Adders

A webpage with a nice and detailed explanation of half and full adders:

https://www.elprocus.com/half-adder-and-full-adder/

Technology and ethics

A very interesting article on drones... What price progress indeed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41737300

The comments and reflection are up to you. Pros and cons as it is usual with technology.

Testing

A couple of good resources on testing, including alpha, beta, white and black box testing:

• http://toolsqa.com/software-testing/difference-between-alpha-testing-and-beta-testing/
• http://www.softwaretestingclass.com/what-is-alpha-and-beta-testing/

2's Complement

Notes on two's complement can be found here. To supplement our textbook, our lectures and exercises.

Source: https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~tomf/notes/cps104/twoscomp.html

UML Class Diagrams in a Nutshell

...A really small nutshell.

This webpage contains a nice, short and sweet explanation and side-be-side comparison between a class diagram and its corresponding Java code. Priceless.

Source: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~hasti/cs302/examples/UMLdiagram.html

Analogue vs Digital

These couple of resources may help you understand the difference between analogue and digital data:

• http://www.dummies.com/programming/electronics/the-difference-between-analog-and-digital-electronics/
• http://www.explainthatstuff.com/analog-and-digital.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQc_frX50BA

Get back the command prompt in Windows 10

If you've updated your Windows 10 system to the Creators Update (or newer), you may have noticed that the contextual menu (shift+right click) inside a folder has changed.

PowerShell has replaced the command prompt by default, which was an issue for me as I (still) rely heavily on the old command line interface.
The instructions I followed to fix this issue can be found at

• http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/cmd-here-windows-10-context-menu-add/

Hope you find this as useful as I did.

Class Relationships

Please read these two resources to have a better understanding of class relationships

• http://creately.com/blog/diagrams/class-diagram-relationships/ focus on association, composition/aggregation (depends on your IA), multiplicity and inheritance. http://www.infoworld.com/article/3029325/application-development/exploring-association-aggregation-and-composition-in-oop.html (link title explains itself)

For more resources on the principles of OOP and UML diagrams, click here.

OOP Principles and UML

These are my favourite explanations (so far) regarding the principles of OOP: Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance and Polymorphism. They are most important to understand and remember, so study and practice them well. The links have page names (at the end of the link) that are self-explanatory.

• http://codebetter.com/raymondlewallen/2005/07/19/4-major-principles-of-object-oriented-programming
• http://beginnersbook.com/2013/03/oops-in-java-encapsulation-inheritance-polymorphism-abstraction/
• http://www.javaworld.com/article/2076204/core-java/understanding-constructors.html

UML provides so many tools, that it can be overwhelming. So it is always useful to narrow it down and focus on what is useful for a specific task. The following resources are on UML class diagrams. You are also recommended to look into use-case diagrams, which are great for conceptual designs.

• http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~hasti/cs302/examples/UMLdiagram.html
• http://etutorials.org/Programming/UML/Chapter+4.+Class+Diagrams+The+Essentials/
• http://etutorials.org/Programming/UML/Chapter+6.+Class+Diagrams+Advanced+Concepts/Aggregation+and+Composition/
• http://www.uml-diagrams.org/class-diagrams-overview.html
• http://creately.com/blog/diagrams/class-diagram-relationships/
• http://www.infoworld.com/article/3029325/application-development/exploring-association-aggregation-and-composition-in-oop.html
• http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~hasti/cs302/examples/UMLdiagram.html
• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/uml/uml_class_diagram.htm
• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/content/RationalEdge/sep04/bell/

In terms of class relationships, you should know (according to the IBO syllabus content)

• dependency (“uses”)
• aggregation (“has a”) and
• inheritance (“is a”).

You may find the following links useful to revise these concepts. Just focus on what IBO requires among all the detailed information provided.

• http://www.conceptdraw.com/How-To-Guide/uml-class-diagram-notation
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_diagram

FDE Cycle

Fetch-Decode-Execute Cycle

Links with information about the FDE cycle, from simple & concise to deeper and more detailed:

• GCSE Bytesize (Instructions)
• The Fetch–Execute cycle and the role of registers within it (A level Computing WikiBook)
• Also known as the Instruction cycle (Wikipedia article)

An excellent flow chart depicting the FDE cycle (original source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_cycle):

Plus a nice animation demonstrating how the fetch-decode-execute cycle works, made using Scratch:

• https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2145440/

I have also made my own, simplified version for study and revision purposes:

Sorting and Searching Algorithms

Resources, animations and videos of sorting and searching algorithms:

The following links point to videos and video channels showing animations of different sorting algorithms. More than one video is provided so that you may pick the one you understand best. You could also build your understanding from a few sources as well.

• https://visualgo.net/ - excellent interactive animated sorting algorithms out there
• http://www.sorting-algorithms.com - sorting algorithm animations, discussed
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/fundamentals-of-algorithms/ self-explanatory
  
• http://xoax.net/comp_sci/crs/algorithms/ - concise and well illustrated videos about different algorithms.
• http://www.cs.armstrong.edu/liang/animation/ - animations on algorithms, plus data structures and other topics.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/AlgoRythmics/videos - algorithms illustrated with European traditional folk dances

Sequential (Linear) and Binary searches:

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/linear-search/
• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/binary-search/
  
• https://youtu.be/wNVCJj642n4 (Both)
• https://youtu.be/vZWfKBdSgXI (Linear search only)
• https://youtu.be/CX2CYIJLwfg (Linear search only)
• https://youtu.be/5xlIPT1FRcA (Binary search only)
• https://youtu.be/D5SrAga1pno (Binary search only)

Bubble sort:

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/bubble-sort
• https://www.programiz.com/dsa/bubble-sort
  
• https://youtu.be/yIQuKSwPlro
• https://youtu.be/UnK5ueUgc88
• https://youtu.be/y_Nuui4Qf-k
• https://youtu.be/P00xJgWzz2c

Selection sort:

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/selection-sort
• https://www.programiz.com/dsa/selection-sort
• https://youtu.be/f8hXR_Hvybo
• https://youtu.be/79AB11J5BqU
• https://youtu.be/TW3_7cD9L1A
• https://youtu.be/Aq2E47uU2ao
• https://youtu.be/6nDMgr0-Yyo

Insertion sort:

• https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/insertion-sort
• https://www.programiz.com/dsa/insertion-sort
  
• https://youtu.be/c4BRHC7kTaQ
• https://youtu.be/JU767SDMDvA
• https://youtu.be/OGzPmgsI-pQ
• https://youtu.be/OxN2Jqb8S9s
• https://youtu.be/Fr0SmtN0IJM

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/comparison-among-bubble-sort-selection-sort-and-insertion-sort/

Algorithms and Abstract Data Types HL

Resources about various algorithms - Higher Level:

1. http://www.algolist.net/Algorithms/ - various algorithms (sort, binary search) and programming concepts (recursion) explained
2. From this link, be sure to revise the sequential and binary searches, plus the chapters on sorting algorithms and recursion (code examples are on Python, which means it's close to pseudocode, but you can run it if you have the Python 3 interpreter)
3. http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/40algorithms/ - an excellent chapter on Algorithms and Data Structures; there was a performance question in a recent past paper, so it may be a good idea to read 4.1 (performance) as well. Don't obsess over Tilde notation and skip memory usage as well. Our focus is to be aware of how some algorithms are more efficient than others (as you can see by their classification into their order of growth: constant, logarithmic, linear, quadratic, cubic, exponential, etc.)
Stacks and Queues
Binary Search Trees

Resources about Abstract Data Types:

• http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/abstract-data-type.html
• http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Abstract_data_type
• http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Stack
• http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Queue
• http://www.csanimated.com/animation.php?t=Linked_list
• http://visualgo.net/en/list.html - animated ADTs (linked list implementations)
• Chapter on Linked Lists, from the same site as #2 in the previous list of links ;-)
• http://www.algolist.net/Data_structures/ - well explained and clear diagrams
• HackerRank's algorithms YoutTube playlist
• HackerRank's data structures YoutTube playlist
• mycodeschool's YouTube playlist on data structures. Examples are in C/C++, but their explanations and diagrams are great!
  

2D Arrays and IB Pseudocode

This brief post shows how to create a bi-dimentional array and describe it using IB pseudocode. It isn't stated in the IB Pseudocode in Examinations or Approved notation for developing pseudocode documents, so it's my answer to it, not an official one. Don't sue me if your examiner disagrees with me! O_o

declare A as integer array of size [ROWS][COLUMNS] or
declare A as integer array of size (ROWS, COLUMNS)
declare A as integer array of size [5][6]
declare A as integer array of size (5, 6)

Obviously, integer should be replaced by the appropriate data type.
IB papers may have defined it for you, or they may not ask you at all to define the size. You could define it (unknown size) as

declare A as integer array of size [ ][ ]

...then you'd use it like

loop ROW from 0 to 5
    loop COL from 0 to 6
        output A[ROW][COL]     or    output A(ROW, COL) 
    end loop
end loop

I'd recommend going for the [ ][ ] style as it'd be more consistent with the single dimensional arrays described in the IB pseudocode documents mentioned above.

Arrays and Java

Just a short post with pretty much all you need to know about arrays in Java:

• http://javabeginnerstutorial.com/core-java-tutorial/java-array-tutorial/ to start with
• http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/java/java_arrays.html excellent site, from start to end; includes 2D arrays and much more


• http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/14array/ great resource with many examples, but more complex
• Also, it is highly recommended to study Big Java Late Objects (Horstmann, 2013) - chapter 6: Arrays and Array Lists

Below are some additional links about arrays and 2D arrays:

• http://www.willamette.edu/~gorr/classes/cs231/lectures/chapter9/arrays2d.htm
• http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/c7/s5.html

Encryption

A couple of great links on Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption:

• http://www.professormesser.com/security-plus/sy0-401/symmetric-vs-asymmetric-encryption-2/
• http://itchyfish.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-symmetric-and-asymmetric-key-encryption-methods/

These are also posted under out Network and Security post, but since they are also related to encryption, here they are:

• http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/feature/Wireless-encryption-basics-Understanding-WEP-WPA-and-WPA2
• http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/WEP_WPA_wireless_security.asp

Network and security

A very comprehensive glossary of network terms, obviously not all required for our examinations and syllabus, but they are extremely valuable.
Also, links to how stuff work's networking and security.

• Here is a great Networking Tutorial for beginners with pretty much all computer networking essentials covered.

Although you don't need to memorise the OSI reference model, awareness of the layered nature of networks is very important.

• http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/network.htm
• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-networking-channel.htm
• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/security-channel.htm
• http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/OSI_Layers.asp
• http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/OSI 
• http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/feature/Wireless-encryption-basics-Understanding-WEP-WPA-and-WPA2
• http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/WEP_WPA_wireless_security.asp

And finally, a slideshow on error detection and correction:

Computer Networks - Error Detection & Error Correction from Saikrishna Tanguturu

Case Study 2017

Please explore the links below for articles that can be valuable sources of information for our case study.

• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/share-your-science-predicting-healthcare-outcomes-with-artificial-intelligence/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/share-your-science-microsoft-developing-applications-for-the-visually-impaired/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/share-your-science-the-impact-of-deep-learning-on-radiology/
• https://devblogs.nvidia.com/parallelforall/nvidia-digits-alzheimers-disease-prediction/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/share-your-science-combating-cancer-with-deep-learning/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/google-uses-ai-to-diagnose-breast-cancer/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/ai-based-mobile-app-tests-for-parkinsons-in-minutes/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/share-your-science-advanced-retina-assessment-and-diagnostic-services/
• https://news.developer.nvidia.com/identify-rare-diseases-with-a-selfie/

Machine/Deep Learning Explained:

• https://youtu.be/b99UVkWzYTQ
• https://youtu.be/WXHM_i-fgGo
• https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/07/29/whats-difference-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-deep-learning-ai/