Curisoity

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How Your TV, PC, And Console Will Save Your Brain

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The Good, the Rad, and the Not-so Ugly

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Curiosity

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Giving Laptops to the Poor?

The Case Against the $100 Laptop Plan

A Layer’s Life

The Life of a Programmer

Technology

DIY

Why Handmade Products are Better Woodworking

Metalworking

Ugh, I can’t Write Anything Can’t Write Anything?

Learn how to deal with writer’s block

BIOS My name is Ganesh Vasu and I am a student at LASA High School. I enjoy reading and programming. I also enjoy Diy and how-to projects. I also like blogging. I enjoy swimming and basketball.

I like playing the piano and going to debate competitions. My favorite classes in school are Latin and computer programming. My favorite book could possibly be Inkheart. I also like playing videogames such as HALO and Call of Duty.

My name is Nicholas. I am a student at LASA High School. I like to read, learn new things, and play with computers. I am in the Robotics Club, and we have lots of fun. Because we all like to learn new things, we decided to make a magazine about How-To’s, because we can learn things in the process, and help to teach others too.

Hello, my name is Jade Dever Matthews. I am a student at LASA High School and enjoy sleeping and eating. Random how-tos and DIYs have always been an interest for me even if the knowledge is completely pointless.

OPINION 4 6 10

Tech Wreck The Good The Rad The Not So Ugly The Case Against Idle Hands

FEATURE 13 16 18

Ugh I Can’t Write Anything The Life of a Programmer

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A Lawyer’s Life

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We, the creators of Curiosity, envision this magazine to spur creative thinking in the minds of people. We have created these how-to’s and DIY’s to show you many kinds of projects that you can use to learn that hopefully inspire you to build. We hope that after you have read all of these articles, in our magazine, you will research what we have wrote about and advance your knowledge by creating projects based on this.

Nicholas L. Wallace Jade Ganesh Vasu

If you have

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by Ganesh Vasu Why the $100 laptop plan shouldn’t be used in poor countries

Pile of trashy and old technology Page 4 ■■■ Opinion

Art by: Ganesh Vasu

Try to imagine a classroom in a third world country.

Everybody is dirt poor and comes to school in shabby, tattered clothes. Their hair looks unwashed and their fingernails look dirty. Children like this are determined for better lives and try hard in school. They like the learning process and education system. But these poor children don’t have good writing materials.

These children might have asked a teacher “Can we get better writing utensils,” and the teacher probably said “We can only afford this.”

Everybody believes they deserve better. Many politicians and people with great political and economical influence have proposed plans.

One such plan proposes to give

“Can we get better writing utensils?” laptops to children in third world countries.

This fancy plan is too nonsensual for the real world.One of the major points of this opinion piece is the fact that computers are not economical. Even for a normal person living in a country with high standards like the United States, a laptop is a commodity that is expensive. Why should it be any different in a third world country? For example, let us say that the United States government

wants to give one school in Nigeria laptops. The laptops cost a cheap amount-for a laptop. They cost $100-$200. Shipping these laptops costs another $25 more (because you shipped in bulk and it had to travel across the world).

What if the Nigerian school holds 500 students? You do the math. (kevinrkosar.com)Another common theme time and time again that spews out in a debate of laptops is distraction. Results show that more and more teachers have seen kids play games or surf the

“You may be a good student but there is a high chance you could miss something.” web rather than actually take notes in class or do projects. Laptops also discourage from the main focus in the classroom: the teacher. You may be a good student but there is a high chance you could miss something the teacher says if you look at the computer during class.

People can also be distracted by the laptop in other ways. Laptops have a high chance of being stolen because of their high value and a chance of being sold for money. (msnbc.msn.com)

A laptop’s functionality isn’t always reliable. Laptops could break or be damaged and what then? They would need to be fixed by being reshipped all the way back

to the United States and then sent back. But you know what has stood the test of time and has worked for many years in educating youngsterstextbooks. Textbooks can’t break or get messed up. They worked for many years. It is easy to write notes on text books and easier to learn. Textbooks are easier to carry around. In my opinion, a textbook be what all schoolchildren carry to class in a poor country not some heavy laptop. (Brighthub.com)

My opposition says that computers make it easier to track progress and make it more fun to learn. You can easily track progress with handwritten records which can be neatly organized and in handy reach. Textbook are fun to learn with too because they have pictures that don’t hurt your eyes after you stare at them for a long time. (news. blogs.nytimes.com)

Computers don’t have much going for them. They can sometimes be slow and cost too much. They are unreliable and cause many distractions. The bad factors outweigh the good ones. Computers don’t have much going for them. They can sometimes be slow and cost too much. They are unreliable and cause many distractions. The bad factors outweigh the good ones.

Time should be poured into more innovative ones or the old textbook plan. The computer idea might sound good on paper, but out on the real world it can’t happen.

December 2011 ■■■ Page 5

The Good

The Rad

The Not so ugly

Why TV, video games, and the Internet are all benifitial in providing creativity

By: Jade Dever Matthews

As I hopped onto the couch and grabbed my bag of Doritos, I sat there as what some would call a couch potato, about to watch Family Guy. In this episode, Abraham Lincoln tells his neighbor that the grass is too high as the neighbor continues to cut it. The neighbor rudely replies back and curses at him. Why did he do that? What is so wrong with Abraham Lincoln that it would cause some one to curse at him? I wondered about the content of the show as I became inspired to further investigate Abraham Lincoln. Later in my life I had a project on him. Thanks to my previous knowledge about him, I received a perfect score on it, and all that happened was that I simply became inspired to research by watching a TV show I already enjoyed. Video games, TV, and the Internet are all beneficial in pro-

Page 6 ■■■ Opinion

ducing curiosity and creativity .

These electronics raise

questions that influence people to further investigate and learn something new. Anyone might learn new vocabulary by just being engaged with the technology.

As an example, I stumble upon thousands of words by just watching TV. I look up each new word in order to discover the true meaning. This could happen with many others as well, because of the wide variety of words presented on these electronics. According to Chacha Tumbokon, who studied philosophy and early child development as well as writes articles on http://www.raisesmartkid.com/ (The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games), these sources of entertainment can provide learning that is fun.

Anyone who has ever seen a kid

watch TV or video games, most know how engaged they become as they actively participate. Also stated by Chacha Tumbokon is that video games contain entertaining colors and challenges that motivate a person to practice which can improve skills including analytical thinking. According to the Media Awareness Network, a non-profit organization in Ottawa, Canada that conducts surveys and studies, people might want to read books with similar subjects of the TV show. People can also read books adapted into movies or TV shows, such as Harry Potter. Stated by,Carey Bryson, who interviewed many researchers and child psychologists as well as graduated from Brigham Young University obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, “Children’s shows, whether they bill them-

Art by: Wellington Grey

selves as “educational” or not, may offer opportunities to spark learning.” One example she gives is the show “Go, Diego, Go”. My opposition believes that electronics cause a lack of creativity. With all the updating information, people could easily form an interest in a subject. Instead of causing a lack of creativity, the person will start to become inspired to research the interesting subject and possibly create something new from it. My opposition over-exaggerates and over looks the possibilities mentioned above. There is always something new to be found on technology, and it is the curious minds, created from these sources of entertainment, that have a desire to further investigate.

Historical references on

TV, in video games, or on the Internet could influence people to

study different times of history.

Specific TV shows take place in different cultural time that present various types of music, art, and style. Knowledge of these different cultures “brings people together” and creates a better connection between people

I sit and play a video game with references to historical time periods. An urge for knowledge and developing interest in the game pushes me to look up facts about that time period.

around the world. According to the Media Awareness Network, shows can introduce cultural differences and develop an interest for that time period.

Many games today take place in diverse time periods, especially with war involved. Examples include the famous Call of Duty series, which sold seven million copies on just the first day. These games’ themes involve historical wars such as, World War II or The Cold War. Because of the connection to the game and the interest to learn, the user could investigate the truth about these historical wars. Take this scenario into consideration. I sit and play a video game with references to historical time periods. An urge for knowledge and developing interest in the game pushes me to look up facts about that time period. The University of Michigan enounced that TV could expose ideas to kids that might never get introduced to them in their

Continue on Page 8 December 2011 ■■■ Page 7

culture or community. They also stated that documentaries helps people think critically about the world. With various information from these electronics, children can develop an encouragement to learn historical facts. The Internet could serve as a searching source for facts about historical moments. Not only does it hold information about past history, it also presents current events, through updating news channels or social networking sites that millions of people visit a day. This keeps people up to date on the changing world around them by connecting every one with the Internet.

I still sit on the couch like an old elephant watching TV and playing video games. I continue to do this for

two hours each day, for a month. At the end of the month I step up onto a scale in order to weigh myself. I originally weighed one-hundred thirty-five pounds and now I weighed about one-hundred twenty pounds. I wish I could see all of the confused face right now because I’m sure these people don’t think this is possible. However, I watched TV shows about physical activities as well as played exercising video games on consoles like the Wii. This doesn’t just happen to me though. In fact, many people believe that electronics cause negative effects, such as obesity and poor body image. These people fail to realize that many games, TV shows, and websites encourage exercise.

From ads online, such as the “flat belly

ad” or programs on TV, I could develop a self-conscious mind towards my physical appearance and become inspired to change it for the better.

TV, video games, and the Internet DO provide positive effects.

Regardless of what other people say, (which is most likely inspired by information found online ) these sources do not need to be looked down upon. The next time you, reader, see someone play video games or watch TV shows, don’t assume he or she will become fat or that he or she receives poor grades. Think of all the possible beneficial effects that come out of it.

Learn interesting Turorials www.instructables.com

Heathkit H89 The newest computer created.

5 functions

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second!

Now in black and white.

December 2011

The Case Against Idle Hands

By Nicholas Wallace

Homemade products are better than commercial products

Have you ever created anything completely on your own?

who commented on the article that I

induce greater liking for the fruits

will talk about next, said, “I’m pro DIY

of one’s labor.’” I think that this can

because it makes you think and use

show that by allowing people to work

skills or develop them. It’s often fun

on projects that they like more often,

I think that Do It Yourself

and very satisfying. I still use a lot of the

they can allow people more willing

projects are better than industrial-

DIY skills that were taught to me as a

to work more, as they become a lot

made products and most services. I

child.” See? This helps to show what

happier with their work, so they can

think this because of many reasons,

a positive thing DIY’s are.

be willing to work harder and more

but I will highlight you some of my

My second point is handmade

like a well-oiled machine. Also, by

favorites. I think that Do It Yourself

products help to improve your health

undertaking many Do It Yourself

projects trump industrial made

and your sense of self worth. Mike

projects, you can learn to manage time

products because they are usually

Frauenfelder, a writer for the magazine

more efficiently because you work with

created from better materials, provide

Wired, said, “Human beings evolved

multiple elements, and if the project is

learning experiences, and you can be

opposable thumbs for a reason… And

not completed with satisfactory results

able to customize pretty much anything

when people engage in DIY activities

quickly or in a reasonable amount of

that you want, during the build or after.

like knitting, their heart rate and

time, people tend to lose interest in it.

My first point says that Do It

blood pressure go down.” This helps

Yourself projects are one of the best

to prove my point that DIY projects

learning to make your own items,

fun experience builders out there. By

can improve your health, and it also

you can expand your horizons, help

finishing different projects yourself,

reduces stress, which can make it

the environment, and make more

you learn many concepts and have lots

easier for people to get work done and

innovative decisions. Carn Mather

of fun in the process. For example, say

because of the lower amount of stress,

said, “Shortly after we moved off the

that you want to live in a home that

you can get more restful sleep at night,

electricity grid 13 years ago I began

contains better wiring, or you want to

which makes everyone’s life better.

presenting workshops on renewable

make your own sprinkler system, or

Another piece of evidence

energy.” Because they moved off

just about anything else. When you

is “Through a series of experiments,

of the grid, they learned to use less

learn to DIY, you open yourself up

the Harvard researchers found that

electricity and to use other sources for

to many new options. Msladydeborah,

‘labor alone can be sufficient to

entertainment. By doing so, they have

Page 10 ■■■ Opinion

My third reason is that by

more time to expand their horizons by gaining new knowledge, and expanding others horizons by teaching them the things that they learned. At the same time, they help the environment because they are using less electricity by using more sustainable practices, and because they have more time on their hands, they can do DIY projects, which are healthier for the mind and body, and use less packaging and processing than industrial products.

Colleen Vanderlinden said,

“One of the best ways to buy less stuff is to buy fewer, but higher quality items, and to keep them in good repair.” This is especially true about clothing, because clothing is one of the things that wear out quickly. By learning to sew or knit, you can repair

this, think about the amount of gas

been used in the creation of the

needed to transport the product from

finished product, and if these items

the place where it was produced to

were processed nearby, you are using

the place it is being sold at. Then,

even better materials. Also, you can

think about the materials that are

be sure how environmentally safe

used in the process, as many are not

if you are able to produce your own

very environmentally friendly. Are

materials, but many people cannot do

you sure this is more helpful for the

this.

environment?

By using handmade items,

point on many fronts, and that if

you can be certain what things have

everyone were to create more things

“When people engage in DIY activities like knitting, their heart rate and blood pressure go down.”

by themselves, lots of money could be

I think that this justifies my

saved, the environment will be much better off, and people would be able to decide what they wanted to do with their life and make more innovated decisions much easier.

or make your clothes at a much lower cost, albeit a small investment at the beginning. Even if you only fix a few

Homemade birdhouse

clothes a week, by mending tears or seams, or by patching holes, you can greatly increase the longevity of clothes, creating huge savings when you purchase clothes.

The people, especially

investors in companies and company owners, may say that industrial made items are better. They say that industrial-made items are better than homemade or handmade because they are all uniform, and they are safer because of all of these safety features (which break after a year or two, but many do not last even this long.) They also claim that by using their product, you are helping the environment.

But, most of the time, you’re actually

Art by: capl@washjef.edu

hurting the environment. To envision

December 2011 ■■■ Page 11

Do something thought-worthy.

Be curious.

DIY

reasoning A Lawyer’s

speakin

Life

By Ganesh Vasu

listening writing learning debate

analysis

“You should be good at critical thinking, speaking and writing,” says Peter Kennedy, a lawyer that deals with the first amendment.

Kids endeavoring to become lawyers should spend time thinking about the skills they need. Many different lawyers and others have different opinions about what you should do as a student in school. Although, they all agree, law school isn’t enough.

The hardest thing to do when convincing people about your case Peter says,

“For me it’s trying to see the case from different points of view.

Different people see things in different ways. You have to remember your way is the only way. Being right isn’t the same thing as convincing people that you are right.”

“People interpret evidence differently.”

Peter had lost a case recently where he represented a client who believed that a wrecked automobile was art. People had disagreed about whether this “art” complied with the first amendment. Peter also represented a religious organization that was denied tax deduction because the state of Texas did not believe that it was a religion. They were called the Ethical society of Austin. They don’t require every member to believe in God. Basically, Peter represents the media a lot. The media is all about different interpretations.

Peter also said that you should do well in school, but not think about being a lawyer too much. He, originally,

Page 14 ■■■ October 2011

decided to become a lawyer because of his good score on the LSAT. He didn’t even decide to get into law school until that point. He thinks you shouldn’t decide either. right.” decide to get into law school until that point. He thinks you shouldn’t decide either.

Vignesh disagrees. He thinks that you could build good skills for a lawyer’s work by doing extracurricular activities such as debate.

One of these extracurricular activities could be debate. “Debate teaches people because it is hands on experience for how to be a lawyer and how to use these skills on the spot, “said Vasu, an avid debater.

Debate teaches you how to analyze information and how to speak clearly. These are qualities of good lawyers because lawyers analyze the constitutional laws and use their own interpretations of these to argue for their clients. They also have to state evidence clearly so that the judge can hear you. You have to write your own arguments for the rebuttals. Debate involves complex tricks and tools such as conditionality, critiques, counter plans, and dissads.

Debate teaches you how to analyze information and how to speak clearly.

Although some people believe there is not much work to being a lawyer, Mrs. Young, an E-zine teacher at LASA high school who interned at a law firm, disagreed when she said

“It seemed like rich lawyers worked long hours even though they got

paid a lot. I found out that I value time over money.”

According to Marvin Jones Jr., an attendant of George Washington Law School, lawyers sometimes spend nights and even weekends in the office. They work 70 hours a week. Most lawyers will work this amount for $120,000 a year. This is a brutal amount of work for little pay.

Some of the work you have to do is even mundane paper work. These working hours discourage parents who need to care for children or pregnant women. These also push away people who want to have social lives.

But as Mr. Kennedy says a lawyer’s work isn’t just about fundamental skills, but

“2 parts: you have to know the law and you have to know the facts.”

“But as Mr. Kennedy says a lawyer’s work isn’t just about fundamental skills.”

The law is the rules of the constitution. You have to know statutes, court decisions, and precedents.

The facts are different stories and different versions of events. You also need to know what the other people (witnesses and other adversaries) will say. You need to the facts and testimonies. The most important of all is the persuasive, accurate story you have to tell using all of these facts. Of the many amendments he has to know, the first amendment is the main one.

These rights deal with the freedom of religion, assembly, press, petition, and speech. This is why he represented

such musicians as Tupac and Micheal Jackson. This is also why he represented the ethical society of Austin. He has won many awards for knowing a lot about the first amendment and has spent

“Enough time on the first amendment to know more than the average lawyer.”

But other than the law, a layer needs to have computer skills.

“I use computers in two ways: I use computers to e-mail and the internet to do research. Everything is filed electronically. The companies and people I represent all deal with technology related problems like dealing with new technologies.”

He has represented a company called Mutual Mobile that creates applications on the iphone and ipad. The internet is also very important to him because it is the way people find out about him, through his website. Each lawyer has their own specialized practice and this is his. So apart from analytival skills, speaking skills, and writing skills lawyers need to know a bit of each law in the constitutions, how to work with computers, and their own special practice’s laws too.

Whether you think being a lawyer is hard or not, all lawyers agree that going to law school will help you get where you need to be.

“Law school teaches you how to be a lawyer, how to write like a lawyer, and how to read a precedent.”

Law school will teach you all the important information you need to know.

It will teach you all about how a trial works, what all the laws are, and how to talk to a client but you need to learn how to use all of that information in the right way.

There is a lot of time in the middle of high school and becoming a lawyer,

there is even a long time before you finish high school and you enter law schools so there are many chances to think about what you are going to do and work to achieve these goals, but all lawyers agree good grades are the key to doing well at anything.

Peter says “For somebody in high school, don’t think too much about it.

Do well in school. ”

December 2011 ■■■ Page 15

By: Jade Dever Matthews “I get this writer’s block, it comes as quite a shock, And now I’m stuck between a hard place and the biggest rock, In my own head consumed. I sit back in my room, Its like the tapestries of life get tangled in the loom, I’m like a butterfly, caught in a hurricane, My pulse is quickening as my heart plays a new refrain...”

This is a song by Just Jack, an English rapper, about having writer’s block while writing the song. Many stories and songs contain characters that develop writer’s block, such as, Stephan King’s story, The Shining. In this story the character develops writer’s block. As a result of this writer’s block, he has a mental breakdown. A TV series called Castle, has a main character that seeks inspiration in order to cure his writer’s block.

Page 16 ■■■ Feature Story

Writer’s block affects all kinds of different writers. New ones or famous. If only people knew what to expect when they encountered it, then people wouldn’t shy away form writing as some do. It would take understanding of what it is as well as tactics in order to know what to do when faced with writer’s block.

So what exactly is writer’s block?

According to <thefreedictionary. com> online, “It is a temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing.” “Writer’s block comes when someone sits down and thinks that everything has to be done right then,” Mike Matthews says. “It’s the same thing as being lost in the woods without a map or any sense of which direction to take.”

Mike Matthews is a professor of

a creative writing class at Central Texas College. Matthews says that writing is who he is and what he enjoys. It also is the most challenging thing for him and something that he wants to get better at through teaching. He says that even he has suffered from writer’s block.

“I remember once when I was in college I was supposed to write a paper and I stepped up to a typewriter and for a total of 15 hours, I only got a paragraph...”

However, he isn’t the only one who has had trouble with writer’s block.

Many students in his class come up to him informing him that they just can’t come up with a good enough idea.

“One student came to me a couple of weeks ago to tell me why

he had trouble writing the story for the Creative Writing Class.

He said that he couldn’t write a story, because he started getting afraid that it would not be good enough or that I would not like it,” Matthews said.

Mike also stated that he thinks famous writers get writer’s block as well, but not for the same reasons. He compared their writer’s block to surfing.

“When you catch the wave that is simply the writing part. All the rest of it is just periods of time when the actual writing of words doesn’t occur yet.”

During the time actual writing doesn’t occur is when the writer is getting ideas, observations, information, and figuring out how to connect the ideas.

“You have to realize that it’s all a process. It is long and ongoing.

Even if I am not sitting down and writing, it is still there in my head, how I am going to get it [the writing] together and the time I am going to revise it.”

So how does one deal with writ-

er’s block?

Mike said that he gets his students to keep a journal. “I get them to record observations what people do or what they see. One of the things that causes writer’s block is that when they sit down to write they have to make something up on the spot and write it all out perfectly. When they record stuff they can use that instead.”

working with new skills... I told him to try a few of the new things and to explore them instead of worrying that he would not do any of them very well”

“Students I have helped with writer’s block have come to my office. I usually get a student to talk about what he or she knows from his or her own experience so that the student can focus on something to write about that will need a lot of detail.” He says.

So does this strategy get rid of writer’s block?

Matthews says that he doesn’t think so. “I don’t think writer’s block is just about writing, but about a difficulty in excepting what they are doing. If they want to get ride of writer’s block you have to get rid of being super critical of yourself.”

Matthews thinks that writer’s block mainly comes from self-criticism. With his experience with the student (mentioned above), “ I told him that he should see his nervousness as a sign that he is learning something new or that he is being challenged with new ideas that he’s not used to. I said that when we learn, we are confronted with tasks we do not know how to perform at first because learning is about exploring new ideas and

“During writer’s block, a person should probably do something physical like taking a walk or riding a bike to clear his or her mind.”

“I think there are ways to prevent writer’s block, maybe. Before sitting down to write, a writer could have a very simple place to start like a specific detail he or she could start to describe so that he or she won’t feel overwhelmed.”

It is important to realize that, in most cases, writing will need to be

December 2011 ■■■ Page 17

revised. Perfection isn’t gained the first time or even the second, so why worry about achieving perfection as soon as you sit down to write?

“Writing is nothing without correcting it,” The Ezine teacher, Brandi Richey, says as she speaks to the class.

As Richey said, there will be a time when you need to correct your writing.

You aren’t going to get it perfectly.

As many authors have said, they have had to make several drafts until they published and still needed corrections.

In fact, J.K Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, wrote nine drafts until her first book was published. Instead of trying to make writing perfect the first time people sit down to write, as my eighth grade English teacher, Mr. Shack, once said, people should just begin to write.

From school and strict regulations on writing “We are trained to self-doubt, to self-scrutiny in the place of self-expression.” “In our culture, writing is more often costumed up in a military outfit.

We want our sentences to march in neat little rows, like well-behaved boardingschool children.” Julia Cameron said in her book The Right to Write. “As a result, most of us try to write too carefully.

We try to do it ‘right’. We try to sound smart. We try, period. Writing goes much better when we don’t work at it so much. When we give ourselves permission to just hang out on the page.”

Want to find cool techniques?

Go to How-To Geek to learn more.

www.howtogeek.com Page 18 ■■■ October 2011

1

110 The Life of a Programmer By: Nicholas Wallace

The two black computer towers hum quietly together. Dust coats the piles of multicolored wires and larger piles of disorganized papers mixed in with old CD’s. Everything is tangled and mixed together, making it difficult to find even a large joystick that is mixed in somewhere. Books are crammed onto the small shelves high on the wall, and Star Trek along with HESS vehicles sit atop one another on the multiple cabinets. School supplies and monitors are pushed into corners, with multiple monitors hooked together.

Programming has progressed greatly over the past 30 years. 30 years ago

you had limited options in the programs that could be written, such as programs for record management and keeping track of different lists. Now there is voice recognition software for multiple platforms, such as Dragon Speech, which uses your voice to run different programs on your computer, and the iPhone 4S can perform different actions when you talk to it through the built-in microphone.

Wallace first learned to program during high school, when he received a TI-57 calculator. He learned everything about how to program it from the instruction booklet and a small book, Making Tracks Into Programming, that

taught the more advanced functions of programming the calculator. Programming was much easier to learn for people during this time, as they were taught how to create flow charts in school, and this makes it easier to program because “programs use discrete steps, and flow charts create all of the steps that are needed for branching, so the discrete steps the computer uses are easier to understand,” and computers take things very literally.

Wallace uses this example to explain the importance of being very detailed in programs: If you are trying to tell a computer how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,

December 2011 ■■■ Page 19

1011 you need to go through every step very carefully.

You cannot tell the computer to put the peanut butter on the bread. You must go through each of the steps, such as opening the container, then putting the knife in, scraping some out, then spreading the peanut butter onto the bread. The same goes for computers. If you only tell it to put the two programs together, then the program will not work very well, especially if there are two different file types.

Frank Wallace works with SQL, or Structured Query Language, more often than other programming languages, which is a language that is used to manage the different forms of data in related databases, because he works with lots of databases, and knowing

how to use the type of program that is used mainly for database management is helpful. It sends information to and receives information from databases. SQL Programs also makes reports based on the data collected from the databases. “It’s like tables of data.”

The progression of programming and technology has caused SQL programs to change to “[have] more flexibility to do and use SQL through other languages.”

“You use flowcharts for writing programs. Usually people use operating systems; they don’t write an operating system,” says Wallace about creating an OS.

The operating systems already in circulation would suit him fine, so he doesn’t want a custom

operating systems. Every operating system has it’s own pros and cons. “I like Windows, I like Linux, I like Mac. I don’t like Windows, I don’t like Linux, I don’t like Mac.” said Wallace. He uses multiple operating systems in any given day, such as Windows 2008, Windows 2003, and Windows 7, along with Redhat Linux, Mac OS, and UNIX. He has learned to like them all, partly from using them every day.

Wallace and others have much advice that they can give to new and upcoming programmers. Getting involved “in user groups to make contacts with people in the computer industry” can help people aspiring to be a programmer to achieve their dream. A well rounded education is also helpful, as “A good programmer is strong in

Two Computers Wallace has used.

The Old and the New.

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Art By: Frank Wallace

110 other fields [instead of] just programming.” said Wallace. By learning English and Physics, people can write programs without leaving as many things out during the first draft of the program. When people first write a program for someone, they sometimes leave things out because they don’t have all of the background that is needed to make the program with all of the different things the first time. You would need to know English, because “a lot of times programs have to interface with people.” You would need to know trigonometry if you were to work with GPS systems, as you need to know the formulas to find the angles and lengths of all of the triangles formed by the different sattilites.

If Wallace wasn’t a programmer, he said that he would “probably be a teacher.” This could happen because of the wide variety of information that he has learned as he became a programmer would be sufficient enough to fuel a career of teaching, coupled with a teaching degree, if he had one.

“People don’t appreciate programming as much as they could because programming is an art.

Not everyone can write a program,” and even though many people realize this, they tend not to think

about the work involved.

His biggest recent challenge at work was when he “was working on an issue where web software was becoming nonresponsive.” The difficulties of this was because “they [the group] didn’t get a lot of help from the vendor.” There was also a small amount of log-in information available to the group working on this problem.

The last project that he worked on “was the clearing of databases and machines for customers to run software” such as operating systems. It was difficult because of the time constraints for the project. “They were able to complete it on time, and expose new issues that we had to work on.”

There are several ways that Wallace balances work with his family. He takes his computer with him, “so that [he] doesn’t waste time” while waiting for children to finish their activities and when

he is waiting for something to start. He also “takes things to do during meetings”, which helps to achieve the same goal as before, making the best use of his time. He also tries to plan at work to create a more efficient way to do the things needed so that not as much time is wasted.

The rate of change is staggering, and this creates problems for people who are unable or unwilling to keep up with the new technologies and programming languages available. Frank Wallace has this problem. His trouble is “keeping up with all of the change, with all of the new languages, [and] not having the time to learn all of the new things that would be fun.” He tries to learn as much as he can during his free time, when not playing or helping his children, but he still thinks it is difficult because of the amount of new technologies.

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