EndOfTermUpdate


What have you done in this course?

 

This course I have accomplish a lot. The course began with Tom Smith and I researching our computer part project, the RFID tag. After researching Tom and I created a poster complete with examples of RFID tags on the poster as well as an oral presentation. We then moved on to our first computer which we actually went through about three different computers until we found a working one. We changed the boot order and installed Ubuntu on to the hard-drive. We then pretty much maxed out the machine by downloading every update, program, and modification we could possibly want. We then moved on to a new computer and did basically the same thing but with a newer version of Ubuntu. Tom and I then moved to macintosh and went through about 2 macs until we decided to put together a third one from different parts between the 2. We got the machine running however every time ubuntu was about to start up the screen would not load. We went through two more imacs, both of which encountered the same problem regardless of how much ram we put into it. I also did other little projects in between, for instance I helped sterbenz and will solder their speakers together and found a way to hide the wires. I also experimented with various tools throughout the room like the vinyl cutter which was a lot of fun.

 

What was the biggest challenge for you this semester/year?

 

The biggest challenge was most likely being able to effectively pinpoint what was wrong with a machine and then find out a way to fix it. This required going onto google to search up error reports and using process of elimination to tell what part in our pc was busted.

 

What have you learned that could be useful outside of school?

 

I have learned a good deal more about computers and how to fix them than i previously knew. A very useful thing i learned was that Ubuntu can be used on a pc and can function basically like xp, but for free. This will come in handy when I don't feel like dishing out $200 for an operating system on a computer that i don't use on a daily basis.

 

Of the things you have done in this course, what would you like to do more of?

 

I would like to do more tweaking of PC hardware and software to make the computer run to its fullest potential. For instance, I think getting into some basic overclocking of the CPU would have been pretty cool, but is defintiely risky with a class full of kids. I also enjoyed using the vinyl cutter very much and thought it would have been cool to use that more often.