January Notes - N241 Spring 2001

Here are your January notes that had been posted on the class site. I hope they are useful. -Margaret

January 28 - Hello and welcome to Superbowl Sunday! (Uh, no, true confession, I don't know who is playing.) I have some info to share with you about sending Brian and myself emails and knowing that we got them. It's quite simple really:

1. When you are in Pine in your CS account go to your Folders. You can do this from your emailing by typing L for List.
2. You will then see all of the folders listed for your email account.
3. One of these folders will be called "sent-mail". You can select that folder by using your arrow keys. Once "sent-mail" is highlighted, hit the "Enter" key and you will see the content. These are the emails you have sent out from your CS account.
4. If you see the emails you have sent Brian and myself then fear not, we got them. You can save all the emails you send us as proof that indeed you did send them.
5. ALSO: If the message you sent us was "undeliverable" you will get a message from the phoenix server telling you that right away. If you didn't get that message then you are safe. :)

January 27 - Howdy!!

1. Thanks for being good students and asking me if you needed to send in a STAIR for Assignment #2. No you did not. At the top of every assignment are the barebones of what you need to turn in the assignment. STAIR requirements will always be listed at the top and in the assignment document from here on out.
2. People have been asking me about getting into their Oncourse accounts to check their grades. Remember that you will need to use your iupui.edu username and password to access Oncourse (it's on another computer in a different part of the University). Once you are in Oncourse you can go to Tools and then select My Grade Report. Your grade points and comments (if there are any comments) will be there.
3. I have noticed you all helping each other in the Oncourse bulletin board. Good for you!!!! I will try to answer more of your questions there or I will let you know that I have posted and answer on the website.
4. Speaking of questions on Oncourse: Cut & Paste. Yes you can cut & paste between your email acocunt (even between Emacs) and a word processing program. When I want to copy text from Word (or any other word processing program) I highlight it and select Cut. Then I go to my email message and I put the cursor in the body of the message where I want the cut text to appear. Then I go to the top bar in Telnet/Pine window and select Edit then 0Paste with my mouse (can't do it using the keyboard). Voila!! The words will suddenly come up in your email message! Depending on how fast your connection is it may take a little time, but it will get there.

January 24 - Hello! Here's the latest-need-to-know-now news:

1. We will NOT be doing final project presentations. Yes that is right you will not have to come to campus ever again for this class! (Don't ya' love distance learning?)
2. YES you will still be doing a final project. :) (Ya' ain't getting out of that one!)
3. Read Assignments on the website for a due date and requirements for the final project. Date changes are also reflected in the Syllabus.
4. Your Final Exam is now due 2 days earlier than originally written. Sorry gang but I wrote down the wrong due date. Fear not, you still have the same amount of time to do it (12 days). The date you will now read on the site is correct.
5. Again read Assignments on the website to check due dates and project requirements. Again date changes are reflected in the Syllabus.

January 23 - Good news: your grades are up! Go to Oncourse and check it out. The bad news is that at least 20 of you did not do the homework. I hope you can do the next assignments so you don't lose too many points. :) Also the Class Roster is up. If you emailed me, you're on it. If not, well you didn't. And I meant email me from your CS account. --Margaret

January 22 - Hello! I appreciate you students who have done Assginmentt #2 early but please send them to Brian Lee at blee@cs.iupui.edu as I am not grading Assignment #2. Make sure you read the top of your assignments as that will let you know who to send the assignments to. But AH! Once you start loading things onto your web server you will not be emailing us assignments anymore. If that last sentence doesn't make sense, fear not, it will in a few weeks. Also if you want to meet me face-to-face I will be at the Saturday morning labs. You can also attend the Thursday night labs for help from Aaron Riddle and maybe even Brian Lee. --Margaret

January 20 - Hello. People about half of you forgot to put the last 4 digits of your student ID in the first assignment. Therefore I am going to give those that sent the student ID # originally an extra credit point. Please read your instructions carefully so you know what to send me. Thanks!

January 18 - Hi gang. Here a few things you need to know and/or think about:

1. If you are having a hard time logging into phoenix and you can do it: Get thee to a lab!! Tonight and Saturday morning you can be there and get help - as well as tender loving care. (Which I find I need when having computer problems.) Go to quickfaqs.html for lab times.
2. If you are having trouble logging onto phoenix recheck the help stuff on this site. The telnet help from Tutorials now works and you can also access it via the Class FAQs and Notes section. Read and follow the instructions carefully and that should help.
3. Many of you eager people have asked for your grades already. You won't see them until the beginning of the week as I won't grade them until after the due date and time. Hang in there. You will get your grade.
4. The below letter is from the wonderful Mr. Scott Orr about loggining onto your phoenix account. Read the below to make sure you haven't missed something.

Hi Everyone,

We have made a minor change to the student account creation system. The format of the default password remains the same as in previous semesters but now when these students log in the first time, it will automatically have them change their passwords.

If the first login is on one of the workstations in SL251, here is what happens: A window will pop up saying that the password needs to be changed and give 2 options, "Ok" and "Cancel". Selecting cancel will immediately log them off. Selecting ok will clear the screen and open up a shell window in the upper left of screen. In that window, they will be prompted to enter their NIS+ password. This is the same as the default password, they will be prompted twice to type in their new password. Once this is complete, CDE will display the normal login screen for them to relogin using their new password.

Should the first login come via a telnet connection, after entering the default password, they will be prompted for the same NIS+ and new password information as described above. They will not have to log out and back in afterward though.

Please let me know if you have any questions. If you would like to see a demonstration of this, please let me know. Thanks.

Scott

Bye for now! -Margaret Lion

January 17 - Howdy! Good news: If you want to be in this course, go talk to Michelle Boshears at the IUPUI Computer Science Department and you can get in. Michelle has agreed to let more students in and she is the woman to talk with. Yeah Michelle!

If you are having trouble getting into your CS account, contact Scott Orr at the Computer Science Dept. He is in charge of the accounts, and like Michelle, a great person to work with.

Keep up the good work! The assignments I have received so far look good! - Margaret Lion

January 15 - MLK DAY! - Hello. I hope you all are enjoying this national holiday. :) Now down to business:

1. Go to quickfaqs found in FAQs and Notes in the Table of Contents (look left) of this website. Many things that we covered in orientation are added there. These things are not found anywhere else on the site so go and read!
2. Let us officially welcome Mr. Aaron Riddle to the class! He will be our Thursday night lab assistant so you get to ask him all of your questions. For info on Thursday night lab check the quickfaqs mentioned above.
3. Speaking of Thursday night lab - I may never get it put into the Class Calendars on this site, but please know that it is there. Any questions about Thursday night lab, email Aaron - you can see his email address and site in the Table of Contents.
4. From here on the Table of Contents/left side column of this site will be referred to as the TOC.

January 11 - Hello! Here are some things you need to know and do:

1. For help with getting your email sorted out go to the Class FAQs and Notes in the Table of Contents (hereby known as TOC) and select FAQs. From there, read email_a.html. HOWEVER!! Note that when you read DS9 on the webpage you must substitute phoenix instead! Thus you will be doing everything correctly. Remember, from here on out in the class DS9 really means phoenix.
2. There will be NO lab this Saturday as we will be orienting instead. Lab starts next week - read your class calendars for the when and where for each week (not that it changes but the sentence looked incomplete.)
3. IMPORTANT! Get the IUWARE CD from the bookstore as it has all of the software you will need for this class. If you already have a telnet and ftp program on your computer, you probably won't need to get the CD. If you have no idea what telnet and ftp are, get the CD. email_a.html will explain it all (see above).
4. You have a new section to look over on the site. It is the Weekly Readings section and that should keep you current with what you need to read along with your videos. Please also note the link at the top of the Weekly page as it will link you to the site with a lot of the lecture notes from the original televised N241 class.

January 8 - Hello Students! I am already getting messages from you so here goes some answers:

1. As far as attending the orientation goes, here is what we at the CS Dept have discovered: Those who attend tend to get As, those who do not, get Fs.
2. You can watch the lectures via streaming media by following the link in the Table of Contents and then going to N241. I bought the videos from the bookstore when I took this class as I live in Bloomington. It was very useful for me to watch the videos and do my homework at the same time.
3. There have been questions about buying the Emacs book. I suggest getting it as you will need it in the future.
4. Your email accounts, both of them, will be set-up for you by IUPUI and the CS Depart. You'l get instructions on how to find those later this week. Just keep checking here.

NOTE: All students are required to meet on the IUPUI campus in LD 020 on Saturday January 13, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. for an orientation meeting, and may need to attend weekend lab sessions. Students who must travel a great distance may be excused from these meetings if they contact the instructor BEFORE the orientation meeting.

1. An IUPUI email account for viewing your grades and taking tests on Oncourse. (Note: Your email address would look like this: yourname@iupui.edu.)
2. A Computer Science email account so that you can communicate with me and do your class work. (Note: Your email address would look like this: yourname@cs.iupui.edu.)
3. Access to a computer and the Internet so you can do your class work.

1. Late assignments will NEVER be graded.
2. You will communicate with me via my CS account which is mlion@cs.iupui.edu. I will not respond to emails sent to me at any other address.
3. Read all of your materials and view the class BEFORE you ask me for help. That way you can get help faster and you will have the knowledge to understand my answers.
4. You MUST read this page at least once a day. You are responsible for the information on this site.
5. Yes, there will be pop quizes.
6. Web editors are FORBIDDEN.