Week 9: JavaScript and Operating System Tools

So this week we've been playing around with JavaScript in HTML and manipulating our web page to do something that HTML cannot achieve on its own.
We got an example to work through to get a basic understanding of what the code can do and how it's written, which threw us off at first but we eventually managed to grasp what it was doing. The JavaScript allowed us to view an image by clicking on a thumbnail, which then displayed a new image on the page. When you clicked on another thumbnail, it displayed a different image in place of the original one without going to another page.
Even though it was just a basic piece of script inside the web page, it was impressive to see what the code itself could achieve.

Last week we installed an operating system (Windows 7) on to a virtual machine using VirtualBox. The C:\ drives on the computers here are regularly swept clean of non-crucial files and folders, so every time we want to use the "machine" we used the week before, we have to unzip a zip file on to the hard drive and compress it again once we're finished with it so that we have all of the settings saved. This proves to be a bit of a pain, but it's something we're managing with.
On the "machine" itself we went in to the administrative tools and learned what all of the different services provide on the system. We also used the task manager to view how much memory is allocated on the machine and how much is being used at any one point and how much work the processor is doing. We will no doubt come back to this in the future and talk about the different hardware and software you can use to find this information.

On Thursday Nick and I interviewed the manager of the Abraham Heights Hotel case study. The interview lasted around ten minutes and we got an answer for all of the questions we pitched to him. When we were evaluated on how we performed during the interview, we scored 31/40. We lost marks for not keeping quite to the ten minute schedule that was set and we lost a few marks each for not wearing more formal clothing. We have been asked by the hotel to write up a report on what is wrong with the current system and what can be done to improve it. Scott and Jasmine have interviewed the head receptionist and have their findings with them, so we will collate all of this information in to our own individual reports.

Nothing on the sausage roll front, still.
- Alex.