exploring the internet week 1 lbsc 690 information technology

Exploring the Internet

Week 1

LBSC 690

Information Technology

Agenda

• Why study information technology?

• Teaching Theater orientation

• Course description and syllabus

• Seven uses of the Internet

• Computing at Maryland

Teaching Theater Introduction

• Logging on (account name doXX)– Choosing a password

• Windows navigation– Double click– Drag and drop– Size widgets– Close button

Teaching Theater Introduction

• Internet Explorer for class web page– http://www.clis.umd.edu/courses/690/

• Microsoft Word for class notes– Get my outline notes from class directory– Save your notes in your personal directory

• Powerpoint for class slides

• Photos

Course Goals

• Understand computers and networks

• Learn to use common software tools

• Evaluate the role of information technology

• Solve a practical problem

• Develop a personal plan for further study

Instructional Approach

• Readings– Provide background and detail

• Class sessions– Provide conceptual structure

• Electronic outline provided in class

• Slides and videotapes available

• Homework, lab sessions, project– Provide hands-on experience

Syllabus

• Master the tools in the first 7 weeks– Internet, word processors, spreadsheets,

databases, programming, security– 2 readings and 1 homework each week

• Apply the tools for the last 7 weeks– Group work, library automation, educational

computing, social issues, digital libraries– 2 readings each week and the term project

Course Materials

• Textbook– Oakman, The Computer Triangle, 2nd edition

• Supplemental readings – Course packet available from IDSC

• Daily access to a networked computer!

• A few 3.5 inch floppy disks

• Book on Microsoft Office (optional)

Grading

• 45% individual work: midterm and final– 30% for the best, 15% for the other

• 40% group work: project in 3 person teams– 30% for the project, 10% for the documentation

• 15% at your option: homework– 3% each for best 5 of the 6 assignments– Can work together, but write it up separately

Example LBSC 690 GradesFinal Score (Excess 75)

0

5

10

15

20

25

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

Rank (higher better)

Sco

re-7

5

Observations on Grading

• Exam scores are very important– One exam is worth up to 10 homeworks– Midterm grades predict final grades well– Moral: Use the homework to learn the material

• Little things can make a B into an A– less than 1 point typically separates B+ and A-

The Fine Print

• Group work is encouraged on homework– But you must personally write what you turn in

• Deadlines are firm and sharp– Allowances for individual circumstances are

included in the grading computation

• Academic integrity is a serious matter– No group work during the exams!– Don’t discuss exam until everyone has taken it

Breaks

• 10 minute break after the first hour

• 5 minute break after the second hour

• No sodas or food in the teaching theater

• Please have your picture taken today

Seven Uses of the Internet

• Web pages

• File Transfer Program (FTP)

• Telnet

• Electronic mail (email)

• Newsgroups (Usenet)

• Talk

• Chat

Describing Internet Applications

• Who participates?– Computer-to-computer or person-to-person

• For computer-to-computer:– One-way or two-way?– Authenticated or unauthenticated?

• For person-to-person: – One-to-one or many-to-many?– Synchronous or asynchronous?

Web Pages• Computer-computer, one-way, unauthenticated

– Two-way and authenticated variants exist

• Viewed using a browser– Netscape, Internet Explorer, Lynx

• Uniform Resource Locators (URL)– Protocol http: (or ftp: or file:)– Machine //www.clis.umd.edu– Port :80 (optional if port 80)– Path /courses/690/ (case sensitive)– File Welcome.html (optional if standard)

Finding Web Pages

• Bookmarks– Useful if you have been there before

• Directories (http://www.yahoo.com)– Access by category

• Limited to things processed by hand

• Search engines (http://altavista.com)– Access by content

• Broad coverage, but lots more trash

File Transfer Program (FTP)

• Computer-computer, two-way, authenticated– Anonymous FTP is an unauthenticated version

• Use userid “anonymous”, your email is password

• Multiple interfaces– Web browsers, command line, FTP programs

• Used to move files between machines– Better than carrying a floppy disk around– Use FTP to download your class notes at home

• ftp ttclass.umd.edu

Visualizing FTP

wam.umd.edulogged in as

oard

hawk.umd.edulogged in asanonymous

home/pub/

396/ 690/ 708a/

pub/incoming/

demo.txt test/ javascript/

telnet wam.umd.edu

cd ../pub

cd 690

ftp hawk.umd.edu

cd pub

get demo.txt

quit

demo.txt

(login as oard)

(login as anonymous)

ls

ls

ls

ls

Telnet

• Computer-computer, two-way, authenticated– Web pages and FTP send one file at a time– Telnet sends one character at a time

• Simulates a dial-up connection– Use telnet to read your email from wam.umd.edu

• VT-100 protocol allows only text– The pine email program is designed for VT-100

• X Windows extension adds graphics– X-terminals are available in CSS 4352

Electronic Mail (email)

• Person-person, one-one, asynchronous– Mailing lists provide a many-many variant

• 690 mailing list is lbsc690@glue.umd.edu

• telnet wam.umd.edu, login, and type “pine”– Eurora & Outlook have similar capabilities

• But they store messages on the computer you are using

• The most widely deployed application– Can reach intermittently connected users– Often crosses firewalls

Email Addresses• userid@machine (e.g., oard@glue.umd.edu)

– Machine names are like postal addresses• Most general part is at the end (.edu, .com, …)• Most specific part is at the beginning (glue, …)

• Search engines use names to find addresses– http://www.whowhere.lycos.com

• Finger uses an address to find a name– On WAM, finger oard@glue.umd.edu

• Your userid (login name) is widely known– Protect your password

Newsgroups (Usenet)

• Person-person, many-many, asynchronous

• Web browsers and pine can read news– http://deja.com “discussions” are newsgroup archives

• Each “article” is stored once at each site– Mailing lists produce one copy per person– No need to “sign up” for newsgroups in advance

• Hierarchical organization– Most general appears first (comp., soc., rec., …)– Most specific appears last (rec.aviation.military)

Mailing Lists vs. Newsgroups

A1 B1

B2

B3

A2

A3

NewsServer

NewsServer

A1 B1

B2

B3

A2

A3

MailServer

MailServer

University of A University of B

Talk• Person-person, one-one, synchronous

• Design varies from system to system– Talk command works with any unix machine

• e.g., talk oard@rac7.wam.umd.edu• Must specify an exact machine name

– Instant Messages do the same thing on AOL– ICQ and Microsoft Chat provide similar services

• Usually implemented with a split screen– Both people can type at the same time

Chat

• Person-person, many-many, synchronous

• Like talk, but with lots of people– Chat rooms on AOL, Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

• Whole lines are sent at a time– Each line is labeled with the sender’s nickname

• IRC is not allowed on open lab machines– Simply too popular!

Summary of the Seven Uses

Web comp-comp one-way unauthenticated

FTP comp-comp two-way authenticated

Telnet comp-comp two-way authenticated

Email pers-pers one-one sync

News pers-pers many-many async

Talk pers-pers one-one sync

IRC pers-pers many-many sync

Computing at Maryland• Computer Labs (PC, Mac, Unix)

– CLIS Library (2101 open, 2105 CLIS students only)– PG2, EGR, SOM, WOR, CEN: Open 24 hours– Need a “pay for print” account

• Dial-in access (Unix only)– College Park (301)209-0700 (3hr)/864-2087(15min)– Baltimore (410)962-88865(3hr)/962-8867(15min)– From other parts of the state, connect using Sailor

• Telnet access (Unix only)– telnet wam.umd.edu from an Internet service provider

Homework

• Preliminaries (ungraded)– WAM account, print account, email forwarding

• Email and mailing lists

• World-Wide Web

• Usenet Newsgroups

• FTP

• Questionnaire (ungraded)

Some Good Things to Do

• Take a peer training course

• Ask questions about readings

• Start thinking about your project

• Give us feedback