CSE 100/IMT 100 Assignment 0

Autumn 2000

I Am Here

Objectives:

1.      Establish your UWNetID

2.      Send email with Pine

3.      Subscribe to class list server

4.      Use the Netscape web browser

5.      Examine and reflect on two dynamic web pages

Note: the class web site is at http://www.cs.washington.edu/100

The first three objectives of this assignment (steps 1 through 5 below) must be completed before your first lab meeting. The remainder of the assignment must be completed before Wednesday’s lecture (Sept 27). You are allowed to get help from UWired personnel or a friend.

  1. Do you have a computer account at UW known as a UWNetID? If yes, go to #2; if no, proceed as follows: Go to the Odegaard Undergraduate Library or the Suzzalo Library and locate the computer labs. At OGUL the lab is on the second floor; at SUZZ it is inside the main entrance to the left. You can either ask a Lab Consultant working at the desk to help you set up your UWNetID, or you can do so yourself. At OGUL, there are three computers by the pillar used for setting up new accounts (as you’re facing the desk, they are to your left and somewhat behind you). At SUZZ there is a sign (rimmed in green) on the computer used to set up a new account.

To set up a new account you need to know your last name (pretty easy, so far, no?), birth date, student ID number and your STAR Private Access Code. If you know that information, then follow the instructions, using the mouse to "click" on the start button. If at any point you get into trouble, a Lab Consultant can help you.

  1. Proceed to a PC at one of the labs at OUGL or SUZZ and login. (Note, there are Macintoshes around, but you should use a PC for the following explanation. The computers all have a sign on top saying what they are.) To login is to tell the computer who you are. Your password is matched to verify your identity. (Don’t forget your password, but if you do, you can go to the same computer you used to get your UWNetID in the first place, and you can follow the procedure for getting a new one.)

  2. Do you know what the Pine Email program is on Dante? If yes, go to #4; if no, proceed as follows: [A Lab Consultant can help you if you have any problems with any part of this process.] Telnet to Dante, which should be the computer on which your UWNetID account is stored. Telneting to Dante is an operation that can be found by clicking on the Start button at the lower left hand corner of the screen; click on "Telnet to Dante". You will be prompted for your login name and password again. (If you are using a new account there may be announcements about your new account that you should read.) After the announcements have been shown, there is a menu of options. Type E (for email) to access the Pine Email program. When the Pine program starts for the first time for your account, there is a welcoming message and a request that you be "counted as a Pine user." It is helpful if you type "return" to be counted, but it is not required. The next thing you will see is the Pine menu. Typing "c" in the main menu allows you to compose a message. Other operations that you will need are given at the bottom of the screen. (Notice that commands like ^x are read "control x" and require that you hold down the "ctrl" key at the lower left of the keyboard while typing "x". The "^" character symbolizes the key "ctrl" here, and in this situation is NOT the caret character, uppercase "6".)

  3. Using the Pine Email Program, send an email message to your teaching assistant (If the mail "bounces," that is, it either refuses to send the mail or it is returned undelivered, check the spelling.) The Subject line of your email message to your TA should be "introduction" and in the body of the message, i.e. the message itself, please give your name, and something you’d like your TA to know about you.

  4. Subscribe to the class mailing list.  To do this, send a message to cse100-request@cs.washington.edu. The subject line doesn’t matter (you can leave it blank).  The body of the message should consist of the single word subscribe.  Unlike the message to your TA, this message isn’t going to a person, but to a computer program called “majordomo”.  This message asks majordomo to add you to the class mailing list.  You will shortly get a reply back, which asks you to confirm that you do indeed want to subscribe to the class mailing list.  You need to answer this as instructed to complete your subscription.  Important: sending a message to the mail address cse100@cs.washington.edu sends a copy of your message to everyone who has subscribed to the class mailing list.  A copy of the message is also archived on the class web pages (follow the “Class e-mail archive” link).  The instructors and TA’s will send mail to this list now and then, and you are welcome to do so as well.  However, be sure not to send requests to subscribe to the mailing list there, or you’ll be sending the request to everyone in the class instead of to majordomo.  If someone messes up and does this, however, please do not send a reply to everyone complaining about it!  Just delete the errant message.

    In the unlikely event that you drop the class, you can unsubscribe to the mailing list by sending a     message to
    cse100-request@cs.washington.edu. The body of the message should consist of the single word unsubscribe.  (Again, don’t send the message to cse100@cs.washington.edu.)

  5. Do you know the Netscape web browser? If yes, go to #7; if no, proceed as follows: [A Lab Consultant can help you if you have any problems with any part of this process.] Find the Netscape Navigator program by clicking on the Start button at the lower left corner of your window, and double click on Navigator. After a few moments, the Netscape window will be loaded, showing an initial web page, which should be the UW home page (as requested in step #8). To go to a new web page, you type the address of the web page (called a URL for universal resource locator) in the field towards the top of the window labeled "Go To" or "Location". To go to a site, type in the URL (check your typing because the browser is very fussy that you get the URL exactly right), and hit "enter" (the biggest key). To "follow" a link – links are shown in highlighted color, usually blue – just move the cursor over the link (the cursor will change to a little hand), and click the left mouse button.  (If you prefer Microsoft Internet Explorer you are free to use it instead of Netscape.)

  6. Go to the UW’s main web page, the URL is: http://www.washington.edu. You may already be there. Follow the "Almost Live" link and then the "UW Images" link. Look at the Red Square images from the day before by following the link with yesterday’s date. The "player" for the movie works just like a VCR with a start, pause and a stop. Repeat the movie. Find something interesting in the movie. If the day you are watching for this assignment is especially boring, you can use one of the six archived movies. (When you are next in Red Square, find the camera – it’s on the west side of Kane Hall – and wave.)

  7. "Click up" is a slang term for going to a web site. Click up http://www.nuttysites.com. What is this? Click up the Armadillo Dance option and examine it for a few minutes. Go back to the nuttysites home page and now select the battleship game. Play a game of battleship. Reflect on these two pages. Which do you think was more difficult to construct? Which required more programming effort and skill? Which is more pleasing to view?

  8. Send another email to your section's TA and (a) describe what you found in step #8 and (b) give your opinion regarding which is more difficult to construct, which requires more programming effort and skill and which is more pleasing to view. A couple of sentences each are sufficient. Wrap up your session by logging out as follows: Go to the Start button and click on the logout choice. (Strange to go to Start to stop, right?)