Scientific Computing: Computational Physics

After years of gaming someone showed me a spreadsheet and my life was changed. I discovered for the the first time that computers can be used for much more than playing a video game. One of the first uses of major computational computing was the calculation of real world variables and the dropping location for a bomb. Scientists found that they could use complex physics formulas and instantly calculate those formulas. This opened up computing to many new and exciting fields. Not the least of which is computing physics.

The first electronic digital computer was built in a basement of the physics department at Iowa State University.  The computer was invented by a man named Professor John Atanasoff.  In fact most major jumps in computing were made by physicists.  It just so happened that these physicists were simply experimenting with ideas and created a computer.

Professor Charles Bennet, IBM Fellow makes a great argument when he says that for a long time physics separated from computer science and we stopped making great computational advances.  We thought that we had finally found the answer and stopped looking.  But recently physicists have reentered the computer science community to work on quantum computers.

In a normal computer every bit has two modes, on and off.  This is a simple way of describing binary.    In a quantum computer each bit would be able to hold many modes, not just two.  A company known as D-Wave created a quantum computer where each bit can hold two states simultaneously.  This allows for a total of four modes, (0,0), (0,1), (1,0) and (1,1).  Because of this, each bit can provide twice the information of an ordinary bit while computing at the same speeds maybe faster.

Physics and computers have a long relationship and more recently this relation will begin to grow to what it once was.  Maybe in the near future we will see some more great and wondrous advances in computing that will provide answers to bigger questions.  Or perhaps, take over the world.

Computer Graphics

Computer Graphics is a term to describe the drawing of objects on a display.  The original task was to change tiny little squares from on to off and back.  The display would be just black and white (no grey scale) and these tiny boxes, known as pixels, would turn on for white and off for black.  This allowed for text, pong and the beginning of the personal computer evolution.  Soon after, inventors discovered they could shade the pixels to be brighter or darker, ultimately creating grey scale.

Today, computer graphics have jumped leaps in order to build great games or movies.  Games have provided many advances in light shading and real world physics.  Calculations are made to determine what boxes get changed to what colors.  In a video game, the user can make decisions that can effect the the angle or lighting of a particular object.  So the computer has to make split-second decisions on what colors the pixels need to be.  These pixels are put together in an attempt to make things appear real world.

Computer graphics also has many real world applications.  The medical field has made great advances as a result of computer animations.  Objects can be created 3d representations on a computer and the doctors and scientists can get closer and better look.

Computer graphics will continue to make great advances to make visual representations more and more realistic.  We have come a long way from black and white boxes and a screen to the high quality and fast visual representations.  It will be exciting to see what comes next.

Communications and Security

In World War 2 it became apparent that the Japanese were able to crack the communication codes used by the military.  So the US Marines came with a great idea.  They could use communication codes but also use Navajo Indians to write the message in their original language.  Even if the Japanese cracked the code they would not be able to understand Navajo.  These troops soon became to be known as "Code Talkers."

Today, we still encounter the problem of bad people trying to collect our information.  Imagine if someone could see everything you were doing on your banks website.  They would be able to see your password, account numbers or billing information.  Imagine the damage that could be done.  So computer scientists teamed up with cryptographers to create a communication security that would protect users from malicious attacks.

The most common type of encryption is a symmetric-key encryption.  This uses a certain type of password that is a specific size that both the encoder and the decoder need in order to decrypt the message.  Anyone who obtains the information without the key will just see gibberish.  These keys have been anywhere from just a few bits to infinite in size.  The larger the key the more impossible the code is to break but also the longer the message will take to decode.

Some companies and even the militaries around the world have taken this encryption to the next level buy using physical objects.  Things like fingerprints or even keys can be used.  A version used by the US military has a physical key combined with a clock element.  The computers on both end must have their clocks synced.  Then both users must enter and turn the key with in seconds of each other in order for the computers to produce the same temporary encryption key.  The message is sent and received with no issue.  This makes the key difference every time while also reducing risks that can be caused by lost or stolen physical keys.

Your information online is very important.  It is our responsibility to ensure it is dealt with in a safe and secure fashion.  Please ensure everything you do is secure before transferring important information.

Artificial Intelligence

When ever the topic of artificial intelligence comes up the first thing that comes to mind is "Skynet."  In the movie "Terminator", artificial intelligence has become to advanced that it decided the world would be better off without people.  In a similar fashion, the short story that later became a movie "iRobot" displays how an artificial intelligence eventually came to conclusions that were dangerous for mankind.

Websters' dictionary defines artificial intelligence as "the power of a machine to copy intelligent human behavior."  I believe it is slightly more than that.  I would like to define it as the "the power of a machine to make decisions that are not pre-defined."

In Websters' definition we can say that a program that nearly asks a question and provides a limited number of responses in artificial intelligence.  For example, the site http://en.akinator.com is a 20 questions game where the makers have built an elaborate database that can narrow almost anything down in 20 questions.  But this does not display the computers ability to think.  All of the decisions are pre-defined.

Siri is a much better example of artificial intelligence.  Siri can't take over the world or exterminate humans in anyway, but the more people use Siri the better Siri can provide answers and understand people.  The developers at Apple designed her to be able to increase her intelligence and become more useful on her own.

I don't believe we will end up with some kind of Skynet and artificial intelligence can be very useful and helpful.  It provides us with many tools and ways to increase our knowledge.  Maybe someday we will see a significant improvement in the medical industry as a result of artificial intelligence.

Data Structures

My room may look messy but I know where everything is.  I know this is the motto of every teenager in the world but it's kind of true.  I placed everything in a particular place so I know where to go get it.  Unfortunately computers don't tend to follow my organizational style.  It's probably a good thing that it doesn't.  Data Structures are simply the methods used by computers to temporarily store data to
be used.

We store data in real life in various ways depending on what the data is being used for.  People will use file boxes to save old bills or tax documents and shelves are used for books or dvd.  Depending on what it is you are storing you have to choose the best way to store that information.  Data Structures are simply the shelves and file boxes of a program in a computer.

There are three major types of data structures: primitive types, composite types and abstract data types.

The primitive type is very simple.  Information is stored as a single element such as a number, character or a boolean (true or false).  These primitive data types can only hold object at a time and if a new object is placed into the storage the previous object disappears forever.

The next type is the composite type.  The composite type is simply multiple primitive types place in one object usually but always called a struct.  The composite type lets the programmer add as many primitive types as the programmers want but just like in the primitive data structure it only holds a finite number of objects that were predetermined by the author.  And just like in primitive data types if one of the objects is over written the previous data is lost forever.

The last is abstract data types.  Abstract Data types use creative programming techniques to allow a flexible and possibly infinite number of primitive types to be stored.  The easiest of these is the Array.  An Array is just a list of objects numbered from 0 to the limit of the code.  Each object can be over written but doesn't need to be as the programmer can simply keep adding more information on to the end.

There are tons of different types of data structures that can be used and picking the right one is just a matter of what you need to use the information for.  A book or taxes it doesn't matter as long as you organize the correct way.  I should probably clean my room.

File Sharing

When the US military is over seas there are no laws regarding the illegal downloading and sharing of media.  I guess they figure that they will allow anything to go in this area in order to keep the troops entertained and out of trouble.  I returned from Japan with an external hard drive of over 400 movies all legally obtained.  When people hear the words "File Sharing" their minds immediately land on Napster and illegally copying music but that is only the most media frenzied type of file sharing.

The reality is that the transfer of information from one user to another is a challenge that has plagued us since early home computing.  Now we have a number of tools that make sharing information fast and easy.

Social Media.

This is a great way to share something small very quickly.  Twitter and Facebook allows the user to post a short statements, photos or links to anyone who cares to look at it.  We don't have to send emails or texts to share this information nor do we need to care if someone sees it.  This has made it very convenient to share small amounts of data.

Documents.

The next greatest challenge to file sharing has been documents.  Does everyone remember fax machines?  Well I for one am glad that tools like Google Docs exist.  Not only can I post a document for other to see, I am able to set some rules on how the files are viewed or edited.  The user can share it for viewing only, allow editing, or even allow collaboration so that multiple users can edit a document at once.  Once Google Docs started to bridge a gap we have had to deal with since computers made into homes, Apple and Microsoft have built there versions of cloud documentation.


Large files.

The previous two tools are very nice and cover most of the file transferring necessary for the general user but what about those small amount of large file transfer?  There have been a number of great tools to help transfer large images but the two that have made this convenient and easy are Dropbox and Google Drive.  With an easy to install tool the user can setup a folder on their computer and anything that goes in that folder is automatically sent to the cloud.  Once the file is on the cloud the user can do what they want with it after that.  Other users can connect and download the needed files.

Code.

My Favorite type of file to share is code and I love to do it on GitHub.  GitHub allows users to post code, copy code and collaborate on projects to easily build projects.  GitHub cuts out the confusion brought on by trying to email or transfer code and makes it easy to build powerful projects with people you may have never met.

Although much of file sharing is illegal transfer of music, the majority of it is the legal and productive form.  These many tools make our projects, work and home life much easier when connecting to other people.

History of Computer Science

My computer science history started with a Mac II. When my dad bought it for $5500 I was so excited about the possibilities.  I mean I heard about computer games and now I could see for myself.  And lo my dad just wanted to do this thing that is still foreign to me, I think its called word processing?  Since this sweet piece of rockin machinery I have a few other computers.  Today I own a laptop which cost me about $1000 and a desktop which was also about $1000 and there is not a thing these computer cannot do.  And I think they also do that thing, word processing?

Computing in its simplest form is simply logical evaluation like: if this then that.  For example, if its raining then I will take an umbrella.  The first computer that we know of is the Antikythera Mechanism.  It was used to chart the stars by making some simple mathematical decisions.

Computing really started to come in its own by the US Military in order to compute artillery attacks.  A giant room sized computer was built in order to plug in different variables like range, elevation and wind; the computer would then output the necessary settings to plug into artillery.

Once these advanced forms of calculation started to make more of a public appearance, large companies began to put a serious investment into technology.  Companies like IBM took advantage of the sudden interest in computing and put all their effort into corporate us technology.

One of the first operating systems to be widely used is the Unix system.  Unix allowed companies and a small number of individuals to build unique programs limited to anybodies imagination.  Today, Apple's operating system, OS X, is built from a very close version of the original Unix.  Linux is also a more advanced build of Unix.  Microsoft, although they decided to reinvent the wheel a bit by building their own computational foundation, still followed the same structure when creating Windows.

Computers have come a long way from tubes and stone and Computer Science is moving faster today than ever before.  I am more excited than ever to see the new changes that are making computing cooler and cooler.  I can't wait to see what happens next!