Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

At 10/3/09 05:19 PM, GodsBitch wrote: I take it nobody knows much, if anything, about soft computing then? I spend several hours searching the web for a decent source and found nothing.

If I can remember correctly, it is something to do with replicating the human mind with software.

The web says look for Fuzzy and Neural Networks.

Here is a link for a web Neural Network, but that would only allow you to create a Neural Net instead of learning enough for sources.

Sadly, after skimming my notes for my AI exam, I couldn't find much for you to look at.

But Fuzzy and Neural Network techniques are used in Chess, I believe. There's something.

At 10/3/09 05:40 PM, Obvious-M wrote: Can someone explain to me what computer science is? All I really know is that it's a popular course at college, and I'm sending my application of soon, so I'm interested.

Computer Science is basically the theory of how computers work/what they can do. It does get practical as well though. There's programming involved, which is usually Java to start out although I imagine this may change depending on where you are studying. I've done quite a few interesting things so far. Making a Flash was fun and so is creating content for Second Life which allows us to have a look into scripting.

If you enjoyed doing computing at school then you should like doing Computer Science.

At 10/3/09 07:01 PM, Sweeper128 wrote: But Fuzzy and Neural Network techniques are used in Chess, I believe. There's something.

Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic were some of the other topics given to the other students. I take it I've been given the general term that covers all these fields? If so then this might be easier than I've been making it.

Also second year of computer science at the university of politechnics.
I love making games

At 10/4/09 05:16 AM, kiwi-kiwi wrote: Also second year of computer science at the university of politechnics.
I love making games

Good to have you on board then.

I've made some progress on my report, although rather than discuss the general idea I've split it into several components that are listed on Wikipedia. They are artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, probability and chaos theory. My report only had to be 500 words, but now that I have all these areas to discuss I think it's going to turn out to be a little longer.

On another note, I should be getting a 13" Macbook Pro some time late this week or early next week. I've still to order it, and I wouldn't normally go for a Mac but I want something different for a change. I also get a discount from the Apple Store since I'm a student which made them appeal even more to me.

What are your opinions on Macs?

At 10/5/09 04:13 AM, GodsBitch wrote: What are your opinions on Macs?

All your courses will be Microsoft biased until later on, where you might go on to Linux. But having a Mac should be fine, as long as you can get your hands on Boot Camp or something like that. Personally, I see a Mac as a designer computer, for graphics and music and editing.

Windows is for Programming and gaming, while Linux has a weird balance between Windows and Mac.
I use a Dual Boot of Windows XP Professional and Linux Mint 7, with Mint 7 being used more due to my Windows partition being too slow due to a virus attack and general lag.

At 10/5/09 04:40 AM, Sweeper128 wrote: All your courses will be Microsoft biased until later on, where you might go on to Linux.

lolwut? Unless it's very different in the UK, we started on Linux from the get-go. It's not a huge matter though, since when you're just starting out, differences in the architecture won't make a huge difference to the performance of your code. If it compiles and runs fine on your Mac, it should compile and run fine on your lab machines.

For programming we've been using Linux machines although we have been using BlueJ to program. It's more of a learning tool for Java if you haven't used it before. As long as that runs on Mac, which I think it should I'll be fine for now. I won't be selling my Windows laptop either, so if I really needed a Windows based system it will always be here.

Once I do get my Macbook Pro, which I'm pretty certain I will, I will most likely clear up my current laptops HDDs of all the crap and perhaps get a copy of Linux on there as well.

As long as I can program with Java on the Mac then I'll be fine. :)

At 10/5/09 06:54 AM, GodsBitch wrote: As long as I can program with Java on the Mac then I'll be fine. :)

Well, since Java runs on the Java Virtual Machine, and is therefore independent of the actual computer it's running on, you should be fine.

At 10/5/09 04:13 AM, GodsBitch wrote:
Good to have you on board then.

Thanks

What are your opinions on Macs?

I haven't had the opportunity to fiddle around with a mac yet. I heard they're a great choice if you're into design (web design, graphics stuff like that), but personally I do not agree with their prices.

I'm just wondering, is it true that if a component breaks down, you can't just buy another one, open up the mac and replace it ?

At 10/5/09 07:35 AM, kiwi-kiwi wrote: I'm just wondering, is it true that if a component breaks down, you can't just buy another one, open up the mac and replace it ?

Well, Macs don't have a System case, the components and the monitor are all in one thing, so that makes it difficult I guess. And of course with macbooks, you run into the normal problems with notebook computers.

At 10/5/09 07:53 AM, ParadoxVoid wrote: Well, Macs don't have a System case, the components and the monitor are all in one thing, so that makes it difficult I guess. And of course with macbooks, you run into the normal problems with notebook computers.

Well, I know that on the new Macbook Pros you are able to change the RAM and hard drive yourself but the battery can only be changed by Apple themselves. I don't quite understand why they've done that as you were able to change the battery yourself on the old MacBooks. They claim that the new batteries can last for 1,000 charge cycles. With my current Acer Aspire 9300 series I've had no problems over the two years I've had it and I'm hoping to have the same luck with the Macbook when I finally get it.

Soft Computing [?]

It seems to be just a general field for working NP hard problems... I've done a little with genetic algorithms and such. Personally, I worked with Simulated Annealing and Hill Climbing which are tangentially related... but probably not what you're looking for... :/

Also, we always worked on Linux boxes. Redhat Fedora ftw. Never had any problems, but that was mostly due to the sysadmin. Personally, on macs I'm kind of iffy. If you look at it from the hardware perspective its a bunch of people spending too much money. But the software itself isn't bad, most of the time. Some of its dumbed down, but if you know what you want to do there are still plenty of options and you don't have to worry about setting up a lot of it.

So anyway, currently debating whether or not to take a year out in industry.

Hmmm.

At 10/5/09 12:10 PM, gumOnShoe wrote:

I've pretty much finished my report on Soft Computing now. Just have to print it off somewhere. Rather than just generally talk about soft computing I split into sections and spoke about artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. I then went on to discuss some of soft computing's uses. Expert systems and artificial intelligence being that I chose.

As for the Mac I plan on buying, I'm aware that you are paying more then the hardware is actually worth. There's just something inside of my right now that wants to buy my first ever Mac. The OS looks nice enough, although as you said seems to be a little dumbed down in some areas. A lot of people like the software a lot more, such as iWork seems to be better rated by most than Microsoft Office.

I just think it's time for a chance, and Mac seems like something new for me. Also, they are small, lightweight and have a good battery life which makes it a little more appealing for me as a student.

At 10/5/09 12:23 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: So anyway, currently debating whether or not to take a year out in industry.

I'd love to get a placement, but I don't think the computer science course here offers one. The guys doing software engineering get a placement in their 5th year I think, but they are doing a masters degree.

Any idea where you would be going/what you would be doing?

The MacBook Pro has been ordered. I'm pretty excited to say the least.

Also, I have a new report to write:

The impact of wireless everywhere and intelligent street furniture.

The whole intelligent street furniture thing had me wondering what my lecturer was on about, but after emailing him I got an explanation. I'll let you see how long it takes for you to work out what "intelligent street furniture" is.

There's a urinal near me that rises out from the ground at 9pm on friday and saturdays.

It's awesome.

How many essays does Herriot Watt make you do? 0_0

Anyway, WiFi raises your Body Temperature by 1 Degree Celsius, so I hear - but that could be a crazy conspiracy theory. Radiation etc... Whole bunch of Health Issues that you can hypothesis and make up, as long as you can back up you idea pretty much.

At 10/7/09 02:46 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: There's a urinal near me that rises out from the ground at 9pm on friday and saturdays.

It's awesome.

Not quite what was meant. Haha.

At 10/7/09 05:14 PM, Sweeper128 wrote: How many essays does Herriot Watt make you do? 0_0

Anyway, WiFi raises your Body Temperature by 1 Degree Celsius, so I hear - but that could be a crazy conspiracy theory. Radiation etc... Whole bunch of Health Issues that you can hypothesis and make up, as long as you can back up you idea pretty much.

This is only the second one in four weeks. Also, it's reports, not essays. I think the whole idea is that the sooner we are able to layout and write a successful report, the better we will become when we need to write software reports etc in future years.

Also, ZOMG... MAC COMING NEXT WEEK!!!

All I know of Computer Science is Hacking, DoS, BWReaping, and various tools to make my life easier on the internet.

Maybe I'll take it in College.

At 10/7/09 07:07 PM, igott wrote: All I know of Computer Science is Hacking, DoS, BWReaping, and various tools to make my life easier on the internet.

What ever floats your boat sonny.

Anyway, my Mac has arrived at my house. Can't wait until I get back home from uni later on today so that I can mess around on a MAC OS for the first time ever.

At 10/9/09 09:23 AM, GodsBitch wrote:

Anyway, my Mac has arrived at my house. Can't wait until I get back home from uni later on today so that I can mess around on a MAC OS for the first time ever.

I got to play around with one earlier this week, a friend came with it to school, looks cool and the battery lasts a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

I started my second year right now and it looks about as hard as the last one.
I have some assembler and java classes which look ok, some algorithm analysis that reminds me of algebra until now and some weird courses on electronics which got me a little scared. Overall it's ok I guess, but I'm gonna have to wait a bit and see how these courses are coming along

Prolog is simultatenously an amazing programming language and the biggest pile of shit I've had to try and hack together in my life.

At 10/9/09 04:19 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Prolog is simultatenously an amazing programming language and the biggest pile of shit I've had to try and hack together in my life.

Why?

I'm applying for Natural Sciences at university, for which 1 of my 2 majors will probably be computer science.

I think I'm going to opt for optional modules in artificial intelligence after being given an interesting presentation on it. Do you think this would be silly to study at a non-specialised level though? It seems so complex that studying it as one of three choices may be frustratingly vague.

Does,programming in .NET Framework count as studying it?

We started learning java a few days ago, using jGrasp.

It's interesting...lol

At 10/9/09 03:57 PM, kiwi-kiwi wrote: I got to play around with one earlier this week, a friend came with it to school, looks cool and the battery lasts a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

I wasn't too sure what to expect after all the people telling me never to buy a Mac. Normally I would never have bought one myself because they do seem over priced and the only reason that I decided to get one is because I got a student discount. Right now there are a few things that will take a while to get used to. The keyboard layout is slightly different from the standard British PC keyboard layout. It's also going to take a while to get used to and work out all the shortcut key combinations. I also wasn't sure that I'd stick with Safari, but it's actually quite a decent browser.

There is one small problem I have, although this is nothing to do with the Mac. Since it's a new machine, iTunes is empty, and if I connect my iPod up everything will be wiped from it unless I set it not to auto-sync. But still, the problem is, how do I get the music from my iPod onto this new copy of iTunes that is currently empty? Preferably I'd rather do this without having to download some software, although going by what I can find on the internet, this seems to be the only solution.

Anyway, I'm really happy with my purchase. Once being a Mac hater myself, I have no idea why I was so against these systems. So far I'm finding it much better than any Windows machine I have ever owned.

If you have your iPod enabled for disc use, you can just go into it in whatever windows explorer type thing macs have, view hidden files, and drag+drop all the music onto your hard drive. Then just add them to itunes. You'll have to resync your ipod but that's not the end of the world. You will however loose all playlists, star ratings, play counts, etc.

At 10/10/09 07:24 AM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: You will however loose all playlists, star ratings, play counts, etc.

I never use any of that stuff anyway.

Thanks for the advice. Will I still keep my album artwork? Keeping in mind that I didn't have iTunes find them automatically, I used Google Images for everything.

At 10/5/09 12:23 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: So anyway, currently debating whether or not to take a year out in industry.

Hmmm.

do it. i would not want to graduate in the current climate without one. if you trust me on one thing, trust me on this. sure, you can't be on the piss all the time and sleep in until 2pm if you have no lectures, but in the long run, you'll thank me.