How to Learn Computer Science!

Hello again fellow Knights! A mere 2 minutes after my last post I decided to share my resources for anyone else who may be interested in learning to create programs in java, websites, or time traveling cyborgs!

Below is a list of my favorite go-to sources of information, and they have all helped me get a good grasp of computer science and what it takes to get started and improve!

1.  https://cs50.harvard.edu/  is my source for video lectures. This is fantastic FREE Harvard course in Introduction into Computer Science. The teacher, David Malan is very animated and fun to listen to!

2. https://www.codecademy.com/   This is an interactive website where you choose what type of programming or such that you would like to learn and jump right in! There are paid additions as well, but the free features were more than enough for me 😀 😀

3. http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/home/   This is an excellent resource if you learn better from reading text than listening to lectures. (I’m better with lectures)

4. https://scratch.mit.edu/   This fun little oddball allows you to create games online, using scripts assigned to little creatures called sprites. While not made with any programming language like Java or Python, it lets you experiment with scripts and play with the flow of a fun self made program.   My first game I made was a laughably simple one where you play a lion and have to to move around to prevent a groaning reaper from catching you. Sound effects created by yours truly ;D

 

To anyone who wants to learn about programming or wants a foot in the door of Computer Science, I hope these resources help you out as much as it did me. Let me know if you have any questions or problems with any of the links!

 

~Emrys

Tech of the Future!

Good evening Wild Knights!!!!! For the past few weeks, nearly all of my free time has been spent teaching myself the Big Three subjects that I’m really interested in; Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. It may seem a bizarre change of pace for an actor/musician/lunatic, but I am a beast of many different tastes, and one big part of me is a computer nerd.

My Big Three subjects I’ve chosen are all about culminating into the real endgame:

                                                                      Robotics!                                                                         

 

I want to put my imagination to use and create things that I have always dreamed of. Green technology that can hopefully revolutionize the way we do things.

I will definitely keep the blog updated regarding my progress and various side-projects that I take on, but for now I wanted to highlight some of amazing tech that has been created by people like us, who are passionate and truly love what they do!

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First, I want to talk about Reusable Rockets designed by SpaceX! The company was founded by Elon Musk, who you may remember from earlier posts is working on the Hyperloop.  We know space travel is amazing and the possibilities are endless, but humanities way of reaching the stars has never been all that practical.  Despite all our advancements, getting a rocket to space has been the equivalent of light some dynamite under your bum and blasting off, destroying the rocket and throwing you to your location.   Elon Musk wanted to change the way space was accessed, envisioning dozens of rockets launching yearly. While NASA spends years working on rockets that have a single shot at success, Elon Musk has developed rockets that can actually land after they have delivered their cargo!

This opens up so many possibilities for the future of space travel! So much money is wasted on these one-shot launches, that launches into space are done rarely, only once the reward outweighs the cost. With SpaceX leading the charge into the interstellar frontier, we may be seeing a lot more action occurring in our solar system.

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Next up is an amazingly clever invention created by Kristof Retezár, a designer based in Vienna.  He has created a self-filling water bottle that can extract humidity from the air and condense it into drinking water. Sound too good to be true? Well its true ladies and gents! Straight from the Livescience article;

The handy gadget, dubbed Fontus, can be attached to a bike so that cyclists can generate water during long-distance rides through the countryside, where pit stops may be few and far between.

Fontus works using the basic principle of condensation, which can be easily demonstrated by taking something out of a refrigerator (for instance, a can of soda) and leaving it on the kitchen counter for a bit. Eventually, you’ll notice moisture collecting on the sides of the object. [See video of how the Fontus device works]

“This is simply condensation of the humidity that is contained in the air,” Retezár told Live Science. “You always have a certain percentage of humidity in the air, it doesn’t matter where you are — even in the desert. That means you would always potentially be able to extract that humidity from the air.”

This fantastic device can work even in a desert! He is also working on a standalone version that doesn’t require a bicycle to generate the airflow. An estimated 0.5 liters of water an hour can be generated in standard climate conditions. The possibilities for this device are vast, especially considering the effects of building one much bigger for a group of people. Living off the grid would be a lot easier if you could generate your own water!!!!

http://www.livescience.com/53401-fontus-converts-humidity-into-water.html#ooid=l5NXU3MDE65NF7z29smvNQCpI9v2Nbwr

 

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This post ended up much longer than I expected, so I’ll stop for now! Plenty more to come 😀  I hope you felt some inspiration pumping in your veins after seeing what a good idea and a passionate heart can accomplish. As always, we would love to hear from all our Knights, so please comment and let us know what you think or even email us at championsunchained@gmail.com to submit a post of your own to the Wild Knights Online blog!!!!!!  Having guest posts and comments by our Wild Knights would be an amazing treat for the two nerds currently posting 😀

May all your days be full of love and success!  Til next time! ♥

~Emrys

The Pursuit of Knowledge

Hello Wild Knights! Tonight’s post is a bit of an explanation for the blog’s diverse range of blog topics. Blaze and I are fanatics when it comes to learning about the things we love. We are both musicians and actors, and we have a wide variety of interests as well. As you may have noticed, we are intensely  focused on environmental issues and improving our planet in any way possible. So many subjects completely fascinate us, and we want to learn and be involved in all of them! Wild Knights is meant to find people who are passionate about what they do, bring them all together under one flag, and change the world together. That’s why we cover so many different topics and styles.

To give you an idea of what kind of stuff that we do to learn…..My first big move was studying Vocal Performance in college. I love music and I LOVE performing. I had never felt so happy. Then I started to expand. I’m a very outdoorsy fellow, and decided to research Wildlife Biology and took classes to learn as much as I could. How better to be involved environmentally than to learn all we can about our world and act upon it?

I love to learn. It’s funny, in school I got perfect grades, but never enjoyed learning anything. Even learning another language in school felt dull and uninteresting. When I left school I felt like all that time had amounted to nothing. I wasn’t passionate about any of the subjects and had no clue what to do next.

I found my passion in growing. Being able to take the things I’ve learned and applying them in all aspects of my life.

For example, recently my passion has been electronics and greener technology. I’ve been cramming online lessons and studying as much as possible to learn about everything from computer engineering to robotics. I have started the process of building my own PC, my first technological pride and joy, completely customized and built by me. Yeah it’s easy to do, but it means a lot to me. Understand each part and its purpose. Understanding how it works and how to make it more efficient. Then imagining what I can do with that knowledge. I could start building robots. I could design software or my own video games. Anything under the sun.

With so many diverse characters involved in Wild Knights, we all add something unique to the mix. Thousands of unique individuals with such diverse talents and careers, all united in pursuit of the same goal.

What is my goal for Wild Knights? To become a planet-wide organization, consisting of unique people who will inspire others to become the best they can be.

The world could always use more heroes.

~Emrys