High Tech Summer Camps

This is a page on High Tech Summer Camps for Bellingham.  I will add to this as I find more information. These are not online courses. WWU summer camp is the best local bet. UW links are below. There are other opportunities in Seattle. Camps are filling up fast. Here are some links:

• http://www.cs.washington.edu/outreach/k12/
• http://camps.cs.washington.edu/
• https://admin.wwu.edu/pls/wwis/wwsktime.ListClass
• http://www.ngcproject.org/program/summer-programs-youth-computer-and-technology-campsintroduction-engineering-technology

Learning JavaScript: CDNs, Mathjax, SVG

For the past six weeks or so, we have been focusing on learning JavaScript programming through our web consoles at www.codeacademy.com. Please continue completing your JavaScript sequence at Code Academy. The value of interactive practice will make you a  better programmer. However, to apply our skills learned from Code Academy, we are going to need more resources. If you have not done so already, install an appropriate code editor. I recommend Notepad++ for Windows or TextMate for MAC. There are a number of JavaScript based editors available. For example,  Js.do is a javascript based editor that allows the user to edit code online. 

Some javascript code we worked on today is below. The point of the lecture was to 

•  Demonstrate linkage of code to Content Distribution Networks (Mathjax in this case.)
•  Show embedded SVG drawing code
•  Demonstrate event based buttons that use Javascript's Math class functionality.

Some URLS with more information are:

• http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp
• http://docs.mathjax.org/en/latest/start.html

It is worth working through the Javascript tutorials at W3Schools. They provide excellent reference with online practice. You can paste their code in js.do as well.  Mathjax provides an excellent example of a callable external library of functionality from a CDN (external Content Distribution Network).  In addition, I have a google drive JavaScript folder  with selected online JS manuals and  the example html files below . These examples can also be viewed here.

Numerical Sorting with the Bash Shell

This post will  explain the use of the sort utility while in the Bash shell.  The Sort utility can be used with output or on a text file. Open up an X11 terminal and make sure you are at a Bash shell prompt (type 'bash'). Use the man command to look at the following commands:

sort : Cygwin, Linux, BSD and MAC
seq : Cygwin or Linux only
shuf : Cygwin or Linux oly
jot : BSD or MAC only
awk : Cygwin, Linux, BSD and MAC

Sorting Algorithms and All That Jazz (Part I)

Above: visual sorting algorithms with sound. Beneath: Brian Morgans from WWU brought us sorting in Java Script for this weeks Computer Club!

Thanks to Brian Morgans for bringing us not only a Bubble Sorting lesson but a brief JavaScript lesson!  To pursue his exercises please download a capable text editor like TextMate or Notepad++. Alternatively, you can simply use Xed or Visual Studio.  An excellent first step in understanding sorting might be to run 'info sort' or 'man sort' from your X11 prompt.