1 Due Date and DeliverablesIndex

• Due Date: 08h00 (8am) Monday September 16, 2013 (start of Week 3)
  • You have two weeks to do this assignment, but your next assignment will be available in one week and will overlap this assignment. Don’t delay!
  • Late assignments or wrong file names may not be marked. Be accurate.
• Available online:
  • Version 1: Tuesday September 3, 2013
  • Version 2: Thursday September 5, 2013 (corrected Part II numbers)
• Prerequisites:
  • The current Class Notes.
  • An ability to READ ALL THE WORDS to work effectively.
• Deliverables:
  1. One text file uploaded to Blackboard according to the steps in the Submission Method section below.
  2. An installation of LibreOffice or OpenOffice on your Windows host machine. Do not use Microsoft software to read Open Office documents; the format gets mangled.
  3. Your name labelled on all your devices.
  4. You can use Remote Login to connect to the Course Linux Server and use simple commands in The Unix/Linux Shell.

2 Purpose of this AssignmentIndex

This assignment is based on your weekly Class Notes.

1. Gather information needed for success in this course.
2. Configure email; install necessary software.
3. Read excerpts of research to understand the effects of multi-tasking and distractions on learning.
4. Get used to using and submitting work via Blackboard using exact file names.
5. Put your name on your stuff so we can return it to you when you leave it lying in a lab some day.
6. The ability to log in using Remote Login to the Course Linux Server and use simple commands in The Unix/Linux Shell.

Remember to READ ALL THE WORDS to work effectively and not waste time.

3 Introduction and OverviewIndex

This is an overview of how you are expected to complete this assignment. Read all the words before you start working.

For full marks, follow these directions exactly. There are five parts to this assignment. Only Part II is for submission this week. I will check Parts III, IV, and V in future lab periods.

READ ALL THE WORDS! and do not skip steps.

4 Part I: In-Lab Work not for hand-inIndex

Do not hand in anything from this part. You must find the answers to the Part I questions if you don’t know then yet:

1. Have you obtained your CST Level 1 Hardware Kit from the Algonquin store?
2. Do you know how to read your Algonquin Live email?
3. Have you forwarded your Algonquin email address to your personal account?
4. Do you know how to log in to ACSIS?
5. Do you know how to log in to Blackboard and find the CST8207 Blackboard Page?
   • are you registered in exactly one lecture and one lab section?
6. Can you find the EXTERNAL (Internet) Home Page for CST8207?
   • record two web URLs for this EXTERNAL Home Page, so you can find it
7. Do you know what a Plain Text file is, and how to create one?
   • what program(s) create plain text files in Windows? in Mac OSX?
8. Do you know where and how to submit your assignments on Blackboard?
9. Can you follow the directions to log in to the Course Linux Server?
   • You will need to get your server password from your instructor, first.

See your instructor for help with any of the above items, or with anything else here at Algonquin College.

5 Part II: Hand-In AssignmentIndex

You must hand in work from this part.

1. In the Course Notes, read the This is your Brain essay excerpts (or the original essays from which they are taken).

2. After reading the above, answer the following three questions in your own words by creating and editing a plain text file (no word processor):

   1. Given that studies show that multi-tasking makes it harder for your brain to remember what you have been doing (see the readings), in what ways does your method of doing school homework suffer from multi-tasking?

   2. How would it be possible for you to single-task your schoolwork, to remember it better come exam time (and job interview time)?

   3. Do you find that your brain has been trained to “process information rather than understand or even remember it”? (As an example: When given an assignment question, do you Google for the answer every time, or do you remember the answer and write down what you remember?)

   Answer in your own words.

3. Upload your plain text answer to Blackboard. Do not upload the essays or this question file as part of your answer. Only upload your three answers. Just your three answers, in Plain Text format.

• Write and submit your own answers to the above three questions. There are no “right” answers here. You decide your own answers.
• Minimum length: Three small paragraphs, one per question.
• Maximum length: five single-spaced pages (plus optional bibliography and/or references). (Nobody has yet written anything this detailed.)
• Do not upload the original essays or this file as part of your answer. Only upload your answer itself.
• The uploaded format must be plain text (Notepad or TextEdit or VIM), not a word processor document.
• You must not upload this file or the essay text with your answer.
• Plain Text Only.
• For full marks, number each of your three answers: (II-2a), (II-2b), (II-2c). (Corrected from 6-2a,6-2b,6-2c)
• Answers must be hand-typed original answers for this term. Any copy-and-paste in your answer file (e.g. from the Internet, previous terms, or other students) will result in a mark of zero. Write your own words.
• NO EMAIL, WORD PROCESSOR, PDF, RTF, or HTML DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED.

READ ALL THE WORDS

6 Part III: Install LibreOffice or OpenOffice into WindowsIndex

When you have your Windows base system Installed (in your Desktop Operating Systems course), go to the local Algonquin URL http://cstech/ on campus and find and download LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) for Windows and install it on your base Windows system, so that Windows can read and print the Open Office lab documents used in this course.

To find the office software on the local Algonquin http://cstech/ web site, click on any room in the left side-bar and look under Drivers and Downloads.

7 Part IV: Put Your Name On All Your StuffIndex

Students often leave behind laptops, power cables, and hard drives.

Put your name and contact information on all your books and hardware, including your external hard disks and power supplies. The name has to be clear enough that the office can contact you to give you back your hardware when you leave it behind somewhere.

• Put your Name and contact information on your laptop.
• Put your Name and contact information on your power cable.
• Put your Name and contact information on your external drive.
• Put your Name and contact information on your USB thumb drives.
• Put your Name and contact information on everything.

Your instructor may have some masking tape that you can use to write on.

8 Part V: Remote network log in to the Course Linux ServerIndex

See Remote Login for the background you need to read Course Linux Server.

Your instructor will demonstrate logging in to the Course Linux Server and the commands below and File Transfer in your lab periods in the first two weeks:

1. Log in to the Course Linux Server (CLS) using the terminal program appropriate to your operating system (e.g. use PuTTY on Windows).
   • get your special CLS password from your instructor
   • most system admin work is done via remote log-in like this
   • choose the log-in method applicable to your local operating system, e.g. use PuTTY for Windows.
2. Try these Linux commands on the CLS:
   • $ date
   • $ who
   • $ ls
   • $ ls -la
   • $ figlet Hello World
   • $ toilet Hello World
   • $ toilet --gay Hello World
   • $ cal 9 1752
     • What is wrong with this month?
     • Try using cal with the year your were born, e.g. cal 1954
     • on what day of the week were you born?
3. Redirect the output of a command into an output file using the right angle-bracket character > and then display the contents of the file:
   • $ cal 9 1752
   • $ cal 9 1752 >cal.txt
   • $ cat cal.txt
   • $ file cal.txt
4. Do a File Transfer between the CLS and your local machine (Windows):
   1. Create a file cal.txt on Linux using output redirection, as you did above:
      • $ cal 9 1752 >cal.txt
      • $ cat cal.txt
      • $ file cal.txt
   2. Transfer the cal.txt file from Linux to your local machine (Windows) using File Transfer
   3. View the file on your local machine Windows using both Notepad and then Wordpad
      • note the Windows problems with Linux line-endings under Notepad
      • Linux and Windows text files are not compatible!
   4. Macintosh users won’t have line-ending problems viewing Linux files.
5. Do a File Transfer between the your local machine (Windows) and the CLS:
   • choose the transfer method applicable to your local operating system, e.g. use WinSCP or Filezilla for Windows.
   1. First, create a small text file file.txt on Windows using Notepad
   2. Transfer the file.txt file to Linux
   3. View the file name and file content on Linux using these Linux commmands:
      • $ ls
      • $ ls -l
      • $ cat file.txt
      • $ file file.txt

9 Blackboard Submission upload methodIndex

1. Answer the three questions in Part II above in a plain text file using the exact name assignment01.txt with no spaces or upper-case letters. This upload file name is 16 characters long and is all lower-case letters with two digits and one period. The name does not contain capital letters or spaces. There is only one correct way to spell the word assignment. Be accurate.

2. Upload the file via the assignment01 Upload Assignment facility in Blackboard. Click on the underlined assignment01 link in Blackboard to upload. Use Attach File and Submit to upload your plain text file. Do not enter any text into the Submission or Comments boxes on Blackboard; I do not read these boxes. Use only the Attach File section followed by the Submit button. (If you need to comment on any assignment submission, send me email.)

   You can upload the file more than once; I only look at the most recent.

3. Verify that Blackboard has received your submission: After using the Submit button, you will see a page titled Review Submission History that will show all your submissions. Verify that your latest submission has the correct 16-character, lower-case file name attached to it beside the Attached Files heading. (The Submission Field and Student Comments headings must be empty; I do not read them.) You will also see the Review Submission History page any time you already have an assignment attempt uploaded and you click on the underlined assignment01 link.

   You cannot delete an assignment attempt, but you can always upload a new version. I only mark the latest version.

• No word processor documents. Plain Text only.

• I do not accept any assignment submissions by email. Use only the Blackboard Attach File.

• Use the exact file name given above. Upload only one single file of plain text, not HTML, not RTF, not MSWord. No fonts, no word-processing. Plain text only.

• Did I mention that the format is plain text (VIM/Nano/Pico/Gedit or TextEdit or Notepad)?

• NO EMAIL, WORD PROCESSOR, PDF, RTF, or HTML DOCUMENTS ACCEPTED.

• No marks are awarded for submitting under the wrong assignment number or for using the wrong file name. Use the exact 16-character, lower-case name given above.

• WARNING: Some inattentive students don’t read all these words. Don’t make that mistake! Be exact.

READ ALL THE WORDS. OH PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE READ ALL THE WORDS!