Gregory M. Kapfhammer

Class Schedule

1. A Call to Courage introduces the course and asks the students to respond to the assertions that Dr. Richard Hamming makes in his speech You and Your Research.
   • Short Writing Assignment One

   • Criteria for Grading Papers

2. Google in Modern Society requires students to develop an informed opinion about how people perceive and use Google software.
   • Short Writing Assignment Two
   • Short Writing Assignment Three
   • Short Writing Assignment Four
   • Interesting Resources Related to Software and Technology
   • A Student's Introduction to Using Google
3. Supercrunching asks students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of data and computer driven decision making.
   • Short Presentation Assignment One

   • Short Writing Assignment Five

   • Interesting Article about Computer Generated Music
   • CPU Performance Data Set
   • Regression Tree Model for CPU Performance
   • A Modified Version of Zeller's Clock in OpenOffice Format (Two Minutes)

   • An Example of a Computer Program that Uses Random Numbers

4. The Software Crisis asks students to study the challenges that are associated with developing high quality software applications.
   • Short Writing Assignment Six
   • Short Presentation Assignment Two
   • How Costly is a Software Fault?
   • History's Worst Software Bugs
   • How Google and Facebook are Using R
   • The Case for Open Source Data Visualization
   • A Modified Version of Zeller's Clock in OpenOffice Format (Four Minutes)

   • Citation Sources for Disk Failure Articles
5. Open Source Software introduces students to the concepts behind free and open source software tools.
   • Long Writing Assignment One

   • Short Writing Assignment Seven

   • Map of Open Source Software Usage
6. Software and Music Piracy examines the controversial issues associated with stealing software and music files.
   • Long Writing Assignment Two

   • Online Class Poll Concerning Software Piracy
   • Online Class Poll Concerning Digital Music Piracy
   • Breaking News: Google and Digital Music in China
   • Interview: The 'Art' of Being Donald Knuth
   • Interview: Donald Knuth: A Life's Work Interrupted
7. One Laptop Per Child asks students to determine the pros and cons associated with the OLPC project.
   • Short Presentation Assignment Four
   • Long Writing Assignment Three
   • Online Class Poll Concerning the OLPC Project
   • Main Web Site for the OLPC Project
8. Analysis of Social Networking invites students to consider the pros and cons concerning the use of social networking software.
   • Facebook Users Get Worse Grades in College
   • Is Twitter Evil?
   • Scientists Warn of Rapid-fire Media Dangers
   • Professional Web Site of Professor Manuel Castells
   • Twitter, WordPress execs in Iraq to help country use new media
   • Brain-Twitter project offers hope to paralyzed patients
   • De-Anonymizing Social Networks
   • The Cost of Privacy: Destruction of Data-Mining Utility in Anonymized Data Publishing
   • Robust De-anonymization of Large Sparse Datasets (How To Break Anonymity of the Netflix Prize Dataset)