Day 7: Lab 1 & 2

LAB 1:

After some very grueling and frustrating conversations discussing other options for using the punch, my group finally came up with an optional theory on how to use a punch to write out letters. Using the same 80-character capability, we converted the decimal to binary code to represent the letters of the alphabet. The numbers punched would be the same, but in order to type in letters, you would use the binary code system.

The binary code consisted of:

1	2	4	8	16	32	64	128
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Each number represented in the binary code would correspond to a number found on the decimal punch card, which then would be turned on and off to represent the corresponding numerical value of the alphabet. For example, the letter “L” is the 12^th letter in the alphabet. To represent this number with the binary code you would turn on the “4” and “8”, to show the letter “L”.

LAB 2:

The code in Lab 2 says, “Be sure to drink your ovaltine.”

Using the base that binary code “65=A”, my group was able to break down the code by strands of 8 and decode the message. Therefore the letter “B” would be binary code “66”, “C=67”, “D=68”, and so on. The 8-bit number “00100000” represents a space in between words. We used a binary code converter to check our answers and discover what the “0010000” 8-bit code represented.

The binary code above is similar to the theory my group thought up from the question above, when using the number of where the letter falls in the alphabet to represent it in binary code form.

Day 6: How to read a Punch Card

In class today we learned how to decipher and read a punch card. Although they look intimidating a first, there I am going to explain step by step an easy way to read them.

A punch card can be defined a piece of paper that displays digital information by using a series of holes and corresponding numbers to represent numbers and words. For a better description and summary of the history and invention of the punch, please follow this link on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

To start out, there are 12 lines altogether on your card that will help you decipher the corresponding number or letter that was typed.

The first two lines are blank (12 & 11) which helps to establish what letter is being typed or special character, followed by the number 0-9.

Numbers correspond directly to their number that is punched, basically numbers are easy to recognize. The letters of the alphabet get a little bit trickier.

If a hole is punched on the 12^th, along with an additional punch, that is referring to the first 9 letters of the alphabet. The 11^th line corresponds with the second sets of 9 letters, and line 0 corresponds with the last set of 9.

For visual a good visual aid, follow this link http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/cards/codes.html.

ABCDEFGHI= 12^TH line and corresponding number

JKLMNOPQR= 11^TH line and corresponding number

STUVWXYZ= Line 0 and corresponding number

- Single punches= number

- 2 punches= letter

- 3 punches= special character

Triumph of the Nerds: Part 2

What is reverse engineering?
Reverse engineering can be described in short as making a replica of an already existing piece of software, which is either the same or faster than the one it is being compared to. In the documentary, Triumph of the Nerd, reverse engineering was used on IBM’s PC for competitors to figure out how to become a more integrated part of the computer market at the time. A group of 15+ ‘virgin to IBM code’ men came together to take part IBM’s ROM-BIOS to create a new, but similar version, which would enable them to make a PC that could read IBM’s other software.
According to www.npd-solutions.com, reverse engineering can be described as a process of better analyzing a system by:
Identify the system's components and their interrelationships
Create representations of the system in another form or a higher level of abstraction
Create the physical representation of that system
Is reverse engineering legal?
Many ethical and legal questions come to mind when talking about reverse engineering. Plagiarism and copying is often frowned upon in our society, yet technology and advancement would not move forward if people did not question, experiment, and build upon one another’s ideas.
The IBM’s ROM-BIOS was copyrighted, which is why the men of Compact were smart in hiring individuals that were not accustomed to IBM’s code when creating their replica version. So in that sense, things were done legally ‘by-the-book.’ On the other hand, some might argue it does not seem to be quite ethical. As mentioned before, things cannot move forward unless someone examines them differently. We also live in a world of free enterprise, where competition among businesses is what we strive for and reverse engineering is a way to keep up with demand and competition.

Day Two: Hardware

After today's talk about hardware and the basic inside of a computer one question I am still wondering about is how exactly the chips, wires, CPU, etc all come together to create what we see on the page. I understand the basic setup of the products, but do not fully understand how they work still to create the programs we have on our computers today.

Day One: Triumph of the Nerds

In the documentary “The Triumph of the Nerds,” the ‘nerds’ often compared their dedication and love for hacking and creating different kinds of codes. The men interviewed described being isolated in cramped rooms with other ‘code’ enthusiasts through the night, being overly caffeinated and sometimes forgetting to eat. Along with their obsession, the people interviewed fit the general profile of white men with glasses. There was no real talk of any other kind of social life besides that of the one of breaking, writing, and creating various computer languages and codes and comparing them with one another. The sub-culture of this ‘techie’ world was one in which people shared their discoveries with one another, yet there were never any women around. The group, however alternative, was main stream with the same kind of people. Coincidentally, many of the major founders were very young and did not have college degrees when they began creating these programs.

Hello world, this is my first post

My name is JennMcHugh and I am from Rye, New York. I am a junior here at Elon University, majoring in Strategic Communications with minors in Public Health Studies and Dance. Besides being in class, I am involved with Elonthon, Elon’s 24 hour dance marathon, as the dancer relations chair for 2010. I heard about this class through a friend who said it was a fun class that fulfilled your non-lab science credit and was more interesting then ‘science without borders.’