Assignment 3 Question 1

The first question of assignment 3 was a fairly easy one luckily. Each member in our group was able to complete the weekly question pretty effectively. We decided to prove:

Ve P R+; Wd P R+; Vx;y P R+; |x -  y| >d =>|x + y| >e

The proof was fairly simple. |x -  y| is always equal to or less than |x + y|, meaning that the later is always greater than d. Using that clue it was a fairly easy question to work out.

Big O

Last week we had the CSC165 Term Test #2. Going into the test I was worried the questions would be difficult, such as a couple of the ones on the assignment we had just done. Thankfully they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to do be. The first question had been a breeze and the third one wasn't much worse. Question 2 needed a bit of time for me to start it, and I didn't fully complete it, but I should still get a solid amount of marks on it. 

I will say I'm happy to be away from proving standard mathematical statements and into the big O, step counting, algorithm complexity, proving upper and lower bounds, it all seems much more relevant to what we would actually be doing outside of class in the real world. With the big O proofs I find it very rewarding with the way writing a proof will lead you to finding c and B, two variables that need to be declared at the beginning of the proof.

War Against AMD

I've recently had the opportunity to exercise a strategy we had been taught in CSC165. I had installed a new program on my laptop, AMD Overdrive, which I was planning on using to overclock the AMD GPU inside of my laptop. Upon installing the software, my computer received a blue screen of death. After restarting my laptop many times, it would consistently hit the blue screen of death within a minute of initial boot up.

Faced with this issue I executed the strategy taught to us by Professor Heap. I analyzed the given situation  and thought up a few possible ways to fix it. The plans I came up were as followed: 1) Disable the video card and attempt to uninstall AMD Overdrive, 2) Perform a system restore, or failing that, 3) Format the computer. Following the guidelines that we were given I began working on the first, and least damaging option. I disabled the video card easily enough however I had a lot of issues uninstalling AMD software from my computer. After wasting enough time on this method I saw it was a pointless venture and moved onto my second plan.

The second plan consisted of performing a system restore. Luckily I had a restore point that was only 3 days old and was able to roll back to a point before I had Overdrive on my laptop. After the restore was complete my laptop was back to working correctly with no sign of Overdrive anywhere. I disabled the AMD GPU again, uninstalled the AMD Catalyst Control Center, and have since become further hardened against AMD and the viruses that comes with their software.

Creasing Logic

     So today in class we were given an interesting problem that we were asked to solve. Basically you had to fold a piece of paper in half over and over again and then count how many creases were created by x amount of folds, as well  as the direction of the creases. My partner and I decided to tackle the issue by first making a t - table where the right side held the number of creases, their direction, and the sequence.The left side held number of folds. Using the data we were able to accomplish two things: firstly we were able to create a formula that would output the number of creases based on an input of number of folds. Secondly we were also able to find the pattern in the sequence and explain it via words.

    Our issue arose however when we tried to create a formula that would be able to output the correct sequence for up and down in the creases. While we could explain it in English sentences, we could not figure out the mathematical formula for the sequence.

Initial Impressions of Comp Sci 165

    CSC165 has turned out to be a solid choice for a first year class. It's a good complimentary class to MAT137 and combined with the 1st year programming courses is creating a sturdy base from which I can go into game development. My name is Jeffery Walsh and as you may be suspecting I am a first year student at the University of Toronto studying Computer Science and hoping to specialize in Game Development. 

    The reason I said that CSC165 compliments MAT137 is in our first in the courses we have roughly been studying the same content. The main difference is that CSC165 has gone into much more depth on sets while the MAT137 class moved onto proofs. However sets and the symbols associated with sets are used in proofs as well and the fact that I struggle with memorizing math terminology and symbols proves useful as I essentially have two classes strengthening my weak points. On the other side of the coin CSC165 and my programming classes are jointly building my gave development abilities. This semester I'm taking CSC108 and it is teaching me how to code, but it really has delved into logic yet, but CSC165 is able to fill that gap. 

    I initially found the logic venn diagrams to be a bit frustrating and confusing, part of that confusion was due to the fact that our T.A. at the tutorial had a different handout sheet then we did. When it came to the actual quiz it was all crystal clear, I just needed to be take my time and think through it carefully. Logic isn't something that should be rushed.

    Overall my first 3 weeks at the University of Toronto have been a very sharp contrast to my old life in small time Toronto. The amount of cultural contained inside Toronto, and even the sheer size of Toronto have been an overwhelming, but enjoyable experience

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