cs-major

[cs-major]

The Future Before Us

As I sit here attempting to think of a pithy quote about future prospects and what I hope my future entails, I find myself repeatedly drawn to the word “happy” as opposed to “computer science” or “coding.” Strange how, when I imagine my hopes for the future, I don’t think of myself at a computer, tippity-tapping away at my keyboard with the next-gen iPhone sitting next to me—but, instead, imagine myself simply… smiling.

 Now, of course, smiling isn’t a profession (unless you’re the definition of beauty, which I don’t believe I am), so I am forced to take one step down the ladder of idealism, and consider what my “dream job” would be (the term being confined to the laws of reason. No “space marine” or “mermaid” will be allowed on the list). Also, seeing as this is a computer science blog, I’ll limit my selection to CS positions.

 After everything this computer science course has taught me, and all of the different jobs I’ve learned even exist, I can’t think of a more interesting job than a white-hat hacker. Like, being PAID to get information I’m not supposed to have is easily the most exciting job I can think of. Not to mention, there’s always a weak point to every system, so my pay would depend mostly on my ability to think of ways to creatively circumvent a system’s protections. I’d have to learn quite a bit more about firewalls and cybersecurity, but I think I’d be excited the whole way.

 As for the here and now, I’ve gotta say that I’m looking forward to my coding classes. I’ve had a little bit of trouble learning certain commands, but I think I’ve finally wrapped my head around most of them. In future classes, I’ll definitely be more excited to use these commands and learn even more. Not to mention all of the interesting ways to use the things I learn.

 Not to throw any shade at this class—it was great with teaching the basics. I feel like I’ve learned a little about all of the sub-categories of computer science, which is what I think this course was supposed to do. From here on out, I’ll be learning more in-depth about the field of my choice (After a couple more gen-ed courses, that is).

 I especially enjoyed learning all about the history and real-world happenings in the textbooks. It was really neat to read about the first computers—and even neater, the first computer games. I never knew a game that simulated gravity, Space Wars, was one of the first to be created! I always thought pong was the original! I think my favorite of the group was the book about logic—the first one we read. For the most part, it was review for me, but later on when it started talking about more complicated logic I found myself wanting to learn more and more.

 I think I want to go on with this knowledge and learn more about coding languages—for now, at least. Perhaps some day I’ll pick a handful and master them, but I only really have experience with Python (which isn’t really used in professional coding, I hear) and C (not C Sharp, not C++… just C), so my knowledge is pretty limited and outdated at this point. I know we touched on HTML, and Java was mentioned a handful of times, but we never really got into them. After a little research, I think I’ll start looking into Java and C# more, perhaps even some third language if at all possible (though I think two will be tough enough).

 In conclusion, I had an amazing time in this class. The blogs were fun to write, the projects challenging to code, and the overall atmosphere of the classroom was something I hope I find in all of my other classes from here on out, though I don’t really expect to. I look forward to this winter break, but I also miss what I had.

 To new beginnings and absent friends.

 Outside Source:

http://www.codeconquest.com/what-is-coding/common-programming-languages/

[cs-major]

9 Algorithms that Changed the Future: A Bored Book Review

To start this article of “Stuff I Read for my Computer Science Class” I read a book all about algorithms that are used in modern day computers. To list a couple, PageRank, pattern recognition, and digital signatures, along with another half dozen others. These ideas range from simple ideas such as “assign an IP address to a computer” to “use your undergraduate’s degree in mathematics to understand this concept.” Now, while it does mention college-level ideas, the book does an excellent job of dumbing most of it down to the point that the average person could understand it. Basic algebra is required throughout the book, which one learns in middle school.

Honestly, I found the book to be rather boring. Math was never the most interesting topic for me, especially when it’s such easy math as “multiply 5 times 8.” Now, some of the concepts introduced were highly interesting, but there weren’t many of those chapters. The chapters I favored more were the ones on cryptography, error-correcting codes, digital signatures, and maybe data compression. I already had a notion of how data compression worked, but the other three were brand new to me. I’d always wondered how cryptography worked, digital signatures went much further than I expected, and I didn’t even know there was an algorithm to correct code that had been corrupted! (Though I do wonder about a few aspects in error-correction. i.e. what happens if, in the pinpoint trick, the checksum number is corrupted? One would have no way of correcting the message without requesting the message be sent again, and depending on the size of the message, it could be a hassle. Probably not as big a problem as I think it is, but I still wonder if there’s an easier way of doing it)

I learned a lot from this book, though. It was highly informative. (Probably why I thought it was boring. It’s difficult to be informative and entertaining at the same time) I think that all of these concepts are integral to learning how to program/code/etc. and how the internet works—where all of the code would eventually be implemented.

Speaking of the internet, I became curious about algorithms and exactly how important these nine algorithms were in the real world. I got the sense that this book was slightly dated—or perhaps the author was slightly dated—from the way it seemed to read and wondered if perhaps the list presented in the book were the “most important algorithms,” or just “important algorithms.” Turns out, there are much more important algorithms out there. Of course, these algorithms are probably much more complicated and difficult to explain and understand, so they probably couldn’t be put into laymen’s terms for the audience this book was meant to reach. I found one link that gave a list of “The real 10 algorithms that dominate our world” and another, more extensive list of “Top 10 Algorithms and Data Structures for Competitive Programming,” which gave six lists of (roughly) ten items, each (respectively referenced at the bottom of this post). The conclusion I’ve come to is that the book’s “algorithms” are either just the simpler younger siblings to the ones mentioned on the list, or the ones mentioned on the lists are just the “actual” names of the ones in the book. (though I did find the RSA algorithm in the first list, which is used in cryptography and mentioned in the cryptography chapter)

Currently, I’m in the process of re-reading the 9th chapter—titled “Digital Signatures: Who Really Wrote This Software?” (and in doing so have discovered that another item on the first list of algorithms appears in the book, “Integer Factorization.” This leads me to believe that the chapters in the books are not based solely on one algorithm, but are actually the broad concepts that said algorithms produce) I’d always imagined those popups that told you who published the download was just accessing some generally agreed upon variable and displaying it as the publisher of the program, and there was a list somewhere of all of the “verified” publishers. Apparently, it’s much more nuanced, complicated, and mathematically heavy to decide if that publisher is verified or not. Now that I’m aware of the complicatedness of the system, I understand why my previous line of thinking would be inefficient and ineffective. Identity theft would be rampant! Not to mention the danger of downloading anything from the web, as it would be unclear what is truly safe to put on your private computer. It might have taken a read or two to wrap my head around, but I’m glad I took the time to finally understand it. I hope doing so will make it easier to work with the systems later, should I ever need to.

All in all, I may not have thoroughly enjoyed the book “9 Algorithms that Changed the Future,” but I did learn from it. I believe it was chosen as a textbook for precisely that reason, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about algorithms—or even just simple mathematical tricks—for this reason, as well.

  https://medium.com/@_marcos_otero/the-real-10-algorithms-that-dominate-our-world-e95fa9f16c04

http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-algorithms-and-data-structures-for-competitive-programming/

[cs-major]

An Interview About Math and Computers

What mathematical concepts are you most interested in? How do they relate to Computing Science?

             I don’t think I’m very compelled to study mathematical concepts, as integral as they are to computer science in general. I think that I’m more attracted to the more theoretical computer science fields. I guess I have to have a basic understanding of the mathematical concepts to fully understand the theoretical computer sciences, much like how one has to know basic math to learn how to derive and integrate equations.

Which algorithms do you think are most closely tied to mathematics? Which ones only make sense when applied to a computer?

             I believe the ones most closely tied to mathematics are the simpler ones—such as algorithms and data structures and such. While these can become quite complicated, they’re still based in math. While, on the other hand, more advanced fields, like machine learning, are more of an art form than math. All digital information is based on ones and zeros, so everything in computer science is based in mathematics, but once something becomes sufficiently complicated, it seems to shift into a new form. Like saying “painting is just the careful manipulation of pigments and sticks,” one could say “all computer science is just ones and zeros.” Neither statement is technically false, but both painting and computer science go so much further than just their base components.

What areas of theoretical computer science do you find most interesting? Why are those interesting to you?

             Computational learning theory and machine learning, Quantum computation, and probably biological computing to some extent.

            I’ve always been particularly interested in computers that can learn, as it would bring us one step closer to all kinds of possibilities. Instead of the GPS consistently sending the pizza guy to the street corner, the computer would just tell him where exactly my address is.

            I have to admit, the word “quantum” caught my attention, but that’s not all. Quantum anything is interesting to me. Making things—machines, mostly—smaller and smaller to the point we can’t make them any smaller has always intrigued me. Will we ever reach the point that we can’t manipulate smaller particles, or is it just a matter of understanding our universe? Will we ever plateau technologically, or will there always be another step forward? (Of course, I mean in my lifetime. Infinity is just a concept, not a number or tangible in any way, so there can’t be infinite advances in technology, I just wonder if I’ll live to see the “end” of progress)

            Spoiler, I won’t.

            Biological computing is interesting—and I’m interested in the “DNA code,” but I think I’m more interested in BMI (Brain Machine Interface) devices. There has been a problem since computers were invented: how do we interact with them? The first computers had to be wired and rewired each time the code needed to be changed. When computers became smaller and more concise, the keyboard was introduced, allowing programs to be edited and run without throwing physical switches. Then we see the rapid evolvement of technology, from the mouse to the touch screen to interfaces that use body motions such as limbs and eyes. I believe the next step for human-machine interactivity is connecting directly to the brain. How this will come to be, I’m not sure—perhaps we’ll learn how to cut directly into the spinal cord and decode the signals from the brain to the body, or maybe we’ll figure out how to read the brain’s electrical impulses from through the head accurately enough to make out accurate information, or even a third way I haven’t even considered. Regardless, it’s a field of study I’ve long since wondered about and look forward to other advancements.

What have you read in the textbooks so far that relates closely to mathematics?

             The books we’ve read have talked about everything from the “original” computer to the way networking functions and even what makes computers run. I don’t know if we’ve had any math-heavy chapters that I happened to just doze off on, but it seems like these books were more focused on the more abstract ideas of computers and not so much to the ones-and-zeros behind it all. I think the closest we can get to this is the first few chapters of the first book we read, when it talked about Boolean logic and the different types of gates and operators, though that’s more logic than math…

Who are some major historical figures that are important to both mathematics and Computing Science? Why do you think they are important in both fields?

             The first names to come to mind are names such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk; but upon further research into the matter, I think there are a number of names that should come before even these tech giants.

             For example, Barbara Liskov, a developer and implementer of CLU, the first programming language to support data abstraction. “CLU has become like a guidebook for other programming languages, such as Java, which borrow from its syntax and semantics. She also helped develop Argus, a high-level language designed to support the construction and maintenance of distributed programs,” Megan Ruesink says in her article “10 Famous Computer Scientists Who Impacted the Industry.”

             Ruesink goes on to talk about several other innovators in the computer science field, including Mark Zuckerberg, and the previously mentioned Elon Musk and Bill Gates, along with several other names.

            Kelsey Fox mentions a lot of the same names in her article “The 30 Most Influential Computer Scientists Alive Today,” which talks about only innovators who are still alive (as of 2014).

            While talking about Sir Tim Berners-Lee, she says he is a computer scientist who “single-handedly changed the course of human history.” I imagined this was hyperbole of some kind, but as I continued reading the short blurb she’d written, I realized every word of it was accurate. Not only did Berners-Lee propose a new information management system, he also received the first successful communication from a Hypertext Transfer Protocol via the internet only eight months afterwards. “In 2012, he was honored as the official inventor of the internet at the Olympics Opening Ceremony in London. During the ceremony, he live tweeted “This is for everyone,” words which were instantly spelled out in LCD lights attached to chairs in the crowd. Berners-Lee is currently the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), through which he oversees the internet’s continued development,” Fox says, only further instilling how integral Berners-Lee has been in the development of the World Wide Web. I’d even say one would be hard pressed to find someone more important to the development of modern technology, just like the highways have contributed more to mass travel, then internet has allowed people to exchange so much information, without it, we might still be in a less-advanced world.

             All of these names are important to computer science, though some more than others, and none of them for the same reasons. The world is still in its technological infancy, and will continue to grow exponentially, but we have to keep working towards the future and coming up with new technologies to advance. A simple, seemingly roundabout statement that holds much truth. Regardless, the future can hold nothing but advancements and knowledge, and I look forward to every bit of it.

[cs-major]

Tubes: A Book Review with Shared Experiences

From the words in the book itself, “as everyone from Odysseus on down has pointed out, a journey is really only understood upon arriving home.” A strong quote, and one I share many sentiments with. But, of course, a “journey” does not have to be physical in nature. A journey can be a story, and This book tells quite the story. So, what do I understand having finished this book?

 That circular, rubber cables with metal inside are some of the most important things on earth.

 Then entire book goes from Japan to the UK, Andrew Blum travels and records his findings. The book is full of playful speech and informative passages, often moving outside of technology’s berth to make a philosophical point, and coming back again to complete the thought. It’s a well-crafted piece of literature, and the places that Blum writes about seem like places I’d like to visit, if only to experience the incredible sights that he saw.

 For example, when Blum talks about how he flew to California to see the first IMP, he describes more than just meeting the machine or the man who supervised its installation and use, but even the anticipation on the plane-ride there and wondering what he was even looking forward to. He goes on to describe it as almost a religious experience, seemingly comparing the IMP to Judaism’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Muslim’s Kaaba in Mecca. I’ve personally never experienced something so holy, and I’m willing, if not eager, to know what it’s like. I reminisce of my time spent in California, aimlessly watching the water on the beach and following my families through college tours for my little brother. We explored a handful of museums, one of which being a technology-themed history establishment, where I saw a Mark II up close. I wish we’d been on a tour that day, instead of just aimlessly wandering through listening to my dad make remarks about the many historical computers and how the original “bug” was an actual bug.

 Although, he was quite knowledgeable when it came to computer history.

 I did some research into the event of the “Original Bug” (which I put in caps, as I’m talking about the moth), and I found some disturbing news. In simply searching “Mark II” I find several sources with differing information. One site says that Grace Hopper was the one to discover the insect, another says that lab techs discovered it and Hopper simply recorded it, another yet describes how the machine being used at the time was a Mark I! So many conflicting facts makes my head spin…

 Perhaps this is one of the drawbacks of the internet? So many voices all speaking up at once, most with accurate information, but a vast minority with conflicting thoughts and half-truths. When a network becomes too big, it begins to spread to more than just those who read the addendum at the end of the peer review paper. And, now, with social media, we find that the vast majority of information isn’t even reading the paper—but, rather, the article referencing the news page referencing the obscure, self-published conspiracy theorist referencing that one time a president may or may not have mentioned a study done on lab rats to test for Marvel’s mutant X-gene.

 Sorry, my SyFy junkie got a bit out of hand, there. My point is, not everyone checks their sources anymore because, hey, “just Google it.”

 Everything is so interconnected, now, it can be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction, and this can lead to misinformation being spread unintentionally. Like with all benefits—like the way the internet connects us all—there must be some drawbacks.

 Of course, this imperfection is simply what makes it all so perfect.

[cs-major]

The Filter Bubble: To Pop, or Not to Pop?

I use Internet Explorer.

 I hear horrified gasps in the distance. What, you plebeians think that I would use your worthless “Google Chrome” browser? How lower-class of you! No, I think I’ll leave the sub-optimal processing and slow load-speed to the amateurs.

 Of course, I’m totally kidding. I use Google Chrome just ‘cause it’s what I grew up with. All of my passwords are already saved in it and I don’t have to make sure I didn’t forget that one tab I’ve had open for weeks on end. It keeps everything in its place when I leave, so when I come back I don’t have to worry about all of the little bits and pieces that come with being active on the interwebs.

 Of course, anyone who uses Chrome knows what the “new tab” page looks like: A google search bar, your eight most visited websites, and your bookmarks bar at the top. In our research into the Filter Bubble, this was the first thing I noticed. My eight sites would be nothing like anyone else’s—unless someone spent extensive time at cats.com and also had a lot of spare time for YouTube. This is the ultimate type of Filter Bubble—one which only shows you things and places you’ve already been and visit often.

 For the proposed experiment, I used my brother’s phone to brows YouTube. With my search history, one could find a lot of vlog and art accounts, animation projects and magic tricks—but my brother’s front page was littered with Japanese music and related foreign videos. (I know that he uses the app mostly to listen to music and not for its intended use of video viewing) To get some perspective, I opened my incognito mode to see what YouTube looked like from an unbiased viewpoint. I found that nowhere were my magic tricks or vlog accounts, and not a single anime to be found. Instead I find Buzzfeed and news networks, sports and Eminem, Trailers and music—apparently it was an appropriate use for the video-viewing website. Nothing like either me or my brother’s devices!

 In fact, I think I’ll be spending a little more time on my “incognito YouTube” account, as some of these videos look pretty interesting. Man, I wish I could be shown these videos on my account!

 Yes, that was sarcasm.

 While I do actually want to see some of the videos shown in the incognito browser, on a perfect internet, I would be shown those videos! But with the algorithms that cut out all the information we don’t already watch, there’s no way I would’ve ever found them. I would’ve been forever ignorant of “ROFL! Golden Buzzer Comedian Makes Judges Can't Stop LAUGHING! | Semi Final 5 | BGT 2017”!

 Uh… whatever that is.

 We find ourselves in a world controlled by computers, and nobody realizes how much we depend on them or how much these algorithms are able to shape and solidify our opinions. If we continue on this path, the world will begin to look like the two sides of a chess board. Everyone is either on one side or the other.

 Hence, World War III.

 Although it’s more likely that we’ll just be a little more bigoted and a little less open minded. Perhaps even so much as to create more stagnant regions of the world, but I doubt nuclear holocaust is something we have to fear right now.

 I’m reading a book—Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet—and on page 70 the author, Andrew Blum, talks about what he says, “an economic geographer would describe all this as a ‘business cluster.’” When talking about Silicon Valley. He goes on to describe how the unique qualities of everyone in Silicon Valley helped a booming business grow exponentially. Now, just imagine that a handful of key people weren’t able to connect like they did because of the Filter Bubble… Markets would crash, the economy would crumble, nations would sink into the seas, continents would fall into chaos!!!

 Or we wouldn’t have had Google for a couple more years, but who knows! It could’ve been!!

 After a few Google searches, I found the Wikipedia article on the Filter Bubble, and in the notes at the bottom of the page I found an article called “Google Personalization on Your Search Results Plus How to Turn it Off” which tells you all about the Filter Bubble Google has installed and a surefire way to make it so that you’ll get the results you really want and not what Google decides you want. This is proof that, not only is this a problem, but it’s one that people have already worked on solving. What should really be done is this program should be removed altogether! If we all get the same news, then we all know the same things—and if we all know the same things, we’ll grow closer and closer as a community, which can only lead to peaceful times.

 … right?

[cs-major]

The Pattern on the Stone: A Book Review

To start, I wasn’t all that interested or impressed by the POTS book. Boolean logic and binary were not new concepts to me. I knew what a nor gate was and how to use sticks and levers to simulate it. I understood what “programming” meant and how algorithms worked. All old hat, in my personal experience.

Of course, that wasn’t the case for the rest of the book. As I delved deeper, I began to find concepts I hadn’t yet heard of. This shift in interest started with the seventh chapter. I’d never heard of Parallel Computers before (besides reading the chapter’s title in the table of contents before starting the book). In fact, I was looking forward to the last three chapters, as I have been highly interested in AI and was curious what could be “beyond engineering” and pertain to computers.

As I continued reading, after the seventh chapter, I found myself dreading putting the book down, rereading sections to fully comprehend and absorb the information, and reading ahead, only to go back when it was officially assigned to read, just for fun. The concepts introduced in the final three chapters had me interested, hungry for knowledge, more than the book itself could provide. I ended up going to several online journals and studies to sate my hunger. I believe I’ve learned more about computers, the science behind them, and the future in store for humanity in the past few weeks than I have in the past dozen years.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I was highly interested in the last three chapters. Parallel computers, learning computers, and “beyond engineering.” I was highly curious about what these chapters could contain. One paragraph caught my attention. Hillis talks about babies and how they learn, but from an electrical engineer and programmer’s perspective. He states,

“It functions like recognizing faces and understanding language are learned in different parts of the brain, then there must also be some sense in which these functions are already built in from the beginning. Newborn babies are particularly interested in faces in the first few days of life, and they learn to recognize them long before they learn to distinguish between much simpler shapes, such as letters. Similarly, baby seem predisposed to pay attention to certain kinds of patterns in speech that allow them to learn words and grammar. The functions that process language and recognize faces end up in different parts of the brain because, presumably, those parts of the brain are somehow primed to perform those dissimilar functions.”

Comparing human brains to computers is something I’ve done since I was in middle school. It all began with a simple curiosity of what makes people tick, evolving into a moderate wonder of the intricacies of the human brain, and finally to the processes that drive individual parts of the bundle of neurons that’s within each section of our mind. Step by step I learned how the brain functions. How neurons fire bio-electrical pulses through long chains of other neurons. What each section of the brain controlled in the body and mind. Now, I’m learning how each of those processes are translated into a computer program. One step closer to true AI, one step closer to true VR, one step closer to true immortality… All of these things are possible once we learn to translate the human brain into 1’s and 0’s.

Now, the book was pretty good at using laymen’s terms, where applicable. Sometimes technical words were required, and they were mostly defined shortly thereafter (for example, parallelism). One that I didn’t so much have to look up, but more refresh my memory on, was concurrently—a word used quite often in the parallel computers chapter. I had a feeling, based on the context and form of the word, that it meant “at the same time” or something similar, but I had to check. A quick Google search, and I knew the precise definition: “at the same time; simultaneously.”

Essentially what I said, but preciseness is kind of important in computer sciences.

I also consider myself pretty good when it comes to words. I’ve had an affinity for the English language since childhood, and I still pick up on new words fairly quickly. It helps that I took a couple Latin courses in high school to learn the roots of most of the English language.

I’ve learned a lot from the POTS book, ranging from how the biological eye works, if said eye were plugged into a computer; to how we’ve learned to speed up processes with multiple processors, even going as far as to shorten computation time of seemingly sequential programs—code that must be read in order and can’t be split up by parallel computers to be read.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who doesn’t know much about computers, but wants to learn. It starts with the barebones basics, Boolean logic, and works its way up to some of the most complex computing methods and techniques of the late twentieth century—and yet, Hillis manages to maintain a level of technobabble that any dedicated Google-er could figure out.

[cs-major]

Computer Science... Yay~...

My name’s Jay, and I’m in Computer Science because that’s where all the future jobs are.

In the past, IT has been a joke. Half the time, their first suggestion would be “turn it off and on again” and it would work, but computers are getting smarter, more complicated. Eventually, they’ll be able to do the “off and on again” thing on their own. But that won’t mean IT will be useless. That just means the job becomes even more important. No longer will they be plugging in consoles and holding power buttons, but solving real problems.

I’m not sure what those problems would be, yet—but that’s why I’m taking these classes! To learn. Learn how to make programs and what it means to be a programmer, and how to use computers and technology.

So, that’s why I chose Computer Science, but why did I pick Kansas State University, you ask?

The money.

I was offered the lowest price with the highest scholarship. That’s the short answer; and, while that’s a decent part of why I came here, there’s more, equally important reasons.

I enjoyed my visit. When I first visited Manhattan, it seemed like a quaint little town with a few restaurants and a barbershop, but now that I’ve gotten to know it, I’m even more happy I stayed. The buildings were all new, Wefald Hall—the dorm I’ve lived in both years—was weeks away from completion… it had the best amenities for the lowest cost, and I knew I’d get a quality education here. The choice seemed obvious.

Now, to get back on track for the assignment, I’ll continue to talk about myself.

I do have hobbies. Not many hobbies, but they’re there. For example, I love to ski! I don’t get to often—not much snow in Kansas, and even fewer mountains—but every once in a while, I’ll go west to Colorado for some good slopes.

I also enjoy fictional writing. It’s been a long while since I’ve been able to pick up the proverbial pen, but I still consider myself a writer. I’m just taking an extended hiatus!

Then Netflix. But everyone watches TV and stuff, so I guess that doesn’t really count.

Next, my family. We’re not exactly close, me and them, but they’re pretty tightly knit. I was glad to get out of the house, but I do miss them sometimes. (though “sometimes” is probably an exaggeration)

They were good parents, and my brother isn’t a hellspawn, but that’s not why I feel out of place there. I can’t really explain it, either. I just feel like I belong elsewhere, and I’m not sure where that is, yet. I’ll find it in time, though.

I have, and still work, at the local soccer complex, back in Overland park (where I’m from, which will have a paragraph all its own after this one, now that I realize I skipped it). It’s a good job, pays well, isn’t too busy, has good hours, only open on the weekend, etc. There’s nothing really exciting about it—I mean, I’m a concessions attendant. I get people food and take their money—but it’s still a job, and I need money.

Overland Park! I completely missed that question, somehow… maybe I was just so focused on the question that usually comes first, “Why K-State?” but that’s in the past. Let’s continue.

Overland Park is a suburb of Kansas City, next to Olathe, Lenexa, and (on the other side of the state line) Grandview. We lived in a cul-de-sac and made friends with the neighbors. The school was just down the road and nobody really made a fuss. It was quiet. It was nice. But, now that I’m out in the world, where it’s always a hustle and a bustle, I’m not sure I could go back. At least, not to stay for any extended period of time. Weekends are good, a week at the most. This summer was terrible. Months back there… I was bored out of my mind!! But, again, now I’m back and I can get into the swing of things once more.

Most people fear spiders or drowning. Personally, I’m afraid of heights. Or, more accurately, falling from heights… actually, scratch that, I’m most afraid of the sudden stop at the end. Yeah, that’s accurate. Oh, and death. But the only people not afraid of death are those who don’t care if they live anymore, so it’s probably a good thing I fear death. And I’d reverse the order, if I were putting them on a “most to least” list. Like, death, then heights, etc. etc. etc.

Of course, there isn’t a question about fears, but one does ask about my plans after college, and that’s my next biggest fear. The future. I have no idea what it holds for me. Heck, I don’t know what I’m going to do for dinner, let alone a career! I have an idea, like everyone else—finish college, get a degree, then find something that I can get paid for that doesn’t make me want to rip out my eyeballs and swallow them, then grow old and die. Easy. Now, all the details still elude me, but I think that’s kind of the best part of life. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be okay, and that’s enough for me.

And this is the part of the assignment where I’m not really talking about myself, anymore. The textbook!! The chapter that I look forward to most would have to be Computers that Learn and Adapt. AI (Artificial Intelligence) has always been something I thought was interesting. A man-made computer that could talk back to you… THE FUTURE!!! (insert Squidward meme) It will have access to computers in such a way that nobody ever has. If we integrate humans and computers even more, we may also create some way to essentially “plug people in” to have a direct interface with the machine. That’s something else I’m interested in, but less so, as I didn’t really enjoy Biology class in high school.

The other chapter I’d say I’m looking forward to is Speed: Parallel Computers. I have a computer (what I’m typing this essay on) that can load a google page in less than a second, generating thousands upon thousands of bits of data and almost as many search results. I want to know just how fast that process can get. When will we reach the atomic wall? When we make computers so small we can’t make them any smaller? How long until that happens? What will we do after that?

The next question asks about what online sources I get for tech news. It may be unpatriotic to say, but I actually usually go to BBC News: Technology. I feel like it gives a slightly wider view of the world news. In fact, I go to the page now, and the first story displayed is about a Chinese man who was jailed for helping internet-goers evade state blocks! International~~~ That’s another thing that’s gotten me into technology. The tech brings with it neigh infinite ways of bettering our world—but with it, just as many ways to ruin it. We need people who will make sure nobody abuses its power. And I hope to be able to make that a reality, somehow…

 And that’s a brief biography of me. Well over a thousand words and touching on every topic possible. I hope it doesn’t seem like it jumps around too much. It can be difficult to go from “family life” to “external references for technology news,” but I think I did an okay job.

Guess you’ll be the judge of that, though, won’t you?