ITI 1120 Lab #1

 

Overall agenda:

  1. survey
  2. account generation
  3. logging in and out
  4. SITE lab specifics:  network drives, etc.
  5. uOttawa e-mail
  6. course web pages / using the virtual campus
  7. using Dr. Java
  8. draw a diagram
  9. submitting an assignment via the virtual campus
  10. finishing up

1.    Survey

Discuss students’ backgrounds. 

2.    Account generation

This course will use SITE computer accounts and not the general university account.  The general university account will have a userid similar to:

            awill039                 (a contraction of first initial, family name, and three digits)

and would have an e-mail address of awill039@uottawa.ca.

 

The SITE account will be only for access to computers in the SITE labs.  It is not the account used for official university e-mail communications – even for the ITI 1120 course. All official e-mails will be sent to the university account, and e-mail should be checked there regularly.

 

For students with computer science or software engineering as a major, the SITE account will be active for their entire studies.  For students in other programs of study, the account will exist only as long as they take courses with the ITI, CSI or SEG course codes.

 

3.    Logging in and Logging out

The next step is to log in.  CTRL-ALT-DEL can be used to get to the login screen.

 

Some students may have generated their SITE account already.  If you have not, use the autopass facility (this is both the userid and password).

 

Once you are logged in check the set of icons that you have on the computer (My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, Recycle Bin, Click Here to Logout, Map Old H drive to Q)

 

[When you are all done and ready to leave, the last thing you ALWAYS do is to log out.  Another student could have access to your files if you do not log out. To logout: Double click on "Click here to logout" icon.  Do not turn the power off after logout, leave the power on.]

 

4.    The SITE environment

 

Some notable features of the SITE environment:  (click on My Computer to show this)

 

  1. There is a network drive (H), and the local drive (C).  Files on C are only accessible from the specific computer during the current session.  Files on the H network drive can be accessed from any SITE lab computer (STE 0110, 0130, 0131, 2052, 2060), and also can be accessed over the web.  IMPORTANT: the contents of the C drive are reset after logging out.  Files on C that have not been copied to the network drive will be lost – and there is no way to recover them!

 

  1. A diskette drive (A) is also available for file transfer via diskettes.  For people with USB memory sticks, they will appear as drive F when plugged in.  A CD drive is available as drive E.  The CD drives are read only, and cannot be used to burn CDs.

  2. Other drives are also network drives, but are read-only.  SITE software is stored on these drives.

  3. There is an icon that says “Map old H drive to Q”.  Prior to 2004, students had PC disk space allocated on a PC server, and a separate disk space allocated on a Linux server for their Linux account.  Now, both systems log in to the Samba file space so that files need not be transferred.  That this icon does not do anything useful for newly generated accounts

 

  1. All SITE computers run virus protection programs that are updated every day.  As U. of Ottawa students, you can have access to a free copy of Symantec Norton Antivirus for your own personal computer; it is available from http://www.site.uottawa.ca/local/labinfo/software/nav/.  Anyone who plans to use their own computer to transfer files – on-line or via diskette, memory stick, CD, etc. – to/from the SITE network or plans to connect a laptop computer to the red posts in the cafeteria is strongly urged to have a virus protection program that keeps up to date installed on their system.  The virus protection program is also available on CD at the Campus Computer Store (in the Unicentre) and if you show a student card, the only cost is a nominal charge for the CD.

  2. The ITI 1120 course lab manual is available at http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~diana/iti1120/LabManual.pdf.   General lab documentation is available at (this should be the home page for lab computers) http://www.site.uottawa.ca/local/labinfo/index.shtml.  Students should be sure to read the following sections before next week’s lab, if they haven’t already:
    • Account information
    • Introductory guide
    • E-mail guide
    • Printing guide

Students who plan to connect a laptop computer to the red posts in the SITE cafeteria should also read the networking guide.

 

5.    E-mail

 

Show the university’s e-mail system at http://www.uottawa.ca/e-mail.  This is a web-based system that can be accessed from anywhere.  You can also get to this from a “quick link” from any university web page.

 

Before logging in, point out the “Manage Your Account” area, and click on the link.  Several important features should be pointed out:

 

  • Change password

  • Set/remove forwarding address – will cause e-mail to be forwarded to another account, for people with multiple accounts who read e-mail on another account.  IMPORTANT:  Emphasize that the university e-mail account must be monitored frequently for official communications from the university, and e-mail sent to this account is assumed to have been read, comparable with a letter to your home.  If the forwarding facility is used, test it to make sure it has been set up correctly; students will be held responsible for consequences of missed e-mail messages sent to the university account.

  • Configure anti-spam tool:  spam is unwanted, unsolicited e-mail and that it is a serious problem that can fill your disk space allocation and waste valuable time.

 

Log in.  The userid and password as the same as InfoWeb; normally, this would be the student number and PIN issued at registration.  Log out when you are done.

 

Create a folder named a0_xxxxxxx, where xxxxxxx is your student number.

6.    Course web pages and the Virtual Campus

 

Use a browser – preferably Mozilla – to locate the lab documentation – this should be the home page – and also the page with the course list for the term (under “Course and Lab Material” and then “Fall 2006”).  Locate the ITI 1120 web page and bookmark it.

(The direct link to the course webpage is http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~diana/iti1120/index.html).

 

Next, go to the Virtual Campus.  You can go there immediately from a quick link, or directly via http://www.tlss.uottawa.ca/index.php?lang=en.  A busy web page with an inconspicuous login area in the upper right corner will appear.  Log into the Virtual Campus.  The userid and password should be the same as the ones for InfoWeb. Everyone should have the ITI 1120 course on their list. 

 

The discussion forum is where messages can be posted and seen by everyone in the course.  If anyone has technical questions during the course, they should post the question there.  All students, teaching assistants, and the professor can contribute replies.  This is a good place to note that use of the discussion forum, as with all use of university’s computer facilities, is subject to the university’s code of user conduct, which is available at http://www.uottawa.ca/help/about/code.html

 

A “practice assignment” is already available on the course webpage (under Timetable).  The practice assignment has a file available called A0Q1.doc.  Download the file and save it in the a0_xxxxxxx folder.

 

For the practise assignment, it says that the maximum grade is 1. You will not actually get one mark for the assignment, but that the virtual campus requires a number greater than zero to be entered as the assignment’s maximum grade. The practice assignment will not be graded.

7.    Dr. Java

 

You will be using the Dr. Java environment this term.  To start Dr. Java, from the Start menu, select “Programming Editors” and Dr. Java will appear on the submenu.

 

WARNING:  Double-clicking a .java file will NOT open Dr. Java (unless you set this up manually).  Instead, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET will start up L.  Always start Dr. Java first, and then open a file from inside Dr. Java.

 

Start Dr. Java first, and then open the Hello.java file that you have saved in a0_xxxxxxx directory.  This is a very small Java program and some comments.  Personalize the comments and then save your own version of the file.  Then, click the “Compile” button.  You can run the program.  Right-click on the Hello entry in the file list area on the left.  At the bottom of the pop-up menu, se, suign the “run” button. “Hello, World!” will appear at the bottom of the screen.

 

8.    Draw a diagram

You use Microsoft Visio or another program (such as PowerPoint) to draw a diagram for an algorithm.  Save it as a picture (use enhance metadata when pasting “special”) in a file A0Q3.doc.

9.    Submitting an assignment

 

Carefully read the section in the lab manual on how to submit an assignment if they have not already.

 

For practice assignment 0, do the following:

 

  1. Read the file A0Q1.doc, and make sure you can view the comment bubbles.  The file contains instructions on how to do this.
  2. Create a new Microsoft Word file.
  3. From Dr. Java, select all the text of the Hello.java program, and copy-paste it into the new Microsoft Word document.
  4. Save the Word document as A0Q2.doc.
  5. Right-click on the a0_xxxxxxx folder and then select “Add to a0_xxxxxxx.zip”.  This will create a zip file with the contents of the directory.

 

In the Virtual Campus, upload the zip file, and then enter your uOttawa e-mail address for notification that the assignment has been submitted successfully.  Then, click on Submit Assignment.

 

You can then check your university e-mail account to see if the confirmation message has appeared.

 

The assignment can be removed and then re-submitted until the deadline time is reached.  At that point, the assignments are locked in, and the TAs will start grading.  The TAs will not be able to grade an assignment until after the deadline.

10.Finishing up

Remember that the labs are compulsory, and that you have to go to the section to which you have been assigned.

 

To finish off, any files you have on the C disk – including those in My Documents – need to be copied over to the network drive.

 

Then, double-click on the logout icon.  Do not turn off the power.