where we can choose the different Pizza size, Pizza type, the toppings, side dishes and drinks and calculate the total price of all. It also had to include dialog boxes on the menu so the user can set his or her own prices of each items. We had to use many of the skills learned previous and incorporate all of them in order to finish the program. There were many parts to the program and each had to be broken down in order to make the process much easier. Just making the interface of the program took me a whole period.

Surprisingly as complicated as the program has been, we did not run into that many problems. One of the problems that I had to face was on the first day of working on the project, my partner was absent so I had to start off alone. When he came back the nest day, I had to explain him what we are working on and how much work was completed so far. Other problems occursed when starting a section of the program, we just struggles to find where to begin. We did get some help from mainly the teacher to get started off. Surprisingly once we started working on the codes, we did not make any errors in the codes so the program worked fine.

When the week was over, our project was roughly around 99% completed. I think only documemtation is left in order to complete the program. Third dialog box for the prgram seems to be done but we did not have time to check if it works properly. I am not completely sure of this because we may have forgot to do some of parts of the prgram. Finishinf the program for tuesday and making sure it functions properly is the main goal for the upcoming week.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 7" Moo

Week 7 of Cow Goes Moo, there really wasn't a main objective for the week. Just to finish the work given and completing them was the main goal. The only work remaining from the last week, Temperature Converter was completed easily and we learned the Visual Basics Operators. Operators are symbols used in an operation that performs on one or more values either to modify one value or to produce a new value by combining existing value. There are several types of operators. Arithmetic operators are used to do simple calculation of numeric values. Arithmetic operators include addition, substraction, multiplication, division, modulus, and exponent. Comparison operators are used to compare data values. They are used to compare two expression to determine if they are the same or not. These includ, =, >, <, <=, >=, and <>. Finally there is the logical operators, which are used to combine two or more comparision tests into a single compound comparisions. They are "And", "Or", and "Not" to join more than one comparisionss.

I was completed developing a program that uses all of the skills learned in class that calculates the payroll. The payroll is different depending on the number of hours worked and the amount of coffee cups sold. Depending on the total amount of money earned, the tax is different as well. I have yet to complete the payroll application uses the new features. The newly learned features include The dialogue and the menu command. The menu is something to add on extra settings or ability on to the program and it can save spaces visually. Dialogs are different form of Form that are opened using the menu.

The future goal is to complet the work remaining, which is the program that was just mentioned and study and do well on the upcoming test and project. There were that many challenges that I had to face. The programs seemed hard but once I got the beginning of it, the rest seemed easier. I feel that I am understanding at a faster, not by a lot, pace than when I first started the course.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 6" Moo

Week 6 of Cow Goes Moo, the tiring first week back from the March Break, we learned many new skills and did developed new programs. First we learned new toolbos controls like HScrollBar and TrackList. Hscrollbar is a bar that moves left and right depending on the value given. TrackList is similar to HScroll bar, expect that theres is a pointer instead of a bar that moves left and right. We applied these new skills in developing a Temperature Converter where we enter the Temperature in Fahrenheit and converts it in to Celsius and determine the conditions with Freezing, Cold, Comfortable, Too Hot or Boiling. We used new control like the PictureBox, where we can add a picture in it. We learned about many different Data Types used in Visual Basics. So far, we learned String, Interger, Long, Single, Double, Date, Boolean, and Byte, and learned in which situation to used them. Also to help us to idenfity the data type, we learned to use prefixes like int, sng, dbl, dec, and str in front of the name of the variable. We learned the Web Awareness Internet Safety Pledge and completed a three paragraph essay about our opinion about Web Awareness. Lastly, we learned about String, a text composed of a sequence of zero or more characters. We also learned 16 different string functions we can use and completed the chart that explains what each function does. We developed a program, String Tutorial, that runs ten of the string functions using the ListBox.

Objective of the week was to stay awake, which I was successful at, and complete what ever we learn in class. Currently, the only work remaining is the Temperature Converter that uses the Tracklist. The objective, or the goal for next week is to finish that program and try to develop the new programs with less help from the classmates.

The challenge faced from last week, which was performing poorly on the test, somehow got solved by itself. I got the test back and surprising, I did much much better than I expected. Some of the other challenges this week was that it took me a long time to understanding the new functions, but by just looking at it over and over, I was somehow able to understand them.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 5" Moo

Week 5 of Cow Goes Moo, my main objective for the week was to be on cruise control and wait for the weekend, which is MARCH BREAK!!! Also the main objectives for the course was the Voting Program thats due Friday and the Test on programming which was Thursday and complete them with success. This week, we learned more detailed usage of SELECT CASE statement. It is used for situation where mutiple conditions and codes that go along with the conditions are needed. We worked on grading, pizza and voting programs that used IF or SELECT CASE statement to practice the statement over and over. We also leanred what Debuggin is and the 3 main different errors that might occur during programming. They are complier error, which is mistakes like spelling, the run-time error, which is a situation where the operation cannot be run, and logic error, which is an error that doesnt effect the programs ability to run but result is not the expected due to a wrong code. We also learned different way we can find and fix these errors.
By handing in the voting program along with its flowchart, there is no more work left, especially because its MARCH BREAK!!!! However future goal is do better in test. I did the test on thursday and i feel very bad about the result. I thought I did enought preparation but apprantely I was very wrong. This is an area where I have to definetly improve and be set as a future goal.
There were many challenges using the CASE statement. I have struggled because I thought the pizza program used CASE statement and could not get it woring properly. The problem kind of got solved by itself when I found out the IF statement could be used instead of the CASE statement. Another problem was the voting problem, which sounded extremely hard at first. However once I started, and with some help of classmates, the program did not seem very hard at all. The flowchart was not hard but long, and took me several trys to make in fit into a paper, but only to find out that turning the paper sideway can solve the problem. Lastly the biggest challenge was the test, which didn't get solved at all because I do not feel very good on how I did.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 4" Moo

Week 4 of Cow Goes Moo, the main objective of the week was to finish the question 2 which was marked on wednesday. Along with that assignment sheet, we've learned the IF statement and were briefly introduced to CASE statement. The If statement is used if the program need to do different things in response to different conditions. You can use either If, Elseif, or Else to varify the different situation the program can encounter during the process of running. Some task that goes along with are creating a program that determines if a number is positive, negative or zero, and creating a program that determines if the plural of sheep the user enters is a correct anwer. Also Case statement can be used to program for many different conditions you might encounter during the process. Many conditions mean that writing codes for all of the possible choices.
I have completed all the programs that uses the IF statement. However I have not completed the ones that uses the Case statement. Future goal at the moment is to complete all the given assignment and have complete understand because there are a lot to understand than just understanding how to use it. One of the biggest thing for the week was the quiz but it got cancelled due to too little people in class because the the snow storm.
There was a lot, of challenges and difficulties during the course of the programming because Visual Basics, still, remains a very complicated software for me. Help from many different classmates were needed to solve the problems like different situations that are used during developing different programs.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 3" Moo

Week 3 of Cow Goes Moo, we started (finally) the Visual Basics prgram. Working with the program is a complicated process that involves strick step by step instruction for the program. the only object of the week was to get used and familiar with Visual Basics, because other days were spent doing the test and to install the programs. First assignment, making a tax calculator was easy but only because the instruction was written step by step. 3 other tasks were given which is not completed yet, and is the main goal for next week. What I have learned this week is the languages of programming, and different terms of programming like forms, controls and properties. Different variables are used for input and output. Dim is a symbol used in Visual Basics, and is used to declare a variable before it is used. There are different data types like sting, interger, and single. The Visual Basics have been a bit complicated to adjust to and many confusions occured but many was able to get the answer through asking questions to either the teacehr or other students.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 2" Moo

Week 2 of Cow Goes Moo, I have missed like half the week. Many different topics were taught, but i had to learn and report what we learned based on the handouts i read. First assignment was completing four flowcharts, which was given last friday, and did quite well. We learned about computers. Different computer terms, different devices used, modems and the different ways to describe the computer was learned. Next, we learned about the parts of computer. Simplified model of computer, extended model of computer, the way the central processing units operate, and the different types of memories were taught. Next, after the snow day, we learned about softwares. Different types of softwares. The describtion of operating system, application, word processing. speedsheets,database management and their history were taught. We also learned about pseudo code, which is the writeen statement of algorithm, kind of similar to the flowchart. And on the last of the week, we learned about the cyptography. Two different types of cyptography, cipher wheel, which we used in class to create secret codes, and caesar cipher, which is a complicated version of the wheel.
The main objective for the week is to catch up and not miss what was learned monday and tuesday, when i was not at school. That was also the challenge for the week, catching up a lot of notes at once. I dont think i have a main goal for the week, maybe just doing well on the quiz.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 1" Moo

Week 1 of Cow Goes Moo, many different skills have been taught. Starting from what a blog is, (which is a website based journal) and how to create a blog of my own. First started with creating a google account and creating a blog from www.blogger.com, with my own nickname involving the first letter of my initial, Moo M. Once the creating of my blog was completed, it had to be decorated with designs, pictures and information. Welcome message was posted, along with Favorites list which included the links to my personal favorite albums, dvd, and book. For farther detail, a hyperlink added in my post, image in the post, aduio clip, links to photos on the favorites list, disabling comments for one of the post.

Another thing that I learned is the Problem Solving Skills. It is a way to deal with a conflict and organizes a method to solve it. It starts from Identifying the problem, analyzing the problem, brainstorming ideas, prioritizing the ideas, listing steps or intructions to solve the problem and finally evaluating the solution.
Also one of the main focuses has been the flow chart. Flowchart is a digram to represent the steps needed to be performed in order to solve the problem. There is also something called loop, which is when you return to a previous step until something is satified in the process. Finally, including the ethics issue of Mr.Jenson and his dilemma sums up the week's work. One of the biggest problem encountered is when the computer shut down for no reason and had to start the ethics assignment from the start with limited time left. Fortunately, the assignment was completed just as the bell went off.

The objective for the week was to complete the blog and learn the flowchart. Although the blog has been completed, (more could be added) I do not think i fully understand everything about the flowchart, therefore the goal for next week is to have a better understanding of the flowchart.

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