Welcome to Mr. Gilmore's Introduction to Integrated Information Processing class website!
January 5, 2010: Work on your oral presentation
Spend today working on your oral presentation. It will be 20% of your course
grade, so it's important to stay up to date with the deadlines and be ready to
do a great job when we start presentations. Download the due dates document
from Edline (it's in the PPT unit folder obviously). I've also updated the
Project Assignment document to change how you'll submit the project, but for
now that's not important.
November 18, 2009: Searching Tips
As we saw, the internet is a set of interconnected computer networks. The web
is an application that runs on that network of networks. There is no set hierarchical
structure to the web; it changes literally minute by minute. Networks can be added
and can disappear. So searching becomes a problem. It's not like a nicely arranged
libary of books.
Search engines are the key for us. A search engine, such as Google or Yahoo or Bing,
sends out web crawlers that visit web pages and "index" them. That is, they record
all the words they see. They return the information to home (Google or Yahoo or Bing, etc.)
and the collected information is assembled and organized into a master "index". When you
type a search at a search engine, the search engine actually searches the index, not the
web. If it had to search the web -- thousands upon thousands upon thousands of computer
networks scattered around the world -- the search would take a LONG time. Then the search
engine finds the pages in its index that match your search, organizes them into an order it
thinks is good, and returns a custom page to you listing all the "hits".
There are two problems users encounter with internet searches. The first is that too few hits
are returned -- you don't find the information you want. The second (more common) is that
too many hits are returned and you can't find a GOOD site with the RIGHT information that
you're really looking for.
Tips to Reduce the Number of Hits
Here's a super simple search. We'll look for some information on space elevators,
a futuristic idea to replace rockets. A space elevator is an elevator to orbit.
Write down the number of hit when you
click here . A lot, right?
Let's try to reduce the number of hits to get only the good ones.
- First increase the number of words in your search. One problem
here is that I'm getting a lot of hits that talk about roomy elevators in
skyscrapers, etc. So I need to be more specific in my search.
Articles on building elevators that contain a lot of space are unlikely to
contain the word "orbit". So I add the word "orbit" to my search. Write
down the number of hits when this search is performed:
click here .
- Eliminate words.
I could eliminate "Otis" since Otis is a manufacturer of elevators in buildings,
and I'm not interested in those kinds of elevators. This is good if
the only Otis is Otis Elevators. But if a key researcher into space elevators is named
Otis, I just eliminated all the pages that mention him from my search.
Be careful with elimination, but
it can help get rid of useless stuff. Write down the number of hits when you
click here .
It was probably a few hundred thousand fewer. Most times I've done that search it is.
But oddly sometimes it's the same number of hits. Live with a bit of
uncertainty. But I'm actually more certain that I don't want
the pages with the word "porn" on them than I am that I don't want the pages with the
word "Otis" on them, so I could try another search:
Click here
to see what happens if I eliminate the word "porn". It's a bit suprising.
- Use synonyms or related words. If you read a top
hit for an early search above, you might discover that articles on actual
space elevators often use the word "geosynchronous" and the word "crawler" to
refer to the car that rides up the cable. Let's add those related words to
our search. Write down the results when you
click here . Wow. Google will actually
often do the synonym search for you. For example, itt will expand searches
for "food" to include "recipes"
as well. To limit the search to exactly and only the word you want,
you typically need to enclose it in quotation marks.
- We can also restrict the domain we want hits from. Dot com sites are usually
trying to sell something (some even try to sell shares in companies developing
space elevators -- or at least they did). Let's try to look only at college
or university sites -- Dot edu sites. Use the advanced search tab on Google
OR just enter a search like the one when you
Click here. Alternatively, what does NASA have to say about the
space elevator?
Click here.
- We can also simply use some exact phrases. Be careful to search only for phrases
that reasonable people might actually write. A search for
"win Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize" is likely to yield weird results (if any)
because very few sentences would have exactly those words in exactly that order.
A more reasoable search would be
"Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize", or, since
it's common to refer to the President of the United States respectfully with
his title
"President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize".
Tips to Increase the Number of Hits
Here's a super simple search: click here. See how many hits? Very few.
- Reduce the number of words in your search.
- Be sure any exact phrases make sense as part of a sentence.
- Use synonyms or related words: click here. Click here. Click here. Google will actually
often do the synonym search for you. It will expand searches for "food" to include "recipes"
as well. To limit the search to exactly and only the word you want, you typically need
to enclose it in quotation marks.
October 31, 2009: Don't believe everything you read on the web....
Newsflash: George W. Bush will share Nobel Peace Prize with someone else who
doesn't deserve it. Literature prize expected to be awarded next year for his
upcoming memoir, ghost written by Maurice Sendak.
October 5, 2009
Older versions of Microsoft Office cannot open files created by newer versions
of MS Office. If you have MS Office 2007 at home, you're all set -- that's the
version here at school. But if have an older version of Office at home, it
spells trouble. You have two options.
- At school, from the menu that must not be named, always use "save as"
choose "other formats" and use the dialog box's drop down menu to
select the older version you want.
- At home, if you have Office 93, install the compatibility packs that
will let you open files saved in the new formats. MS recommends that
you first update your version of Office 93 with all the critical
updates before you install the compatibility pack. It's smart to pay
attention to that advice.
October 3, 2009
As we draw to the end of our unit on Microsoft Word, you need to wrap up with
Word Assignment 8: creating an MLA formatted works cited page. This will help
you when you have your first projects in history and English requiring research.
Creating a properly formatted works cited page requires you to:
- format a paper according to basic MLA standards
- create each works cited entry using a tool like Noodletools (here, the most
important skill is READING each screen that Noodletools presents you with
and making clear decisions about what it is that you are citing. Experience
will make you better, but it's not that hard. It's just tedious, but
required for documenting sources properly. Spend the time with it and you
can get the entries right.
- copy and paste the entry from Noodletools into your document
- correct the formatting (you'll end up with extra returns in each entry; remove them)
- be sure each entry is formatted with a hanging indentation
- alphabetize the entries by the first word or words in each entry (notice
I did not say by the author -- the author may or may not be the first word
in the entry
September 9, 2009
During the year I'll use this page to keep you up to date on what's happening in our IntInfo
course. I'll add useful resources and commentary on what's essential to gain from each unit
we cover. Actual homework assignments may be here or on Edline. I'll let you know as the year starts.
Bookmark this page so you can quickly access it during the school year.