HGTTG[6] = Chapters 31 – 35

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 31
  
  • What are the names of the mice?
  • What is the structure of the question encoded in?
  • What was outside the door?
• Chapter 32
  
  • What question did the mice come up with in place of the real question?
  • Who is after Zaphod?
  • What is the Kill-O-Zap gun?
• Chapter 33
  
  • What happened to the police that were shooting at Ford and company?
• Chapter 34
  
  • How fast is R17?
  • ho was outside of the police ship?
  • What happened to the police ship?
• Chapter 35
  
  • Where is everyone heading?

Discussion

• Survival, Inquiry, Sophistication. Does the human experience follow this pattern?

HGTTG[5] = Chapters 26 – 30

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 26
  
  • What do you think the Sens-O-Tape record?
• Chapter 27
  
  • What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?
• Chapter 28
  • What will the replacement computer be?
• Chapter 29
  
  • What did Ford, Trillian and Zaphod wake up on?
  • What happened when Ford and Zaphod were kids??
  • Who will see the three when the catalog ended?
• Chapter 30
  
  • Who is Arthur sent to see?

Discussion

• How is the recording Artur watched like augmented reality?
• “Once you know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means”. How does understanding the problem help you?
• Th planet catalog immersed people into the world being advertised. What is the state of virtual reality technology?

HGTTG[4] = Chapters 21 – 25

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 21
  
  • How many suns does Magrathea have?
  • How does Marvin feel about Earth’s beauty?
  • Who did Arthur meet?
• Chapter 22
  
  • Is everyone on Magrathea dead?
  • What does Magrathea make?
  • What happens to Marvin?
  • Who is Slartibartfast?
• Chapter 23
  
  • What happened to the dolphins?
  • What message did the doplins have for man?
• Chapter 24
  
  • How fast was the air car moving?
  • What new personality did the ship take on?
  • What is the hyper space gateway like?
  • Where did Arthur and Slartibartfast travel to?
  • What special planet were the Magratheans making?
  • Who was furious at the Earth’s destruction?
  • Who has been experimenting on the people of earth?
  • How are mice explained?
• Chapter 25
  
  • What was the computer like that was built to determine the meaning of the universe?
  • What answer are the programmers asking the computer to determine?
  • Who were the philosophers?
  • What concerns did the philosophers have?
  • What was Deep Thought’s response to their concerns?

Discussion

• How is the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy device like Wikipedia?
• What is the “air car” like?
• What type of voice interaction do we have with computers today?
• What is the best (fastest, lowest power, etc.) computer we have today? What about 10 years ago? 20 years ago?
• A competing super computer was called “Googleplex Star Thinker”, did Google exist when the book was written?

HGTTG[3] = Chapters 16 – 20

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 16
  
  • What planet is the ship orbiting?
  • What did Magratheans manufacture in the past?
  • How is the planet defended?
• Chapter 17
  • What is the Nutri-Matic
  • What is the recorded message telling the the visitors to do?
  • What were the controls like to manually control the ship?
  • What did Arthur do in response to the pending missile attack?
• Chapter 18
  • What type of crazy things happened when the improbability drive was turned on again?
  • What happened to the missiles?
• Chapter 19
  • What escaped from Trillian’s cabin?
  • What new personality did the ship take on?
• Chapter 20
  
  • How did the passengers of the Heart of Gold gain access to the inside of the planet?
  • What type of things are in the ship’s medical bay?
  • What happened to Zaphod’s brain?
  • What initials were left for Zaphod to see?
  • What happened when the shutter closed?

Discussion

• “The fact may safely be made the subject of suspense since it is of no significance whatsoever” As humans do we sometimes over dramatize things that don’t really matter?
• Does anything like the Nutri-Matic exist today? What would it take to invest a device as elaborate as described in the book?
• In the comical fall of the missile turned, whale it is mentioned that the whale was busy naming things. What type of terms have been invented during the 21st century?
• What role does our subconscious mind play in problem solving? What role do dreams play in the human experience?

HGTTG[2] = Chapters 11 – 15

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 11
  
  • Why are Zaphod and Trillian on the run?
  • Who picked up the hitchikers?
  • Who is Marvin?
  • What is the GPP feature?
  • Which government owns the ship?
• Chapter 12
  • Why was Zaphod listening to the radio?
  • Where is Trillian from?
• Chapter 13
  • How does Ford know Zaphod?
  • How does Arthur know Zaphod?
  • How does Trilian know Zaphod?
  • How does Arthur know Tricia McMillan?
• Chapter 14
  • What did Trillian bring with her from Earth?

    What did Zaphod find?

• Chapter 15
  • What is Magrathea?

Discussion

• “The truth of the matter is that it would have been a great deal simpler and more practical to build the cabin as an ordinary three-dimensional oblong room, but then the designers would have got miserable” Do you or people you know ever do things not because they are needed, but because they are interesting?
• Should it be possible, should robots receive the ability to “feel” emotions?
• The Heart of Gold had an “artificial night”. What role does sleep play in the human condition?
• “Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? Cos I don’t” Is there such a thing as being “too smart” to do a task or chore?
• Is touch a good way to interact with devices? What about motion to interact?
• What would it take to engineer a planet?

Lab[0] = Display Something

Objective

• Run the AndEngine Examples

What You Will Need

• A computer with an internet connection
• Free Android Software (Explained Below)
• An Android device or Kindle HD device

Lab Version

• Version 0.7

Introduction

AndEngine is a set of libraries or code blocks that make creating 2D games easier. It was created by an engineer named Nicolas Gramlich at Zynga and is used by many developers as the base of games and applications. In this lab we will do the setup required to compile and run the AndEngine examples.

Video Tutorial

The following video was created by someone else, but it does a good job of explaining the process of moving from no setup to running the AndEngine examples. What follows the video is a text explanation of what the video covers along with some specific notes to make the process smoother.

Install Software

• Latest Java JDK
• Latest Android Developer Tools Bundle (Includes Eclipse and the Android SDK)

Steps

• Configure Eclipse to make it easier for debugging
  • Show progress bar
  • Show line numbers
  • Show log viewer
• Download files from Git Hub user RealMayo
  • Repositories Link: https://github.com/RealMayo?tab=repositories
  • Download zip file for each repository
  • Unzip all files
  • My notes to make your life easier
    • The default zip file name has “-<branch name>” appended to the end where <branch name> is something like GLES2 or master, remove this
    • Sometimes when Windows unzips things it adds an extra folder level, you don’t want this. A picture of the type of thing you do want in the end is shown in the picture below.
    • Fix all of the names and the hierarchy before importing to save yourself some pain
    • Here is what the project folders should look like
      • 
    • He is what it typically looks like inside each folder
      • 
• Import all projects into Eclipse
• Download all Android environments API level 8 and above (This is going to take a while)
• Fix project build problems
  • If you read the note above you will have far fewer problems than in the video. You read it, right?
• Build the project
• Run on the Examples project on a device
  • Using Hardware Devices (Android)

Kindle Details

The video is not Kindle specific. Here are some extra resources to help you if you are working with a Kindle Fire device.

• Setting Up Your Development Environment
• Setting up Kindle Fire for Testing

 

HGTTG[1] = Chapters 6 – 10

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 6
  • What does the Babel Fish do?
  • What was hyperspace like for Arthur?
  • What does the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy have to say about Earth?
• Chapter 7
  • How bad is Vogon Poetry?
  • What  phrase does the Vogon Guard keep repeating  to Arthur and Ford?
  • Why does the Vogon Guard do his job?
• Chapter 8
  • What happened to Arthur and Ford?
• Chapter 9
  • What type of impossible things happened in the course of Arthur and Ford arriving on the ship?
• Chapter 10
  • What is the Infinite Improbability Drive?

Discussion

• Of the babel fish, the Hitch Hiker Guide to the Galaxy says “by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.” Does being heavily connected cause problems for the world? What role does privacy play in a well mannered society?
• Ford said to the Vogon Guard “How can anyone maintain a positive mental attitude if you’re saying things like that” What role does your mental state and attitude play in creating things?
• “The hours are good but most of the actual minutes are lousy” Does it matter what you do for work? What is your motivation for doing things?
• How do people respond to smart people? Why do they react this way? What can be done to change this?

HGTTG[0] = Chapters 1 – 5

Comprehension Questions

• Chapter 1
  • What do we know about Arthur Dent?
  • What did the council want to do to Arthur’s home? Why?
  • Who is Mr. L. Prosser?
  • How was Arthur notified of the council’s actions?
  • What do we know about Ford Prefect?
  • How did Ford and Arthur get away to the pub?
  • What do Ford and Arthur need to talk about?
• Chapter 2
  • What does Ford say is about to happen?
  • Why did Ford tip the bar keep so well?
• Chapter 3
  • What is a Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic? What does it do?
  • What is Ford’s “largish electronic calculator”?
  • Why did the Vogon ships arrive on Earth?
  • How was earth notified of this action?
• Chapter 4
  • What is the planet Damogran like?
  • What do we know about Zaphod Beeblebrox?
  • How does Zaphod get to the cliffs from his boat?
  • What is the Heart of Gold?
  • Was the president of the universe pull from his pocket? What did he do with it?
• Chapter 5
  • What do Vogon’s look like?
  • Who are the Dentrasis?
  • Did earth need to be destroyed?
  • What more have we learned about the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
  • What happened to Earth?

Discussion

• What “sci-fi” technology mentioned in the book do we see today?
• The effort put into the Heart of Gold was described as “they had gone to and beyond the furthest limits of physical laws, restructured the fundamental fabric of matter, strained, twisted and broken the laws of possibility and impossibility” What real inventions today were once thought impossible?
• Ford Prefect said of humans “If they don’t keep on exercising their lips… their brains start working” What role does listening play in everyday life? What role does listening play in creating the future?

Introduction to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (ISBN 978-0345391803)

Introduction

This lighthearted science fiction novel began as a weekly radio comedy in 1978 and quickly grew into a best selling staple of tech pop culture. The book begins with the impending destruction of Earth and vaults the reader on an adventure that spans the universe.

Themes

• Life in other parts of the universe
• Future technology
• Fate
• Humor

Why Science Fiction Matters to Engineers

It is is common for engineers and other technical people to overlook things that do not directly related to their profession. The liberal arts are seen as unimportant and secondary. This thinking is limiting to an engineers potential.  While there is a near infinite number of technical things for an engineer to learn and master, ignoring the liberal arts greatly limits the potential good that an engineer can bring to the world. It is through the understanding of history and humanity that the greatest inventions can be realized.

Science fiction is a specific genre of literature that engineers should pay attention to. The engineer or technologist will be the one to bridge the gap between the world as we know it today and the dreams of tomorrow. First, science fiction can be seen as a rich source of ideas. Things that could only be imagined 20, 50, 100 years ago are now a part of our everyday lives. What technology is waiting for you to bring it to life? The second, perhaps more important aspect of science fiction, is its ability to discuss the moral and societal impacts of technology. What you create will have positive and negative consequences to humanity. What will your legacy be?