Fill out this form to let me know your preferences regarding pair programming.
What to turn in: Make sure you submit your responses to the above form.
This term, we'll be using a new approach on lab computers as well as home computers; we'll be using virtual machines. Make sure that you can start up a virtual machine on one of the lab computers. To do so, top in one of the CS department labs, and log in while booted to Mac OS. In the folder /Applications/CarletonApps, start up the application CS-VirtualBox. When the application pops up, click on the button labeled "Start." If all works as it should, a Linux desktop should start up.
Then you should test to make sure you can get to your campus HOME folder, where you'll do your work. Back in the Mac operating system, in the folder /Applications, run the program Mount Network Drives. (Note that this is not the script "map-network-drives," which a few of you might have previously seen.) Enter your username and password as directed, then check back in the virual machine to see if you can find your typical campus HOME directory labeled as HOME251 in the virtual machine. If you have trouble with any of this, check in with a lab assistant or Mike Tie in CMC 305.
What to turn in: In the submission box in Moodle for this assignment, tell me that you've successfully started the virtual machine saying something like "I have successfully logged into a department lab computer, started a lab machine, and mounted my HOME folder."
One of the key advantages of this virtual machine approach is that you can install the virtual machine on a home computer (which is pretty easy), and all of the course software is already installed for you. Also, the setup will match the lab nearly exactly. If you wish to use your own computer, install the virtual machine there as well. Bring it to the CMC if you can (though that part is optional), and visit Mike Tie in CMC 305 to check out a USB drive with the virtual machine on it. Follow these instructions to install the virtual machine, which should work regardless of which operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) your own computer is running. (Note that the previous link requires you to login in to Carlpedia with your typical Carleton username and password. The catch is that once you've logged in, you're taken to a generic Carlpedia home page, and you then need to go back and click the above link again.) If you have trouble with any of this, check in with a lab assistant or Mike Tie in CMC 305.
What to turn in: In the submission box in Moodle for this assignment, tell me either "I have successfully gotten the virtual machine running on my own computer," or "I do not intend to use a personally owned computer for any CS 251 work this term."
We'll be using Piazza, which is a site for managing student questions and answers within a course. If you've got a question about an assignment or content in the class, send it to the course Piazza site; it has a really cool wiki-like system for allowing students (and me) to answer questions. I've used it many times, and it works great. You should feel free to answer questions as you can to help other people; it's lots of fun.
You'll need to enroll for Piazza. To do do, visit the course Moodle page, and click on "Piazza Questions and Answers." Once you get to Piazza, you'll see a question I've posed, for which you need to contribute towards the answer. Piazza is designed so that all students collaboratively edit a single answer, so you don't need to just add your content to the bottom; you might tweak what someone else has said in some way.
All questions about course content, assignments, and so on should go to Piazza. If you email me directly, I'll gently ask you to post to Piazza instead. Of course, you can always talk to me in person during office hours, and any communication of a personal nature (grades, etc) is welcome by email as well.
What to turn in: Contribute to the answer to the Piazza question I posed.
We'll be using the version control system git for managing our software later on this term, and using the website GitHub in order to host repositories for our work. If you don't already have a GitHub account, visit GitHub, sign up for an account, and submit via this Moodle assignment your username.
What to turn in: In the submission box in Moodle for this assignment, type "GitHub username: " and then type in your GitHub username.
The Carleton Sentinel is our departmental email newsletter. It contains news about job opportunities in computer science, courses you may want to take, departmental events, and whatever else we think may be relevant. Majors are automatically subscribed, but if you're not an officially declared CS major, please subscribe to the newsletter. It's a great way to see how many opportunities are offered to computer science students. Visit the email list home page, click Subscribe, and enter your email address. Make sure that you aren't using some fancy spam filtering mechanism in your email system that looks for brackets in the subject line: you'll miss both this newsletter and course emails.
What to turn in: Subscribe to the Sentinel if you wish.