Project 3 – Choosing the right computer hardware
For this project, read the following fictional case and complete the tasks listed below. Overview

Suppose that you have been asked by your friend, Dwayne, owner of Dwayne’s Digital Photography Services, to assist him in buying some hardware for his existing computer system. Your assignment is to research 3 types of products for Dwayne’s studio. He takes pictures with a high-end digital camera and saves them as computer files. He prints business documents (letters and invoices for the most part) on a small black & white printer that he already owns. Since he wants to retain the digital rights of his images, he is planning only to provide very high-quality, full-color “prints” for his clients using a large-format printer, one that can print up to 17 inches wide. He wants your recommendation for what printer to buy.

He also wants your recommendation for a large-format, flatbed scanner. This should be able to scan documents up to 17 inches wide and should not include a sheet feeder.

Of course, he wants to be able to work with a high-quality video monitor, too, so he wants you to recommend something that would serve his purposes and be compatible with his camera, the printer, and the scanner.

Dwayne wants you to give him a list of the above devices that you recommend for him to buy, along with some explanation of why you are recommending those items. Of course, you must always take budget into consideration. Dwayne, being a professional photographer, is not interested in low-quality (i.e., cheap), all-in-one devices, so don’t recommend any. He is expecting to pay between $1,500 and $3,000 total for the 3 items. He has asked you to prepare information on mid-range and high-end products that will fit his needs and budget.

Tasks

Use your favorite search engine to research the devices you want to recommend. Create a list of the devices you think Dwayne should purchase for the photography studio, including the type of monitor, the type of large-format printer, and the type of flatbed scanner. Include information about manufacturers, models, and prices.

Use a word processing program to write a business letter Dwayne with your findings. Start the letter with an “executive summary” that explains how much he should expect to pay for the 3 products. Here is a sample of such a summary. For your project, don’t just copy this sample, but write your own words.

Date

Bryce Martens
1700 W. Hillsdale Blvd. San Mateo, CA 92202

Dwayne’s Digital Photography Services Address
City, State ZIP

Dear Dwayne,

Thank you for choosing me to recommend your computer equipment. This letter contains my recommendations. Here is a summary of prices for the items you specified:

•  The price for the mid-range printer is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx.
•  The price for the high-end printer is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx.
•  The price for the mid-range scanner is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx.
•  The price for the high-end scanner is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx.
•  The price for the mid-range video monitor is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx.
•  The price for the high-end video monitor is $xxx. The sales tax (at 9.25%) is $xxx and the shipping charge is $xxx, which brings the total to $xxx. Thus, if you were to purchase all 3 mid-range products, you would pay a total of $x,xxx, and if you were to purchase the high-end products, you would pay a total of $x,xxx. This amount is for the hardware only and does not include the supplies like paper and ink (these are listed separately below). The hardware total falls within your budget range. Here are the details… For the next part of your letter to Dwayne, create a table that organizes your findings into 3 columns. List the type of device in the first column in the table (i.e., printer, scanner, video monitor). In the second column, list the name of the item, the manufacturer, the supplier, and some of the technical specifications about the product. Make 2 lines for each product – one for the mid-range product and the other one for the high-end product. DO NOT SIMPLY CUT AND PASTE THE SPECICATIONS FROM AN ADVERTISEMENT; USE YOUR OWN WORDS TO DESCBIBE EVERYTHING.

In the third column, list the price for the products including shipping and sales tax.

Important details

You’re not trying to “sell” Dwayne anything here, but he would like you to justify your choices. In the second column, include a short description explaining why you are recommending the type of products that you listed.

While you are thinking about printers, keep in mind that Dwayne will need photo paper. Most paper for large format printers comes in a roll, rather than individual sheets. To get Dwayne started, make a recommendation for a roll of 17-inch by 100 feet premium quality photo paper. Why would you recommend that kind and brand of paper? How much is it going to cost Dwayne for his initial roll of paper?

Suppose Dwayne wants to print using individual sheets of premium photo paper, rather than a roll. How much should he expect to pay for a box of 20 sheets? As above, why would you recommend that kind and brand of paper?

It may be obvious, but Dwayne is also going to need a lot of ink. What ink would you recommend? How much will he need to spend, and how often would he need to replace the ink cartridges? On a high-quality printer, are the ink cartridges sold in individual colors, or do all colors come in a single cartridge? Which is the best for Dwayne’s needs?

Keep in mind that there are a lot of choices here and that your recommendations are subjective. Do your best to keep Dwayne’s technical and budgetary needs in mind as you compile the list of mid-range and high-end products.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

Activities:

Create a Data Visualization project plan and implementation. As a team, plan the process and the implementation of the project. The team should identify a data visualization problem and a corresponding data set. The team is responsible for building a project plan for a company. The project should include a graph/chart of the final product. The team should provide a detailed project plan and a PowerPoint presentation. The team will have 10 minutes to present the project in class.

Make sure to include the following information:

Data Visualization Development

oData Visualization Project Plan

oSoftware Tools and Environment

Data Visualization Development Process

oData Acquisition

oData Examination

oData Transformation

oData Exploration

Prototyping / Presentation

Semantic Change Reading:

1. What is a semantic extension? Please give two examples from the text.

2. What is a metaphorical extension? Please give an example.

3. What is a semantic elevation? Please give an example.

4. What is a semantic degredation? Please give an example.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

(2) There are 8 equally-sized counties in Corn-Land, which heavily depend on the production
of corn. The corn industry employment in the respective counties is given by:
County A B F H C D E G
Corn jobs 125 25 180 15 10 100 10 35
Calculate the Gini coefficient of job concentration (report 4 decimals)
(3) Assume there are only 6 counties in a country, and there are only three industries (beer,
bread and shirts) that employ people. The employment numbers are given in the Table
below:
Employment Beer Employment Bread Employment Shirts
County 1 20 4 45
County 2 10 6 12
County 3 12 10 10
County 4 60 10 16
County 5 10 2 12
County 6 2 6 12
Calculate the ELQs for the following county and industry combinations:
(a) Beer and County 3
(b) Bread and County 2
(c) Shirts and County 1

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200926011427ps2_urbanfa20

 Define a measurement construct for investments

1. Before investment (proposed)

2. After implementation (follow through tracking)

• Pitch a project for investment decision

• Include relevant information/metadata about the investment project (type, alignment)

• Make a go-no go decision based on the criteria you have put forward

GEO3020 Internal Order in Crystalline Solids: Translation Symmetry and Lattices

1. Symmetry of a Crystal.

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the relationship between the symmetry of a lattice and the symmetry of a crystal.

1. Space Lattice Types. There are four basic types of space lattice whose unit cells have an unspecified geometrical shape except for the number and locations of lattice points.  These are:

(1)  Primitive (P):  The lattice points are at the corners of the unit cell.  There is a total of one lattice point per unit cell because each corner point is shared by 8 unit cells (1/8 x 8 = 1).

(2)  Side–centered (B or C):  The lattice points are at the corners of the unit cell and centered in pairs of opposite faces of the unit cell.  There is a total of two lattice points per unit cell.  Each corner point is shared by 8 unit cells (1/8 x 8 = 1).  Each side-centered point is shared by two unit cells (1/2 x 2 = 1).

(3)  Body centered (I):  The lattice points are at the corners of the unit cell and centered in the body of the unit cell.  There is a total of two lattice points per unit cell.  Each corner point is shared by 8 unit cells (1 lattice point), but the point located in the center of the unit cell is unshared (1 lattice point).

(4)  Face centered (F):  The lattice points are at the corners of the unit cell and centered in each face of the unit cell.  There is a total of four lattice points per unit cell.  Each corner point is shared by 8 unit cells (1/8 x 8 = 1).  Each face centered point is shared by two unit cells (1/2 x 6 = 3).

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200926050043ps2_introduction

5. When the original Star Wars movie came out (1977), there was much excitement about the movie. Let’s look at some problems based on the characters and film.

On average it takes Han Solo 45 seconds to check the coordinates and jump into hyperspace.  The standard deviation of this important task is 5 seconds. When Han and Chewbacca and their passengers are leaving Alderaan, they make the jump in 33 seconds.  What is the probability of such a jump? Please show your work, draw your distribution, and place the z-score for this jump on the distribution.

Now let’s make sure we understand Chapter 7:

6. All the possible random samples (n = 10) are taken from a population with µ = 100 and ơ = 15. What is the mean of the distribution of sample means µ_m?

7. All the possible random samples (n = 10) are taken from a population, means are calculated, and a distribution of sample means is created. Next, all the possible random samples (n = 100) are taken from the same population, means are calculated, and a distribution of sample means is created. How will the distribution of sample means for n = 10 compare with the distribution of sample means for n = 100?

8. You are interested in the degree to which UNCW students enjoy the new Disney Star Wars movies. Possible answers range from 0 (do not enjoy them at all) to 10 (enjoy them immensely).

• If all possible random samples of UNCW students, each with n = 4 scores are selected from the population of UNCW with a µ = 7 and ơ = 2, how much distance is expected on average between the sample means and the population mean? Please show your work.

• Next, if all possible random samples of UNCW students, each with n = 25 scores are selected from the population of UNCW with a µ = 7 and ơ = 2, how much distance is expected on average between the sample means and the population mean? Please show your work.

• Last, if all possible random samples of UNCW students, each with n = 100 scores are selected from the population of UNCW with a µ = 7 and ơ = 2, how much distance is expected on average between the sample means and the population mean?

9. A normal population has a µ = 100 and ơ = 8. A random sample of n = 16 scores from this population has a mean of M = 104.

• What is the z-score for this sample mean?

• • Please show your work, draw your distribution, and place the z-score for this mean on the distribution.

  • What percentage of sample means would be expected to be greater than this sample mean?

  • What percentage of sample means would be expected to be less than this sample mean?

  10. A random sample of n = 25 is selected from a normally distributed population with µ = 600 and ơ = 100. What is the probability that the sample mean will be less than 590?

  • What is the z-score for this sample mean?

  • Please show your work, draw your distribution, and place the z-score for this mean on the distribution.

  • What proportion of sample means would be expected to be less than this sample mean?

  • What proportion of sample means would be expected to be greater than this sample mean?

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200926050532lab_work_week_6

You must write a MIPS assembly language program to generate pseudo-random numbers. They are not true random numbers because the algorithm always generates the same sequence when started with the same initial “seed” value.

Write a 32 bit pseudo-random number generator function, using a 32 bit LFSR (Linear Feedback Shift Register) – see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear-feedback_shift_register

Animated graphic illustrating a 4 bit LFSR using taps 3 and 4: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/LFSR-F4.GIF

Note that in the schematic and table at the bottom of the article, the bit numbering used for this notation is reversed from that normally used: bit 1 is the MSB and bit 4 is the lsb for the animation above.

The initial value loaded into the LFSR is called the “seed” for the random number sequence. LFSRs must not be initialized to all zeros because they would remain stuck in that state, and the pseudo-random sequence must not generate all zeros.

The LFSR must be stored as a 32 bit word in the .data memory area and the argument in $a0 = 0 at entry to the subroutine for normal operation, and the next pseudo-random value is returned in $a0 and stored in the LFSR .data memory location. If the value of $a0 is not 0, then the value in $a0 is to be used as the seed and is simply stored in the LFSR .data memory location like this:

.data
lfsr: .word 0 # a place to store the random number

# The value in $a0 is an argument passed from the main program to the random number routine

# if argument $a0==0 the subroutine calculates the next 32 bit pseudo-random number and

# stores it in memory location lfsr, and returns it in $a0

# if argument $a0!=0 then the content of $a0 is stored in .data memory as the initial “seed” value

#

You are required to write your own unique and original commented MIPS assembly language subroutine that is *different* than the code generated by a compiler. To verify that the output is correct, you should work through the algorithm by hand for one 32 bit shift cycle, or if you wish you may write the function in C to compare the results of your assembly program. You must call your random number function using the MIPS instruction jal (jump and link) from your main program.

Note that one bit shift generates one bit and 32 NEW bits must be generated for each time the function is called.

You must write your MIPS assembly lfsr function and display the first ten 32 bit values generated when starting with a seed value of 0x F00F5AA5. The LFSR assembly function should use the following “taps” or bit numbers to XOR together: 32 30 26 and 25 (Where bit 32 is the rightmost bit, the LS Bit.) Those 4 bits are XOR’d and the result is shifted into bit 1, the MSB, and all the other bits are shifted right one position (what was in bit 1 shifts to bit 2, bit 2 shifts to 3, and so on). When XOR is performed on those 4 bits, the XOR result is 1 iff the input has an odd number of ones, and 0 otherwise.

The selection of taps for the LFSR above generates a maximum length pseudo-random sequence with all 4294967295 possible unique values not including 0.

You may use Wikipedia and other resources for reference, but you must come up with your own unique and original assembly language solution, and you may NOT submit code generated by a compiler or copy code from any other source. From now on your code will be checked for plagiarism, so be sure to cite any references and write your own code! Do not share your code with anyone else.

As always, include the template in a document of type .doc .docx or .pdf containing a description of your code, ALL the assembly source code pasted into the document, as well as a screen shot of the output of your program. You must also submit separate file(s) containing the source code so that we can reproduce your results.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

Control System Design Homework problem:

Consider the following transfer function

G(s) =C(s) R(s)=s + (p + 1)/ (s + 5)(s + 2(−1)q)

(2)

(a) (10 pts) Substitute your variable p and q into equation (2) and write down the resulting transfer function G(s). Then, determine the pole(s) and zero(s) of the transfer function.

(b) (20 pts) Find the time response c(t) due to the unit-step input R(s) = 1 s.

(c) (5 pts) Is the system stable?

Students will explore the different meanings of “average” (mean, median, and mode). In addition, situations in which the mean and median, for example, are not the same and then determine which average would better represent the data given will be explored.

Directions:
Use the Activity 6 – Mean Versus Median Student Directions to complete the Activity 6 – Mean Versus Median Student Worksheet.

Rubric

Part 2

Yearly Budget Project Directions: Construct a budget sheet that assists you in analyzing your financial status, set goals, make changes, whatever the case may be. This project will have more meaning to you the more it reflects your real life. You can use this to create a budget for your future life based on your plans of a future job, future housing, expenses, etc. I assure you that, should you choose to include personal values, I will be assessing your work only on if it was accurately represented and interpreted. Please work to be realistic so you can gain from the experience. There will never be any judgement made on my part nor any information shared out. Your sheet should address both regular and unexpected monthly expenses, necessities and luxuries, and any debts/savings plans. Your first sheet should create a baseline budget of your expenses (list what you spend/think you will spend each month for each category without regard to if you balance) and then create monthly and yearly budget as well as totals by category. You should have a minimum of 10 to 15 categories with amounts for each month as well as monthly and yearly totals. Your second sheet should be a tracking sheet for each category that tracks your expenses for each month of one year. In sheet two enter your data for three months and leave space for entering data for the rest of the year (these can be left blank). You should have space to enter the date and each expense under the category and month. You should have totals by category (both month and year) as well as monthly totals and a year to date total. Totals will currently only reflect your three months you entered but should update automatically if you add data for the remaining months. These totals should then be compared to your planned budget in sheet one by category and month. Sheet three will be your reflection as described below.

❖ Provide visually appealing formatting to allow for quick differentiation among the categories and months and for quick location of individual items.

❖ Provide visually appealing and correct formatting to allow for ease of data entry without disrupting the form or function of sheet one and two. (What if electrical budget is changed from $150 to $125 a month? What if you have to add another gas receipt for January?)

❖ Accurately calculate your totals in each category in dollars for each month on sheet two.

❖ Accurately calculate your totals in each category in dollars and percentage of total for the year on both sheet one and sheet two.

❖ Accurately calculate your expenses and savings as new items are added to sheet two.

❖ Create two charts on sheet one that compare expenses by month and by category.

❖ Create a chart sheet two that compares actual expenses to budget amounts.