Wednesday: 12:25-2:30
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
I took a day off of school on Friday to visit Rochester Institute of Technology since it is on my top 2 list of potential schools. So, during the end of the week, I added some research and background info on RIT to my agenda. I interviewed a staff member of our school on his experiences at RIT and was pleased with what he had to say. I also took some time to research the individual majors that RIT has to offer in the computer science field, since they have such a large number.
The rest of my time was spent in a similar fashion to the rest of the week: coding or designing or reading up for the app. I started looking into how we would insert RSS feeds into the code of the app. There were a few resources that App Furnace provided, but they seemed a little outdated and some were blocked by our school's filter. However, it doesn't seem very hard to implement the code. Additionally, our club advisor contacted a student she had a few years ago who now has a lot of experience coding professionally and, more importantly, making apps professionally. He is planning on coming home for Thanksgiving, so our advisor and I have been trying to coordinate with the team about a time to meet up with him and get some insight from him for our project.
This week, while not very eventful, was useful. I didn't want to get too ahead of the rest of my team while working on the app, so I tried to stick to small jobs that needed to be done. This week I learned that despite my lack of ability in the field, I find the UI side of development to be fun whereas many others do not. This will be useful so that I can enjoy my work even if I get stuck with the booby prize of all of the jobs.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Saturday, November 22, 2014
November 17-18
Monday: 12:55-2:30
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
During my internship periods, I worked on the icons we would use within the app to represent the different areas and types of information available to users. I started to construct some simple icons in paint and continued to get accustomed to the App Furnace interface. I also began looking into the coding half of the project. App Furnace uses javascript, so I will have to look into that syntax before I can get very far. However, from what I've seen, it is not too far from Java or C++.
Surprisingly enough, it is more difficult to make unique icons than one would think. Especially when you are using paint to make them. You have to not only have an idea that accurately represents what the icon stands for, and then paint only has minimal functions with which to make it. So, you have to have a bunch of ideas so that one of them will be possible to make using paint. Hopefully the ones I've made will serve as stand-ins for some made by art students in the future, for they are a little poorly done.
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
During my internship periods, I worked on the icons we would use within the app to represent the different areas and types of information available to users. I started to construct some simple icons in paint and continued to get accustomed to the App Furnace interface. I also began looking into the coding half of the project. App Furnace uses javascript, so I will have to look into that syntax before I can get very far. However, from what I've seen, it is not too far from Java or C++.
Surprisingly enough, it is more difficult to make unique icons than one would think. Especially when you are using paint to make them. You have to not only have an idea that accurately represents what the icon stands for, and then paint only has minimal functions with which to make it. So, you have to have a bunch of ideas so that one of them will be possible to make using paint. Hopefully the ones I've made will serve as stand-ins for some made by art students in the future, for they are a little poorly done.
Monday, November 17, 2014
November 13-14
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
Friday: 12:55-2:30
On Thursday, I sat in on an informational meeting with a new staff member of the high school. We discussed all of the different IP addresses for various servers etc. across the district. I got to look at some of the servers, switches, and closets within the school, which was very interesting. I may not understand most of the goings on in the hardware department, but there is no question that a room full of wires is a powerful sight. Thinking of the fact that our school, small as it is, requires all those wires leads to the overwhelming thought of how many wires are necessary in large corporations.
Friday was spent in preparation for our meeting after school to start doing what we could with the app. The meeting began with some talk of the software design document and how to complete it, but we soon realized that we would be better off if we explored the software we were planning to use before we completed the document. So, we decided on a layout for the first version of the app and started to play around with App Furnace, the app engine we would be using to convert our app for different platforms. We concluded that it would not be sensible to split into groups until some preliminary exploring was done with the software, and since two of our team were unable to attend, we left splitting into groups for another meeting.
It was nice to finally put the finishing touches on one of the projects I have undertaken. Though the library blog was a small assignment, it is nice to be able to check one thing off of the list. I had a fairly eventful week and it was exciting to go on some field trips and sit in on some meetings. It gives me an idea of the cooperative end of computer science that requires relations with people and not just computers. I am glad with the way things are progressing on the app, and excited to see what comes in future meetings. Hopefully, by Thanksgiving we will have a good start on the app and will be able to use our break to really get to work.
Friday: 12:55-2:30
On Thursday, I sat in on an informational meeting with a new staff member of the high school. We discussed all of the different IP addresses for various servers etc. across the district. I got to look at some of the servers, switches, and closets within the school, which was very interesting. I may not understand most of the goings on in the hardware department, but there is no question that a room full of wires is a powerful sight. Thinking of the fact that our school, small as it is, requires all those wires leads to the overwhelming thought of how many wires are necessary in large corporations.
Friday was spent in preparation for our meeting after school to start doing what we could with the app. The meeting began with some talk of the software design document and how to complete it, but we soon realized that we would be better off if we explored the software we were planning to use before we completed the document. So, we decided on a layout for the first version of the app and started to play around with App Furnace, the app engine we would be using to convert our app for different platforms. We concluded that it would not be sensible to split into groups until some preliminary exploring was done with the software, and since two of our team were unable to attend, we left splitting into groups for another meeting.
It was nice to finally put the finishing touches on one of the projects I have undertaken. Though the library blog was a small assignment, it is nice to be able to check one thing off of the list. I had a fairly eventful week and it was exciting to go on some field trips and sit in on some meetings. It gives me an idea of the cooperative end of computer science that requires relations with people and not just computers. I am glad with the way things are progressing on the app, and excited to see what comes in future meetings. Hopefully, by Thanksgiving we will have a good start on the app and will be able to use our break to really get to work.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
November 10-12
Monday: 12:55-2:30
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
Wednesday: 12:25-1:47
On Monday, I traveled with Dr. Murray to work on some of the school district's big data. Some information had to be sent in to the government for upcoming standardized testing. We sifted through the information entered about new students and graduated students and had to fix errors that had been accidentally entered throughout the start of the year. Some information had to be edited because the id of one piece of data or another had been changed from previous years. Some other data was not changed from a default value that it was originally given. After all of the errors we could recognize were resolved, the documents had to be checked for errors online and uploaded.
I also finally rolled the library blog over to its new theme this week. I made some executive decisions, made final touches on the images for the top menu, and chose a background for the blog. After the roll-over, I consulted our librarian to ensure the blog was satisfactory and instruct her on how to make changes for seasonal blog backgrounds. On Wednesday, I sat in on a class that was using the blog for an assignment and observed their initial reactions to get a census of whether or not students liked the change. The general consensus was positive, but I am still going to try to add a few more features to promote usability and usefulness for students.
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
Wednesday: 12:25-1:47
On Monday, I traveled with Dr. Murray to work on some of the school district's big data. Some information had to be sent in to the government for upcoming standardized testing. We sifted through the information entered about new students and graduated students and had to fix errors that had been accidentally entered throughout the start of the year. Some information had to be edited because the id of one piece of data or another had been changed from previous years. Some other data was not changed from a default value that it was originally given. After all of the errors we could recognize were resolved, the documents had to be checked for errors online and uploaded.
I also finally rolled the library blog over to its new theme this week. I made some executive decisions, made final touches on the images for the top menu, and chose a background for the blog. After the roll-over, I consulted our librarian to ensure the blog was satisfactory and instruct her on how to make changes for seasonal blog backgrounds. On Wednesday, I sat in on a class that was using the blog for an assignment and observed their initial reactions to get a census of whether or not students liked the change. The general consensus was positive, but I am still going to try to add a few more features to promote usability and usefulness for students.
Monday, November 10, 2014
November 6-7
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
Friday: 12:55-2:30
In preparation for the app development meeting on Friday, I took some more time to explore how we would scrape data from the more difficult school sites. I found some resources that would create an RSS feed of a site if said site had easily identifiable patterns in its source code. From this point, it would be relatively easy to add an RSS feed into an app. For the sites that took a little more creativity, I found a way to trace the source of data being displayed in a site's source code and will hopefully be able to use these origins to scrape necessary data to be stored and formatted in other areas of the app. So, not all of the data that the app will present will be kept in our database. Only the data that is difficult to create an RSS feed from will be stored in the database along with user info.
After our meeting on Friday, I am pleased with the progress we have been making. Everyone has presented the outcomes of their research, and I think we now have a fairly good idea of what we need in order to accomplish our task. I am hoping to have another meeting next Friday to get our thoughts together and start working. We have some major decisions to make before we start, so I hope to get those out of the way soon and start breaking into coding groups for the finished product.
This week was another lesson in leadership. Despite the fact that I haven't asked for it, I seem to have inherited the leadership role in our app development group. It is a bit of an odd feeling because others in the team are people I've always seen as on the same level, if not higher, than I am. However, now I am placed in a position to give them direction and they look to me for answers. It is difficult to find a balance between having your directions respected and allowing everyone to see that you don't have all of the answers. I still organize all of the meetings and nag people to get to work, but I don't have the authority to correct anyone on their work or research because I, too, have a lot to learn. Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to keep this balance due to the knowledge of its existence.
Friday: 12:55-2:30
In preparation for the app development meeting on Friday, I took some more time to explore how we would scrape data from the more difficult school sites. I found some resources that would create an RSS feed of a site if said site had easily identifiable patterns in its source code. From this point, it would be relatively easy to add an RSS feed into an app. For the sites that took a little more creativity, I found a way to trace the source of data being displayed in a site's source code and will hopefully be able to use these origins to scrape necessary data to be stored and formatted in other areas of the app. So, not all of the data that the app will present will be kept in our database. Only the data that is difficult to create an RSS feed from will be stored in the database along with user info.
After our meeting on Friday, I am pleased with the progress we have been making. Everyone has presented the outcomes of their research, and I think we now have a fairly good idea of what we need in order to accomplish our task. I am hoping to have another meeting next Friday to get our thoughts together and start working. We have some major decisions to make before we start, so I hope to get those out of the way soon and start breaking into coding groups for the finished product.
This week was another lesson in leadership. Despite the fact that I haven't asked for it, I seem to have inherited the leadership role in our app development group. It is a bit of an odd feeling because others in the team are people I've always seen as on the same level, if not higher, than I am. However, now I am placed in a position to give them direction and they look to me for answers. It is difficult to find a balance between having your directions respected and allowing everyone to see that you don't have all of the answers. I still organize all of the meetings and nag people to get to work, but I don't have the authority to correct anyone on their work or research because I, too, have a lot to learn. Hopefully, in the future, I will be able to keep this balance due to the knowledge of its existence.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
November 3-5
Monday: 12:55-2:30
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
Wednesday: 12:25-2:30
I got to talk with one of the Byte Club officers regarding the production of the app during the week, and I think that the key to our success throughout the rest of the app creation is communication. We all have very good ideas and we all have our own doubts, but when we get talking with each other, we motivate ourselves and each other and help to clear up confusion. Just meeting with one club member for a period was enough to get me excited about making the app again. I think that if we meet more often during the development process, we will be more excited to make the app and the app will consequently be finished quicker and be a better quality app.
We also went to one of the elementary schools in our district to manually install some necessary software into the labs and laptop carts in the school. Though a little monotonous, it was a nice break from thinking about app development all of the time.
On Wednesday, we held another Byte Club meeting with the entire club instead of just the app development team. A template for a Software Design Document was distributed, and the teams had the rest of the meeting to work on the design document (due next Friday) and their projects themselves if they could finish the document. Most of the groups got a good start on what they needed to do. I've also assigned someone from each group to post updates on the Byte Club blog about the progression of their projects to be used as a reference for club members in the future, and to ensure that work is being done by the groups. The app team did not get to meet at all during this period, though, as most of us are officers of the club and are overseeing and troubleshooting the projects of the other groups.
Tuesday: 12:55-2:30
Wednesday: 12:25-2:30
I got to talk with one of the Byte Club officers regarding the production of the app during the week, and I think that the key to our success throughout the rest of the app creation is communication. We all have very good ideas and we all have our own doubts, but when we get talking with each other, we motivate ourselves and each other and help to clear up confusion. Just meeting with one club member for a period was enough to get me excited about making the app again. I think that if we meet more often during the development process, we will be more excited to make the app and the app will consequently be finished quicker and be a better quality app.
We also went to one of the elementary schools in our district to manually install some necessary software into the labs and laptop carts in the school. Though a little monotonous, it was a nice break from thinking about app development all of the time.
On Wednesday, we held another Byte Club meeting with the entire club instead of just the app development team. A template for a Software Design Document was distributed, and the teams had the rest of the meeting to work on the design document (due next Friday) and their projects themselves if they could finish the document. Most of the groups got a good start on what they needed to do. I've also assigned someone from each group to post updates on the Byte Club blog about the progression of their projects to be used as a reference for club members in the future, and to ensure that work is being done by the groups. The app team did not get to meet at all during this period, though, as most of us are officers of the club and are overseeing and troubleshooting the projects of the other groups.
Monday, November 3, 2014
October 28-29
Wednesday: 12:25-2:30
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
Dr. Murray and I have started to make decisions for the app, lately. We decided on a layout based on other schools' apps and common layouts. We also researched the RSS feeds for the sites we want to scrape data from, because if we can find an RSS feed for the information, we won't have to scrape data for that aspect of the app. Finally, we decided to start doing as much as possible on our own so that the project will stay within a manageable timeline. As the officers of Byte Club, we are leading by example for those who will come after us in the club. We have some awesome ideas, but in our early stages as a club, we have to instill a motivation and seriousness across the board if we are to be successful in the future. Hopefully, once we start coding, we will get the ball rolling so as to be good leaders for the underclassmen. Additionally, Dr. Murray and I took some more time to look at PHP and databases. Dr. Murray is working on a website for some of our faculty, and he showed me some of the back end of that website as a reference for database navigating and PHP and SQL syntax.
Our app project is changing every time we work on it, but I am still confident that it will be successful. If we can motivate our members enough to get through the unexciting parts of the app, I know that we will be able to pull through and do a good job. I think that this is a good experience for me and the rest of us who are working on the app. We are seeing what it is like to work in a team on a larger-scale project and we are also seeing that software development isn't all fun and games. There is some serious thinking that has to come before any serious coding. Even though we are all itching to get started, I think we will see the true value in our planning once we do get started.
Thursday: 12:55-2:30
Dr. Murray and I have started to make decisions for the app, lately. We decided on a layout based on other schools' apps and common layouts. We also researched the RSS feeds for the sites we want to scrape data from, because if we can find an RSS feed for the information, we won't have to scrape data for that aspect of the app. Finally, we decided to start doing as much as possible on our own so that the project will stay within a manageable timeline. As the officers of Byte Club, we are leading by example for those who will come after us in the club. We have some awesome ideas, but in our early stages as a club, we have to instill a motivation and seriousness across the board if we are to be successful in the future. Hopefully, once we start coding, we will get the ball rolling so as to be good leaders for the underclassmen. Additionally, Dr. Murray and I took some more time to look at PHP and databases. Dr. Murray is working on a website for some of our faculty, and he showed me some of the back end of that website as a reference for database navigating and PHP and SQL syntax.
Our app project is changing every time we work on it, but I am still confident that it will be successful. If we can motivate our members enough to get through the unexciting parts of the app, I know that we will be able to pull through and do a good job. I think that this is a good experience for me and the rest of us who are working on the app. We are seeing what it is like to work in a team on a larger-scale project and we are also seeing that software development isn't all fun and games. There is some serious thinking that has to come before any serious coding. Even though we are all itching to get started, I think we will see the true value in our planning once we do get started.
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