[Year 12 SofDev] SD 2012 post mortem

Tue Nov 20 16:18:57 EST 2012

Hi Andrew.

In my post mortem I didn't bother pointing out that Victoria uses more
codes that 3000-3999.  We use a few 8000 codes, from memory, but that is
not an issue for me.

I mainly wanted postcodes to be stored as numbers because (unlike with
phone numbers) people do arithmetic with postcodes to find neighbouring
areas for geographical proximity purposes.

The question didn't mention foreign postcodes or leading zeroes, so it
wasn't a factor.  The Real World (tm) is a lot messier than we have to deal
with in IT exams.
We work in a sanitised theory sandpit, which simplifies some things, but
makes other Real World issues a pain (e.g. actual IT industry standards
like "Acceptance Testing").

On 20 November 2012 14:10, Andrew Shortell <shortell at get2me.net> wrote:

> without actually seeing the paper:
>
> just on the postcode thing:
>
> i note that in general all postcodes are treated as strings because of
> Northern Territory postcodes (start with a zero) (in Aus and contain
> letters in canada, england)
> if we expect students to deal effectively with postcodes, telephone
> numbers etc then we need to be consistent with how we deal with them.
>
> in addition: is this software solution meant to only work in Victoria and
> have no clients ever ever anywhere else in the world? was there a statement
> in teh case study saying that it would never ever be used in any other
> place than victoria?
>
> or are we perpetuating the concept of the problem we had with y2k -  (e.g.
> no computer will ever need more than 640K of RAM  or "there will never a be
> a need for more than 5 computers in the world" etc)
>
> Really we should expect students to think beyond the narrow little
> boundaries of just our state.
> In addition did the case study mention that there are Victorian postcodes
> which also start with an 8 ?? Postal addresses .....??
>
>
>
>   Andrew Shortell
> Educator
> CRC Melton
>
>
> shortell at get2me.net (This List)
> @acsbear8 (twitter)
> VITTA CoM Member
>
>
>
>
> On 20/11/2012, at 11:33 AM, Kevork KROZIAN <kkrozian at ringwoodsc.vic.edu.au>
> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Folks,
>
>
> My comments and Mark’s responses :
>
>
>
> Section  A
> 1. Q 4  -  what a program will do surely is important from an ethical
> point of view especially when much of what a program does can be hidden
> such as gather additional information from a user’s computer ??
>
>
> That's assuming that the program will do something unethical, which is not
> hinted at in the stem. <C> on the other hand is certainly relevant. For D
> to be right, I think you have to inject some unstated and rare conditions.
>
>
>
> 2. Q 15  - I am not sure about this question.  What is the design aim here
> ?  To maximise game penetration in the market ?  Run the game on as many
> mobile phone platforms as possible ? Make the  game as powerful ( therefore
> appealing ) as possible and target faster processor based devices ? Without
> this information I think this question is not possible to answer
>
>
> It wasn't easy. I used the process of elimination and didn't think its
> deeper implications through much  :-)
>
>
>
> 3. Q 16 -  Sadly a 1D array in PHP, Python and Perl can hold different
> data types . I know the answer “should be” record, but that betrays a lack
> of awareness of the recommended programming languages on the list and their
> features.
>
>
> Yes, Maggie has mentioned this also.
>
>
>
> Section B
>
> 1.       Q 1c – a single malware program can be both a worm and spyware by
> exhibiting features of each ( propagates without human intervention,
> exploits weaknesses , spreads over a network and gathers user information
> eg. Key logger that gathers user data and spreads without user intervention.
>
> I am not sure if a student can provide anything more specific here.
>
>
>
>
> The question baffled me - I agree with you. It's an empty question that
> has already been answered. What were they fishing for, I wonder?
>
>
>
>
> 2.       Q 4 and 5 – 9 marks ???    9% of the exam paper on these two
> questions ?  I guess it is one way to show students are really good as
> pseudocode or have shown an improvement on pseudocode.
>
>
> I was expecting this to happen eventually.
>
>
>
>
> Section C
>
> 1.       Q2. Is the mobile phone interacting with the AQADAS system or is
> the asthmatic ?  Remember the restaurant . It is the customer who submits
> orders in the Context Diagram rather than the waiter who is the person
> using the system to enter orders. The waiter appears in the Use Case.  I
> would have thought an asthmatic would appear in the Context Diagram.
>
>
> I really pondered over this one after I realised something was missing in
> my first answer.
> I read it that the phone provided symptom data to AQADAS, and CASSA
> provided data to AQADAS, but the DFD does say that the CASSA data is sent
> to the phone for collation and transmission to AQADAS... which would, as
> you say, be a data flow from one EE to another.  They indeed might have
> goofed putting a data flow from CASSA to AQADAS.  Excellent point.  They
> might say that CASSA provides data to AQADAS and the phone is just an
> intermediary, but the phone does have to collate the data...  Hmmm.
> Interesting... I might revisit that question.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2.       Q5. A VPN may be overkill here. An SSL tunnel would be fine and
> cheaper, easier, less effort wouldn’t it ?  A VPN may need licenses for
> each concurrent user or could be free for open source VPN software.  Setup
> for a VPN could involve a lot of work here such as compatibility issues
> with devices and the server it is connecting to.
>
>
> A fair point. I was assuming a cheap VPN software setup, not a hardware
> solution. In terms of data security it would be good.
>
>
>
>
>
> 3.       Q 7 – I think we are getting at a Queue data structure here with
> FIFO and a capacity of 24 x 12 records over 24 hours when a reading is
> taken every 5 minutes. The case study does refer  to a data store however
> and I would expect we would probably have a file of records captured as a
> queue.
>
>
> Possibly, but aren't the date and time stored with each sample? If so, a
> queue would not be necessary to sequence the samples. I could think up a
> few answers for this one. I hope the markers are flexible with what they
> accept.
>
>
>
>
>
> 4.       Q 8 c -  In selecting the best design I think the ability to
> review the choices with one look makes Design 1 superior. Clicking dozens
> of times after an asthma attack on a smaller screen to open a second form
> would not be neither user friendly nor sensible I would think.
>
>
> That's true, but it's at the expense of 50% more screen space. Which is
> more important?  Since the uni is selecting and providing the phones, they
> have the power to choose one that could accommodate design 1.  I agree it's
> good to see all of the data at once rather than having it hidden in
> submenus.
>
>
>
>
>
> 5.       Q 9 – Postcode can be a string as well and do the same comparison
> operations as an integer can since it is enumerated. I would expect the
> examiners to accept either intenger or string for Postcode.
>
>
> Is there any benefit in storing it as string?  Integer=2 bytes. String=4.
>
>
>
>
> Kind Regards
>
>
> Kevork
>
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-- 
Mark Kelly - kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Phone: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
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