Computer Science 1300
    Essential Computer Skills

    Fall, 1998

    Curtis Brown
    cbrown@trinity.edu

    Class Notes
    August 27, 1998

     

        Announcements:

      1.  Why you couldn't log on.  I've been assured that the password you are assigned when you connect your own computer in the dorms should work on the lab computers and on the machines in CLS 344, where our class meets.  The reason this didn't work on Tuesday is that the server was down.  (Or so they say . . . we'll find out for sure on Tuesday!)  This means that if you already have a username and password that you can use from your room, you shouldn't need to do anything further.  If you don't yet have a username and password, you should either contact your dormitory representative about getting one, or obtain one from the Computing Center.

      2.  E-mail.  Sure enough, the lab machines do not have Outlook installed on them.  On Tuesday, we'll discuss other email options.  (Some of you may have Outlook or Outlook Express on your personal machines.  We'll also discuss using Pine and Netscape Messenger.  I'm not yet certain how well Pine will handle attachments; we may have to experiment and see.)
       

        Class Summary:

      We covered the following topics.

      1.  Me.  Considering the importance and interest of this topic, we spent surprisingly little time on it!  Crucial facts:  I'm a philosophy professor at Trinity.  My home page, with link to course materials, is at http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/.  The materials themselves are at http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/skills/ (but if you're reading this, you probably know that already).

      2.  The course.  We had a look at the syllabus, which lists course requirements and topics.

      3.  You.  I found out some things about the students in the class:  most of you have used e-mail and a word processor, and have some experience surfing the net with a web browser.  None of you would confess to being a web addict.  No one had constructed his or her own web site, and very few had used spreadsheet software or database software extensively.  Many of you brought computers from home.  Two of you are Mac users, and one of you has a Mac here on campus.

      4.  The room.  I projected what was on my screen onto all of yours.  Some of you tried, unsuccessfully, to log on (see above).  We didn't use a number of further capacities of the room which we'll try out soon:  projecting the image from any of our monitors onto the screen at the front of the room; my controlling any of your machines from the front of the room; the Smart Board (very cool); the headsets with earphones and mikes (which I don't actually expect to use, but we'll see).  Remind me to show off some of the goodies next time.

      5.  Windows.  A very little on Windows terminology and functionality.  Buttons:  minimize, fullscreen, terminate, resize.  Task bar, Start button.  Viewing drives and their contents, including network drives.  Getting information about disks, including capacity, used space, and available space.

      Last update:  September 1, 1998

      Trinity University  |  Curtis Brown  |  CSCI 1300:  Essential Computing Skills