------------------------- Week 01 Notes for CST8281 ------------------------- -Ian! D. Allen - idallen@idallen.ca - www.idallen.com CST8281 - Computer Fundamentals - Winter 2010 This introductory course focuses on fundamental concepts and terminology related to the computer and its use. Topics include security, mathematical concepts relevant to basic computer operation and programming (including number systems and Boolean/logical operations), and basic Internet usage (including FTP, HTML and web fundamentals). Prerequisites: CST8201 Home Page and Course Outline Find the Winter 2010 CST8281 course home page via Algonquin Blackboard or via either link below: http://teaching.idallen.com/cst8281/10w/ http://teaching.idallen.org/cst8281/10w/ Make sure you find the page for this term, not other terms! Bookmark it. Read the course home page carefully, including the parts about plagiarism and course notes. Note the important dates. Write down *on paper* the location of the Alternate Web Notes. Review the Course Outline (under Class Notes): 2009-2010_CST8281.pdf Find and look at my Timetable. Know how to set up an office appointment with me by email. The midterm test dates are posted on the Course Home Page. Blackboard Course Documents Some course files with publisher-restricted distribution are stored only on the Algonquin Blackboard server. Make sure you get copies of these files before the course ends, otherwise you will lose access to them. Other than these restricted files, everything else is stored on a public web server and will remain available forever in the Internet archives. Google indexes this course. Instructor Contact Info Instructor: Ian! D. Allen - idallen@idallen.ca - www.idallen.com See the Prof Timetable link on the course home page. The fastest way to email me is via idallen@idallen.ca I can not read my alleni@algonquincollege.com email very often. Course Textbook There is no formal textbook for this course. The main source of content for this course will be the web-based notes provided on-line. http://teaching.idallen.com/cst8281/10w/ http://teaching.idallen.org/cst8281/10w/ You will be expected to follow the course outline and keep up-to-date with the reading in the web notes even when specific reading assignments are not provided in class. Ideally, to optimize your understanding of the lecture material, corresponding material should be read prior to the class in which it is covered. Note that just printing the class notes on paper is no substitute for actually reading and understanding them. Print less and read more! Homework Exercises / Assignments - 20% Homework, in the form of exercises to be picked-up from the web and answered and submitted electronically, will be assigned approximately weekly. Such assignments are to be completed by the given due dates. Approximately 1/3 of these homework assignments will be collected (on a random basis). Assignments that are not submitted by their due dates will not be marked, even if an attempt is made to hand them in later. Marks for homework assignments will be based on a written demonstration that a reasonable attempt was made to answer each of the assigned problems, whether on not the correct answers were obtained. (If you don't answer or don't show your work and only submit an incorrect answer, no marks will be awarded.) All homework will be answered fully either in class or online; check your actual answers and your work against the correct solutions provided. Much of the Test and Exam material will be based on the Homework. Two Mid-Term Tests - 15% + 20% = 35% Final Exam - 35% Tests and exams will be based largely on modified homework assignment questions. A majority of the material for each test will come from material covered in the immediately previous weeks, but material is cumulative and many questions (especially on the final exam) will be based on material covered earlier in the course. Course Participation - 10% Many opportunities will be provided throughout the term to earn the final 10% of your course mark. You will be self-grading many of your assignments as credit toward this mark. I will use the self-grades to assess areas that need more lecture and lab attention. Course Handouts In general, in-class handouts are not common in this class since most such material will normally be posted to the web; students are expected to download and read such materials on their own. EMail EMail is a critical component of course delivery for this course. If you don't read your Algonquin College email account daily, make sure that your forward your College email to an account that you do read. See the link on the course home page. Test to make sure that your forwarded Algonquin email works! Send yourself a test message. You must have a working Algonquin EMail address for this course (that you can forward elsewhere). You must read your course email regularly. Attendance and Attention Attendance is also critical to course success. If you know the material and don't need to come to classes, ask for a Prior Learning Assessment. If you paid to be here, please be here. If you are in class, shut your laptop and pay attention to your lecturer. The person at the front of the room cannot compete with the entire Internet for your attention - he doesn't have the budget. If you're bored or falling asleep, take notes. Taking Notes You will need to take notes in class. Not everything I say ends up in these online files. Passing the information through your body onto paper helps you remember it, even if you never read the notes later. If you have a question about course content, the first thing I will ask is to see your notes, to see what you wrote down about the topic. Often the answer is there! Workload The overall term workload sometimes overwhelms students who try to leave everything to the last minute. You need to put in approximately an extra hour per day, per course, to keep up. There aren't enough hours in a day to catch up in mid-term. Timeliness Late assignments are penalized, usually resulting in a mark of zero. The due date for an assignment is given in the assignment. Read each assignment to know the due date. Not every assignment is due on the same weekday; pay attention. Plagiarism You may not copy material from anywhere else without clearing the copying with me and identifying the source, in writing or by email, first. If your submission resembles that of another person, I am required to inquire whether you are the author. If I authorize copying, you must attribute the source of material you use that isn't yours. Most work does not permit copying or "working together". You earn marks for the new material that you write, not code that comes from other sources (e.g. from me). CS Department Home Page and News http://www.algonquincollege.com/sat/cs/ http://www.algonquincollege.com/sat/cs/news.htm Lecture Notes for This Week - From Blackboard Course Documents (publisher-restricted distribution): 01.ppt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:SI_prefixes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_access_memory "memory wall" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF - http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html -- | Ian! D. Allen - idallen@idallen.ca - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Home Page: http://idallen.com/ Contact Improv: http://contactimprov.ca/ | College professor (Free/Libre GNU+Linux) at: http://teaching.idallen.com/ | Defend digital freedom: http://eff.org/ and have fun: http://fools.ca/