Today I'm making my journal! I had a problem at first figuring out how to make the journal itself, but now I think it's working. I just tested it and it worked! Success! I put a font at the top so it is all the same font and I figured out how to use different headers and sized fonts!
Today I made thef first part of what will eventually become a piano. I opened by makey makey and figured out how to connect it to my computer. Then I pulled up the site containing the piano code so that I could make it work with the piano. I connected the makey makey to the keys of my computer when I then in turn connected to pieces of foil to use as the 'keys' of my piano. While trying to 'play' this so called piano, I had to hold onto another piece of tin foil that was connected to the ground of the makey makey. That when whenever I pressed a key the circuit was completed and there was power going to the makey makey. It wasn't a very hard process, but each element took a lot of time because I had never done it before. It was really rewarding to see the whole thing come to fruition!
Today I worked on creating a code for a piano in scratch. I was planning to use the makeymakey website code, and when I found that couldn't work I decided to make my own piano code in scratch that I could eventually turn into HTML. I didn't really face any difficulty in making the code- the only potential issue is that there is a little lag in how quickly the user can play the keys in sequence. Overall it was a very smooth process, though and I am optimistic about what it will mean for the future! It uses the cats as keys of the piano and they are connected to the keys of my computer. When they are clicked or their corresponding key is pressed, they play a note on the piano!
Today I worked on an assignment given to us called FizzBuzz. In essence the project wanted us to create a code with a counter that climbed 1 each time, and when the number was a multiple of three, Fizz would be displayed, when it was a multiple of 5, Buzz would be displayed, and when it was a multiple of 15, FizzBuzz would be displayed. I made it in scratch and it ultimately didn't take me that long, and I just used what I knew about how division works to make the code understand when there was no remainder of the number when divided by 3, 5, or 15, it would say the corresponding word. It took me a little while to figure out where the division block was and what it was called, but once I did and I got it working, the process worked really well.
Today I worked on creating my function sketch. It is just a simply calculator, but it took me a long time to make. I thought this to be very funny because I already had a code that was a calculator, but I challenged myself not to copy it because if I did then I wouldn't really understand how it worked. Using what I knew and some info from w3, I was able to get it to work!! It is not very colorful or interesting, but it works, and I was happy with that after the multiple hours it took me to get it to work... Anyway- here it is: Click here for my calculator It is a simple calculator and there isn't much that is not self explanatory from the code. It just took me a while because I wasn't keeping it simple and was thinking of elaborate ways to make a very simple project.
Today I read the JavaScript for Cats informative website/blog/thing, and I thought it was really helpful. While I didn't understand some of it, what I did understand was phrased clearly and helped me to understand how and why certain things in JavaScript work. I also likes that it was a little humorous because otherwise it would have been a little dry, but the way it was written kept it interesting, and I thought the piece overall to be very worth reading. It helped me to overall grasp the way JavaScript works and also what it was created for. Overall 👍
It's been a while since I have posted. Since then I have worked really hard on my piano code in JavaScript. I've added keys and it plays the sounds I want it to when the user clicks on the letter corresponding to the note. It uses div pictures for keys and when the user clicks it plays a sound. Now I am working on getting the code to work so that if a key on the keyboard is pressed, it makes the notes play, rather than clicking on them. That will be the last step in making the code compatable with the MakeyMakey. Today I worked on my array code which is a random soccer player generator. I only have three players so far, and the code doesn't work. I should make a lab with Molly to go over it an make it work. I have spent over an hour on it and it still won't work- I ckecked it online and checked Molly's code for her egg generator, and debugged it myself and nothing really worked. I am probably missing something obvious but idk what it is... My function and my FizzBuzz code are working, but I have to check on the link for FizzBuzz because when I am not logged into scratch it isn't working and I want to make sure that it works for any user and not just for me. Thanks for reading. Ik this was a long one but I had a lot to update on. Click here for my array- it might not work...
Yet again it's been a while since I've posted. Since my last post we had winter break and then there were some really sad events at school so we haven't had many normal classes at all since then. I haven't done that much coding since then, and I need to think more about what I would like to work on the in the second semester. I could work on my piano stairs, but I think in some ways I'm too close to work on that for a semester and in some ways I'm way too far from being done... I'll figure it out. I have worked on one project with Spencer which was our randomly moving and sized pictures of Diego Schwartzman. We couldn't figure out how to make a button to make all of them disappear, but we were able to get the pictures to be randomly sized and move whenever the page was reloaded. It uses a random math function to make all of their sizes and locations random. The user does have to reload the page to get them to change, but we are working on making it better. Also- for a little context- Diego Schwartzman is a 5' 6" Argentinian tennis player and we both really like him. I'm looking forward to working on something really cool this semester! I just can't figure out what it is. Whenever I figure it out, it's going right here! I still need to make more of my links on my normal page sneakers, but I'll do that when I have more time and I'm not focused on figuring out a project to do...
Today I 'finished' my valentine. I'm going to push it to my website, but I need to work on it next week when I have my lab with Molly. I couldn't figure out how to get the text centered over the image and I figured I wouldn't decide who I wanted to send it to before I got it working, so I have to do that too. Other than that, this week has been super stressful but super good too. I was really happy because I was accepted to go to Berekely Model UN which is an away conference in the Bay Area. It was super stressful because I have an English essay due next week, I have a huge history paper due the week after and I had a French composition along with a math quiz today. Luckily I think the worst is behind me... Anyway that's all for now. More later... Click here for my work in progress valentine
Today I worked on finding images and laying out the way my next project will work. It took me much longer than I expected to find images that I thought were both very effective and informative without being needlessly graphic. It also took my a while to decide how I wanted to lay out the project when I actually start coding it and the overall aesthetic I want the site to have. Other than that it hasn't been a very eventful week, but I am looking forward starting my project.
Today and this week I worked on finding more images for my project. I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would have liked because I had a history in class essay which I had to spend a really long time studying for, I had a French test which I also had to spend a really long time doing, and I had a jazz performance. I will be sure to work on writing out what I want to say and working on implementing that into code in the next few days!! It'll definetly give me something to do if school gets shut down for corona (COVID-19)...
I spent HOURS this weekend working to figure out Molly's 'eating animals' code. I was unsuccessful.
I read the fashion article Molly wanted us to read today. It was very interesting, and I desperately needed something to do, so I probably enjoyed it even more for that reason. Yet again it has been an immense amount of time since my last entry. The Coronacation is now over and DigitalDalton™️ has begun. I am super impressed with all of my teachers how they have been so quickly able to adapt to the new style of teaching!!
Today I spent time working on my code sketch about my life in the past weeks with coronavirus. It isn't quite done yet because the animation I tried to add isn't working and I'm not sure why!! I don't like how in Glitch I can't inspect the page in the same way as when I'm testing a code of Sublime Text in Chrome. I also am thinking about what I want to do for my next big project. I was thinking of maybe working with a couple other people to make a podcast... Not sure. Trying to finish one thing at a time.
Pre-podcast ideas/answers: "Do you think someone's past predicts they're future actions? Has this been true in your own life?" and "Do you think someone's actions can be predicted based on statistics from their peer group? How does this apply in your own life?" I do think someone's past does in some ways predict their future actions. People are capable of change, but on average, people are faily consistent. It is clear to see, even in my life, how my past actions have predicted future actions. I think also that someone's actions can be predicted based on their peer group. Not as reliably as based on past actions, but still faily reliably. If someone has friends who are all hard -core criminals, you could suspect that the person in question has been around or participated in some type of illegal activity.
I did know from shadowing a judge this past summer that algorithms are used for sentencing and even more so for whether someone gets parole or can live at home before their trial. Algorithms are based entirely off of generalizations, but can be unbiased in some situations. Humans and algorithms each have their advantages, but usually both end up being incorrect in their decisions a large portion of the time. I still believe what I said about a past predicting a future even after listening to this podcast.