IT Girl Issue 2

IT IT GIRL GIRL ISSUE #2 IN THIS ISSUE: EDIBLE ELECTRONICS: THE FUTURE OF TECH

AI THERAPISTS

FREE VALENTINE’S CARD!

1 INTRODUCTION

TECH

2 EDIBLE ELECTRONICS 6 THE FIRST COMPUTER AND THE WOMEN BEHIND IT 8 YOUAREANIDIOT 11 COULD YOU MARRY A COMPUTER?

EXTRAS

13 CODEBREAKER 19 COMPUTING CONCEPTS - SQL 23 ILOVEYOU VIRUS 24 BUG’S VALENTINE’S DAY

DIGITAL CULTURE

14 AI THERAPISTS 15 VOCALOID 17 SWIFTIE MEDIA oontents 20 HOGWARTS LEGACY: A YEAR LATER 22 THE FOUR SQUARE CIPHER

LEN() PYTHON

Length commands check the length of a string, which can be AQA PSEUDOCODE used, for example, to run through LEN() loops a number of times in C# programs. stringName.length()

len()

Welcome to the second edition of IT GIRL, the WGGS computing magazine!

This issue, with much thought, we have split the content into two categories Technology, and Digital culture.

Thank you all for submitting your articles for the magazine on such a tight deadline. If you have any computing-related concepts you’re interested in writing about for future editions, don’t hesitate to email us with your articles for future editions, or, as always, come to computing club on Thursday lunchtimes, where we can help you with your code, teach you new and interesting concepts, or help you revise topics, to name a few things!

Look out for our next email to start sending in submissions for our next issue!

This magazine is written to explore computing and technology beyond the curriculum, and showcase the technology related interests of the pupils in the school. You can write about anything from tech celebrities to your favourite games – don’t be afraid to submit articles on things that you love!

You could even find like-minded individuals in the process of researching your articles.

We are pleased to announce the name of our mascot, designed by Samhita in Y9 – Bug! (Full name: Bug Byte) With 50 votes, 15 different names, and tiebreaker between 2 popular names, we thank you for your involvement in the naming of our mascot. If you haven’t yet sent us an email claiming your name submission, we’d love to feature you in the next edition.

-- Silvia and Spencer (Year 12), on behalf of the IT Girl team

CHECK OUT OUR FOLDABLE VALENTINE’S DAY CARD ON PAGE 24!

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EDIBLE ELECTRONICS

ANIYA, 10B

In an effort to combine electronic components with ingestible materials, edible

devices represent a breakthrough in science and bioengineering. This revolutionary

field combining technology with the human body strives to produce gadgets that may be safely ingested. This is the start of endless possibilities for applications in healthcare, diagnostics, and environmental monitoring. The uses of edible

electronics range from monitoring health metrics to delivering targeted medication, but how do they do it?

THE HISTORY:

Although fairly recent, edible electronics can be seen as an evolution of the concept of ingestible electronics. This means that rather than only being suitable for

swallowing, they are now being designed to be fully digestible within the body and are capable of being released back into the environment without any need of recollection.

In the early 2000’s, researchers began to take interest in the idea behind devices

that can be ingested. They began experimenting with edible sensors that could be used for various applications. Early projects focused primarily on medical

diagnostics, monitoring bodily parameters within the digestive tract. This period

marked the conceptualization of ingestible electronics. A decade later, there was a

recognisable development in the progress behind ingestible sensors. Researchers

aimed to create gadgets that could transmit real-time data from inside the body. This offered a non–invasive proposition to monitoring people’s health. Some of the early

sensors were designed to measure the pH levels within the digestive system. These laid the groundwork for the growth of edible electronics. In 2015, a significant

technological breakthrough occurred with the advance of smart pills. These devices marked a pivotal moment in personalized medicine by integrating electronic

components capable of controlled drug delivery. They were designed to address the challenges of targeted therapy, doing so by delivering medication precisely at

specific locations within our bodies. This aimed to enhance the efficacy of drug

treatments whilst minimizing the side effects. In recent years, ongoing research has

expanded to focus on exposure to environmental pollutants and contaminants within the digestive system.

Researchers now aim to focus on addressing technological challenges such as

digestibility concerns, developing reliable power sources and more. This invigorating field of science and technology continues to evolve and advance, changing the way we view science forever.

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EDIBLE ELECTRONICS COMPONENTS:

When it comes to the components that make up edible electronics, they can be

divided into three main groups. These are sensors, processors and power sources.

Firstly, let’s talk about sensors. Sensors are the core components that collect data

from our digestive system, depending on the implementation of sensors; they can be used to measure parameters such as pH levels, temperature or biological indicators such as enzymes or proteins. However, in order to be used in edible electronics,

they must be miniaturized to fit within the constraints of these devices. This involves the use of micro-scale components, whilst still maintaining the ability to accurately record data. In addition, sensors must be biocompatible. This means that the

materials used must not trigger immune responses within the digestive system. To

combat this, materials such as polymers are often used. Our digestive systems have extremely harsh environments and sensors must be built to withstand this. This includes resisting variations in pH, temperature and moisture. Since edible

electronics operate within a limited space, they must be energy efficient to ensure

prolonged functionality. Researchers are working to design sensors that consume minimal power, whilst optimizing energy usage. Sensors in edible electronics are often equipped to process and handle data in real-time. This involves on-board computation to convert raw sensor data into meaningful information, which will

further allow timely responses or interventions based on the collected parameters.

In order to process data in such ways, many sensors may use wireless

communication. This allows seamless transmission of data from within the body to

external devices for monitoring or analysis, wireless technology such as Bluetooth or RFID are often used.

Sensors form the core of edible electronics, as they are essential for gathering

important information from the digestive system. To guarantee precise and safe

functioning within the human body, their design carefully balances miniaturisation, biocompatibility, energy efficiency and flexibility.

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ANIYA, 10B

EDIBLE ELECTRONICS Next, let’s talk about processors. Processors are the computational core of edible electronics. They focus on analysing data from sensors through algorithms for

real-time insights. Similarly to sensors, they must run efficiently to ensure effective

operation within limited energy resources. To do this, low-power microcontrollers are integrated into these devices to ensure a longer running time using less energy.

They also contain strategies such as sleep modes during periods of inactivity and

optimizing computational processes to decrease energy consumption. Processors execute algorithms designed to extract meaningful insights from raw sensor data.

These algorithms can range from simple calculations to complex machine learning models, depending on the nature of the data and its intended applications.

Processors integrate data from multiple sensors, this data fusion allows for a

developed understanding of the conditions within our digestive systems. This data must be stored somewhere and is why processors manage memory for storing

temporary data or historical information. This allows for the maintaining of relevant

data points which facilitate post-analysis or assessments of an individual’s health trends. To ensure privacy of sensitive health information, processors incorporate security features to protect the processed data. Often, processors include

encrypted algorithms to secure wireless transmission of personal data and comply with healthcare data protection standards.

Processors orchestrate the collection, analysis, and communication of data from

within the digestive system. This is what makes them a fundamental part of edible

electronics, as they integrate the computational side of sensors with the biological aspects. Their efficiency, adaptability and real-time processing capabilities contribute significantly into the effectiveness of edible electronics.

Let’s discuss power sources. Power sources are essential components in edible

electronics, providing the energy needed for sensors and processors to function.

Batteries are a conventional power source for edible electronics as they provide a

stable and reliable energy supply. Advances in battery technology have enabled the creation of compact, miniaturised batteries, making them suitable for ingesting.

There has also been a development in flexible batteries. These are designed to

conform to the dynamic movements of the digestive system, enhancing adaptability and durability.

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ANIYA, 10B

EDIBLE ELECTRONICS These batteries complement the use of flexible and stretchable sensors to ensure seamless integration within the body. Energy harvesting technologies are explored

to extract energy from the body’s environment, converting sources such as heat or motion into electrical power. Energy harvesting enhances and extends the lifespan

of edible electronics by providing a continuous, renewable energy source. In relation

to energy harvesting, there has been an advance in the usage of microbial fuel cells.

These use microbial activity to generate electrical energy, offering a unique energy harvesting approach. Researchers have been exploring various ideas relating to

biodegradable power sources. This would ensure components would break down

naturally after use, making them eco-friendly and sustainable. Another way to create an optimised performance would be to use hybrid power systems. These combine

multiple power sources, leveraging the strengths of different technologies in order to optimize overall performance.

Power sources represent a crucial aspect of edible electronics, influencing the

device's size, functionality, and utility. Ongoing advancements in power technology

aim to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and the integration of these devices within the human body. This innovative technology shows an immense potential for sustained, long-term power generation within the digestive environment.

CONCLUSION:

Edible electronics, integrating computing capabilities within ingestible devices, precede a revolution in technology and healthcare. These devices facilitate

personalised health monitoring and drug delivery using sensors that record

physiological data in real-time, processors that orchestrate complex algorithms, and communication modules that facilitate seamless connectivity. A significant advancement has been made in the field of edible technology through the

combination of miniaturised elements, biocompatible materials, and creative power sources. Edible electronics emerges as a promising frontier as ongoing

advancements address challenges and push the boundaries of computational

innovation. It provides a glimpse into a future where computing is deeply ingrained in our internal systems, fostering a new era of proactive and personalised healthcare.

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ANIYA, 10B

THE FIRST COMPUTER AND THE WOMEN BEHIND IT SILVIA, 12D

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first general-purpose digital computer, formally dedicated to the University of Pennsylvania on February 15th, 1946. It was 1000 times faster than electro-mechanical machines of the time and was thus nicknamed the ‘Giant Brain’ by the press.

But the actual ‘Giant Brains’ behind the computer were kept secret for years, these ‘subprofessionals’, called this despite being the ENIAC’s primary programmers, or ‘operators’ as they were called, were Kay McNulty, Betty Jean Jennings, Betty Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman.

They were 6 of the 200 women hired by the US Army during WW2 to compute ballistics trajectories, with the others becoming ‘computers’.

Despite being told they were not ‘refrigerator ladies’ (models posing in front of machines), some of the women did not receive recognition for their work in their lifetimes. When the war ended and the soldiers returned to society, the women working on the ENIAC could not be replaced by the soldiers due to their expertise. Engineers working on the ENIAC admitted that the female computers worked more rapidly and accurately than they did, however, at the time the field was not viewed as prestigious, and engineers believed that by having women take their places they would be able to participate in more skilled labour, not wasting their college and industrial experience.

The women endlessly studied the machine in order to understand the machine and the mathematics of computing, performing one of the very few technical jobs available for women during that time period. Using this knowledge, Betty Holberton continued to help write the first generative programming system, as well as working with Betty Jean Jennings to design the first commercial electronic computers. Kay McNulty also developed subroutines to increase the computational capability of the ENIAC. Because of this, 3 current Army supercomputers have been named after them: ‘Jean’, ‘Kay’ and ‘Betty’.

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THE FIRST COMPUTER AND THE WOMEN BEHIND IT It cost $487,000 (equivalent to $8,208,000 now) and was financed by the United States Army to be used to calculate artillery firing tables.

Production began in secret, under the code name Project PX, and it took 2 years to finish. The computer ran for 10 years, and was updated progressively throughout those 10 years, being updated to be able to store memory in 1953, when a 100-word magnetic-core memory was added to it. It used IBM card readers for input and IBM punch cards for output, with these cards being used for external memory storage.

It was a modular computer, with twenty of these modules being signed accumulators that could hold ten-digit decimal numbers in memory and could perform 5000 simple addition or subtraction operations per second using ten’s complement representation. The high speed of the computer was achieved by being able to send, receive, compute, and save numbers, before then triggering the next operation without using any moving part. This was achieved with the ENIAC’s ability to branch, triggering operations based on the sign of the computed results. Each cycle of the ENIAC was 200 microseconds long, and could be used to complete simple functions, such as adding/subtracting two numbers or writing/reading numbers to/from registers. Division, multiplication and square roots, took longer than additions and subtractions, with square rooting taking up to 28,600 microseconds. Overall, the ENIAC was able to process about 500 FLOPS (floating point operations per second).

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SILVIA, 12D

YOUAREANIDIOT

KARYA, 11D

The YouAreAnIdiot malware, also known by its official name “Offiz” infected as many as 100,000 people, and it was now making its way around the internet as a topic of heated discussion. A subject people immediately regretted becoming acquainted with, its presence just continuing to grow. It wasn’t long until people were claiming that their entire hard drives were being permanently erased and damaged beyond repair. What exactly was going on? How did the story of YouAreAnIdiot go from exhausting tech support threads within online forums into becoming an internet legend?

Well, properly answering that question requires a bit of historical context. We need to go all the way back to the year 2002. The internet is still in its fledgling phase, with the vestiges of the 90s, but it is growing at an alarming rate, as well as getting smarter and more sophisticated every day. Not only was it improving on user convenience, but it was also learning to solve problems users had been yearning to get fixed for years, as well as solving problems users didn’t even know that they had. But this came at the expense of creating new problems, some of which were previously almost unheard of. Malicious programs were becoming smarter and more difficult to combat, as malware developers were learning from their past mistakes, and YouAreAnIdiot was a symptom of that.

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YOUAREANIDIOT

KARYA, 11D

The earliest form of the program showed up in early 2002 and it first appeared on a website. The earliest confirmed website it showed up on was known as youdontknowwhoiam.org. So what did the virus actually do? Well, it wasn’t technically a virus at all. It didn’t use your computer to spread to other ones. It was a trojan horse, a program that pretends to look nice and innocent, but causes harm to your computer once you activate it. This virus was one of many components which formed from the early internet’s ongoing evolution, and that’s because it took advantage of a relatively new technology that was only becoming more complex by the year.

This technology is called JavaScript, it also had another somewhat new and growing technology under its sleeve: the flash player. Any user curious enough to click on the website’s window would be greeted with the famous animation we’ve all grown to recognize.

Thanks to the JavaScript, any further attempt to exit the page, whether it be by refreshing or clicking the x button, will spawn six more smaller windows displaying the same animation, all playing at once. You’re not getting off that easy though. The script has programmed the windows to bounce around the page, so good luck exiting out, and even if you do get rid of one, six more will pop up once again. You now have 11 windows on your computer calling you an idiot, and your speakers are just getting louder. You try using some hotkeys to forcefully shut down your browser, but now you just have text windows calling you an idiot.

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YOUAREANIDIOT Before you know it, the windows have multiplied exponentially, and your computer’s resources are being used up. Your system is so slow you can barely even move the mouse anymore. You can’t even open task manager it’s so slow. Now you have no choice but to take the last resort and shut down your computer through physically pushing the power button.

Here is a YouTube link to show what the virus looks like: https://youtu.be/GF5bR6GE2rk?si=pvhCwrVNLq6iLuZa

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KARYA, 11D

COULD YOU MARRY A DIYA, 12F COMPUTER? The first recorded marriage was around 2350 BC in Mesopotamia between one man and a woman. The identities of the couple is

unknown, however marriage was spread throughout the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews. It was very common back in the day to

marry for economical or business arrangements. Whilst this still

continues in some parts of the world, marriage is mostly the legal bond between two people who love each other. Reasons that

people marry range from love to citizenship, social norms, having a commitment to bring children into, and defining a relationship by

solidifying it. The common factor between these two is that it only consists of the bond of humans, who all approve and encourage matrimonial bond. Would peoples’ opinions still stay the same if the bond didn’t only consist of humans?

A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed and is

used to process data. They are made up of hardware and software and function on two levels: they send out an output and receive

data via an input channel, which can be digital storage or live data.

Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence

processed by machines, particularly computer systems. A couple of examples of AI are expert systems, natural language

processing, speech recognition, and machine vision. Most people

use AI in their day-to-day life without even realising it, examples of these are Siri, Alexa, voice search, facial recognition, and

autonomous vehicles. At this moment, AI does not have the capabilities to feel and express emotions like humans can.

However some believe that one day, AI will be able to make their own decisions and will be able to have a conscious.

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COULD YOU MARRY A COMPUTER?

Despite the concept of marrying a computer being out of normality, there have been some people trying to marry a computer. An example of this is a man from Utah who was denied the right to marry his laptop, whom he nicknamed ‘machine spouse’. He filed a 50-page motion to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeal in where he stated, “The clerk denied my request for a marriage licence … my object of affection was outside the scope of the narrow definition." He has also stated that "If anything, my marriage to a machine possesses less of a risk, since a possible acrimonious divorce proceeding could be avoided, if the marriage fails."

Some of the points that the man has said to defend his attempted marriage to his MacBook could be considered plausible, such as a divorce being very unlikely to happen between a computer and a human and the question of who defines the ‘scope of narrow definition.’ People would agree with these statements, asking why people cannot do what they want to since we all have free will. Others will conform to the societal views of contemporary marriage and will not even consider the idea or concept of marrying a computer. There was a similar case filed by a man in Florida, the judge of the case stating that it ‘was removed from reality.’

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DIYA, 12F

CODEBREAKER Want to test out your codebreaking skills?

Try to crack the following message:

HINT: A place to put certain farmyard animals.

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The first person to crack the code gets to choose the message to be encrypted for the next issue! The first person to tell me why they think I’ve used this key (eg. ‘FIRST’ for a substitution cipher or ‘1’ for a caesar cipher) gets to choose the key for the next edition’s message.

Hope you enjoyed cracking it!

LAST EDITION’S WINNERS: Samhita (Y9) - first to crack code: ‘HELLO, WORLD! IS A PHRASE OFTEN USED IN THE PROGRAM FIRST WRITTEN BY A STUDENT OF A NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE’ Sarah (Y9) - first to find key: 23, because last edition of 2023.

RUNNER-UP: Thenral (Y8)

AI THERAPISTS

SPENCER, 12E

You may have heard of the app Character.ai, where people create bots to talk to – both real people and characters like those from

your favourite games - Elon Musk, or Mario, for example. One bot is more popular than others, however – called Psychologist. 78 million+ messages have been shared with the bot. The most

popular bots on the platform, some argue, are characters from video games or anime. There are close to 475 bots of the ‘therapist’ genre.

30-year-old New Zealander Sam Zaia created the bot under the user ‘Blazeman98’. As a psychology student, he trained the bot using principles he picked up from his degree on the most common conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Many have described the bot as a ‘life saver’, especially given its constant availability – ‘they access it when their thoughts get

hard, like at 2am when they can’t really talk to any friends or a real

therapist’. Many people also choose to discuss their mental health with some of the other bots, regardless of their role on the site.

Though Psychologist is not a genuine competent therapist, it’s willing to lend an ear and suggest solutions.

Some psychologists warn that these bots may give lacklustre advice, or have bias against certain users/’patients’, but the

concept once again highlights the potential uses of AI in day-today life.

Similarly, last year, an AI service – Limbic Access – became the first mental health chatbot to secure a UK medical device

14 certification. It’s used in NHS trusts now to classify patients.

VOCALOID

SARAH, 9G

As digital music grows more popular, there is one type of electronic music that is growing increasingly more popular: Vocaloid. This voicebank synthesising project was first made

by Yamaha and the Music Technology Group, but has now been retextured by artists in numerous languages to create interesting music for people across the world, in many different genres.

The first developers created Vocaloid about 20 years ago, and at first was only in English. There were only 3 main voicebanks, Leon, Lola and Miriam created by Zero-G, a sound library. Later MEIKO and KAITO were developed by Yamaha, being the first Japanese Vocaloids, but were later sold to Crypton Future Media. There were then some Spanish and Chinese Vocaloid characters developed with their own voicebanks.

The singing synthesis of Vocaloid uses a concatenate method of music-making, where the music is in small recorded sounds that are linked together. In this, they separate human vocal fragments and arrange them in the desired way. In a similar way, they create a vibrato effect in the vocals by splicing the sound even further. By the nature of this software, the vocals are not designed for reading text, so when people try to make Vocaloid “talk”, it sounds quite pitchy and tonal.

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VOCALOID There is also a score editor, like the regular piano rolls on music-editing/making softwares. But the difference is that when entering lyrics, the software automatically converts it to phonetic symbols using the built-in pronunciation dictionary.

These batteries complement the use of flexible and stretchable sensors to ensure Many voice actors gave their voice as a voice bank, some of the most famous voice actors for Vocaloids include Saki Fujita (voice of Hatsune Miku), Meiko Haigo (voice of MEIKO) and Naoto Fuuga (voice of KAITO).

The stuff before may seem quite technical and maybe a little boring, but Vocaloid also has a lot of media coverage.

Hatsune Miku, a popular avatar of Vocaloid, has over 100, 000 songs worldwide! Also, the most popular Vocaloid song has over 11 million views on YouTube, Goodbye Declaration! Also with emerging artists and games and brands which use Vocaloid in their work popularise the music. Vocaloid music comes in lots of different genres, so it appeals to a lot of people.

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SARAH, 9G

SWIFTIE MEDIA

AASIYA, 10G

How does Taylor Swift use social media to promote her music?

Well there’s many cryptic and interesting ways

she’s done so, let’s explore the most common ones!!

Vaults:

Taylor Swift has recently started re-recording her albums with so called ‘Vault Tracks’ that weren’t released in the originals. These are shown with a ‘(From the Vault)’ at the end of the song title.

Before she releases these albums however, she often makes her fans work to find out what these Vault tracks will be called. She’s

done this in many ways that include word searches, anagrams and even google games. For Red (Taylor’s Version), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) she posted videos on her

socials (mainly Instagram and twitter) that have a vault opening and letters flying out. These would spell out the words for the

Vault tracks and she would also put strange reversed or distorted music/sounds in the background that hint towards her music as well. For Fearless (TV) she made anagrams of each word in the

song titles and let the fans piece them together. Then for Red (TV) it was each line of a word search. However 1989 (TV) was done slightly differently. Instead of the Vault tracks being revealed

purely through the vault, she sent her fans to go and play a game on google that led them to Vault tracks. However, the sheer

amount of people playing this game ended up crashing the entire google site. Even if the Vault tracks were eventually revealed, it

was an interesting and engaging way for her to promote her music to her fans.

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SWIFTIE MEDIA Messages:

Another common way Taylor likes to mess with her fans is through cryptic messages on her social media. Some of them end up being lyrics in her music, for example, her most recent album Midnights.

When she announced it, she left a poem along with it. The

message ended with ‘Meet me at Midnight’ which ended up being the first thing you hear when you listen to the album. In her post

for the 1989 (TV) vault, her caption was “You can tell me when the *search* is over... if the high was worth the pain.

😎” obviously

referencing to a very famous lyric from her song Blank Space in

1989. The emphasis on the word ‘search’ was hinting at the google

game mentioned earlier, even if it didn’t end up being successful, it worked in promoting her album and making it engaging for her

fans. Another way she has used messages is in one of her Person of the Year posts. In the caption of the third post she mentions

how she has “tRuSt iSSueS” which sent her fans into a spiral. The capitalisation of the letters R and SSSS eluded to the fact she

was releasing Reputation (Taylor’s Version) next. The R being for Reputation and the S’s for a snake hissing which is a very

common theme of the album. This theory was proved wrong as she announced a new album instead, The Tortured Poets Department.

However, the theory that Reputation (TV) is the next re-record may be correct as it was never mentioned it would be her next album. One of her most recent posts about her new album

includes a message on the second image. It’s common for her to

create poems about the album and somehow sneak in a lyric from a song so it’s only a matter of which one will be in the album.

That’s the two main ways Taylor Swift promotes her music in

social media. Whether it’s vaults, games and hidden messages, everything is cryptic and Machiavellian when it comes to her.

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AASIYA, 10G

COMPUTING CONCEPTS: SQL BASICS

SQL - Structured Query Language - is used to manipulate and manage databases. SQL databases have multiple fields to

categorise the data within it. Records are the individual spaces in a table, used to store each bit of data.

SQL syntax for querying a database (writing to control/change the database) is:

Writing the command words (eg SELECT) in capitals.

FROM is written on the line after, and the database to retrieve data from is what you write after it.

*s can be used to retrieve whole databases (meaning ALL), and are written with a *. If I had a database called PatientList, and

wanted to return the whole database, I would write: You can use operators to get specifics from the database. So,

having the same database, I could have a first name field, and get all the people called Adam from the list by writing: If I wanted all of the first names

beginning with ‘A’ I could use LIKE to look for this pattern.

Operators that can be used

within the clauses in queries

include = != > < >= <= AND, OR, NOT.

The % symbol is a wildcard,

and is used to select all that

start with, for example, A%. It can also be used to select all words

that end with a character or group of characters, for example, %ing.

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https://www.w3schools.com/sql/trysql.asp?

filename=trysql_insert_colname can be used to try out SQL!

HOGWARTS LEGACY: A YEAR LATER SPENCER, 12E

Hogwarts legacy was argued to be one of the best video games in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, having achieved a nomination for a

Video Game Award (2022) for ‘Most Anticipated Game’, and won ‘Best Game on Steam Deck’ for the 2023 Steam awards.. It

released in February 10th of 2023. After its announce in 2020, it

received backlash due to JK Rowling’s viewpoints on transgender people and accusations of including multiple harmful stereotypes in game. Representatives at Pink News argue that the

transgender character ‘Sirona Ryan’ was put into the game to draw attention away from JK Rowling’s own viewpoints, some viewing her character as ‘performative’ and ‘ingenuine’. This

controversy eventually subsided after a boycott of the game was unsuccessful. Hogwarts Legacy was in development for close to five years, and sold close to 24 million copies.

Despite the game setting a record for being the most-watched category on

Twitch in early access (and earning itself

a Guinness World Record in the process),

the hype surrounding Hogwarts Legacy has died down. Many stated that the gameplay was fun, and the map was extensive – somewhat unnecessarily so – as the audience firmly believed more of the

content should have taken place in the Hogwarts Castle, or that having such a

free open-world environment took away

from the theme of the game or the story.

Players also claimed that the gameplay soon became repetitive – with 95 Merlin Trials

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alongside many other gameplay elements.

HOGWARTS LEGACY: A YEAR LATER ‘Platinum Hunting’ is a popular form of completing a game (especially known

on Playstation), as a ‘Platinum Trophy’ is given for each fully completed game – gaining all listed achievements, which

can take hours of gameplay. An example of

this could be that it takes around 6 hours of dedicated, guided gameplay to receive a

platinum trophy for the first ‘Five Nights at

Freddy’s’ game. In comparison, 1 full gameplay of Hogwarts Legacy takes around 68 hours

of non-stop gameplay. As the game changes subtly (also in achievements given) with the

Hogwarts House you choose - Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin or Hufflepuff - you essentially have to complete the game 4 times – or 400% complete the game for a 100% completion and platinum

trophy, which takes 272 hours of repetitive gameplay, including full story runs. Because of this, platinum trophies are extremely rare in the player base.

TLDR; many people still play the game, but very few are dedicated enough to 100% the full game, and many don’t consider it worth it to finish the side-quests or minigames.

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SPENCER, 12E

THE FOUR SQUARE DIYA, 11G CIPHER

What is a four-square cipher?

·A four-square cipher uses 2 private keys. E.g.: valentine (top right grid) and heart (bottom left grid).

Repeated letters are omitted. ·The rest of the letters are continued from the last letter e.g.: ‘E’ then next box is ‘F’, ‘G’ and so on. This also happens in the other grid. ·Due to 26 letters in the English alphabets and only 25 spaces per grid, 1 letter or (sometimes 2 – to include punctuation) is also omitted.

HOW TO USE?

1. Choose your code word e.g.: ‘love’.

2. Break the word into pairs of letters e.g. ‘lo’ and ‘ve’ (if the number of letters is odd then you add an ‘x’ at the end of your word or sentence).

3. The top left grid always corresponds to the top right and the bottom right corresponds to the bottom left.

4. So, in the first pair ‘lo’: find the first letter ‘l’ in the top left grid and find the second letter ‘o’ in the bottom right grid.

5. Then elongate both two lines from each letter (horizontal and vertically) until they intersect on the other two grid (red) to find the cipher letters for the first pair.

6. The cipher letter found from the top right grid comes first and then the letter from the second grid.

E.g.: ‘S?’ 7. The ciphertext is typically written in uppercase.

ANSWER: Areyouakeyboard?Becauseyouaremytypex

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Try to crack this: AGESULNUESEBAGNQNEVAYMESULAGAFGLHDLS

ILOVEYOU DATE DISCOVERED: 4 MAY 2000 CREATED BY: ONEL DE GUZMAN LANGUAGE: VBSCRIPT PLATFORM: WINDOWS 9X, NT 4.0, 2000

ILOVEYOU WAS A COMPUTER WORM THAT INFECTED OVER 10 MILLION WINDOWS PCS ON AND AFTER 5 MAY 2000, SPREADING AS AN EMAIL MESSAGE WITH THE SUBJECT LINE ‘ILOVEYOU’. THE EMAIL APPEARED TO BE A LOVE LETTER ON THE SURFACE, CONTAINING A FILE NAMED ‘LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT’, HOWEVER, THE FILE WAS NOT A TEXT FILE, IT WAS A VBS FILE.

FILE TYPE: .VBS TYPE: COMPUTER WORM

UNFORTUNATELY THE ‘.VBS’ EXTENTION WAS AUTOMATICALLY HIDDEN BY WINDOWS COMPUTERS AT THE TIME. VBS FILES WERE ALSO AUTOMATICALLY RUN IN OUTLOOK UPON OPENING THE FILE, LEADING THE MALWARE TO ACTIVATE. THE WORM BEGAN ITS ATTACK BY INFLICTING DAMAGE ON THE LOCAL MACHINE, OVERWRITING RANDOM FILES (INCLUDING OFFICE AND IMAGE FILES) AND HIDING RANDOM MP3 FILES. THEN, IN ORDER TO CONTINUE ITS SPREAD, THE WORM COPIED ITSELF TO ALL OF THE ADDRESSES IN THE WINDOWS ADDRESS BOOK, ALLOWING IT TO SPREAD FASTER THAN ANY OTHER PREVIOUS EMAIL WORM. ONEL DE GUZMAN, 24 AT THE TIME, HAD CREATED THE WORM TO STELA OTHER USER’S INTERNET PASSWORDS AS HE COULD NOT AFFORD IT HIMSELF. DESPITE BEING FOUND, THE CREATOR WAS NOT PROSECUTED AS THERE WERE NO LAWS IN THE PHILIPPENES AGAINST MAKING MALWARE AT THE TIME, HOWEVER HE JUSTIFIED HIS ACTIONS BY STATING THAT HE BELIEVED INTERNET ACCESS IS A HUMAN RIGHT. THE WORLDWIDE SPREAD OF THE VIRUS WAS UNEXPECTED TO HIM, HE HAD SIMPLY REMOVED THE GEOGRAPHIC RESTRICTION OF THE WORM OUT OF CURIOSITY. AFFECTING 10% OF INTERNET-CONNECTED COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE, THE WORM IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE CAUSED $5.5-8.7 BILLION IN DAMAGES WORLDWIDE, WITH THE WORM’S REMOVAL COSTING $10-15 BILLION.

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BUG’S LIFE

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