Another Week

Another enjoyable week of class for me. Again, we discussed recursion and created some recursive programs on Dr Racket that produced some wonderfully complex images, also, we discussed computer networking.

For the recursion section, we began with a look at Sierpinskis triangle. We were able to model this triangular construction with Dr Racket which was pretty cool. I found it pretty easy to visualize atleast the first couple of "recursions" of the function, however, it did get very hard to mentally model anything past 6 or 7 recursions. I also found the link to Vi Harts video on the Scary Sierpinski Triangle to be quite entertaining, and I definitely recommend watching it to anyone reading this, as well as any of her other videos (especially the ones on the golden ratio!)

For the networking section, we began with a look at some of the earlier models for computer networks like the star arrangement. I found this model to be fairly odd, because such a pertinent problem exists, whereby if the main hub fails, then the entire system is effectively shut down. We then moved into the "network of networks" or the modern internet. We examined how messages can be sent from one individual to another in a place as far away as Australia, and who might control or be in charge of this massive network (i.e governments, corporations, etc).

Finally, the quiz this week, as expected, was on recursions, and specifically Koch recursion. The questions asked to model a couple of recursions of a simple program that continuously overlayed images of circles atop circles. It was fairly simple.