Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
     - I'm proud that I was able to make my time and not be nervous as possible, I was speaking too fast and ended up coming short and I took a deep breath to finish strong and handle myself.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

 P      I met all of the requirements and I feel like my performance was not above and beyond. An AE presentation is obvious and hits you when you see it, I feel like mine was not quite there.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE   Completely based on the hours I spent coding, and the fact that I had to learn 4 languages just to make it happen. I feel like the difficulty of the workload is what justifies a higher grade.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
      - The flexible schedule worked, for me it gave me time to really put in the effort my project deserved.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?
     - I would attend my mentor ship more often, I only completed 51 hours because I didn't know how to count my time on IC's that I spent with him. I feel like i could have learned more.
(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.
     -The senior project has given me a skillset that will carry me through college and allow me to succeed through my struggles and find a career. I knew nothing about coding going into Senior Year, and now I feel confident in my ability to achieve what I want in life because of what I know now.

Exit Interview

farewell senior year
(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

      - What is the most useful application for all audiences, and how can those audiences be reached?

• The most useful web application for all audiences is a weather app, and the way to reach all audiences is by having a good product and relying on word of mouth.
• The most useful web application for all audiences is a store app, and the way to reach all audiences is with Google Adsense.
• The most useful web application for all audiences is a databasing app, and the way to reach all audiences is by selling the app to various websites that attract different audiences.

The best answer is a databasing app, because it exemplifies complete utility and has the capability to reach all audiences because the marketing is on a different scale than a consumer product.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

      - Honestly it was taking my essential question word for word. A databasing app is the most useful because the internet literally runs on databases, so its the same as saying air is the most useful to humans. And to reach all audiences possible, its the most genius part, sell the app to websites that market to different audiences. The consumer won't even know they're using the product made because it can manifest in something so small as a web store, all the way up to blogs and emails.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

     - I hope I understand the question. One problem I faced was finding time for my mentor on top of work, school, and young scholars. I dropped young scholars completely after one quarter, and had to take less hours at work. But meeting with my mentor was still difficult because he had very specific days to meet, and all I could do was try and try to make our schedules match. One more problem was trying to maintain a social life, of course school comes first, but above all comes sanity; and it was not easy trying to keep my head above water at school and not cut off friendships.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

     - The single most important source in my arsenal was my mentor. Without him, I'd have no senior project, independent components, and understanding of the code I write. Anybody can just sit and Google little snippets of code to use, but without my mentor I would not actually understand what I was writing and why each line was important. My second most important source was my first interview. My interviewee, Benjamin Bracero, made me realize the different paths for code to take shape. If he hadn't put me in that mindset, then I wouldn't have an answer three or one.

Blog 22: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, Joshua Sanchez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 51 hours of work
(b) McFarland, James. JavaScript and Jquery: the missing handbook.United States: O'Reilly, 2014. Print 
(c) Update your Independent Component 2 Log - Tah Dah, all done
(d) For my independent component #2 I taught myself JavaScript and jQuery using the book cited above. I counted only 50% of my time learning because I feel like although it was necessary, it would be an unfair way of picking up hours. With the two languages I was able to create a full website, that I turned into a faux store. The store has large fancy jQuery animations that each took hours, even with my mentor's help. Taking a few code languages and making them work together is like taking people who all speak different languages and telling them to cooperate and make something nice. There's going to be a lot of issues. And of course the issues are what takes the longest to fix. The longest (smiling through agony).
(e) 

This is just the beginning format to tell the computer that there will be a website. The reference to the jsonp, which is necessary for all websites takes the lower portion. Locating a json file for my website took a few hours, but it worked well enough for me to work off of. I also added a popup feature so that when the site is visited, the consumer is greeted with a, "Welcome to the Shop," this small page alone took hours, because of how much I needed to go back and reference.  

This is the code to get one option for the pulldown menus at the top of the page. Imagine all the options I need like footwear, sweaters, t-shirts, button ups, sportswear, bottoms, accessories.

My Pulldown Menus actually work. Thank god they work.

My homepage, not bad for a first timer in a store. I attempted to go for a more new's style layout. So it's like a user's number one place to go to for clothes and new fashion. This tactic was taken from Nike's SNKRS, which is the first to make new releases for shoes and Nike products into a timeline instead of just a place to buy.

This is for animating a pulldown menu, which is different from the actual information that goes in. This animates it and reflects it to however many other menu's I need to gather.

This is what I used to enlarge images when a mouse is hovered over. Each of these take me hours. Honestly just learning how to do stuff like this in the first place would be enough to fill the 30 hours. It's a whole new language and I need to know how to use it and make sure it doesn't break.

My Men's Section, works with the header always in the same place and items hiding behind it to keep a clean look as suggested in my research.

(f)How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
     My EQ is, "What is the most useful web application for all audiences, and how can those audiences be reached?" Just like mt first answer, my Independent component was a platform to build my answer instead of leaving it on paper. I built what I said would be the most useful web application, and to reach all audiences I decided that a "purchase" of $300 in Google Adsense would be the best way to get out word of a store. The work and research I put into my component, is my actual second answer. First, I designed a store that was friendly on the eyes, and followed a template I made up that followed the rules of thumb my research pointed to. This includes font, background color, image mapping, and content. After my store was complete, This component is important to my topic and my EQ because it stresses my skill and gives me insight to the actually possible for a web product. 

Blog 17 - Interview 4 Reflection

What its like interviewing a master

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
     I learned that it's important to love what I do. And I picked that up from the way Eddie spoke of his work. That changes the way I see my project.2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?
     I'm going to make it more about the career than the learning language. Make it about something more important.

Interview sound here

Fourth Interview Questions

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
      - I plan to interview Benjamin Bracero or a co-worker of his at an equal or higher job position. Benjamin is a Senior Dedicated Systems Engineer at Microsoft and his job is to take new software and set up infrastructure for it at businesses that need it.

2.  Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

1.      What is the most useful web application for all audiences and how can those audiences be reached
2. How would you approach this question?
3. What sources would you look into or try to look for in order to find answers?
4. If you could give one solid answer, what would it be (if at all possible)?
5. I have three working answers at the moment and would like to know if you had any input or opinions on which would be the "best" answer?
6. When a client asks for something you know you can't do, what do you turn to first?
7. What is the hardest aspect of customer service that you deal with when speaking to new clients?
8. What is your main focus when building a product for a client?
9. After how long did it take you to make that your main focus?
10. Would you personally focus more on design or functionality?
11. Have you ever encountered a product that was very functional but lacking design in every way?
12. When you first learned, did you focus on front end or backend language?
13. How long into your learning process did you decide to learn Jquery?
14. Did you ever consider other career paths with your skill-set?
15. Would you ever take your skills to a different firm?
16. What is the most joy you find in coding?
17. Where do you think I should start with my career path?
18. What steps did you take to find a career in college?
19. What first attracted you to computer science?
20. Where would you personally start over and change your steps?

            

Blog 19: Third Answer

• EQ:
• What is the most useful web application for all audiences, and how can those audiences be reached?
• Answer #3:
• The most useful Web application for all audiences is a data basing application, and the way to reach all audiences is indirectly by selling a product to major websites that ask for signups.
• 3 details to support the answer
• It can be an email, which takes an entry and saves its information
• Anything with members, like club penguin, needs a database app. And that hits every audience
• All websites that want to save any information need it.
• The research source(s) to support your details and answer
• McFarland, James. JavaScript and Jquery: the missing handbook.United States: O'Reilly, 2014. Print
• "What are relational databases?" How Stuff Works. HowStuffWorks, 2015. Web. Feb. 27, 2015
• Concluding Sentence
• A web application that is more focused on backend work, and is sold to companies that have "members" is the most ingenious way to hit all audiences. Anything with a sign up is going to hit all audiences, and thats the beauty of it 

Answer 2

 The most important step is profit

1.  What is your EQ?
    What is the most useful web application for all audiences, and how can those audiences be reached?
2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
    The most useful web application for all audiences is a weather application, and the way to reach all audiences is by having an all around solid product.
3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
    The most useful web application is a store application, and the way to reach all audiences is through google adsense. 
4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
     There is actually a store for everything including dinosaur poop
     All audiences benefit from Amazon.com, including children who don't even use the internet because of parents
     The second you search for something with google, that can be related to a reputable store, you receive tons of ads related to your search
5.  What printed source best supports your answer?
     McFarland, James. JavaScript and Jquery: the missing handbook.United States: O'Reilly, 2014. Print
6.  What other source supports your answer?
     Pash, Adam. "How to Build a Web Application from Scratch with No Experience." LifeHacker. Life Hacker, 13 Aug 2009. Web. 1 Feb 2016.
7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought. 
     The most useful web application is an application that sells a product, we live in a culture with values based in consumerism, on top of that, Google just about runs our lives.  
     

Blog 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

- I needed to dress nicely to even get into Ms. Lu's building before she had to leave me for a call..

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
    - The most important thing I learned from this interview was that success won't come fast. Even with her pretty astounding degree, she was jobless. She was anxious to work and didn't understand the industry she was entering. It took her years to get to a management position at Microsoft, and there was still better opportunities with Northrop Grumman. Even before she started working at Microsoft, she didn't know that she would find a lot of joy in trying to break programs. Which tells me that patience is the number one trait I need to maintain.

2.  How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?
    - Well it was difficult to get my interview window with Ms. Lu, however I'm happy with the time I did get. I was promised a 10 minute window and I'm a little bummed that I got 4 and a half but even that tells me a lot. It was very possible for me to shift my focus towards security by finding a new mentor but I'm happy that I didn't do that and won't do that. Ms. Lu is a very busy professional and the amount of work she constantly needs to deal with. In terms of my project, I'm not going to touch anything near security like I wanted to for a portion of my second independent component.




Link to my interview:
https://soundcloud.com/j0shua-sanch3z/interview-with-caroline-lu

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
      - With my mentor I will most likely create a jquery project (a website with animations like pull down menus). This project can possibly explore databasing, a possible answer #3, but is intended to act as a way to find my answer #2.
2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
      - Getting a working project alone will take around 70 hours again, and to publish the project would take around 10 to 15 hours.
3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
      - My EQ asks what is the most useful type of web application, and my first application was a weather app. My next attempt at finding a useful app will most likely be a faux store with databasing, however just to have a jquery project that displays information will be more than enough work for the component.
4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log
     - Got it.

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) Write: “I, Joshua Xavier Sanchez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 75 hours of work.”
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• "Variables." Net Tutorials. Net Tutorials, 2013. Web. 2 Aug 2015.<http://csharp.net-tutorials.com/basics/variables/>.
• Davtian, Norik. "How to Build Your First Web Application – Tutorial Series." Big Employee, Big Employee. Oct. 25, 2013. Web. 17 Sep 2015. <http://bigemployee.com/how-to-build-your-first-web-application-tutorial-series/>
• Ghaida. "Designing Code: How to Use Design Principles to Write Beautiful Code." Zurb Blog, ZURB. Jul. 05, 2013. Web. 1 Oct 2015. <http://zurb.com/article/1220/designing-code-how-to-use-design-principl>
• Lorranger, Hoa, Jakob Nielsen. "Teenage Usability: Designing Teen-Targeted Websites." nngroup. Nielsen Norman group. 4 Feb 2013. Web. 15 Oct 2015. <http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-of-websites-for-teenagers>
• (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.
• (d) Explain what you completed.    
• I made a weather app and it might not be gorgeous. However it is completely functional, works in every city in all 50 states and has the most solid code backing it. Most of my hours were spent researching with my mentor however I'm not sure I'm allowed to count them towards my mentorship hours so I'm calling them component hours
• INTERPRETIVE 
  
  
• My finished product. Not bad not bad. But to get to this point was a ridiculous amount of trial and error that drove me nuts and I'm happy with what I've got

• Here is one example of the ridiculous amount of lines of code that go in to such a simple program. I made an error on purpose and the line number can be seen in the lower right with the warning triangle. It reads error in line 16150.

• Here is my HTML where I wrote in the reference call for the different table elements and my ability to simply name all 50 states. Not validate them and reference them.
• APPLIED
  For one I learned that it's very easy to hit audiences with an app like the one I built. A lot of  development is researching. And I made sure to tailor my component to my EQ. My best knowledge on my topic came from sitting for hours and hours straight trying to understand to the fullest extent, what I was writing. 

Lesson 2 Reflection

-It's really not easy trying to make this stuff interesting

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
    - For my lesson 2, I was most proud of finding a way to make programming interesting. As it is, speaking about computer languages without people dozing off is a hard hard task. And for me to get a couple laughs, that's unheard of for a programmer to do. Not only that but people actually took the activity seriously and had a good time with it, rather than using it as an opportunity to talk for a few minutes.
2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

       AE/P

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
       Using the component contract and staring at the P requirements. But I feel like the activity and my conclusion is what solidified a grade higher than a P, the audience did what I have to sit and do for hours, in an abridged version, and had a great time. The conclusion with my answer put the whole presentation together and it just felt right.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
       My activity worked, the Keys to Success worked, and having Itzia help me worked.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
       Something I would have done differently is handed out printed examples to each table, but I don't have the kind of money for that much colored ink. Black and white on a handout looks not as presentable and very last minute. One more thing is I would have just snuck in more jokes to try and keep the presentation more engaging.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
     Answer number 2 will most likely be a universal databasing app,available for all companies to use. And to get my product out there would be with investors.

Blog 14: Interview 3 Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
     - I plan to interview my mentor, I know that it should be a third person but if anybody is going to help me with my EQ it will be him and not somebody with a fancy job title. My mentor is a master in app development.
2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 
January 23rd 4 o'clock
3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
    - What is the best app development practice to entice users and inspire word of mouth.
4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).
     - What is the best way to break down what app developers do, into management level English in effort to convince possible investors to invest in a product.
5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 
   - How can a sprouting developer best learn how to network with larger and more prominent developers in effort to expand on possible business enterprises?
   - How do you design an application to cater to specific audiences?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
     - Most of my mentorship is done at our favorite coffee shop, however because it is digital work, we also meet digitally and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to count those hours.

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?
     - My contact is my orriginal mentor, Brian. Brian is an expert because it is his job to be clever and find solutions in the programs he writes and that are given to him. Speaking to him feels like speaking to a genius and when you hear his spoken resume on recent projects it feels like excellence. His job is a county job and to me those qualify as the most legit instead of a mom and pop's shop that can all be hearsay.

3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).
     - I've done 11 hours during the year, but there have been a lot that weren't in person and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to count those.

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.
     - Because what we do is a foreign language to me, and a lot of revisiting for my mentor its easier than anything to fill up hundreds of hours of mentorship. My mentor and I make mini applications as lessons for one specific aspect of programming. Every time we meet the chemistry is amazing and we are comfortable with talking for hours, Brian is a very easy person to talk to which helps me because I am not confident in my ability. He teaches me language, the long way for a task, the short way for a task, the task used in a small scale, and the task used in a big scale, in that specific order when we meet.

Blog #12 Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?
     -Although I was anticipating a break, it was more of an opportunity for my mentor to teach me as much as he could. Without a doubt it is great to learn about my topic and work on my app. With an eager mentor, it can get tiring but seeing my work come together and gaining independence makes it all worth it.


2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
     - Having vision is the most important part of designing an application. If there is no vision, there is no point, its cool to know how to do everything but if you just put pieces together that don't match you'll have a useless application. It's about finding balance between features and design.


3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?
     -If my first interviewee can follow through and help me with networking to big names at Microsoft or Northrop Grumman, I will be set. However I would like to interview my mentor's managers as a backup.