Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Introduction to Computer Programming



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Computer programming is the process of creating instructions and codes using a computer to make an executable programs or software which the computer will understand and execute to meet a desired result. A person who has the ability to create computer programs is called a "programmer". Most programmers are Information Technology graduates. The 90% of their curriculum is based on computer software and hardware, troubleshooting, analyzing, problem solving etc.

















Image Source(s): computersciencehub.org; youngwebbuilder.com

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What are the characteristics of good programmer?

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 To be a good programmer, you need to have a good analyzing skills which will help you to solve problems. Other students which are good in Mathematics can easily excel in this kind of field because math is a matter of problem solving and analyzation. Abstract reasoning and logical thinking skills can also be a plus to a better programmer because this kind thinking can help you to easily understand a specific problem and plan to create a proper solution because programming is a matter of problem solving.


Images Source(s) : www.i4process.com ; www.naldzgraphics.net

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Programming Languages

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Programming language is a software used by programmers to create their own programs on their computers. Using this, programs can be developed in different Operating systems like windows, linux, ubuntu and other existing O.S depending software's compatibility. Lots of programming languages are now existing and can be used depending on the programmers expertise. See below for example of commonly used programming languages:

a). Java
         


           - is a common and widely used programming language which owned by Sun Microsystems that is now used by programmers to create different useful applications in either computer or cellphones. Today, in our modern civilization, java is the main platform behind the creation of mobile operating systems like Android and IOS.





b) C#
                          - an object oriented (class based) programming        language that is developed by Microsoft Corporation. C# is a simple yet modern programming language that is built from syntax of C++.









c) Visual Basic 6.0
                         - another programming language from Microsoft that grown around year 2000. An object oriented programming language that does not require a higher computer specs because its interface is classic not compared to higher version of visual basic.





d) Visual Basic .Net
                         - the latest version of Visual basic which requires .net Framework for the user to execute the programs that has been created on this programming language. This version has a newer interface and new way to execute codes more robust than the previous visual basic versions.







e) Python
      - one of the highly used programming language because of its powerful code execution. Other programmers preferred python because they can easily express concepts with fewer lines of codes. Python supports object oriented and procedural programming.






Images Source(s) : csee.umbc.edu; integralwebsolutions.co.za ; ipeek.com ; ultimateprogrammingtutorials.Info; upload.wikimedia.org


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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Databases

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Database is used by programmers together with the programming languages that they are using to store data or information which are typically organized for the user of the program to make it easy for them to retrieve such information about a specific entity, for example, data of every student in a particular school. Data inside a database can either be updated, added or deleted depending on the database operator or a specific user of the program. Database are commonly used by programmers who develops Information Systems such as enrollment system, library system, attendance record system and other system which needs saving of records and transactions. See below for example of commonly used databases:

a). Oracle Database

                - Often called as Oracle RDBMS, a database management system developed by Oracle Corporation that is written in assembly language, C and C++. Oracle database stores data in the form of data and tablespaces which contains data dictionaries.



b). MySQL

                - One of the most commonly used database today which  ranked as top 2 among the other databases. MySQL is an open-source relational database management system, meaning it is free of charge when used by the developer/programmer because it is available under the terms of the General Public License. MySQL  has a lot of features that has user friendly interface such as their Query browsers, Workbench and Migration tools which help the user to transfer data from supported database into MySQL.




c). Microsoft SQL Server

                 - A relational web hosting database developed by Microsoft Corporation which is merely the same as other database management system which has the ability to hold and store large amount of data. MySQL is widely used as data storage of different websites. Although unlike MySQL, this product is not free but it has a lot of advance features that will suite the needs of every developer who prefer to used this product.




d.) Microsoft Acess

                - A relational database by Microsoft that commonly uses by standalone programs or programs which doesn't rely on another server while retrieving data. Lots of object oriented programming may suite on using this kind of database for creating application softwares which can also referenced different objects such as Data Access Objects (DAO). Its own format on storing data is based on the Access Jet Database Engine. Access may also came in handy in by direct linking data which is stored on other databases and applications.








Image Source(s): computertrainingcenterscom; computertrainingcenters.com; objcsharp.wordpress.com; softicons.com
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Mobile Phone Programming

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Computer software programming are too mainstream when we talk about programming itself. Different programmers uses different programming languages which they can create computer programs for their business, jobs etc. Today, in our modern living, portable gadgets are now uses operating systems like what computer uses. The most common and widely used is our mobile phones. Not only for texting and calling purposes our cellphones has to deliver to us. By the use of mobile phone operating systems, we can now play videos, music and 3D games which just a matter of clicks on its keypad and screen. From a simple mobile phone, it is now evolved on what we called "smart phones". A lot of smartphones supports touchscreen which allow the users to use their own cellphone lcd screen to type characters or to hit a button displayed on the screen. Please see below the widely used mobile phone operating systems:


a) IOS

         - A mobile phone operating system developed by Apple corporation and was released on the year 2007. IOS designed on cellphones for direct manipulation using screen touching of every mobile phone. Different stroke and gestures are being supported by this operating system such as swipe, drag, pinch tap etc. Another main feature is that the user can create an event on their mobile phone by simply shaking the body of their smart phone which sends information to the operating system and create a specific for what the shaking supposed to do after the user do so. Year 2013, new version of IOS was release which is the IOS 7. The latest version requires 1.5 gigabyte of device memory to be successfully installed.



b). Android

         - A mobile phone operating system developed by Google which is the same as IOS that is designed  for touchscreen mobile interface. Android was released on the year 2008 which first used by HTC. Because android is under the Apache License, meaning , it can be modified and be distributed without risk on the side of the manipulator of the software. In the same year of 2013 became a good year for different cellphone applications to be created. Lots application running in Android OS has been created and distributed. Other applications are downloadable in other sites and some are handled by Google with their google playstore.





c) Windows Phone

           - A mobile operating system developed by Microsoft corporation which was launched on year 2010. The operating system supports touchscreen gestures and shaking of its whole body. It was quickly developed so that it can be on the market as early as possible. Windows phone has a  backward compatibility issues and may need to be fixed as early as possible. Windows 7 is their first release and windows 8 is their latest which uses their Nokia Lumia as the main operating system.

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Creating your first VB.NET Project.

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This will tutorial will guide you to create your first visual basic.net window form application. Assuming that you had already installed Visual Basic .Net versions on your machine. In this lesson, I will used the latest version of Visual Studio, VB.Net 2013.


1. Open your Microsoft Visual Studio IDE by clicking the start button>all programs>navigate your installed version of visual studio.


2. Once the program loaded successfully on your screen, click File>New>Project.


3. A dialog box will appear which contains different programming languages include on visual studio.


4. On the left side, click Visual Basic>Windows and choose "Windows Form Application" and hit OK.

5. After the loading screen, you first form will appear. In this state, try to drag and drop different controls in the left side into your form and start exploring. Buttons, textboxes, menus, option button and checkboxes are the sample of the controls you can find on the toolboxes.


6. After exploring different buttons, click the ">" icon to start running your first window form application. Or just hit F5 for the shortcut.

7. You have now your first simple window form application.

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Monday, February 24, 2014

VB.NET coding tutorial using "Buttons"

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Buttons contains a lot of events that you can create instruction that the button will do after those events has been established. Such buttons events are the mouse hover, mouse click,  double click, gotfocus and so on.

Let's try the:

"Click" event
         - This tutorial will guide you to create a simple Message Box after clicking a specific button inside the form.

1. Open your visual studio 2013 and create a project.

2. On the default form shown, just try do drag a button for the toolbox menu.

3. Double click the button.

4. You will be located on the source code of your program on where you will type your codes.

5. This time, you will see the code like :

                Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
                         
                End Sub
6. Between those 2 lines of codes you will enter the code that generate a simple message box.

7. Declare a string variable that will handle the message text that will be put on our Message Box. To declare a variable in visual basic, you need to state the word "Dim" before the variable and its datatype. For example:

                 Dim messageVar as String

7. The word "messageVar" is our variable. You can use different words as your variable depending on what you prefer to use. The word "String" is our variable's data type. Data type can be integer, date, byte, long, double, but now ,we will use string for the reason that we need to create a message within a message box.

8. After declaring a variable, we need to assign value that our variable will handle. We declare a string variable so we need to assign a simple string/text message. We will do it like this:

                 Dim messageVar as String = "Hello World"
                                            or
                 Dim messageVar as String
                 messageVar = "Hello Word"

We can assign a value before or after the main declaration of the varialble.

9. To create a Message Box, we used the syntax "MsgBox()" like this:
                 MsgBox(messageVar)

10. As you will notice we put our variable inside the parenthesis because that will be the message that our messagebox will show. Then your done, your final source should be like this:
                 Dim messageVar as String
                 messageVar = "Hello Word"
                 MsgBox(messageVar)


11. Run the program by hitting F5 and push the button inside the form.



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VB.Net Progressbar

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Progressbar control is used to show the status or progress of a specific task the application is currently doing. This control helps the user to determine whether the program is still responsive or not. Progressbar shows the percentage of a specific task and can estimate when the task will be ended.

This tutorial will show you how to utilize a progressbar in your window form application.

1. Create a new project on vb.net and name it "Progressbar".

2. On your window form, drag and drop these 3 objects from the toolbox:
                                                       - Progressbar
                                                       - Button
                                                       - Label
                                                       - Timer

3. Try to patter your control like what I did below:

4. Click on the label>properties>change the text attribute to "0%"

5. Double click you button to create your code.

6. In button button click event, you need to enable the timer because it is currently disabled. Follow this code:
                               Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
                                              Timer1.Enabled = True
                               End Sub

7. After enabling the timer, double click the timer object on your design and put the command that will create the progressbar event. Follow this code inside the timer event.
                    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick       

                               If Not ProgressBar1.Value = 100 Then
                                              ProgressBar1.Value += 1
                                              Label1.Text = ProgressBar1.Value & " %"
                               Else
                                              Timer1.Enabled = False
                                              MsgBox("Hellow World")
                               End If            
                      End Sub

As you can see, we used the IF ELSE statement for the reason that we need to stop the timer after we reached 100 % of the progress. We also put a messagebox "Hello Word" after we had reached the progress. Then you can see that our label has its value. The label will show the percentage of the progress by simply giving the value of the progressbar to the  "Text" attribute of the label.


9. You done, run the program by hitting F5 and start clicking the button.




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PC Games 2014 Review

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1. Resident Evil 6

            - A 3D shooting game developed by Capcom which story evolves about the operation of a secret agent Leon Kennedy from the City of Raccoon. Together with the other agent, Ada Wong, Jake Muller, the whole teams mission is to discover the force behind the creation of C-Virus and to stop the spreading of the virus around the world.
               Compared to other games, Resident Evil is one of the best game that many gamers preferred because of its realistic animation and movements. Other than shooting, characters can also perform melee attacks against the enemies like hook punch, straight punch and kicks. Players can quickly select items and switch their weapon in real time. In this latest series of resident evil, team member have the ability to revive their dying teammates using herbs for health recovery. While the team member is being revived, another player should able to defense his colleagues to finish the reviving process.



2. Left 4 Dead 2




               - A 3D horror survival games which story evolves about the 4 survivors in a specific town which needs to cooperate with each other to stay alive in the end of the game. The game was developed by Valve's Corporation which has been launched on year 2009 in Windows and Xbox360 platforms and game consoles. The game is played cooperatively, meaning, every players should help each other against zombie attacks. Different types of zombies are named on the game, the "Hunter", an enemy which can jumped from a distanced area into one of the survivor that will inflict damage on the victim. Another one is the "Boomer", this enemy is not that aggressive but it can vomit on a players face which can cause blindness. When boomer successfully vomited the player, a horde of zombies will attack and other members should  defend the one who was vomited. "Chucky" is a small zombie that moves fast that can jump over you and make you move far from your teammates which will be hard for them to rescue the victim. "Smoker" can prolonged its tongue onto the victim and grabs towards it and make the victim immobilized. The "Witch" is the creepiest zombie. The whole team will find the witch crying on their way. The group may not harm the witch because if not, the one who first inflicted damage on witch will be attacked and be inflicted a high damage. Last but not the least, the "Tank", the biggest and strongest enemy among the zombies. The defeat the "tank" all members should inflict damage on the said enemy.



3. GTA V

               - Also known as Grand Theft Auto, was released on 2013 developed by Rockstar Games is a third person,action game that allows the player to navigate different places in the world and engaged in different missions. The player can walk, run, jump and used different brand of high end cars while exploring different interesting places. Player can also establish illegal moves which may trigger the law enforcer's of the game to chase the players avatar. This might become one of the interesting part of the game on how the player will run towards the chasing policemen. The game has also a feature of online multiplayer which limits 16 players to rule the world inside the game. In this game, it is funny on how the supposed to be a hero become the enemy at the same time.







4. NBA 2k14
         

   - A basketball computer game that was released for Windows, Playstation and Xbox gaming consoles that was released on 2013 by 2K sports. This high quality kind of game has a realistic human like design which portrays all current and old NBA players of all time. Player can select among different teams on NBA such as "MIAMI Heat", "LA Lakers", Chicago Bulls", "Detroit Piston" and many other teams. On this latest version of NBA live, different changes has been made. There are addition of modes like "Lebron's Path to Greatness" which the payer will attempt to win different games inside the ring. New skills has been added such as quickness and speed in ball handling such as dribbling and passing, fast breaks, simple passing, rebounding and so much more.  "Training Camp" mode has also been added which allows the player to master all new established  controls.





5. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

               - The latest version of Assassin's creed series, a game developed by Ubisoft and released on year 2013. An action adventure games which evolves in 18th century in during Golden Age Piracy. Edward Kenway, the main character of the game (Hero), battles on different enemies using mostly melee combat battles against his enemies. Unlike on the previous version of the game, Assassin's Creed 5 gameplay is more on ship battles and exploration. The player uses different kinds of weapons such as sword, knife and other sharp material to kill his prey. The game consists of 50 different locations that the player can navigate. The additional feature of the game is the ship that uses by the player. The ship which has nae "Jackdaw" is also upgradable and can be accessed by the player if he needs to.






Images Source(s):  gandaeversomuch.com; mallory627627.tumblrcom; en.wikipediaorg; urbanmogullife.com; www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk

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Android Games List

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1. Plants Vs. Zombies 
              - A tower defense game on android which goal is to protect your house against zombie invasion. The player  uses plants as his/her army to protect himself on different kinds of zombies in the backyard. Sun is the currency use to buy plants, the more suns, the better. Different kinds of plants are available on the shop such as pea shooter, cherry bomb, wall nut, potato mine, snow pea, chomper and a lot more. Every plants has their own abilities and uses. Some are for attacking and others are for defense. Other attacks of plants has effect like the snow pea which slows down the enemy after hitting. The wall nut may delay the attack of zombies and the cherry bomb can destroy a group of zombie within its specific range.




2. Candy Crush
               - One of the most addicting game on Android platform which uses different colors and type of candies as blocks. The player should complete every level to unlock another level. To accomplish a specific level, the player must achieve the needed points and at the same time is to clear the silver block and other different kind obstacles by pairing at least 3 candy attributes.









3. Hill Climb Racing
                 - A racing game which the player rides all over different kinds of hills and mountains using different kinds of vehicles such as motorcycles, racing cars and tractors. These vehicles are all upgradeable and requires money to initiate upgrade. Player can ear money simple touching coins on his way and by performing air time. The longer the airtime, the bigger the money the player can earn.









4. Temple Run
                   - Another addicting game on android developed by Imangi Studios which goal is to run from the monster that is chasing the hero. The games uses coins as money to upgrade the ability of the player. While running, the player can be equipped with different buffs that will help him to become vulnerable, acquire speed and agility and magnetized coins. The runway is zigzag which challenge the player to change directions in realtime.














5. Subway Surfers
                    - Jump, glide, slide and fly while chasing by the policeman. This game is mostly same as temple run, the only that differs is that the player can fly on the game. The player can also acquire different buffs to acquire speed and distance in an easy way, coins is the primary currency in this game and uses different items which are also upgradeable in the market.







Images Source(s): article.wn.com; candy-crush-saga.softonic.de; templerungame.in; windows-phone.teradown.com; www.heavy.com

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IOS Games List

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1. Zombie Tsunami

             - An IOS running game which lets the player to control zombies while navigating the entire. From 1 zombie, the player's goal is to create a horde of zombie to easily collect coins. While running, different buffs can be acquired like transformation of zombies into ninjas, gold, football players, balloons and riding on a giant tsunami. This game is a side scrolling game which which you can jump over holes and obstacles. Different kinds of obstacles are present on the road like bombs and stranded cars, fires, and potholes. The pass all of this, all you need to do is to jump over it and continue running.




2. GTA Sand Andreas

               - This IOS games was first released on playstation 2 platform on year 2004 and then adapts into the Iphone and Ipad by Rocskstar games. C.J, the hero on the game will navigate lots of places the accomplish different mission that he needs to accomplish. Player can follow or break the rule on the game. Once illegal action has been done, authority will have no choice but to chase  C.J and make the mission busted.








3. Asphalt 8 Airborne


                 - A racing game developed by Gameloft and was released on 2013. Unlike other racing game, Asphalt series especially the latest versions together with Asphalt 8 has a smooth and realistic graphics that makes the game widely known and popularized. Player can Tilt his/her device to initiate auto acceleration of the car. In this version of asphalt, the gameplay became slightly different which focus on jumping of car. While in midair, the player can perform flat spins and barrel rolls. The single player mode consists of 180 events splits into 8 seasons which made the game more difficult a lot more challenging. At first, only the first season can be accessible, you need to finish other race for the player to unlock other season features of the game.




4. Call of Duty: Strike Team

                   - This version of Call of Duty in Android has lots of update from its own developer such as different high end guns like machine guns which includes the PDW-57. Call of Duty: Strike Team  became one of the hugely popular Call of Duty series. Strike team has lots of features  and updates that unlocks survival modes maps and last november, the game was updated with all new Time Attack mode, anew combat zone in the atlas mountain.






5.Cut the Rope 2

                   - Released on year 2010, a puzzled base video game developed by Zeptolab which objective of the player is to feed candy to a cute little monster which has named Om Nom while the player collects lots of stars. Different level needs to be finished by the player. In every level, the candy hangs with a rope. The player needs to cut all of those ropes for him to be able to feed Om Nom.














Images Source(s): appadvice.com; theguardian.com, en.wikipedia.org; tnsdeals.com; heavy.com

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Video Game Consoles

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Video game console is a device that sends output on the TV/monitor screen which allow an individual to play a specific game that he wants. Most video game consoles uses controllers for the players to interact and send command to the game. Today lots new interaction between the player and the console has now being implemented, game consoles now supports detection of body parts and voice commands to play the game. Below are the list of classic and latest video game consoles:



1. Atari
        - One of the most popularized game console ever that was released on year 1977 Atari Inc.  The game contains hardware cartridges and ROM instead of having non-microsprocessor dedicated hardware with all games inside. In the year1962, Atari 2600 was built which have bundled with 2 joystick conrollers, pair of paddle controllers and a cartridge game.








2. NES

         - Also known as Family Computer in Japan that was created by Nintendo released in year 1983. FamiCom includes 2 controllers which players can compete with one another on the game. The player 1 mainly has most prviledges on controlling and setting up the game. He/she can pause the game and edit different settings. This game console has also its own cartridges which is half the size of the main NES console.







3. Playstation

          - One of the most high selling and widely used video game console for today developed by Sony . The first version of the device was released on the year 1994 which is the sony playstation 1. Playstation 1 has 2 controllers with CD rom buit in. The device uses compact discs to play different game developed by different game manufacturers throughout the word. As the playstation become successful on entertainment industry, Sony computer entertainment released other version of the console, the playstation 2 that was released on year 2000, the playstation 3 released on 2005 and now the latest version of Sony Playstation series, playstation 4 that was release in November 2013. Both PS 3 and 4 uses high end disc which we called today the blu ray disc.




4. Xbox

          - Game console developed by Microsoft Corporation which was early introduced on year 2001. Xbox has a lot of features like streaming and online services which they called the Xbox live. This gaming console from Microsoft is describe with a large black box with a large "X" printed on the top. Among the product of microsot, Xbox is the one who has the largest selling statistics yearly. The console can detect body movements which is unique for every game consoles. It also includes pair of controllers and user can plug toy gun controller for different shooting games.





5. Wii

           - On year 2006, again, nintendo corporation releases their newest gaming console, the "Wii". The game sole has a remote controller that can be use as a pointing device. This has also an online feature which connects to the internet to receive different updates on the system. Games such as super mario and Legend of Zeda are 2 of the  most popular game on Wii platform.






Images Source(s): www.play-mag.co.uk; www.experiencepoints.net; siliconangle.com; hacknmod.com; en.wikipedia.org

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