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The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen

23-Aug-12

I haven’t been the most avid of readers in the past few years. My compulsion for reading has been focused primarily on gaining a wider knowledge of religious cults and denominations and, as a result, reading in other fields has widely suffered.

So here I am, reading a book which Brian Cox co-authored along with Jeff Forshaw. Brian Cox, one of the latest scientists to become something of a celebrity in the UK, is not what I’d call someone that I warm to especially. All too often I find him commenting sarcastically on the foolishness of religious folk whenever he’s given a platform to speak his mind on BBC Radio Four.

Having said that, I was intrigued to see that this book was one of the top selling non-fiction paperbacks in WHSmiths. I studied Physics to A-level standard at school on the WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee) syllabus through the medium of welsh. I found the qualification’s content quite dry; not very inspiring and, quite difficult to follow. Like with anything at school, there are some things that you must simply accept as true without any proof as to why this is the case. Some of you might say that I should have done some outside reading but it’s difficult, when you are studying through the medium of Welsh, to find books that aren’t written in English on the matter.

My biggest struggle was with Young’s double slit experiment. Why does water defract (diffreithio in the native tongue) when it goes through the slit at all? I couldn’t envisage how that is possible and either my physics teacher was unable to explain the theory or I was too quiet to enquire.

Anyway, I’m reading this book and it seems to address the phenomena on the quantum level. The book thus far has dedicated its first four chapters mainly to this, giving insight to the history of quantum theory and its relatively recent adoption. From what my limited understanding can deduce thus far, the interference pattern seen in the two slit experiment caused by waves can be observed when you fire particles through slits also. What is interesting is that it is said that this interference pattern can also be observed if only one particle passes through the slits at one time, suggesting that the particle somehow may be interfering with itself.

I won’t go into more detail because at the moment, I haven’t read far enough to get a good grasp of the implications of this neither the theory that proves it. I will say that it is an enjoyable read so far and it’s written in a style that isn’t stuffy and informal. It’s definitely worth a look if you have an interest but, in spite of its relaxed tone, it might be a little two in-depth for someone who hasn’t got patience to re-read sections that are harder to grasp.

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Python Generators: Newton’s Laws of Motion

13-Jun-12

Earlier this week, I purchased a copy of the BBC’s Focus Magazine. I normally turn to the back to try my hand at the ‘BrainTraining’ section which is basically a set of ridiculously difficult brain-teasers. A blend of historical knowledge in the area of science (I’m hopeless) and an agile MENSA type challenges both mathematical and logical (err…too hard).

However, this week, I managed to find one that was particularly relevant to my interests. During school, I remember studying the basics of Newton’s Laws of Motion. One of the basic challenges we were tasked with was to balance weights on a lever at different distances from its fulcrum such that the lever would remain in balance. The idea is to measure the weight in Newtons of each weight and multiply it by its distance from the fulcrum. For the lever to be in balance, these values to one side of the fulcrum should equate to the values on the other side.

So, the problem in this example is to imagine the following fulcrum:

Focus Magazine Braintraining Problem

As shown above, the weights (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8), the weights should be placed on the lever in the way demonstrated by the empty chambers hanging from the lever.

To tackle this problem, I devised a script using Python given the formula where the letters a – f are assigned to the positions of the chambers hanging from left to right:

4*a + 3*b + 2*c + d - (2*e + 3*f)= 0

As stated earlier, the idea is that the weights, multiplied by the distances from the fulcrum on both sides should be equal and thus, taking one away from the other should result in the value 0.

To figure out the values for a thru f, I decided to use a generator expression which I’ve recently been reading about in the Python documentation. The generator expression is a functional construct that is definitely worth a look at and the documentation explains how it can be useful when iterating over potentially infinite lists of data.

Below is my attempt at writing such an expression to evaluate the weights that go in the positions a through f:



#!/bin/python
weight_list = [2,3,5,6,7,8]
result = ((a,b,c,d,e,f) \
  for a in weight_list \
  for b in weight_list \
  for c in weight_list \
  for d in weight_list \
  for e in weight_list \
  for f in weight_list \
  if 4*a + 3*b + 2*c + d - (2*e + 3*f) is 0 \
  and a != b \
  and a != c \
  and a != d \
  and a != e \
  and a != f \
  and b != c \
  and b != d \
  and b != e \
  and b != f \
  and c != d \
  and c != e \
  and c != f \
  and d != e \
  and d != f \
  and e != f)
for solution in result:
  print solution
  raw_input('Key for next result')

As suggested by the answer to the teaser in the magazine, I calculated 7 different combinations of the arranging of the weights on the lever. Why do it in your head when you can write as easy as the above!

  1. ( 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 6 )
  2. ( 2, 3, 7, 5, 6, 8 )
  3. ( 2, 5, 3, 7, 6, 8 )
  4. ( 2, 5, 6, 3, 7, 8 )
  5. ( 2, 6, 3, 5, 8, 7 )
  6. ( 3, 5, 2, 6, 8, 7 )
  7. ( 5, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 )
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Reflections on a Computer Science undergraduate degree

03-Jun-12

For all intents and purposes, my undergraduate degree has come to an end! A somewhat interesting adventure into the world of Computer Science and definitely a challenge that was worth the effort.

I might be speaking prematurely, of course. I completed my last exam, Artificial Intelligence II (see module description here), yesterday but I still have a Viva Voce to present. As part of my final year project I was not only required to build a piece of software and write two reports on it but soon I will be required to present the software to my project supervisor and the moderator. This is, in essence, to prove I actually did the work myself and didn’t get someone else to do the work for me.

So, what have I learned? I’ve learned that Computer Science at Cardiff University has quite an academic approach to Computer Science and the course, in all fairness has quite a breadth of coverage. With regards to web application development there’s no one module that I think is targeted explicitly at web development but, I’ll try to give a brief description of a few that will certainly be of benefit.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

This module was a course covering Interaction Design and, despite initial impressions, turned out to be a very interesting module. I was not particularly aware of UX design when I first took the course and, like many of the other students, thought it was a waste of time.

But I’ve taken a few noteworthy and useful things from the module:

  • An iterative process is crucial with regard to user-interface
  • End users must be involved in this process to ensure that the software is usable by your target audience
  • Frameworks for testing a user interface are important in order to ensure a consistent high-standard of design e.g.
    • Heuristic Evaluation using Jakob Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics
    • KLM/GOMS Analysis

Database Management

A third year module that serves to introduce two different aspects. Half of the module delivered expanded on a second year module in using Oracle’s RDBMS in which we were taught to create Object-Relational databases.

The other half of this module, more relevant to the field of web development, introduced some unusual topics that might not normally be considered when thinking about a database module. This half of the module was concerned with the basics of Information Architecture and how it is vital in developing a usable information system.

The module then covered the basics of building an XML schema using a DTD (Document Type Declaration) or xml:schema. Another part of the course introduced SOAP, the document-oriented XML protocol for web applications.

System Design and Group Project

This second year module is split into two halves. Part of the module is a set of lectures that addresses key issues in software development and how they can be overcome. A particularly unique part of this set of lectures introduces Brian Wilson’s interpretation of the Soft Systems Methodology which is a framework to help one to understand a problem so that we can better tackle.

The second half of this module was a practice in group work. Students were picked with varying abilities to be put in groups to specify and design a system according to the requirements of a client (a member of staff in the department). A lot of fun in hindsight and certainly a way to find out what kind of role one takes in a team.

Conclusion

How would I rate this course? I certainly believe that Computer Science at Cardiff is a solid Computer Science with a strong academic bias. The course, as well as the above, contributes a great introduction to networking, object oriented programming and also gives a solid grounding in the understanding of algorithms and data structures which I feel should be understood by anyone programming any kind of non-trivial application.

It remains for me to find out how successful at web development I will become but I will say that, I am in no doubt that Computer Science is a way into the industry and not the only way. I’ve come to understand in the last year that the technically proficient are nothing without the creative artistic people in this realm, skills that I certainly have yet to perfect.

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Smashing Book #3: Redesign The Web

22-May-12

Before I begin to review this book, I’d first of all like to note that I’m no front-end developer for the web, neither am I a graphical designer. The purpose of this blog, of course is to change all of that. That is, after all, the reason I’m reading this book.

I’m on the verge of completing my final year at University studying Computer Science in which time, my curricular experience of web development has been quite disappointing. I have, nonetheless learned XHTML and some CSS to a pretty good level and writing some plain JavaScript is not at all too painful.

I thought I’d known it all and that the only thing that web designers and the like bang on about is aesthetic of a page. But it turns out I was wrong. It seems that my skills are nothing compared to some of the things that web developers are considering at the moment.

Redesign the Web is split into 11 chapters and is targeted at a whole range of developers of web-based applications including those who are coordinators of projects, graphic designers, UX designers as well as mobile application developers.

The first chapter and second chapter deal with the way in which our approach to the development process of a web application should be different. Ultimately these pages teach that lessons should be learned from the past; that functionality of web-based applications and websites is more important than giving in to feature-creep and using every new technology we learned this week because we can!

More guidance is given with regard to process such as how to develop and present wireframes to clients as well as how to find the best hosting solution for a product.

After both of these invaluable chapters, the third and fourth chapters cover a few new features in HTML5 and CSS3. The content covered is very forward thinking and covers some features such as client-side storage which are very likely to become standards in the web in the future.

We are further greeted with great foresight on the future of CSS as to how it will usurp jQuery and how plain JavaScript should be used to back up the new features in CSS.

Other features in the book include some great insight on how to build a better, more immersive user experience and how graphical designers should deal with issues in creating graphics for the ever growing range of devices with different pixel densities as their displays.

We’re also introduced to a way of redesigning a site with a consistent and appealing personality. There’s a comprehensive chapter on how to approach a redesign in a way that we are able to design for mobile devices, raises the issue of when to use a native application versus having a web application tailored for the screen size.

The tenth chapter is concerned with a developer’s workflow and how they can present wireframes in a way that the client doesn’t think that the product is close to being finished! And a final chapter covers the way in which you design the aesthetic of a website and how you present it to your client.

All very interesting content! The book is very relevant from my perspective of someone who, having basic knowledge of web front-end development, would like to work in this area. This third book in the Smashing Magazine book has certainly given me inspiration for the future in my approach to designing a web application for a client.

You can purchase the book from the Smashing Magazine shop. I’ve purchased the printed copy along with the eBook however, in all honesty, I read the whole thing before the printed copy arrived. If you want a nice glossy colourful printed copy which smells great then go ahead and buy it. I recommend that if you only want the knowledge within then just purchase the eBook which comes in PDF, EBUP and MobiPocket formats.

It costs just shy of $20 at the time of this post which, if converted to pounds sterling is not a lot. A bargain!

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