Joshua Cheong's Project

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Link to Joshua Cheong's Page on Tumblr

Contents

• Day 1 Pitch
• Day 2 Script
• Day 3 Trailer
• Day 4 Script
• Day 4 Storyboard
• Day 5 Script
• Day 5 Storyboard
• Script: Final Iteration
• Rough Cut
• Final Project

Day 1 Pitch

This video is courtesy of Joshua Cheong on YouTube and is provided under our Creative Commons license.

OMG! Can my password be stolen from Facebook's database?

This is just a preliminary pitch on how to introduce one of the most important concepts in security: Hashing.

The YouTube has yet to be fully processed so it may take a while to come live. Till then, imma get some sleep!

Link back to Day 1

Day 2 Script: How Does a Google Search Work?

Narrator / Host:

Did you know that Google stores about 45 billion index pages of information? If each page of information was a sheet of paper and if we stack them all together, we would create a tower of paper 610 times taller than Mount Everest!

So how can a search engine like Google find you results so quickly in split second when the information stored in Google is humongous? It's like finding a needle in haystack; so how's it done?

Well, it turns out that searching on the Internet is kinda like looking for a person in a hotel room. Here's James and he is going to hide in his hotel room. But we want to find where is James.

The simplest way would be to run through every room nearest to you and keep finding. But that would take a long time.

Is there a better way I can find James? Hmmm.. (rub chin and raise one eyebrow)

Let's say the people were arranged in alphabetical order in increasing numbers of the hotel rooms. We could run to the room in the middle and check if the name of the person in the room is James. And then if the person starts with a smaller alphabet than James, we head to the left. If not we head to the rooms to the right. Eventually we will find James just like the first method. But we find James at a much much shorter time.

Is finding James such a big deal? Well, yes! Finding James faster means getting your results on Google faster. Because finding James is like searching a keyword term on Google. And that means less waiting time for all of us.

So the next time you do a Google search, know that you're in good hands with the fastest methods to find your search.

Link back to Day 2

Day 3 Trailer

This video is courtesy of Joshua Cheong on YouTube and is provided under our Creative Commons license.

Link back to Day 3

Day 4 Script

Script: Why Can't I Find my Stuff?

Narrator:

It's winter time and I'm getting dressed to go outside. But every time I start putting on layers after layers of clothes, I always can't seem to find my gloves. Are they in the kitchen? On my bed? On the couch? Oh dear, I seem to have a problem. Why can't I find my stuff? Is it because I have a lot of stuff that makes it so hard to remember?

Well, Google stores about 45 billion index pages of information. If each page of information was a sheet of paper and if we stack them all together, we would create a tower of paper 610 times taller than Mount Everest!

So how can a search engine like Google find your search results so quickly while I find it so difficult to find a pair of gloves? It's like finding a needle in haystack; so how's it done?

Well, it turns out that searching on the Internet is kinda like looking for a person in a hotel room. Here's James and he is going to hide in his hotel room. But we want to find where is James.

The simplest way would be to run through every room nearest to you and keep finding. But that would take a long time.

Is there a better way I can find James? Hmmm.. (rub chin and raise one eyebrow)

Well, it turns out that there's a better way known as Binary Search.

Let's say the people were arranged in alphabetical order in increasing numbers of the hotel rooms. We could run to the room in the middle and check if the name of the person in the room is James. And then if the person starts with a smaller alphabet than James, we head to the left. If not we head to the rooms to the right. We then head off to the middle room of the newly sectioned area. And we rinse and repeat. Eventually we will find James just like the first method. But we find James at a much much shorter time.

How much shorter would that be? Well, that depends on number of people staying at the hotel. Let's say it takes 10 seconds to knock on each hotel door and there's 500 people, it would take about 80 minutes for the first method and 1.5 minutes for Binary Search. If there were a thousand people in the hotel, it would take 160 minutes for the first method and only 1.6 minutes for Binary Search. Now that's a whole lot of difference.

Is finding James such a big deal? Well, yes! Finding James faster means getting your results on Google faster. Because finding James is like searching a keyword term on Google. And that means less waiting time for all of us.

So how does any of what we just learned help us to find things better at home? Noticed how the people in the hotel were arranged in rooms numbers based on alphabetical order? So the location of each person in a different hotel room depends on the alphabetical relationship of their names. So we don't need to remember which person is in which room, we just need to remember the alphabetical relationship that all the people have with each other.

In the same way, simply by placing your home items in locations where they have a natural relationship to makes it easier for us to find them. The TV remote goes near the TV, the shoes go to the shoe rack, the coats go into the cupboard and the winter gloves goes in the winter jacket.

*Finds gloves in the jacket

Aha! So that's where my gloves are!

And that's how we find stuff better. Not a just little bit better but a lot better!

Day 4 Storyboard

Link back to Day 4

Day 5 Script

Why can't I find my stuff?

Narrator:

It's winter time and I'm getting dressed to go outside. But every time I start putting on layers after layers of clothes, I always can't seem to find my gloves. (Location in the dorm; scene of me putting on layers of clothes and discovering in horror that I lost my gloves) Are they in the kitchen? On my bed? On the couch? Oh dear, I seem to have a problem. Why can't I find my stuff? Is it because I have a lot of stuff that makes it so hard to remember?

Well, Google stores about 45 billion index pages of information. If each page of information was a sheet of paper (host holds up a piece of paper) and if we stack them all together, we would create a tower of paper 610 times taller than Mount Everest! (Camera men on the sides dump a mountain of papers on the host, causing him / her to comically fall over)

So how can a search engine like Google find your search results so quickly while I find it so difficult to find a pair of gloves? It's like finding a needle in haystack; so how's it done? (A camera closeup while the host hold up in his / her hand a needle and casually throws it in the stack of papers)

Well, it turns out that searching on the Internet is kinda like looking for a person in a hotel room. (*Change scene: A sonorous "ding!" sound of a hotel lift, a pan shot of the interior of Hyatt Regency Cambridge hotel)

Here's James and he is going to hide in his hotel room. But we want to find where is James.

The simplest way would be to run through every room nearest to you and keep finding. But that would take a long time.

Is there a better way I can find James? Hmmm.. (rub chin and raise one eyebrow)

Well, it turns out that there's a better way known as Binary Search.

(*The keywords "Binary Search" flashes over the host's hands)

Let's say the people were arranged in alphabetical order in increasing numbers of the hotel rooms. We could run to the room in the middle and check if the name of the person in the room is James. And then if the person starts with a smaller alphabet than James, we head to the left. If not we head to the rooms to the right. We then head off to the middle room of the newly sectioned area. And we rinse and repeat. Eventually we will find James just like the first method. But we find James at a much much shorter time.

(The above scene would be done with simple animation drawing over my head with the host talking below on the camera)

How much shorter would that be? Well, that depends on number of people staying at the hotel. Let's say it takes 10 seconds to knock on each hotel door and there's 500 people, it would take about 80 minutes for the first method and 1.5 minutes for Binary Search. If there were a thousand people in the hotel, it would take 160 minutes for the first method and only 1.6 minutes for Binary Search. Now that's a whole lot of difference.

(I suspect there might be a better way of illustrating this point that a slightly better algorithm make a huge difference when dealing with large problems)

Is finding James such a big deal? Well, yes! Finding James faster means getting your results on Google faster. Because finding James is like searching a keyword term on Google. And that means less waiting time for all of us.

So how does any of what we just learned help us to find things better at home? Noticed how the people in the hotel were arranged in rooms numbers based on alphabetical order? So the location of each person in a different hotel room depends on the alphabetical relationship of their names. So we don't need to remember which person is in which room, we just need to remember the alphabetical relationship that all the people have with each other.

In the same way, simply by placing your home items in locations where they have a natural relationship to makes it easier for us to find them. The TV remote goes near the TV, the shoes go to the shoe rack, the coats go into the cupboard and the the winter gloves goes in the winter jacket.

(Location is back in the dorm *Finds gloves in the jacket)

Aha! So that's where my gloves are!

And that's how we find stuff better. Not a just little bit better but a lot better!

Day 5 Storyboard

Link back to Day 5

Script: Final Iteration

Why can't I find my stuff? The Science of Search

Have you ever found it difficult to find a particular item in your house? Let's say you've lost a pair of gloves and you spend the entire afternoon looking for it, but you just can't find it. You have encountered the same problem that companies like Google or Microsoft try to solve every single day: The problem of Search.

Just like a house which stores thousands of different items, Google stores about 45 billion different index pages of information. If each page of information was a sheet of paper (Host holds up a piece of paper) and if we stacked them all together, we would create a tower of paper 600 times taller than Mount Everest! (Camera men on the sides dump a mountain of papers on the host, causing him / her to comically fall over)

So how can a search engine like Google find your search results so quickly while we find it so difficult to find a pair of gloves?

Well, it turns out that searching on the Internet is kinda like looking for a person in a hotel room. (*Change scene: a sonorous "ding!" sound of a hotel lift, a pan shot of the interior of Hyatt Regency Cambridge hotel)

Let's suppose we're looking for a guest called "James". To find James, the simplest way would be to run to every room nearest to you until you find him. But that would take a very long time.

There's a better way known as Binary Search. (*The keywords "Binary Search" flashes over the host's hands)

Let's say the people were arranged in alphabetical order in increasing numbers of the hotel rooms. We could run to the room in the middle and check if the name of the person in the room is James. If the person's name starts with letter before ‘J', we head to the right. If not we would go to the left. We then head off to the middle room of the newly sectioned area. And we rinse and repeat. Eventually we will find James just like the first method. But we found him much faster than using the first method. (The above scene would be done with simple animation drawing over my head with the host talking below on the camera)

How much faster would that be? Well, that depends on number of people staying at the hotel. Let's say it takes 10 seconds to knock on each hotel door and there's 500 people, it would take about 80 minutes for the first method and 1.5 minutes for Binary Search. If there were a thousand people in the hotel, it would take 160 minutes for the first method and only 1.6 minutes for Binary Search. Now that's a whole lot of difference. (I suspect there might be a better way of illustrating this point that a slightly better algorithm make a huge difference when dealing with large problems, I could also make larger numbers to make the difference more significant)

So a name like "James" is just a word, but companies like Google take in searches with a long combination of words, making it a bit more complicated. Just like identifying the word "James" from it's first letter, Google identify unique characteristics of search phrases using over 200 factors.

Also notice how the better method depends on prearranging the people in alphabetical order? Computer scientists are always actively looking for better methods to sort, manage, and retrieve data. In the same way, simply by placing your home items in locations where they have a natural relationship to makes it easier for us to find them. The TV remote goes near the TV, the shoes go to the shoe rack, the coats go into the cupboard and the the winter gloves goes in the winter jacket.

(Location is back in the dorm *Finds gloves in the jacket)

Aha! So that's where my gloves are! And that's the story of Search!

Link back to Day 7

Rough Cut

This video is courtesy of Joshua Cheong on YouTube and is provided under our Creative Commons license.

Link back to Day 11

Final Project: Why can't I find my glove? The Science of Search

This video is courtesy of Joshua Cheong on YouTube and is provided under our Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA, MIT

Hosted By: Joshua Cheong

Written By: Joshua Cheong

Additional Scripting: Elizabeth Choe, Jaime Goldstein, Ceri Riley, George Zaidan, students of 20.219

Executive Producer: Joshua Cheong

Director: David Yam

Editor: David Yam, Nathan Hernandez, Elizabeth Choe, Ceri Riley

Production Assistant: David Yam

See the full credits on the course Tumblr.

Link back to Day 13

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