Arlon's CSUMB ProSeminar CST300 Module 7 Learning Journal for the week Wed 02/17-Tues 02/23, year 2021

 Arlon's CSUMB ProSeminar CST300 Module 7 Learning Journal for the week Wed 02/17-Tues 02/23, year 2021

Journal 7

Part 1: This week we continued work on our team video. We collaborated by first deciding how to collaborate. Siju got us off to a good start by writing both of the scripts right away. Gloriana and Cristian kept the momentum by somehow creating something called a "Microsoft Power Point Presentation" for each video. I was able to provide the narration for both videos. This took a lot more practice than I thought it would, but once I got the practice taken care of, I was finally able to do a better narration. What I mean by that was that for both videos there were many many iterations of redos of the narration. Once I felt I had gotten it all the way through without stuttering, choking, slobbering or any weird noises, I listened to it and it sounded a bit stressed, because I was trying to sound exciting! So then I spent some time working on relaxing at the same time. It turns out there is a balance between sounding exciting, sounding stressed and sounding relaxed. Finally I think I got some nearly acceptable versions sent over to my team members. The tools I used were just my Canon SX40HS camera and computer with Gimp, Notepad++, Chrome, PDF redirect V2 and FreeFileSync, plus Google's GMail and Google Meet for meeting and communication. I have no idea how they made the power point presentation, but I suspect it had something to do with Microsoft software. I helped edit the script a bit too. Cristian said he knows how to splice the audio with the power point using Audacity for sound mastering and I'm not sure what else, but I do know it's going to be exciting, so get ready. The process was surprisingly smooth, considering the only thing about the project that I know how to do is talk. Actually I know how to assemble a clustered system which is a step toward cloud computing which is a step toward edge computing which was the project's topic, but we're doing a really vague video presentation rather than an actual programming topic. Perhaps in large collaborative projects what I might do differently in the future is perhaps ask for a programming assignment alternative to making a video since video editing is processor intensive and programmers really just need an old clunker to dial in to their server to modify code.

Part 2:

This week we reviewed APA guidelines, ethical frameworks, argumentation technique, logical fallacies, claims and stakeholder positions to turn in our final ethics argumentation paper to fill the GWAR requirement for the class.

We reviewed resume and cover letter building techniques in order to provide peer review feedback to our team members.

We reviewed video presentation guidelines in order to continue building our team video.

There was a page to review regarding using visual aids and props which are generally helpful in presentations when used appropriately.

There was a comedy video about PowerPoint presentations and what not to do with them, such as provide spinning text when people are trying to read it or, put everything you are going to say onto the slide.

We reviewed two Ted talks, one computer science topic and one of our choice.

The first Ted talk I selected was for computer science and was a twelve year old app programmer:

https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_suarez_a_12_year_old_app_developer/up-next#t-261435

I started programming when I was 12 and I've heard of lots of other people that have too. There must be something about 12. The kid reminded me a lot of myself, but the video felt fake overall, no offense, he was just too good of a speaker. Is he programming, or just talking about it? Just saying. And I'm also wondering if he just got pushed into it by modern culture, why is he even up there? He hadn't made anything significant, just some color changing stuff. When people say etcetera after a specific list I really wonder about validity. Java, Python, C, etc. He's 12. I'm just doubting the etcetera. There's something about that that's just not real. Steve Jobs? I thought he was a programmer? Wozniak would be the appropriate inspiration for a real programmer, not Jobs. Something's fishy about that one, no offense to the kid. I think he's a good actor promoting the industry, from a big tech family.

The second Ted talk I watched was about Nikola Tesla, the real Tesla:

https://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_electric_rise_and_fall_of_nikola_tesla?language=en#t-4668

The video was a tribute Nikola Tesla and his vast set of unique and far reaching accomplishments including but not limited to giving us the power grid we survive and thrive off of to this very day. Tesla contradicted Einstein's theory of General Relativity as can be seen in a quote from an article he wrote in 1932 "It might be inferred that I am alluding to the curvature of space supposed to exist according to the teachings of relativity, but nothing could be further from my mind. I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved, is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view." (Tesla, 1932)

I figured out one of my standing questions this week, how to make a client connect to ssh when it won't (it was just - get a new client app that works!)

I've also partly figured out and simplified the first two questions, I almost have them figured out.

So now I'm back down to 9 unanswered questions:

Gain knowledge of how to:

System and Network Administration:

• Figure out how to dial past my router, configure my router to allow secure incoming http/https connections, and be able to use that as a LAMP hosting setup for websites.
• Figure out how to dial past my router, configure my router to allow secure incoming SSH connections, and be able to use that as a remote SSH/VPN so I can administer the system remotely.

Those two items seem closely related, and - I mean - in Knoppix - not in Windows, not in RedHat, not in CentOS - in Knoppix, specifically in Knoppix. And also with IPCop as an intermediary firewall router.

• Build and back-build Knoppix, and be able to work around publicly available software dependency problems. I have been stuck for a few years now on 'installing that package will break bladebladebla whatever dependency software...'
• Tunnel PulseAudio output with socat over SSH - for sound with VNC, among other applications. In Knoppix.
• What exactly are all the netmask and gateway and all the network settings, how exactly to use them and understand all the network options.

And other similar networking and admin and troubleshooting questions.

Security:

• Check and verify the security implications of the first two items, hosting and VPN.

Robotics:

• Programming those little chips you can buy, making them connect to servos and then . . . . !!!! (Making an army of little Robots that does everything we need them to, and robotify everything mechanical around me....)

A Java Swing GUI with a slider that opens and closes a valve for water somewhere, somehow, in the real world. And/or turns a motor or pushes a servo.

• #how to execute a command after init 3 in the same line

#like:

sudo init -e cmatrix 3 #but that doesn't work

sudo init 3 -e cmatrix #neither does that

sudo init -e "cmatrix" 3 #etc

• how to startx as a user other than knoppix in knoppix

(without using vncserver or xtightvncviewer)

References

Tesla, N. (1932, September 11). PIONEER RADIO ENGINEER GIVES VIEWS ON POWER. tfcbooks.com. http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1932-09-11.htm.