======================== DAT2343 - First Homework ======================== -IAN! idallen@ncf.ca This is your first homework in this course. It has four parts: A B C D The due date is given in the Announcements News Group for this course. ------------------------ Announcements News Group ------------------------ I post all course announcements to an online "announcements" news group. You are responsible for being up-to-date reading this news group. You will find a link to this news group on the course home page. --------------------- Discussion News Group --------------------- I handle course content questions using a Discussion news group. I ask you not to send me email about course content; post your question to the discussion news group so that everyone benefits from the question and the answer. Do not send me course questions by email; post them to the discussion news group. You may continue to use email to me for private issues that are not suitable for public discussion. ---------------------- Usenet News Background ---------------------- A Usenet News reader is a third tool to add to your current Internet communication kit alongside EMail and Web clients. Many technical discussions happen over the Internet using Usenet news. If you have a home Internet Service Provider, you will usually find tens of thousands of Usenet news groups available there. Another way to get connected to these thousands of news groups is by becoming a member of the National Capital FreeNet. Here at Algonquin College, courtesy of an ongoing donation to Algonquin College by the FreeNet, you have access to all the local Ottawa news groups, plus all the local Algonquin news groups. ------------------------------- A. Register Your EMail Homework ------------------------------- Follow the directions given on the course home page. ------------------------------------------- B. Assignment Submission Standards Homework ------------------------------------------- Follow the corresponding link on the course home page. Find the Exterior Assignment Submission Label and make sure you can print it. You must put this information, in the order given, at the top of anything you submit to me. It doesn't have to be on a separate page; it does have to be on the *outside* of any envelope or cover. ------------------------------------------ C. Warning! No Group Assignments Homework ------------------------------------------ Follow the corresponding link on the course home page. Read the material regarding plagiarism. Submit by the due date a one-page sheet of paper with the assignment submission label at the top and the following words underneath: I understand that there are no group or team assignments, projects, or homework in this course. I will do my own work without consulting other students for the answers. I will share only my ideas, not my solutions or any of my source code. Signed: Sign the single sheet of paper and hand it in to your instructor. ----------------------- D. Usenet News Homework ----------------------- 1. Find and open the course home page for my sections of this course. Start looking here: http://www.algonquincollege.com/~alleni/ Scroll down until you find the course number for this term. Make sure you choose the course number and term for the *current* course. You may want to bookmark this page in your web browser. 2. On the course home page, select the "News & Discussion" button. Read this new page carefully. If you have never used news groups before, be sure to select and read the link presented under "First Time User". 3. Under the "News & Discussion" button, when you come to the table containing the list of news groups relevant to this course, click on the NNTP interface to the Course Announcements news group. Your browser should automatically start up the News Reader software, open to the Course Announcements news group. Read the announcements. 4. If the news reader doesn't work, return to the "News & Discussion" page and select again the link presented under "First Time User". On the "Online Discussion - How To" page look for "Reading News Using the Netscape News Reader". You will find some information there on how to better configure Netscape to read news. (If you use Microsoft software, use Microsoft's recommended method for getting assistance.) 5. Return to the "News & Discussion" page, scroll down to the table of news groups, and select the "Testing/Practice News Group". Post one or more test articles (messages) to this test news group. Read your posted article(s). (You will probably have to select "Get Messages" before you can see your new posting(s).) Do not post test messages anywhere except this test news group. 6. Cancel the article you just posted in the test news group. (In many versions of Netscape, the "Cancel Message" function is under the Edit menu button.) Make sure you can cancel your own news postings. 7. Using the Netscape menus, find the correct menu and configure your news reader to show you only New/Unread articles (instead of showing you All articles). This will keep the number of articles on your screen smaller. You can turn off this option (and go back to "All" articles) if you want to see and re-read an article you have already read. 8. You're done. You might want to browse the Algonquin Student news group, or the For Sale news group. Find the menu entry in your News Reader that says "Subscribe to News Groups" to do that. Here is some terminology to help you keep EMail and News distinct: * Mail has "messages" that are "sent", e.g. "Please send someone an email message". * News Groups have "articles" that are "posted", e.g. "Please post a news article to that news group". Newer versions of Netscape sometimes call news articles "messages". Don't get confused - Usenet news is not EMail.