CS101A1-Spring 2002
Old Course News
  •  Please read the following pico tutorial before your next lab:  http://www2.ncsu.edu/cc/pub/tutorials/pico_tutor/pico_intro.html

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  • If you have not done so, make sure you log on to your CSA account and issue the web-ok command.  You must do this 24 hours before your next lab.

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  • Homework 3 has been revised:
    • There are significant changes in how I want you to analyze and present the data.  Also, I have included links to sample spreadsheets and charts.
    • If you previously printed out Homework 3, please print out another copy.  (Note that the old copy may be cached in your browser, so make sure to press the "reload" button to get the latest copy.)

      • As mentioned in class, there are no changes to the data-collection portion of the assignment.
    A few comments on the midterm:
    1. In general, people did very well.  Good job!
    2. discrete and discreet are not the same (look them up).
    3. Yes, I know I didn't give you a formula for throughput on the practical exam.  If you can tell me the average speed of a car that took 3 minutes to drive 1 mile, then you should have been able to figure out the throughput of memory that takes 10 nanoseconds to retrieve 1 item from memory.  Come on, folks, it's basic high-school math.
    4. Look below under Additional Course Resources for statistics on the midterm grades.
    5. I will release the final midterm grades once I've had a chance to review them for accuracy.
    6. Make sure you read my Policy on Regrading (under Additional Resources), before coming to see me about your grade.
    Finally, your biggest homework project (on networking) will be assigned on Thursday.  It is very important that you attend your labs this week for background.  Also, you should read Chapters 6 and 7 of the book.  (We will cover Chapter 5 later.)
    The reading assignment for next week's labs (2/5 and 2/6) are the following Excel help topics (including all subtopics):
      1. Editing Worksheet Data
      2. Formatting Worksheet
      3. Creating Charts
      4. Analysis Toolpack (especially Descriptive Statistics analysis tool and Histogram analysis tool)

    To view these help topics, you can go on one of the lab computers, run Excel, choose "Help" and then "Microsoft Excel Help."
    The reading assignment for next week's labs (1/29 and 1/20) are the following Excel help topics (including all subtopics):
      1. Entering Data and Selecting Cells
      2. Creating Formulas and Auditing Workbooks (only the first 5 topics (up to "Including Functions"), including all sub-topics)
    There will be a quiz in next week's labs (1/22 and 1/23) on the following:
      http://www.cs.bu.edu/teaching/unix/intro (excluding section 6)
      http://www.cs.bu.edu/teaching/unix/pine

    You need to add yourself to the course mailing list.  From a UNIX command prompt (in telnet or Secure Shell Client), type the following:

      csmail -a cs101a1

    If you haven't done so already, you must sign up for (1) a CSA account and (2) a CS-NT account.  You can accomplish both by going to the CS Department Computing Lab.  (Look here for more information: http://www.cs.bu.edu/labs).

    If you have any compliments, criticisms, or comments on the class, please click on the "CS101 Course Feedback Form" (below).


     

    Syllabus
    Course Roadmap
    Weekly Schedule

    Class Handouts:
    How Images and Sounds Are Represented Numerically on a Computer

    Additional Resources:
    How to Add Yourself to the Course Mailing List
    Internet Resources for the Textbook
    CS101 Course Feedback Form
    A UNIX Guide
    A HTML Guide (Web Pages)
    Computer Architecture:
        How Transistors Comprise a CPU I
        How Transistors Comprise a CPU II
    PHP (Hypertext Preprocessing) Tutorial