I am often in my office, CMC 327. My office phone number is 646-4364, and my home number is 663-7123. My office hours for the fall term of 2004 are Monday 3A, Wednesday 5A, Thursday 11:00-12:00, and Friday 3A. I am also available many other times, so feel free to make an appointment or drop in if my door is open.
The readings for this course will come from lots of different sources. We will read all of Bruce Schneier's Secrets and Lies, but we will also read material on the web and from other books.
Your grade in the course will be determined by your performance on two exams (one takehome, one in-class, 25% each), a final project (25%), and homework (25%).
The first exam will be in class, around midterm break. The second will be late in the term, and will be a takehome exam.
Homework assignments will include problems sets, lab exercises, papers, and presentations. Homework is always due at class time on the due date. If you hand in homework on the same day, but after class, you will lose 25% of your score. Any time the next day, you'll lose 50%. After that, we won't grade your work, and you'll get a zero. The point here is not to punish you, but to keep the workload for me and the grader manageable. As it happens, being courteous to the grader by handing your work in on time has the added benefit of reducing your stress and improving the chances you'll be learning what the course has to offer.
Working with other people is a great way to learn as long as everybody is trying to learn rather than just get the assignment done. So feel free to work on your problem sets together, but you must hand in your own work.