CST 499 - Week 8

This week we spent our time working on the final presentation and preparing for the capstone festival. It was interesting to finish up this course and I am looking forward to the meeting on Saturday. Looking back this capstone went by quite quickly but feels like a lot of effort and work was expended on it. It is bittersweet to think that this may be my last entry into this journal which I have been working on for two whole years now. I hope to be able to use some of the skills I have garnered from my time at CSUMB in the workplace soon.

CST 499 - Week 7

This week we finished out project final report. It was quite interesting to go through and catalogue how our project has come out through these past few weeks. I enjoyed the process and am happy with a lot of the interesting things I have learned in these few weeks. We also finished our first version of a presentation video for this weekend’s presentations. I think mine came out well, it has been a lot of work completing all the tasks for the capstone in a solo project, but I feel that it has been more worthwhile that way as I can call my entire project and process my own.

CST 499 - Week 6

This week we had our final meeting regarding our capstone project. It went well and we covered the plan regarding our final presentation that we will be working on this next week. We also took the ETS exam this week which was interesting to go over.  I think I may need to study up more on networking and some of the more low-level hardware aspects of computing from some of my experience. I also believe that algorithms and functions seem to be one of my stronger suits from my experience. I had quite a bit of trouble working with the proctors prior to the exam. It took a total of 6 or 7 proctors and an hour and a half before I was able to finally take my exam. I continued working on my application and have a fully functioning version working currently I was able to also start on user tests and got a lot of positive feedback and interest in the project, which was very encouraging.

CST 499 - Week 5

This week was fairly interesting. It is incredible how fast the capstone has been going by. I began working on joining the back end and front end of my project. It is I believe close to being completed with hopefully just a few more days of effort put in. I was able to implement a google sign-in features to address some of the ethical concerns and also to possibly build upon if I so chose later on. We took our ETS practice test and will be scheduling our full test later on this week, which I am looking forward to. Overall it was a pretty good week.

CST 499 - Week 4

This week we completed our Individual Learning Plan Portfolios. It was really rather exciting to look back at all the work that we have completed in such a short time and see how far I personally have progressed in terms of skills and knowledge gained. I have been applying to a few different positions recently and I think that my effort placed in my ILP and resume are definitely helpful in my professional endeavours. My project is coming along well, as I have a working static version of the application currently. Hopefully this next week I can begin to connect it to a live database and start seeing results.

CST 499 - Week 3

This week we spent time on updating our LinkedIn accounts and working on resumes and mock cover letters. It was really interesting to look at how others wrote and organized their history of work, and I gained some inspiration from others. Everyone has some very interesting backgrounds and histories that have been going through the program, and often already have fairly impressive experience behind them. I enjoyed the work on my own resume and LinkedIn account and learned from some of the suggestions from this week's reading. Overall the project is doing well, although I was not able to get as much progress as I had hoped for this week.

CST 499 - Week 2

Last week’s reading was quite useful to me. It solidified a hunch I had about the need for extra effort prior to and after a meeting in order to ensure that the whole meeting was worthwhile and effective. At my own work previously a lot of meetings have often felt underprepared when the person who called the meeting spent most of the time ensuring we were all on the same page on the topic at hand. The advice for continual follow up also seems very important in this fast paced workplace environment and I hope to implement these suggestions into my personal workplace meetings soon. I have already discussed some of these ideas with coworkers, and they all seemed quite excited to take the initiative the next time it is one of our turns to pilot a meeting.

CST 499 - Week 1

This week we read the article on effective meetings. I found the information to be quite interesting, and I believe they will definitely be helpful for teams. I think that having a clear goal for a meeting, and then coming to the meeting prepared with that goal in mind, is probably the one of the most important aspects to grasp for an effective meeting to occur. I know in my workplace that we try to have clear goals and ideas prior to meetings, and will prepare with each other prior to attendance. It is also important to follow up after meetings to see if the decisions reached and objectives set are being achieved. I find it interesting when considering meetings how much hangs upon work prior to and after the meeting itself, even though it is the focal point of that activity.

CST 438 - Week 8

This week concluded our course. We took the final, which was our last assignment in the process. Overall I enjoyed the course, it was quite a learning experience. It feels like it went by really quickly and that we covered a lot of ground, but I enjoyed it. It was truly a great hands-on learning experience, especially getting to work alongside my team and have regular meetings and a chat room where we congregated and discussed pressing matters, the design of the project and what needed attention at the moment. I learned a lot spending time with the team and utilizing github’s branches for the project as well.

CST 438 - Week 7

This week we began wrapping up our project for final submission. We each worked hard to implement various design patterns into our project for the assignment. I worked on implementing dependency injection in the Alert Controller project and as part of that created a database and database management file along with an updated set of alert controller test cases to ensure that they tested properly with the dependency injection. We all got together and ensured the completion of our various patterns and their accuracy. It was really interesting to work on the project overall with all my teammates one last time. It seems like it was just yesterday when we were first getting to know each other at the start of our program.

CST 438 - Week 6

This week we started our foray into Design Patterns and their application. We spent time this week studying some of the many various patterns that have been established for use by designers and are working on implementing designs into our own project. As part of the reading this week we were supposed to study a variety of different design patterns. I decided to look into the Filter, Bridge, Facade, Mediator, Iterator, Observer, Strategy, MVC, Singleton, and
Prototype Patterns. I thought the Bridge was an interesting pattern to learn about in particular as the bridges allow for the functionality of the concrete classes to remain independent of the interface implementing classes, I also was surprised by some of the similarities between the Mediator and Bridge Patterns. One pattern that stood out to me was the Facade Pattern and it seems like this is one pattern that developers may implement without even knowing it as many of the “under the hood” methods and functioning are often hidden from the end user as they utilize an entirely different interface with the program. It was also nice to study up on the MVC pattern, which I believe my team and I will be working on this next week, we’ve had a few things come up this past week but are planning on setting aside a few days to work on the project together.

CST 438 - Week 5

This week was an interesting one. I had a few things pop up in my personal life that made things a little hectic for a brief period during the week. But the instructions were quite interesting this week as far as homework went. Some of the team, including myself, were somewhat unfamiliar with the tasks necessary for the coursework as well as the stack we are using, but luckily AB aided us in getting up to speed and walked us through the how to set up our environment and get started working on the project and how to write the test units for the project. We worked together on the unit tests on our branches for the project.

CST 438 - Week 4

This week we had quite a bit of reading and videos to cover for our assignments. It was interesting to go through and see others research about what were some of the most common reasons for failures in a project. The disasters that can result from misunderstandings and miscommunication are quite apparent and the emphasis for the need to clarify and comprehend each other when working with others was glaring. It was also interesting to see just how important the creation of requirements are in the beginning, and through the lifespan, of a project. Miscommunication, unclear requirements or a lack of all the necessary stakeholders can doom a project to failure even before production can start. This week we had a group project consisting of creating diagrams for our upcoming project. It was nice to work with everyone and hammer out a schedule to meet and work on tasks.

CST 438 - Week 3

This week we had quite a few interesting articles and videos to cover for our assignment. We covered “white box” testing which is an interesting and seemingly straightforward way to test a program. There was some testing called EP/BVA which was very new to me with its boundary checking which was a little weird to think about given the example application. I did have a little trouble understanding what the author was meaning in some of the questions that had grammatical errors, but overall it was an interesting and worthwhile article. We also are starting to get into stride on our project, deciding when to conveniently communicate and where to start working on the project.

CST 438 - Week 2

This week we met with our teammates and began deciding what we would like to work on for our project. We have decided to build a cryptocurrency price tracking site where a few different currencies will be displayed with data relating to their real time pricing. Also there will be a subscriber form for people to be notified by email when a specific currency reaches a certain price. We have our repository, slack and pivotal tracker set up and I believe it should be a good project to work on.

CST 438 - Week 1

This was the first week of our new course, CST 438. It looks like it is going to be quite interesting, and involve quite a bit of both individual and group projects. It was interesting this week to get started with AWS and launching, and signing into, our first instances for practice. Reading up on the Plan and Document style and the Agile style were both quite informative in regard to how a company and team will operate together to work on actual large-scale projects. As we proceed it will definitely be useful to learn about these methods and apply them with my teammates in order to gain experience with these real world practices.

CST 361s - Week 8

This was the final week of the course and was a shorter week then normal. It has been a bit of a scramble attempting to deploy our working site, but I think we are getting close. After attempting to deploy to a few different hosts we finally settled on DigitalOcean and are waiting to hear back from CalGE in order to get the go ahead with launching the site. We are turning in all of our papers we can today, the others we have to wait to hear back from CalGE before submitting and then soon will be deploying the site. I am excited at what we were able to accomplish in less than a four week period, all things considered, and the site itself works well locally.

This week my total service is at 43 hours.

CST 361s - Week 7

This week has been a little interesting. I was having some issues with the CalGE site that I worked on with the clock in and out system not functioning properly. This I believe I finally got working today, but I have been working on it for the better part of a week thus far and lost out on some progress because of it. Now that it is complete I will hopefully figure out how and where to host the site by thursday and will finish all of my submissions by Friday, it will be tight but if I can get the site to work and be hosted properly then I think that will free up some time to work on the other projects. My team and I have been working hard this past week and I believe are caught up on most paperwork with this short weeks requirements being all that’s left, but we will need to get our final hours and reviews done by our Partner very soon.

This week I have completed 36 hours to date.

CST 361s - Week 6

This week I made a working example of the site project we are working on. I have a working log-in and sign-up form along with a working profile page where each user can add the specific information expected by our site lead. I have started working on a viewing page for the timecard punches as well and hopefully that will be working soon so I can begin work on a way to fill out a  card with the current time. I have continued with the weekly assignments including the interesting documentary provided on the new learning style being attempted. We also worked on our post-service reflection and compared how we felt now with where our opinions and beliefs were prior to beginning service. I’m hoping to finish up the site soon, figure out a proper hosting site, and then work on documentation and hand over the completed project to our contact at CalGE.

This week I have completed 16 hours and 15 minutes of my Service Learning Project.

CST 361s - Week 5

This week has been a little busy personally as I am in the middle of my move right now and have been on the road the past few days. I have been keeping in contact with my teammates as we have started working on our service project together. One of us is in the area of our Service Learning Partner and will be taking pictures and walking around the community for the Community Scan and we will work together on the final submission. I have been learning Django for the project page and find it quite interesting and fun. I’m hoping to finish my tutorial series and test projects within the next week or so and begin work on the final product website.

The Black Girls Code program seems like an interesting way to introduce an underrepresented demographic to the field of Computer Science. It often seems that the barrier to computer science comes from a mythologizing of the abilities necessary to be successful or even competent in the field. By introducing kids to the field early on, and equipping them with useful and applicable skills, the myth that only “geniuses” can study computer science will be shattered and historically underrepresented groups will join in greater numbers.

I have completed 10 hours of service on my project to date.

CST 361s - Week 4

This week we began our working together on our project, we are currently in the research and design phase where we will decide upon how to best implement our application and how it ought to appear. I recently came across django and am curious as I believe that by utilizing it we can minimize the amount of work necessary for it to function properly. As such we should be able relegate our programming to only Python, CSS and HTML to accomplish the web app. I have also looked into google App Engine and started working on the google cloud sdk for hosting our website once it is complete. I am going to be busy over the next couple of days due to a personal relocation and hope to make progress on the assignment soon.

CST 361s - Week 3

This week I began contact with my partner CalGE. I will be working with two students who are a part of my cohort in this project. The project itself sounds quite interesting as we are going to build a place for summer camp attendees to put their personal information in and to keep track of their attendance and hours at the camp. I sent in the Agreement and hope to finish that. My proposal draft is under way and I will hopefully finish that and be caught up in coursework soon. I am looking forward to working alongside my teammates and building the best program we can.

CST 361s - Week 2

This week I continued my search for a service learning partner, my Professor and TA are aiding me in finding a virtual volunteer opportunity due to personal circumstances. I am hoping to find a site soon to begin the process of the project. I am hoping to take picture of whatever Partner I will be aiding, and perhaps a picture of any of the individuals helped by my contribution. I would also probably take pictures or videos of skills that I will need to either learn or practice more in order to complete the project. I enjoyed going through this weeks reading and videos as well as our reflective work on our and our family’s history with technology. It was interesting to work on the Forum, as I was a member of the moderation team for this week’s discussion. I enjoyed many of the responses and was excited that the questions we formed were fostering a rather engaging discussion.

CST 361s - Week 1

My search for a Service Learning Partner has continued into this week as I am having trouble finding one to fit into my shortened schedule. Hopefully I will hear back from some of my inquiries and find a partner soon. This week was interesting in coursework as we looked into the history of racial segregation with regards to swimming and how that has had echoes into the modern era. We studied how these earlier injustices have had a ripple effect on minority communities that has resulted in a decreased representation in the swimming arena. It was interesting to consider how the relatively young area of Computer Science has appears to have had a racial gap grow into it as well, and to ponder what the causes of such a gap could be. I hope to have my learning partner soon and to get started in my service soon.

Scrapbook 8 - CST 373

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/15/instagram-criticised-gives-russian-censorship-demands/

Summary:
Instagram recently complied with a request by the Russian government to remove a video posted on their platform. The video posted online by an activist group purportedly showed a Russian oligarch meeting with a high-ranking member of the Russian government in a discussion on US relations. A Russian court ruled that it was a violation of the individuals involved right to privacy and as such asked instagram to take it off of their platform. Instagram complied stating that they attempt to follow any local laws or rulings regarding regulation in general.

The reason this article was chosen:
This article was chosen as it showcases how national governments may be able to still censor and regulate content they wish to restrict even in the era of the greatest flow of information ever  achieved. While the internet opens up the tool for opposition and anti-corruption activists to network and agitate online, major internet-based companies complying with censorship demands may stifle the ability of these groups to utilize the internet to project their ideas and opinions.

Credibility of sources:
The Telegraph is a well known UK-based news publication.

Ethical implications:
As the internet opens up more and more opportunities to connect people and spread differing views and opinions globally, will the censorship imposed by state actors stifle any changes for the better? Should internet-based companies attempt to oppose nations who demand censorship in pursuit of the ideal of freedom of speech, or comply and practically silence dissenters?

Scrapbook 7 - CST 373

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-11/china-may-be-raising-the-great-firewall-too-high

Summary:
While China is known for restricting its citizens’ access to certain information and opinions, it has historically turned a blind-eye to the use of VPNs to bypass their famous “great firewall”. In the past, this ignoring of Chinese people bypassing their restrictions was justified by the thought that only affluent and productive individuals would need use of the VPNs in order to access scientific information, news, or other knowledge inaccessible through the country’s internet infrastructure. However, China has recently decided that they will be shutting down VPNs across the country, thereby destroying one of the most popular ways to bypass the screen of state censorship.

The reason this article was chosen:
While China did blockade most of its users from utilizing much of the world-wide web, there were ways to work around the shutdown and access outside information that was not state-sanctioned.

Credibility of sources:
Bloomberg is a well known and respected media outlet regarding finances, news, and technology.

Ethical implications:
This increase in the amount of censorship that will be established over China will greatly affect the amount of information and opinion available to its people. While the middle and upper classes used to be able to access necessary information through bypassing the “great firewall”, now Chinese citizens may be even more cut-off from the rest of the world and unable to learn or broadcast dissident thought and feelings.

Scrapbook 6 - CST 373

/http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-netflix-dragon-box-piracy-20180111-story.html

Summary:
Netflix and Amazon have joined a few major Hollywood studios in a lawsuit against the media streaming product Dragon Box. Dragon Box utilizes Kodi software which allows for third-party add-ons that provide easy access to free, pirated materials. While the Kodi software and Dragon Box itself are not illegal, they are accused in the lawsuit of facilitating piracy by making access to pirated material very easy for their clients. The argument is mainly based around the fact that Dragon Box was advertised as a product that would allow for users to leave subscription services such a Netflix and Hulu. Dragon Box officials have responded by saying that they can not be held responsible as the software is simply accessing readily available content online.

The reason this article was chosen:
This article was chosen as it pertains to our discussion this week on issues of copying another's work, as well as highlights the issues with the negative, albeit not direct, consequences creating certain programs can have.

Credibility of sources:
The Los Angeles Times is a long standing and well-respected news source.

Ethical implications:
Dragon Box, and other streaming services that utilize Kodi software, allow people to easily access content available online that may be pirated from its original source. Is the enabling of copyright infringement through the use of one’s product just as unethical as performing the copyright infringement oneself? Or should the fact that the pirated material is simply easily accessible to the Dragon Box’s algorithm make the unauthorized streaming of shows an unfortunate side effect of the reach of the internet?

Scrapbook 5 - CST 373

https://gizmodo.com/did-design-really-cause-hawaiis-ballistic-missile-threa-1822417863

Summary:
The recent mishap of a false incoming missile strike warning being sent to all cell phones in the state of Hawaii may have been due in part to the fault of the designer, some argue. While it was a user error that caused the accidental broadcasting of the horrifying message of an imminent attack, some argue that the recently released example of the user interface utilized shows that user error was only partially to blame, as the design was severely lacking. Designers have weighed in online stating that the bare-bones design was confusing and unclear as to what would trigger a test broadcast and what would actually broadcast the warning message, thus placing some of the blame for the incident on the initial designer and their work.

The reason this article was chosen:
This article was chosen as this week we looked into the responsibility of the programmer when working and designing products. Since we primarily focused on the ethical implications of the a designers responsibility, this article highlights a real world example in which the designer’s lack of foresight and user experience may have caused a state-wide panic.

Credibility of sources:
Gizmodo is a widely circulated and well known technology blog.

Ethical implications:
When is it okay to shrug off the blame of even obviously user-induced errors onto the design of a program. If the design is needlessly complicated for the average user, is it really the user’s fault for failing or should the designer take some of, if not all of the blame?

Scrapbook 4 -CST 373

U.S. Financial Crime Fighters Eye Overseas Virtual Currency Platforms

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-senate-moneylaundering/u-s-financial-crime-fighters-eye-overseas-virtual-currency-platforms-official-idUSKBN1F62NM

Summary:
The US has announced recently that it will begin seriously investigating virtual currency platforms, even if they are located in foreign countries. The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which has already been combating money laundering utilizing cryptocurrency, will now spread its net much farther in the hopes of curbing many of the illegal activities which are being funded by cryptocurrencies. Already the Treasury has taken action against one of the largest Bitcoin platforms online, BTC-e exchange, which is located overseas. As American federal authorities begin cracking down on cryptocurrencies, other nations look to also regulate this wild online movement.

The reason this article was chosen:
This article was chosen as the current fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market has spread light on this relatively new system of payment. With some of its more appealing aspects, such as anonymity during transactions, its ability to be used for malicious purposes has been well established. The question arises if and should governments begin taking action to combat the illegal activities that are being funded through the use of cryptocurrencies, and in this particular case, should said governments be able to prosecute people and companies abroad using the system? As we discussed earlier in our text this week, the lines between the virtual and real world begin to blur as even some of our most basic institutions, such as currencies, become completely virtual.

Credibility of sources:
Reuters is a well-known and long standing news organization of good repute.

Ethical implications:
As cryptocurrencies become more and more relevant to the world, will these budding ways to deal transactions become more normalized or will its use by darker elements result in government crackdowns on its use? With its ability to be used anonymously and its track record of use in illegal transactions should governments step in and attempt to stem this growing movement, and if yes, can they?

Scrapbook 3 - CST 373

https://globalvoices.org/2017/12/29/from-internet-blackouts-to-violent-attacks-south-asia-saw-new-threats-to-free-expression-online-in-2017/

From Internet Blackouts to Violent Attacks, South Asia Saw New Threats to Free Expression Online in 2017

Summary:
This article covers ways in which South Asian regimes have been cracking down on internet usage when it threatens their positions From such things as censoring media, to threatening journalists and bloggers, these states have been attacking freedom of expression for many individuals for going against the grain. India and Pakistan have been known to even cause full internet blackouts as well as partial ones, where mobile service is disconnected, in order to cut off people from communicating in troubled regions. This stops any ability for would-be demonstrators to communicate, either amongst themselves for organizational purposes or to the outside world to broadcast their conditions. While there is some hope in the future as civil rights groups combat these actions, it is possible to see more of these kinds of actions in the coming years.
The reason this article was chosen:
This article was chosen as this week we read and discussed the benefits of anonymity on the internet in making a positive difference in the world. Stating controversial statements may cause backlash and repercussions against one if those beliefs were aired publicly, by utilizing the internet’s capacity for anonymity one can safely and freely express their unpopular, but sometimes necessary, statements. When the government seems unable to curtail the use of anonymous profiles for messaging it seems that they will instead turn to outright blackouts of internet usage in order to cut off any dissent.
Credibility of sources:
Global Voices is a reporting site that attempts to translate and distribute stories from around the globe that may otherwise be repressed or not widely disseminated. They aim to make a positive impact by connecting and empowering people around the globe.
Ethical implications:
The censorship and threats used against the peoples of South Asia violates their ability to express their own, sometimes dissenting, opinions. Though there are some ways to work around these violations of the individual's right to freedom of expression, such as using VPNs to avoid tracking, actions such as government enforced internet blackouts are difficult, if not impossible, to circumvent.

Scrapbook 2 - CST 373

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/27/16822736/apple-battery-slowdown-iphone-6-6s-se-lawsuit

Summary:
Apple recently admitted to throttling some of the older phone’s performance when the battery has degraded with time. Company representatives claim that they are trying to decrease the chances of the phone shutting down randomly to protect its electronic parts. However, they previously had not told anyone that they were throttling the performance of their older phone models. Because of this at least five different lawsuits have recently been filed stating that people believed their phones had naturally degraded and purchased newer and more expensive models. Those suing Apple believe that the company was purposefully throttling the older models not to save the phone due to battery degradation, but instead to convince users to purchase new phones, which are much more expensive than buying new batteries.
The reason this article was chosen:
I found this article interesting as the issue that arose, whether it is necessary for Apple to inform its customers of its throttling of older products or how to fix it, brings up an interesting ethical dilemma.
Credibility of sources:
The verge is a relatively new multimedia site for news and information. Their interview with Apple is what initially broke this story and this particular article is a follow up to the backlash it created.
Ethical implications:
Is it ok for companies to purposefully throttle the performance of their older models without telling their customers? While controlling the phone’s performance in order to make the product last longer seems admirable, not informing the customer of the diminishing performance, or the solution, installing a new battery, seems unethical.

Scarpbook 1 - CST 373

https://www.news.virginia.edu/content/cool-or-creepy-human-implanted-microchips-are-here

Summary:

A company based out of Wisconsin has begun allowing employees to have RFID implants placed inside their arm to make tasks at work easier to accomplish. With this and subsequent implants the individual’s privacy may become even more compromised as aspects such as location, purchases, time spent in specific areas, and who someone is spending time with can all become logged and monitored.

The reason this article was chosen:

This article was chosen due to the issues involving monitoring and privacy, primarily in the workplace, as discussed in the chapter.

Credibility of its sources:

University of Virginia is a reliable academic source.

Ethical implications:

While the implants may cause ones’ more mundane tasks to become more easily accomplished, is the possibility to be monitored worth the afforded comfort? As this technology progresses it is not unreasonable to think that a person’s location, proximity to other implanted users, health vitals, purchases, and more could all be monitored. Would it be ok for either a business or government agency to implement these implants in order to track individuals, and to what extent should they be allowed to?