History of data storage

Click here for a History of Data Storage

Computer systems Input, Output and Disabled Users

What are all the various input and output devices you can use on desktop computers, mobile devices and in technology around your house or school?

What makes them robust and reliable systems?

What are the latest developments in Input and Output Hardware?

Exam Questions

Define a Computer System?

Can you think of examples of places of work where computer systems are not used?

What are the top ten most important computer systems in the UK?

Why is it important that systems are reliable and robust?

Input Devices for Disabled Users

Have you included all these Input Devices in your answer above?

What output devices are there for disabled users?

Finally

Please now click here and work through sections 22 and 23

Student Learning Characteristics again

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Unit5 - Game Authoring

Student Resources

Folder Structure & Eportfolio

• Folder Structure
• Eportfolio Structure

Game Overview

• Overview

Moodboard

• Moodboard Collection Checklist
• Moodboard Creation Checklist
• Moodboard Annotation Checklist
• Full 5 Mark Example

Design It

• Rules Log
• Storyboard Templates
• Menu 
• Instructions
• Backstory
• Level1
• Level2
• Level3
• Level4
• Level5
• Losing Screen
• Winning Screen

Build It

• Test Log
• Assets Table

Promote It

Example1

Example2

Example3

Review It

• R1 Example Review1
• R2 Example Review2
• R3 Example Review3 Front Cover Inside Cover
• Review Template

Evidence It

• Eportfolio Evidence Checklist
• Moderators Toolkit

Extension

• Instructions Booklet

Programme Flow Control 

Programme Flow Control –  What do you need before you start building a boat? You need a plan. You need drawings. You need an idea of what kind of boat it’s going to be and what you want it to do. If you want to sail round the world but you just bang a few planks together and hope for the best, guess who’s going to be shivering in a towel on the beach five minutes later.

So let’s think about how you want to build and manage the programme. This is known as control structured programming, in other words, you’re organising the way in which the programme runs. The more efficient and streamlined a programme is, the faster and more efficiently it will run and the easier it is to troubleshoot if something goes haywire. Ask any IT specialists what they hate most about troubleshooting and they’ll invariably clench their fists, grind their teeth and say “messy code”.

Think clean. Think tidy and organised. Design your programme to run sweetly by using flowcharts, the basic building blocks of good design. Flowcharts give you a visual picture of the sequences you’re writing so that you can plot paths, pinpoint actionable commands and follow the paths of those strings of commands to make sure each one follows on logically from the previous one or follows a logical group structure.

One of the benefits to you of having clean code is that you can group it into sections that can be replicated many times throughout a programme, rather than laboriously typing each string out every time. Knowing that the code is clean means you can slot copies of it wherever you need to, confident that it works, although of course you’ll still be testing constantly right through the design process. At least you know the syntax is correct.

Testing is crucial in the design stage so that you can spot errors before they’re written into the programme. Once you’re confident that the code is good, and you’re building the programme, testing the software is easier, you can foresee problems and adjust the structure before it crashes. An accurate coder saves everyone time and money.

Whole Numbers and Integers

Whole Numbers

Whole Numbers are simply the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... (and so on)

No Fractions!

Counting Numbers

Counting Numbers are Whole Numbers, but without the zero. Because you can't "count" zero.

So they are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... (and so on).

Natural Numbers

"Natural Numbers" can mean either "Counting Numbers" {1, 2, 3, ...}, or "Whole Numbers" {0, 1, 2, 3, ...}, depending on the subject.

Integers

Integers are like whole numbers, but they also include negative numbers ... but still no fractions allowed!

So, integers can be negative {-1, -2,-3, -4, -5, ... }, positive {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }, or zero {0}

We can put that all together like this:

Integers = { ..., -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }

Example, these are all integers:

-16, -3, 0, 1, 198

(But numbers like ½, 1.1 and 3.5 are not integers)

Confusing

Just to be confusing, some people say that whole numbers can also be negative, so that would make them exactly the same as integers. And sometimes people say that zero is NOT a whole number. So there you go, not everyone agrees on a simple thing!

My Standard

I must admit that sometimes I say "negative whole number", but usually I stick to:

Name	Numbers	Examples
Whole Numbers	{ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }	0, 27, 398, 2345
Counting Numbers	{ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }	1, 18, 27, 2061
Integers	{ ... -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }	-15, 0, 27, 1102

But nobody disagrees on the definition of an integer, so when in doubt say "integer", and if you only want positive integers, say "positive integers". It is not only accurate, it makes you sound intelligent. Like this (note: zero is not positive or negative):

• Integers = { ..., -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }
• Negative Integers = { ..., -5, -4, -3, -2, -1 } 
• Positive Integers = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... }
• Non-Negative Integers = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... } (includes zero, see?)

Errors in Python

Procedures and Functions 

Procedures and Functions – GCSE Computer Science Revision. We talked about how you use a sequence of events to achieve a task. Remember that pepperoni pizza, and how you need to follow each part of the procedure in sequence otherwise you end up with no pizza?

If you ask your brother Sam to order pizza while you finish fixing your bike, you don’t say “ring the pizza place, choose a pizza, pay them and they will deliver a pizza that we will eat.” You just say “Sam! Let’s get pizza!” Sam knows what needs to be done. He’s on the case and he orders pizza without having to think through what he needs to do. He’s followed a procedure that we’ll call “ordering pizza”, and that title is a short label for a set of actions.

Now let’s have a look at functions. Imagine you wanted to know how many pizza variations they had at the pizza place. You could go in, make a list of all the choices and add them up to get a number, or value, and you would rejoice, because not only would you have discovered every single combination of toppings they offered, you would have performed a function! Happy days!

You could use a function in thousands of ways. For instance, you might want to know how many students graduated last year, or you might want to find out how many students over the last five years found jobs within three months of graduation. Then you might want to use those figures, or values, to find out what percentage of graduates found work within the local area, moved further away, or moved abroad.

Then there are built-in functions. In its simplest form a built-in function could be something like, pressing H on the keyboard and seeing H appear on the monitor screen. These are assigned functions that are particular to a programming language that has its own grammar rules. PHP, for instance, has over 700 of them. Why are they useful? If the function you performed when you went into the pizza shop was a built-in function that included access to an online menu, you wouldn’t have to write the code. You’d just have to tell the programme to carry out that function and it would trot off and bring back the number you need.

Constants, Variables and Data types

Unit 5 Gaming Review

REVIEW IT

You must produce a review of your game that would be suitable for publication in an on-screen computer games magazine. Here are some examples:

• Computer and Video Games
• Nintendo
• Retro gamer
• Inside MAC games

 Produce a game review. You may wish to use this outline to help you.

 Gather feedback and make changes if necessary.

Example review

Example Review 2

 Save your review in your GAME folder.

Guess My Number

# Guess My Number
#
# The computer picks a random number between 1 and 100
# The player tries to guess it and the computer lets
# the player know if the guess is too high, too low
# or right on the money

import random

print("\tWelcome to 'Guess My Number'!")
print("\nI'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100.")
print("Try to guess it in as few attempts as possible.\n")

# set the initial values
the_number = random.randint(1, 100)
guess = int(input("Take a guess: "))
tries = 1

# guessing loop
while guess != the_number:
    if guess > the_number:
        print("Lower...")
    else:
        print("Higher...")
         
    guess = int(input("Take a guess: "))
    tries += 1

print("You guessed it!  The number was", the_number)
print("And it only took you", tries, "tries!\n")

input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

Demonstrates the if statement

# Password
# Demonstrates the if statement

print("Welcome to System Security Inc.")
print("-- where security is our middle name\n")

password = input("Enter your password: ")

if password == "secret":
    print("Access Granted")

input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

Hardware Componets

Pixels Invade New York

ICT Easter Revision Thursday 10th and 11th April see you there

and the Big Game on the 23rd April