James B. Building and Repairing Computers period 1

Week ending 5/24/07

Briefly describe the project:

The 4th project the input output device project. James W. and I have made a dvorak keyboard and now monitoring our progress using it. A dvorak keyboard is a different layout of keys on the keyboard that are supposed to be more efficient for typing. Since its silly to buy a dvorak keyboard as we already have keyboards available to us we decided to make one. We are also sampling some of our classmates for statistical purposes.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week James and I have made a fully functioning dvorak keyboard. We found the idea on hackaday and the next class we went to work. We removed all the keys reconfigured them to their proper positions and then set the options on one of the computers in class to dvorak to test our keyboard and had success.

What problems have you overcome this week?

We have made the keyboard a fully functioning dvorak keyboard. It's not perfect but it is probably the best we can do without buying a dvorak keyboard and it is fun to try to type on and see how difficult it is to make the change, although it could be really cool.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Its a little bit irregular since some of the keys are bulging out a little because of the different configuration as opposed to their layout on a qwerty keyboard, but I'm not sure that using another keyboard can fix that problem and it's only minor and not that big of a deal to me.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

James and I now need to document our success. We will need some way of taking photos to document our project. We can borrow a camera from someone if we don't have one available on class or we can even just use somebody's cellphone. We need to get our success documented before we can approach our next idea the wooden keyboard that seems interesting and could be a solution for our minor problem with the dvorak keyboard.

Week ending 5/18/07

Briefly describe the project:

The 4th project the input output device project. James W. and I are making a dvorak keyboard. A dvorak keyboard is a different layout of keys on the keyboard that are supposed to be more efficient for typing. Since its silly to buy a dvorak keyboard as we already have keyboards available to us we decided to make one.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week James and I have made a fully functioning dvorak keyboard. We found the idea on hackaday and the next class we went to work. We removed all the keys reconfigured them to their proper positions and then set the options on one of the computers in class to dvorak to test our keyboard and had success.

What problems have you overcome this week?

We have made the keyboard a fully functioning dvorak keyboard. It's not perfect but it is probably the best we can do without buying a dvorak keyboard and it is fun to try to type on and see how difficult it is to make the change, although it could be really cool.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Its a little bit irregular since some of the keys are bulging out a little because of the different configuration as opposed to their layout on a qwerty keyboard, but I'm not sure that using another keyboard can fix that problem and it's only minor and not that big of a deal to me.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

James and I now need to document our success. We will need some way of taking photos to document our project. We can borrow a camera from someone if we don't have one available on class or we can even just use somebody's cellphone. We need to get our success documented before we can approach our next idea the wooden keyboard that seems interesting and could be a solution for our minor problem with the dvorak keyboard.

Week ending 3/29/07

Briefly describe the project:

The second project, 80 p3, in the project we are supposed to learned how to install parts to build and repair computers.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week Tim L. and I got frustrated not being able to install a sound card and struggling to fix our network cable. The network cable we should finish next class.

What problems have you overcome this week?

Shortly we will have overcome our problem with our network cable.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Making a cable for a cable drop. We will work with our neighbors to measure the length and wiring the cable.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

We're done with 80p3 and now need information of where to start with the wodern computer. We will approach this problem by consulting classmates that have started and looking online on other people's blogs.

Week ending 2/16/07

Briefly describe the project:

The first project, parts of a computer, our choice of topic is optical drives. We have to describe What it is, How it works, its history,how it breaks, what you can do when it breaks, how to shop for one and any additional information.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week Tim L. and I got more information and began working on our poster. We learned a lot about blu ray hd dvd and more history of optical drives. Our project should be complete by Friday.

What problems have you overcome this week?

Finding more information. We also will have overcome completing the poster by friday.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Not having info on backing up data on my presentation. Really seems like a case of too little too late since poster is due on friday and we already have enough stuff to fill the poster.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

Information on backing up data to optical devices. If I were to try and get the information I would try the internet, but I didn't have any luck when I searched for it.

Week ending 02/09/07

Briefly describe the project:

The first project, parts of a computer, our choice of topic is optical drives. We have to describe What it is, How it works, its history,how it breaks, what you can do when it breaks, how to shop for one and any additional information.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week Tim L. and I had reality slap us in the face and found out we need more information and us to cover a larger topic of optical drives not just cd burners. We found out what we need to gather more information on and spent the majority of the week listening to presentations.

What problems have you overcome this week?

Finding out where I am in the project and how much more work I need to do. I also overcame presenting the wiki portion of my project.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Becoming an expert on my topic. Not having enough information to be satisfactory for the final project. To meet these problems I will work hard today and next week.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

More information on optical drives such as history and what blu ray is.I plan on getting this information with a bit more extensive searching and if need be looking for info in a book.

Week ending Ground hog's day(02/02/07)

Briefly describe the project:

The first project, parts of a computer, our choice of topic is cd burner. We have to describe What it is, How it works, its history,how it breaks, what you can do when it breaks, how to shop for one and any additional information.

What have you accomplished this week?

This week Tim L. and I divided the questions we had to do evenly and made a portion of the wiki to answer these questions. We have completed the wiki portion of the parts of a computer this week. I learned a good amount about cd burners.

What problems have you overcome this week?

Searching for information, understanding project description. At first we had difficulty finding information to answer certain questions but we overcame those difficulties searching in different ways changing keywords.

What are the most significant problems you face at this time? What will you do to meet these problems?

Becoming an expert on my topic. Possibly not having enough information to be satisfactory for Monday. To meet these problems I will work hard today and if necessary on the weekend to get the information i need.

What materials or information do you need? How do you plan on getting these materials or information?

A little more information on what is my device and what its history is. I plan on getting this information with a bit more extensive searching and if need be looking for info in a book.

Friend Weiler