K id s Sh o r t C o mpu t er St o r ies

by

Kevin O Neill

Written Oct 2006-Oct 2007

 John Surf s The Internet

John surfed the Internet after doing his homework.

He maneuvered his mouse to click the famous buildings from around the world
and viewed the images both big and small.
He viewed the Eifel tower in Paris, The Tower of London, The Great Pyramids to
name a few.
Eventually John was tired and wanted to go to bed so that he could dream about
that one day he could visit the famous places he had just virtually visited.

Joe s Computer Program

Joe wanted to be like his Dad who programmed

computer code for web sites.
He had his Dad s old computer and tinkered with
programming in HTML and XML.
Joe had started to create a web site which displayed his baseball card collection
- he hoped one day to be able to sell his baseball cards over his website.
Joe s Dad helped Joe write a shopping cart for the website.
Joe s Dad placed the cart on the website after testing it to make sure credit card
information would be safe when it was entered for each order.
Within a few hours - several people had bought cards from Joe, he was very
happy.
He was now a business man!

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 Jenna s Digital Camera

Jenna loved dolls - but had so many that often times

she forgot the names of the dolls!
Her parents got smart and using their digital camera
they took a picture of each doll - then downloaded the
pictures to the family computer.
Her parents then created an application which Jenna could run on her computer
which allowed her to see each doll - along with its name and even its birthday.
Jenna was now really happy!

Julia Installs A Computer Game

Julia wanted to play a computer game.

First, she turned the computer on.
Next, she turned the monitor on.
She opened the CD-ROM case which held her
game and took it out.
Then she opened the CD-ROM tray on the
computer.
She put the CD-ROM in the tray and closed it.
She followed the on-screen prompts to install the program.
Julia then clicked the icon to run the game after it finished installing.
Finally she was able to play the game.

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 Dominic Writes His Own Computer Game

Dominic had an idea to write a computer game.

First he drew some diagrams of his idea.
Next, he created the graphics for his game.
Then he wrote the code for the computer game.
The game was then tested.
Next, some changes to the code were made.
The game was tested a final time.
Finally, the game was burned onto CD - then shared with
Dominic s friends.

Xi The Programmer

Xi for many years was a programmer in some of the early

popular programming languages; these included APL, Pascal and Basic. Xi used
the local college campuses mainframe to create and run programs in these
languages. As the years passed - more complex languages such as C++, Java
and C# were utilized. Xi was very lucky because he had mastered all of the
languages and now was able to buy a nice car, house and go on vacations
whenever he wanted. However, he had to work hard for what he had -
programming however opened many doors for him.

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 Dylan Creates A Text File

Dylan turned on his computer one winter night as he

felt like writing.
He opened up a text editor on his computer.
Dylan then typed some text using the keyboard of what he had done during the
day.
Dylan then saved his text file to the hard drive - so he could access it whenever
he wanted.
Hooray for Dylan - he s a writer!

Maura Paints on Her Computer

Maura wanted to draw a picture on her computer

She turned it on and opened her favorite art tool.
She drew squares and circles and polka dots too.
She placed stamped emblems all about.
Maura drew a happy smiley face.
She then saved her picture so she could access it another
day.
Before turning off the computer -
Maura printed off her picture so she could show it to all her friends
at school during show n tell.

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 Kevin Creates Graphics

Kevin was using his computer on a sunny day - instead of playing outside
he was programming his computer - so that graphics would be displayed on the
screen.
He then saved his program to the computers hard-drive.
Later - he copied the program to CD so that his friends could see the beautiful
graphics that he had created.

Computer Camp

Eric and Kevin went to computer camp at a local

college for three weeks.
While their they programmed in C#, C++, C and
Visual Basic - they had a lot of fun creating many
programs - while at camp.
Each day they took a break from programming
during lunch and played basketball and racquetball. This helped them de-stress
and focus when it was needed.
At the last day of camp - one of their programs - won an award for the best
program and was shown to all the camp members at a special awards ceremony
on the last day of camp.

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 Crystal Runs a Program

Crystal wanted to play the new computer game she got for her birthday which her
parents already installed for her.
She placed the CD into the CD-ROM drive.
It auto-started and she clicked on the play button.
She selected the game program she wanted from the main menu.
The program ran and she played it.

Dylan Writes a Java Program

Dylan wanted to write a Java program.

He opened up his Java compiler.
He typed in his code.
He compiled the code.
He fixed any errors in the code.
He ran the program and showed the output to his friends.

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 Robs Flash Data

Rob wanted to store data on a flash drive.

He placed the flash drive into his computer.
He copied his data to the flash drive.
He unplugged the flash drive.
He brought the flash drive to his friend s house.
He plugged in the flash drive to his friends computer.
He showed his friend his data which was on the flash drive by accessing it.

Joey s Printer

Joey wanted to print the picture he created but a printer

wasn t attached to the computer.
He took the cable and connected it to the computer.
The print driver was then installed.
Joey could now print his picture.

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 James Writes a C++ Program

James wanted to write a C++ program.

He opened up his C++ compiler.
He typed in his code.
He compiled the code.
He fixed any errors in the code.
He ran the program and showed the output to his friends.

Jimmy s Wearable Computer

Jimmy s parents bought him a wearable computer for his

birthday.
The straps on the computer let him wear it on his arm, waist
and over his shoulder.
Jimmy used the computer to guide him when he was lost as
he used online maps for help. He also used it to look up
information in regards to his research papers for school.

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 Abigail Voice Recognition Software

Abigail for Christmas received a voice recognition software package the

software allowed her to talk into a microphone on her computer and whatever
she said was written down in a text format. This great software allowed Abigail to
create many stories and be creative.

Eric s Robot

Eric s parents bought a robot for their house the robot did many
dangerous odd jobs around the house like cleaning the gutters
on the roof.
The robot was also a useful watch dog making sure when Eric s
family was out of the house they had a watchful eye making sure nothing was
stolen.
Eric s friends also thought the robot was great because it helped him with his
chores around the house.

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 Michael s HDTV

Michael saved up enough money from his lawn mowing business

to buy a HDTV (High-Definition Television) the T.V. provided
him better color and audio then the existing T.V.
When he watched the HDTV he felt as if the scene he was
viewing was right their in the room.
Michael really enjoyed his new HDTV.

Doug and the GPS

Doug s parents new car came with a GPS (global

positioning system) this way his parents via the system
knew exactly where they were on the earth s surface
whether on land or sea.
The GPS plotted their longitude and latitude coordinates on the screen.
Doug s parents never got lost again.

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 Robbie and his webpage ftp

Robbie was done coding his new webpage and he needed to place it on his web-
host so that it was available to the world.
He opened up his ftp (file transfer protocol) program so that he could copy the
files from one computer to another.
Once he was done his webpage was live for the world to view.

Heather s Username and Password

Heather typed in a username and password into her favorite website so that she
could access some information.
The username and password were encrypted so that when the information was
transmitted unwelcome eyes or ears could not understand it.
This way, Heather could feel a level of security with the information she was
entering into the website.

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 Math in a Computer for Charles

Charles started to read his math book and started to read

about algorithms he found it interesting that a set of
instructions for solving a problem in a certain number of steps was possible.
He started to apply this principal to his computer and wrote a small computer
program which automatically copied all his homework files and wrote them to a
backup drive.

Danielle and the ATM

Danielle needed money so she could buy a new pink radio

at the mall.
She went to the bank to take out money but they had
already closed for the day.
However, she had a bank card and was able to use the banks ATM
(Asynchronous Transfer Mode) to take money out of her bank account.
She then was able to purchase the radio she wanted.

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 Josh and the Intranet Game

Josh was on-line playing his favorite Internet game.

The characters splashed across the screen in vibrant colors.
Josh wanted his character to be unique and saw an option to
create an avatar which would be his digital person that he
could communicate with while playing his favorite game.

Rudy and a Byte

Rudy was interested in learning about what made his

computer work.
He read an article about a byte which is how data is packaged on a computer.
One byte represents one character so he soon learned that the character he was
typing into his computer was being translated into a byte.

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 Erica and the CPU

Erica was curious on what made her computer run.

She soon learned by reading a computer dictionary that the CPU
(Central Processing Unit) was the brain of the computer. The
CPU was a single chip which manipulated all data and performed all calculations.

The Animation Class

All the children at the local school took a computer animation class. In the class
they learned how to make graphics and cartoons move.
They learned how by just drawing the key frames that start and finish each new
sequence that the computer draws the frames in between.
This made creating the animations less time consuming.

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 Cyber speak

A group of people talked on-line using cyber speak shorthand for

commonly used phrases they talked with phrases like:
BTW = By the way
LOL = Laughing out loud
IMHO = In my humble opinion
FWIW = For what its worth
AFK = Away from the keyboard
BAK = Back at the keyboard
WB = Welcome back
WTG = Way to go

Emoticons

Mr. Brown talked on-line using emoticons - he typed the

following after each of his chat posts:

:-) = smiles

;-) = winks

:-( = frowns

:-O = astonishment

:-Q = screaming

:-D = laughing

() = hugging

:P = sticking out tongue

This way, his readers had a picture in their heads of what his expressions
were even though he couldn t see them.

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 Digital Cash

Steve s brother Phil wanted to buy a new baseball bat

online but since he didn t have a credit card to buy the item he used digital
cash which let him send a computer instruction that was transferred between
the buyer and seller.
This instruction transferred the money from Phil s bank account to the
seller of the baseball bat.

Faster Internet Access

Milton was interested in getting faster Internet access

so he read that fiber-optics with their tiny glass or silica
fibers transported pulses of light. It was the recommended
way to go as far as fitting his needs for faster access.
Milton soon got the fiber-optics he desired for his Internet access and this
allowed him to surf the Internet more quickly.

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 ISP and a T-1

Jim s Uncle Bill started his own Internet Service

Provider company.
The first item Uncle Bill bought was he leased a T-1
connection from the local phone company.
This allowed him to have a high grade of telephone line connection so
that his customers could have high speed Internet access.

User Interface

Laura drew a design for a new piece of software her company was
building. The user interface she drew had many buttons and text so that users
would be able to interact with the software that was being built easily.
The icons she drew were great representations of what would happen
when the user checked that button.

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 Blog for Recipes

Jacks Mom wanted to share her cooking recipes to a

wider audience.
She created an online blog each week and posted
recipes that she thought others would enjoy.
Soon she was getting great feedback on her site
this encouraged her to try and post more and more recipes to her blog.

A If/Else statement

Cassandra wanted to write a computer program

she wanted the output to be such so that if someone
typed in the number 1 the words I like ice cream
were displayed on the screen else the words I like
milk were to appear.
Her program would be a if/else statement.

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 The Do/While Loop

Jeanne was looking for an easy way to

write the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,910 on one line
of her computer screen.
Her computer science teacher told her
about the value of a do/while loop this saved her
time in her program as a do/while loop is used to
run a portion of code until a certain condition is
met.
Jeanne programmed her do/while loop to
stop when it reached the number 10.

The Doll Website

Jill was ready to start accessing

her favorite doll website online. When she
went to the website for the first time she
was asked what she wanted her
password to be. She soon realized a password was a personal secret code that
can be used to let one logon to a website.

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 Programming Class

The teacher was teaching the class about

programming which is how to write instructions
for a computer so that it will perform a specific
task.
The teacher during the year planned on teaching brief introductions to C,
C++, HTML, JavaScript and Java. It was hoped that the students would find a
language they liked and be able to write useful programs.

The Web Application

Bobby s Dad needed a web application so he

could track the inventory from the candy store he owned.
He wanted Bobby to create the web application so
that he could have the ability to login no matter where he
was and see the inventory of his store.
The web application Bobby was going to write
would need to be housed on a web server and would
also need a database that stored the information.
Thus, the web application would act as the front
end and would utilize a scripting language called Perl
and HTML.
The web page that Bobby created would have form fields that where data
was entered and submitted would be written to the database. Bobby s Dad would
then login using a special page so he could view the data.

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 The Install Program

Jacques needed an install program written

so that he could deploy his newly written software
to many computers on CD. The install program
would allow him to place his program on a CD
then have a user easily install the program on
there own computer.
Ideally he wanted his install program to use a wizard.

Gloria and the Email List

Gloria wanted to email all her friends so she

put together a list in her e-mail program so that
instead of typing each email individually she could
send one e-mail in a group which would contain all the e-mail addresses in her
list. This saved her time and made communication with her friends easier.

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 The Family Computer

The family s computer held a lot of

important data such as homework, financial
reports, documents, pictures etc. So that this
information was safe the data was backed-up
each month on a separate hard disk. This ensured that the data was safe and
always available if needed.

Mr. Smith and USB

Mr. Smith was in need of a peripheral that he

could connect to his computer so that he could attach
multiple USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices.
He decided to go to a computer fair and walked
from vendor to vendor in search of his peripheral.
Mr. Smith had a lot of fun doing this and also learned about the newest
technology. He eventually found his peripheral and bought it at the best price he
could find.
He then went home and attached it to his computer and was able to run
several USB devices from one slot in his computer.

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 Micky and the Game Controller

Micky was playing his video game and was

curious how the game controller worked. He un-
screwed the nut on the back of the controller the
LED (light emitting diode) looked like a curious item to
touch the microprocessor had a shimmer to it.
After he was done he put the controller back together and continued
playing his video game.

Danielle Texting

Danielle texted her Dad some messages on her cell

phone. She utilized some text messaging shortcuts in her
messages to save time:
cml = Call me later
:t = Confused
cld9 = Cloud nine
bcnu = Be seeing you
cw2cu = Can t wait to see you
vbg = Very big grin
hru = How are you
yng = Yawning
y = Why?
wassup = How are you doing today

By using the shortcuts she was able to get her point across more quickly
and effectively.

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 Dad the Project Manager

Jim s Dad was a project manager it was his

job to make sure that all projects of the company he
worked for were on-time and on-budget.
Jim s Dad kept a spreadsheet of his project
along with the tasks that each person was to do
along with deadlines for each task and the cost of each task.
This way, Jim s Dad was sure to keep his project right on target.

Math in the Workplace

The construction worker working on the

Jones s new house utilized a vast amount of math
while building the house. He measured and
remeasured several areas of the house before placing and nailing certain
boards in their place.
He made sure all the pieces of the house were cut to certain
specifications. Some pieces required him to use a protractor so that the right
angle was created.

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 Kyle s 4 Track

Kyle wanted to share his favorite music he had created

with his friends his 4 track was used to record then mix
down the music he had created. This was a careful process
which involved time and patience.
When it was done Kyle had created a master tape of his own original
music which he could duplicate and then share with others.

Cecil & Electricity

The electricity flew through the current.

Cecil didn t realize how powerful a jolt of electricity
was.
The power cord to his computer had water
accidentally spilled on it by his brother Nick and sparks
started to fly everywhere which scared the two
brothers as they played a computer game.

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Biography

Kevin O'Neill was born in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1972. He

has a MSCS in computer science and information systems

and BA in journalism with a minor in music from Marist

College located in Poughkeepsie, NY.

His interest in computer programming started at an early age of 8 when his

parents bought him an Apple IIe computer. From that moment on he was
hooked. Mr. O'Neill started writing and studying BASIC and LOGO programs on
his Apple IIe and eventually as time went on he has learned more programming
languages such as APL, ASP, C, C#, C++, DHTML, HTML, Java, JavaScript,
Jam, Visual Basic, XML and WML.

Mr. O'Neill is married and has a son and daughter. They reside in Canonsburg,
PA.

Besides writing and computer programming he enjoys playing guitar, piano,

painting and spending time with his family.

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