rec01
Required software and Desktop Icons
Now we need to make sure that you have the required software for the cs labs.
REQUIRED SOFTWARE:
Desktop icons
It's best to work in Windows using icons on the desktop rather than the long, long sequence of mouse moves and clicks to get anything using the Start Menu. You can create your own desktop icons by reading this link. (Do this later, not during this lab.)
NOTE:
"My computer got a virus" is NOT an acceptable reason
for late homework submission or not being able to work in a lab.
Like many other things in life, you computer's safety is your responsibility. Keep it secure.
If you have a software packabe from Poly. you should have virus protection
software installed.
Symantec (Norton) Antivirus Corporate Edition should be running
right now.
It should be set for automatic updates so that as new viruses
are discovered, their existance and how to fight them is reported
to you computer so that is will not be infected.
Check now that you have your anti-virus software set for automatic
updates.
Not knowing how to keep your computer secure is irresponsible
and irresponsibility will not be tolerated.
Learn how to use your computer.
If your laptop is from some other source make sure that by next lab, you have purchased and installed an antivirus program and have set it for automatic updates.
Poly's software package probably has antivirus software.
Windows udates and your responsibility
We support XP.
You should always have your Windows operating system completely updated.
Microsoft's policy is to fix problems by issuing updates.
You should make sure you are up to date.
If you are having a problem that is due to not having the most recent updates installed which causes you to not be able to submit your work on time, you will not be allowed an extension or extra time. Keep your machine current.
This link will explain the process (XP) and might take a long time.
Be sure you are up to date by the next lab meeting.
If there is time during this lab, at the end, a lab worker may be able to help you.
Servers are not perfect.
If you wait until the last minute to submit work and the server is down, you work will be consider late.
This implies that you should set for yourself deadlines that are ealier than the posted due date.
A good rule of thumb is 48 hours before what's posted should be when you attempt ot get the final version of your work submitted. This allows plenty of time for problems outside of your control - like server problems.
NOTE that we do NOT accept any programs that are emailed.
These are immediately deleted.
These will not count as "Look, I got it done in time but there was a server problem" sorts of ploys.
Plan ahead, 48 hours.
Alternate place to work if your laptop goes down
Room LC775 is an open lab with desktops that you can use in case something happens to your laptop.
Most of the machines have python installed so you will have no issue with getting your homeworks done if something happens to your laptop.
Safey concerns:
As 775 is "open", you must have some method of keeping your files to yourself.
You can email yourself copies of your programs so that will sever as your backup.
The real issue is that you must make sure that your work is not left on a machine in the lab.
You should create/save your work on the desktop and when you are done, you should delete your files there (after emailing yourself a backup copy).
CHEATING:
Note that if your work is flagged as being involved in "cheating" it very well could be that someone got the work that you left on the lab machine. It does not matter that you didn't know how they got your code and we can't know that this was how the "cheating" happend. All those involved are considered as "cheating" and you do not want that in your record - so clean up after yourself in the lab.
-----You should ALWAYS keep current with your Windows updates, particularly the critical ones.
There are other updates, both critical and non-critical that are availalbe without getting SP2 and you should have these fixes in place on your laptop.
After you get current with the most recent fixes, you should always stay current. XP (your operating system) can be set to automatically download and install updates.
Windows updates can be gotten from the link below.
NOTE: Microsoft requires that you use Internet Explorer as your browser for this link. This is not a recommendation by us for IE. You can use any browser you like to do all of the line recitations - except this Microsoft controlled link. This Microsoft site uses ActiveX controls and many non-Microsoft browsers do not support ActiveX [because they are non-standard web extensions (not W3C standard. W3C is the international World Wide Web Consortium web standards body http://www.w3.org) or because they consider ActiveX controls unsafe]. Many firewalls reject or prompt to as a grave hazard when they encounter any website that uses Active X controls. But you must use IE for your upgrades to Windows. If you do not have IE, download it from somewhere for this Task. If you have deactivated ActiveX controls in your browser, you must enable them (and remember to disable them again after this process).
If your browser of choice is IE, click the link below, otherwise,
open IE and copy this link into it.
Go to the Microsoft site that will allow you to scan your laptop
for needed updates and then choose Scan for Updates.
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp
The Express Install link is for the
"critical" updates needed for your computer. The most
important updates are the Critical ones. The Custom Install gets
everything. For today click the Express Install. On your own time,
can do the Custom Install, reading carefully what each is and
deciding if you want that particular update. (They are not all
necessary.)
Quantities?
Microsoft will tell you that SP2 is a critical update. Ignore
that for now and do only the "other" critical updates.
If you have more than 4 or 5 critical updates, only do the first
few in lab but be sure to do all the updates outside of lab.
FROM NOW ON, KEEP YOUR LAPTOP'S WINDOWS UPDATES CURRENT BY USING AUTOMATIC UPDATES.
Following this steps
Go to the control panel by: Start|Settings|Control
Panel
Double click System
Select the Automatic Updates tab
Make sure the Automatic (Recommended)
radio buttom is set.
For when to get updates, you can choose Every Day at whatever
time you might be connected. (Some will say that MS only releases
updates every Wednesday but we will assume/hope that if there
truly is a "critical" update needed that MS will do
the right thing and post is as soon as it can be posted.)
Click the OK button.
From time to time you will be notified of updates being available or ready to install. Do these as soon as you can.
NOTE:
"My computer got screwed up" (and you were not current
on your updates) is NOT an acceptable reason for late homework
submission or not being able to work in a lab.
Keep your updates current. It's your responsibility.
Desktop icons or shortcuts help you avoid the time wasted when
you use the Start menu to try to start
a peice of software.
When you double click an executable file, Windows starts the program.
A shortcut is not a copy of an executable file but acts as if
it were by starting the program when it is double clicked. (It's
also much smaller than an .exe so having lots of shortcuts is
not a bad thing for your disk capacity.)
To create any shortcut, you must be looking at the file for which you want to create the shortcut. There are many ways to find files in Windows. We will cheat a little since we know the name of the file we are looking for so we can search for it. Choose Start | Search | For Files or Folders... then type (or copy and paste) devenv.exe as the search criteria. Be patient. If you have .NET installed, it will be found. Once it is, right click its icon in the Name column and choose Create Shortcut. Choose YES when told you must place the shortcut on the desktop. You now have a shortcut on the desktop. Congratulations. You might want to change the name of the icon at a later time.
The normal lab consists of material to reinforce The previous week's lecture content.
There are two part to each lab (except the first, rec01) :
1. There may be an online portion which should be completed before you come to your lab
2. The lab itself
Each week (except the first) you should complete the online protion (if any) for the upcoming lab.
These Task-based materials are online and you should do them on your own (again, -BEFORE- your lab meeting)
These web pages should be readable using any browser you choose (e.g.: Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, IE)
Each Task in the online recitations has a link to an answer.
Attempt to do each Task WITHOUT first looking at the answer key.
NOTE: copy and paste is NOT a learning tool.
Read all material in the Task and Answer Keys and make certain you understand the concepts and the programming.
You strongly encourage you to finish all tasks for all the online recitations even if you miss a lab or have to be away from school for a period of time. Not understanding the material in the online recitations will guarantee you a low grade in the course. You do not turn in anything to show that you have done all the Tasks but if you do not do the work, you test grades will not be good. Student who do all the Tasks more than once will more than likely earn higher letter grades in the course because they will know the material better.
During the three hours of lab you meet with your lab worker, you will participate in a group review, Q&A session to solidify you understand of the material. This will be followed by you writing programs which will be graded by the lab worker. The idea is not to give you a bad grade if you do not know the material - it's make sure by the end of the lab that you know the material so well that you will have earned full credit for that lab's programming portion.
This period will be used for various things during the semester, possibly including reviewing for the tests, going over the tests, working with the homeworks, evaluating individual progress, and question-answer sessions. This is the time that you can ask about things you do not understand, obtain more personalized help and interact with the group about the content of the course.
Grading:
Each week you will receive two grades for the lab:
1. Participation
2. Programming
3. In-lab tests
Participation
If you show up on time and stay the entire time, you've started with full credit for that day.
Your lab participation grade comes from just that: how well you participate during the lab process - including any group problem solving or discussion. Not paying attention or not actively participating will cause your grade to suffer. It should be pretty easy to participate: make comments, suggestion solutions, answer questions - even if you are wrong, your grade is higher than if you just sit there or are doing something else (even if that something else is working on your program!).
Each time you are checking email or downloading or otherwise not doing only the lab work, you will lose some credit for the day.
If you are disruptive, you will lose credit for the day.
The lab worker evaluates your performance for each of the 13 labs meetings.
There may be (pop) tests during the recitation period which may or may not count towards your grade.
There may be times when the lab worker requires closed laptops." If you do not comply your participation grade will suffer.
Programming
Each week you will be assigned programming problems which will first be solved as a group (without computer) during a group discussion. Joining in this discussion is part of your Participation grade. If you decide to get the solution from another student before you enter your lab, you will most likely fail the participation portion.
After the group has solved the problem and reviewed the content along the way, you will write a program (or portion of a program) as a solution. The helper will grade your work so that you can know if you are getting things right. If she/he does not approve your code, just fix it. This is not a test, it is a time to make sure can do the work - and thus pass the tests and be able to do the homeworks - while you have someone there to help you. On a test, you'll be on your own. There may be more than one programming assignment each week and you'll have to "pass" each of them before the lab has ended.
Tests
Tests are pretty much what you would expect from a test.
Using the browser of your choice, visit official URL of the course which is
cis.poly.edu/cs1114/cs1114.html
The official website for all sections of
cs1114 is at that link and nowhere else
We suggest you bookmark it
We suggest you do NOT access this course through MyPoly
We are emphasizing that this is a website and NOT MyPoly.
You can get to web site without going through MyPoly and we have
found that this is a much faster and a much less window intensive
way to get the course.
A note about "the web browser of your choice":
You may use any web browser to access the course.website.
We currently test the site using Mozilla, Netscape and Opera (Opera has the most noncoforming screen presentation).
In the schedule or calendar page, your syllabus is found in the leftmost column.
For each lab you must do the online recitations before coming
to the lab.
Once you are looking at the course web page, click the CourseSchedule
link.
In the far right column you'll find the sequence of online recitations.
The recitation you must do before lab 2 is found by clicking the
link: rec02 from the CourseSchedule
link.
The programming portion of the labs will also be online. Your lab worker will tell you how to access these when you get to the lab.
We suggest that you keep both your browser and the Visual Studio .NET IDE open at all times during the labs so that you can easily jump between them. (You'll learn about about C++ in .NET later in this lab.)
Here's a suggestion of how to work in labs
--- keep a browser open with the recitation page showing
--- switch between it and the thing you are told to do (or resize
both windows so that you can easily move from one to the other).
BACK
You'll need to know which course you are submitting for, where your file to be submitted is on your computer and which homework or lab you are submitting. If you get any of these wrong, your work will have been submitted into the wrong place or perhaps not submitted at all. Your source code's filenames must match what is required.
Click this link for instructions for submitting.
If you are retaking cs1114: What to do with the files you have
already created and uploaded to utopia?
utopia is being retired very soon and this will not cause problems as we are using a different system for submitting work.
Old files on your laptop can be a problem.
We suggest that you create a new subdirectory for your old work and move the files there.
As you are responsible for managing your own laptop, what you name this folder is up to you.
The labs workers may be able to help you with Windows issues if they have time but it is your responsibility to know how to use Windows on your laptop - this includes file management.
When you upload your current versions of your homeworks and labs,
they will wipe out your old versions.
This allows you to submit often and have an at least partially working program submitted.
As you work more on your program, submit that and it will replace the last version.
You can do this after the lab. Just make sure that you've done it before you really have to submit something for credit if you are retaking cs1114.