*** READ THIS, PLEASE ***

1. I've got two new columns in Blackboard, one for your lab mark and one for the 5% offer I think you have with me.
1. If you don't have a lab mark yet, it's because your lab instructor hasn't gotten it in to me yet...I'm hoping to have those available by tomorrow (Friday).
2. If you don't have your 5% offer in with me, remember that the deadline is Friday (tomorrow) by noon. If you don't know what the offer is, look back through the Announcement section.
2. Please check over your marks you see in the My Grades section...I'd REALLY REALLY REALLLLLLLY like to clear up any problems before the final!

Journal marks up

There were a total of 8 journal entries...I used your highest 6 marks (each out of 3) to obtain your mark.

More practice final exam questions

A practice final (well, at least some m/c questions) has been made available in the Test Info section under Final Exam Material. You can take it as many times as you want, but it's timed and randomized.

Karma updated in My Grades

Update on Friday Task & Journal Task readings

Obviously I'm a bit unfocused...I forgot to put a link to the readings into the Friday task writeup (which also affects your Journal Task). My apologies - it's fixed now.

My availability after the exam

Due to a serious illness on my wife's side of the family, I need to travel to Japan from December 11th. I will be doing some hardcore marking of your finals on the 8th and 9th, so should have your official results in by the evening of the 9th at the latest.

Given my traveling plans, please be advised that I will only be available on December 10th (Monday) from 9 - 6 for questions regarding your final marks!

Some practice final questions available

Another instructor has made a small practice exam for you to take online here on the General Site.

My Tasks, My Journal Tasks, and My Objectives have all been updated

If you're curious for more details about the micro/nanotech examples from Wednesday's lecture...

readings can be found here.

Final exam handout available in the Test Info section

Friday task up - bonus mark available

Sorry about the delay - the Friday task is now up...if you can complete it successfully for Monday, you have yourself a bonus mark.

Special journal task - bonus mark available

The journal task for this week is a bit different - I'd suggest that even those who don't usually do journals take a look at it, as I'm giving out a "free" mark that counts towards your final grade. Isn't bribery wonderful?

Notes on quiz 2

Marks are now up for quiz 2. Two things:

1. On the piggybacking question, I gave you the mark if you answered B or D.
2. I tossed out the Network Neutrality question...I was tempted to keep it in, as only *8* people looked at the readings (according to Blackboard)...but the fact that not one of those 8 people got the question correct is a bit of a red flag.

Class average: 55%

Important Tour Information

1. Since I've been given the go-ahead by IT, I'm going to go with one tour on Friday, and one tour on Monday. Each tour will meet by U210 at 11:00 AM. (If you came in the West Gate and were going to walk to the swimming pool observation area, you would pass by U210 on the way there.)
2. I'm going to allow some more flexibility for questions - in retrospect, it's a bit hard for you to ask questions in advance, isn't it? So if you ask a reasonable question on the tour (based on what you're seeing and what our guide is presenting), I'll give you the karma bump.
   

Added info regarding Demo 2 to Discussion Board

Two things:

1. The instructions for Demo 2 have been slightly modified...I've reworded the task regarding Ctrl+Alt+Del a bit.
2. I've placed a thread regarding Demo 2 in the Q&A forum on the Discussion Board.
   

Important demo booking information

I've modified the Google calendar showing available times for demos...here are the important points:

1. Time slots that aren't marked are NOT available for demos.
2. I've expanded my available booking times for demos 2 through 4...you can see them marked on the calendar as "Demos 2-4 only"
3. Friday, December 7th is the LAST day for bookings - no exceptions.
   

Demo 4 now up in My Demos

Friday tasks up in My Tasks section

About the tours on November 16 & 19

Just some info on the classes for November 16 & 19:

• We'll be taking a short (~15 minute) tour of some of the facilities in the IT department here at the college - of particular interest is the server room.
• It would be great if you had some questions ready for the person giving us the tour, so if you can think of a college-related IT question you'd like to ask, please email me the question before noon on Thursday, November 15th. Any reasonable question (my discretion) will nab you 10 karma points.
• You must sign up for one of the four available time slots - go to the Discussion Board and look for the IT Tour Sign-up forum for more information.
• Material covered during the tour will be on the final exam.
  

5% Offer + the Grade Estimator

As mentioned in class, you have the option of reducing the weighting on one of your pre-final non-demo assessments (so that means midterm, quizzes, assignments, lab exams, or journal) by 5% and transferring that 5% to your final exam. So, for example, you could do away with your first quiz altogether and have your final weighted at 35%; or you could reduce your midterm weighting to 5% and have your final weighted at 35%.

If you wish to take advantage of this offer, you must email by noon on December 7th, stating in the email which assessment you're reducing. There is no exception to this deadline.

If you want to see how this might effect your marks, use the Grade Estimator - but follow this procedure:

1. Open up the Grade Estimator (it's in the Course Docs section)
2. Enter in your marks on the MAIN worksheet as per usual
3. In the "Reduce by 5%?" column, enter in a "y" for the assessment you want to reduce the weighting on - keep this as "n" otherwise.
   

Quiz reminder

This is just a reminder that there will be a quiz on Wednesday, November 14, in class.

The quiz will consist of 12 questions, 4 from each of the DB, Network, and Internet units. Of these 4 questions, one will be related to vocabulary from the vocabulary lists not covered in class. (This is to simulate the experience you will be having on the not-too-distant final, and to encourage you to be constantly reviewing those vocabulary lists.)

The quiz will be 15 minutes long, and we will go over the results immediately after the quiz is complete.

The quiz will be worth 5% of your final mark.

Friday tasks and journal tasks up

Style tutorial up in My Tutorials

I've finished a basic tutorial on style use in Word 2003 - if you took me up on the Word offer, I'd definitely check this out, but even those who aren't might want to take a look as well.

New vocab lists up in My Vocabulary

Midterm mark adjustment

As mentioned in class today, I have decided to remove the 4 marks from the midterm that were assigned to grammatical work. Everyone's adjusted mark is now available on Blackboard.

Grade Estimator updated - take a look!

I've modified the Grade Estimator (it's in Course Docs) in 2 ways:

1. It now shows both your estimated numerical grade AND your corresponding letter grade, and
2. It now has an area to check your estimated grade out if you are taking me up on the Assignment 2 offer.

I strongly recommend taking a look at this spreadsheet, especially if:

1. you absolutely need to get a certain grade in this course, and are confused whether it's realistic that you'll hit this mark, or
2. you have had a rough time early on in the course, and need some help deciding whether it's best to drop the course or not
   

Karma updated in My Grades

Word assignment - Office 2007 issue

If you created your Word assignment in Office 2007, please email me your file - do not save the file in 2003 format.

Assignment 2 - an offer

Due to a variety of circumstances, I am making the following offer to all students who have already had their assignment #2 marked: if you wish, you can make changes to your assignment such that your mark is over 80%. If it meets this requirement, I will ignore your Word mark and weight your Excel mark at 13% (instead of 7%).

If you wish to take advantage of this offer, know that:

1. you must let me know by noon on Monday, Oct. 29 that you will be doing this, and
2. you must submit your revised Word assignment by Friday, November 9, and
3. you will not be able to change your mind about this offer - if you get a poor Excel mark, you have to live with it.
   

Demo 3 now available in My Demos

Journal task and Friday task now available

They're basically one and the same - so just go to My Tasks and look at the task for Friday (Oct. 26th).

Tasks for Wednesday now up in My Tasks

Vocabulary list up for DBs and Info Systems in My Vocabulary

Assignment 2 instructions

I just noticed that when I updated the instructions to assignment 2, I had used an older copy that didn't have the submission section on the last page completed.

I won't be able to fix the problem until I get back to my desk on Monday - in the meantime, just be aware that it should state 2 things: that the assignment is due this Wednesday (the 24th) at 4PM, and that you should submit properly via My Assignments.

Tasks for Monday now up in My Tasks

Playing "what-if" with your grades

I've placed a spreadsheet called Mark Estimator in the Course Docs section. You might find this useful to play out a few "what-if" scenarios, given that you've now completed your PPT assignment, first quiz, and midterm.

If you have any questions on how to use the spreadsheet, please let me know.

More on the midterm

• I've placed the rubrics for the short answer questions up in Test Info > Midterm material. The multiple-choice answers and comments about them will appear after 12:05PM on October 22nd in the same location.
• If you have any concerns about the marking of the short answer questions, please arrange to see me in person.
  

Small change to assignment 2 instructions

If you've grabbed the instructions to assignment 2 prior to this announcement, please note the following change in the assignment instructions:

On page 3, replace "The Header style for the page headers." with "The Page Number style for the page numbers." (Note that this change will change the rubric as well.)

This change has now been made to the instructions available in My Assignments.

Midterm results are up

The marks for the midterm are now available in the My Marks section of our BlackBoard site.

The class average: 55%

Highest mark: 75%

We're going the bubble-sheet route for the midterm after all

I've had a few concerns drawn to my attention about the use of clickers during the midterm, so I am not going to be using them during the midterm. With this in mind, you should remember to bring those HB pencils - and a good eraser - on Wednesday.

Online office hours

I'm having a lot of problems making the online office hours work...the nature of my IA job keeps me out in the labs a lot, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the online hours!

So as of today, I'm discontinuing my online office hours. If you need to contact me, email is the way to go!

Old midterm available

If you want to look over the midterm from last winter, it's in the new Test Information section of the Blackboard site.

This test is *not* meant to be the only thing you study before the exam...in fact, if it is, you're probably going to get spanked.

If you want to know "the answers", you can contact me with ones you're stuck on.

Answers to end-of-chapter text questions

If you want to check your answers to end-of-chapter questions in the text, take a look at either:

• L:\2203\Williams_Sawyer_Chapter_Answers
• General Blackboard Site > Course Docs > Textbook End-of-chapter Answers

Karma updated in My Grades

My Objectives section now available

There is now a new link on the front page of our site - "My Objectives" will show you all the objectives we've covered to date...useful for the midterm, I would hope!

Assignment 2 now available in My Assignments

No lecture Friday

If you couldn't make it to class today - there is no lecture this Friday. Instead, work on the task assigned (as per the previous announcement).

New task for Friday up in My Tasks

New task for Wednesday's class available in My Tasks

Karma updated in My Grades

Just to make something clear - the rating there is a measure of your karma and not a rating of you as a person. This karma system is just something new I'm trying to roughly measure student engagement in class - it is not a mark, per se.

Don't forget to click on those Submit buttons!

After you're done each step in the Friday tasks, you need to click the Submit button - NOT the Save button. If you don't do this, I can't see your results!

Um...yeah...about those Friday tasks

Well, I learned two things when I got up this morning:

1. Some of you guys work on stuff really late at night.
2. Forgetting to mark a checkbox that says "Make this item available", surprisingly, stops the item from being made available.

I think I'm up to a thousand thousand (=1,000,000) pardons.

OK - *now* the Friday tasks are up in My Tasks

I goofed - I thought I had made the info available, but it was still hidden. A thousand pardons!

New Friday tasks up in My Tasks

Links mentioned in class

Here's the page of the test I mentioned in class which illustrates the issue of digital manipulation.

Here and here are the two links regarding cell phone issues.

New journal task up in My Journal Tasks, and...

...I will no longer be accepting loose sheets of paper and/or late journal submissions.

Notes about PPT assignment marking

First off, thanks to those who put in some humorous comments with their submissions...I got a surprising number of chuckles - now if only you guys would do that IN CLASS. {sigh}

Secondly, here are some notes about what I was looking for while marking:

• Having different styles for each and every slide isn't the best design choice - you want your presentation to appear unified, not haphazard!
• Few people got the mark for the footer - either people tried to use the View Header and Footer feature (which doesn't work very well - it only puts the current slide number...or doesn't autonumber at all if you use the Footer selection, as some of you did) or did not attempt the question. What I wanted you to do was View the Slide Masters and make the proper changes to the Number Area of the Slide and/or Title Masters.
  
• Considering that I gave explicit warning about the topic, I was pretty strict about wordiness in slides - ideally, you're going to be using brief points most of the time...I still saw quite a few slides with long sentences or even paragraphs used.
  
• I was also pretty strict with the format for references - you were given all the examples you needed right on the assignment, so I wasn't too forgiving about any deviation.
• All in all, the class performed quite well - a bit above my averages in the past.
  

Assignment feedback

In your H drives, you have a folder called "2203" - I'll be placing a pdf of your marking sheet in that folder.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding the grading, please let me know.

Please don't forget your name cards!

Remember to bring those suckers tomorrow (Wednesday) - I need more help remembering names!

Demonstration booking calendar

Here's a calendar you can use to figure out when you can make bookings with me for your demonstrations.

Links from today's class

Here's the Tivo article, and here's the link to the depersonalizer.

Prepping for Monday's class

For Monday's class, I'd like you to read up on the 2 different communication models discussed in chapter 7, and also take a look at the discussion in the text on the topic of personalization.

Take a look at this short Wired article as well.

Can you think of at least 3 positive and 3 negative effects of personalization on you?

Personal Tech unit vocabulary now available

The vocabulary to the Personal Tech unit is now up in My Vocabulary, and has also been added to the vocabulary wiki.

Friday (the 28th) tasks are up in My Tasks

Focus group

MRC's doing some studies into student use of IT...for 2 hours of your time, you get some free grub, a chance to win some prizes...and you help out the College as well.

The session is Wednesday, October 3 from 3-5.

Check in Course Docs for further details.

Additional adjustment to quiz

I was a bit confused when Kevin brought up the laser answer for question 13 on the quiz, because I thought I had worded the question so that the only correct one was "light & masks"...when I went back last night to check, I saw that the wording of the question was a tad subtle: "lasers & transistors" is technically incorrect, as the transistors are not *used* in the fabrication process - they are *created* during the process. I still say the correct answer is "light & masks", but because the question was tricky (and I'm not trying to be tricky), I have given a mark to those who answered "lasers & transistors" as well - the marks on Blackboard have now been updated.

Discussion Board tutorials now up in My Tutorials

Online office hours

Given the response in today's lecture, I would like to try having some online office hours - at least for a month or so, just to see if they're of any use to anyone.

I will be online M-F from 9-9:39 and 4-5. Due to the nature of my job, I will occasionally need to step away from my desk suddenly to help students out in the labs, particularly in the afternoons...so don't feel surprised if I need to sprint.

To access my virtual office, go to: http://wwwl.meebo.com/room/jpsoffice/
You should be able to access this from any computer with an Internet connection...or so the propaganda says - if you're finding otherwise, I'd like to know about it.

The password for the room is: 002. (That's our section number.)
When you first start chatting, you'll be asked for a nickname - if you could use your real name (or something close to it), it would help me greatly.

The vocab wiki is here.

Multiple choice info links

This first site provides some good advice to students.

This second site is more for use by teachers - some pretty good insights here, folks...especially if you follow the two links in the Useful Tips section (about 1/2-way down the page).

Study group announcement

I've been asked to pass this on: if you are interested in getting involved in a study group for the course, a number of folks are currently meeting in the lecture room every Friday and then heading off elsewhere. (I'm assuming that if you want to take part, you should be there within the first 5 minutes or so.)

Just as a note - if this (or any other) study group wants me to pop into a session to answer some questions during the Friday lecture time (11-12), I would be happy to do so.

I meant demonstration *2* information now up in My Demos

Demonstration 1 information now up in My Demos

Practical troubleshooting resources available

I've placed some useful troubleshooting resources in the Tips, Tricks, & Requests forum in the Discussion Board.

No, it's not for marks. Just thought some of you might find it useful!

Wednesday's class

I'm still chewing over the quiz results...we need to talk on Wednesday. Please watch the following video before class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

We'll need to move the third (and last) software class to Friday, and leave the Personal Technology unit at 2 classes (Monday & Wednesday).

A few more announcements about the quiz

1. I have reduced the number of questions to 30.
2. The amount of time is 18 minutes, as opposed to the 15 minutes stated in the course outline.
3. The quiz focuses on the lecture objectives, lecture material, and material I've placed on our Blackboard site.
   

Karma updated in My Grades

If you have any concerns or questions, please let me know, OK?

Did you show up for the Friday lecture?

I heard that a few of you went to the lecure room today...at first, I was like, "why?!?" - then I realized that last Friday's optional class threw a few people off. So to set the record straight - there are no lectures for all the blue Friday's on our schedule except if I announce otherwise.

My apologies.

Friday (the 21st) task is up in My Tasks

List of outcomes

Here is a list of outcomes that we have covered up to and including September 21st - all of these are fair game for the quiz:

You should be able to...

1. ...describe what a computer is in general terms.
2. ...explain why computers are so useful to us.
3. ...explain why computers are so pervasive in today's world.
4. ...justify the value of taking a course like COMP2203.
5. ...describe the language that computers speak.
6. ...explain why binary is the language of choice for computers.
7. ...discuss the ramifications of the decision to use binary in computers.
8. ...identify on sight the common ports found on today's personal computers.
9. ...describe what purposes these common ports have.
10. ...identify on sight common expansion cards.
11. ...describe the purposes of these cards.
12. ...explain the purpose of memory.
13. ...explain the purpose of secondary storage.
14. ...compare and contrast memory and secondary storage.
15. ...modify the definition of computer to include the concepts of storage, input devices, output devices, and software.
16. ...explain the purpose of microprocessors.
17. ...provide an overview of the process used to create microprocessors.
18. ...describe the steps of the machine cycle, incorporating the concepts of control unit and ALU.
19. ...explain in simple terms how cache, clock speed, and word size effect the speed of CPUs.
20. ...describe the challenges that face computer purchasers.
21. ...compare and contrast the broad categories that software falls into in terms of legal use.
22. ...explain what the different type of licenses are available, and be able to determine from a simple licensing scenario what kind of license makes the most financial sense.

Note - development of these last two points will be posted soon...should be later this evening.

Heads-up about the quiz

Those four readings I assigned to you in the announcement on the 18th are fair game for the quiz.

Your first assignment

The PowerPoint assignment will be available from the My Assignments section on Thursday, September 20 at 9AM.

If you are unsure how to get the assignment instructions, please follow the tutorial "Grabbing assignments" in the My Tutorial section of our site.

Clearing some journal questions up

I thought it might be useful to explain why I'm having you do journals, and how I'm evaluating them.

Why Journals?
As you remember from your reading of Learning (Your First Job), true learning is not a passive process - it requires wrasslin' with slippery, abstract concepts and making them more concrete in your neural pathways. One excellent way to do this is through reflection - taking a question or idea, and mulling it over...asking yourself questions...seeing where your thoughts lead. This is where our journal comes in: I'm asking you questions and want to see where you go with them. To me, answering my initial question is just the first step - I'm much more interested in seeing where the question takes you.

Evaluation
I mark each entry out of 3:
Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization (0 or 1):

• If I have difficulty following your thoughts because of problems in these areas, or find myself getting annoyed with frequent errors, this will be 0. Otherwise, it will be 1.

Instructions Followed / Questions Answered (0 or 1):

• Did you at least spend some time answering all the questions I put to you at a surface level? Then you get 1....if not, 0.

Evidence of Deeper Thought (0 or 1):

• Did you take the question somewhere? Did it make you ask further questions, or raise some point to mind? Do you make me go, "Hey - I hadn't thought of that!"? Then you get 1; otherwise, 0.

As an illustration of the last point, I'll use a question from our second journal entry: Do you think charging high prices for a service that's very easy (but few people know how to do) is ethical?

• One could (and a few students did) liken hardware installation to providing legal or medical services...few people know how to do these things, and it's considered OK for those kinds of people to charge high prices for their expertise. This may of course lead to the counterargument that unlike lawyers and doctors, the hardware installer doesn't require years of training to become adequate at their job. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that the average person could learn to do successful installations (barring the occurrence of unusual problems) with a few hours of training.
• One could ask some questions (and even better answer them with a little digging as well), like:
• What is Geek Squad's policy if the tech is unable to successfully install the hardware? Or worse, breaks something?
• Does the Squad offer refunds? Warranties?

A note about hardware installs

Based on your journal responses, I thought I should mention a few things about installing hardware:

• Installations can only go smoothly if you've prepared for the install in advance by making sure that the hardware you're installing is compatible with your computer. How do you know whether it's compatible? Read that manual!
• There's a fairly big mental difference between installing hardware on a test machine (like the ones we're using for your first demo) and installing hardware on your (or even worse) someone else's machine. Once the spectre of damaging something worth real money starts entering your head, it can make that install seem a lot less easy!
• I didn't go over (and don't have time to go over, unfortunately) the 'x-factor' of hardware installs - booting up the machine, and making sure everything is working. Knowing what to do if everything doesn't work can require some fairly sophisticated troubleshooting skills.You may need to install some drivers...and maybe those drivers conflict with something else on your machine. Maybe the hardware is defective. Maybe the moon is in the wrong phase.

I'm not trying to scare you away from doing your own installations, because most of the time, things go smoothly. I'm just letting you know that mostly doesn't equal always.

Quiz information

As you know, there's a quiz in class on Monday (the 24th). I thought you might like a bit of info on it.

• There will be 40 multiple-choice questions: 22 on the Hardware unit, 13 on the Software unit, and 5 on the Intro to Info Tech unit.
• You will have 20 minutes to complete the quiz; the remainder of the class will be spent marking/debriefing.
• You will need to bring an HB pencil and an eraser.
• The quiz will be worth 5% of your final mark.
• My multiple choice questions tend to be a bit challenging, as I feel it's important to test deeper understanding of concepts than simple rote memorization of definitions.
• There will be no journal hand-in on the quiz day; I originally stated in the 3rd journal task that you should hand in your journal on the 24th - that was an error. Your journal is now due on October 1.
  

Some extra reading for Wednesday

The following articles would be nice to have under your belt for Wednesday (19th). They're pretty interesting - honest!

• http://factory.haiku-os.org/documentation/HIG/chapter2.html#id2662952


• http://www.basilv.com/psd/blog/2006/producing-good-software-is-hard


• http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html


• http://factory.haiku-os.org/documentation/HIG/ch02s05.html

For those scheduling demos and practice times

If you come to my office and the door is open, but I'm not there, chances are I'm helping students out in B107 or B162 - just listen for the dulcet tones of my voice. If you still can't find me, you can ask anyone in the office whether they've seen me or not.

If you come by my office and the door isn't open, please slip a note under my door to let me know you were there - I hope to make this a rare occurrence, but things *do* get a bit wild sometimes, and I might be a little late getting back to my office.

Additional reading for Hardware unit

There's some additional material to look at in the Course Docs section.

New task up in My Tasks

Words added to Hardware unit vocabulary

Please add the following to your already lengthy list of vocabulary...of course, this should be ringing alarm bells in your head:

• satisficer
• maximizer
• Moore's Law
  

New tasks up to prep for Monday's lecture in My Tasks

Quick note about DVI ports

FYI, some DVI ports look like this.

Edit to post on Discussion Board

I've edited a post I made in the September 10 forum - it's in the thread titled "Why 8 bits in a byte?"

About those email notifications

They're punted out once a day, between 7am and 9am. And you can send them to any email you want, not just your myMRC email. And they have a pine-fresh scent!

1-Minute Paper up in Discussion Board

Friday tasks up in My Tasks section

Journal task 2 up

It's in My Journal Tasks.

Demonstration 1 information now up

It's under My Demos.

Textbook chapters for our units

In case you're looking to read ahead a bit, here are the chapters that correspond to the units we're covering this semester (as per the Course Schedule):

Hardware: chapters 4 and 5
Software: chapter 3
Personal Technology: chapter 7
Technology Issues: not in text

--- midterm ---

DBs and Info Systems: chapter 8
Networks: chapter 6
Internet/WWW: chapter 2
Under the Hood: not in text
Digital Age Challenges: chapter 9, some of chapters 2 and 6
Future Issues: not in text

Q & A forum now available

There is now a Q & A forum available in our Discussion Boards. Please feel free to post any course related questions you have, and I (and hopefully other students) will answer them. You may post anonymously if you wish, if you worry that your question is "dumb".

Study group resources

Anyone considering forming a study group for this class? They're one of the best (if not *the* best) way to learn - nothing helps you understand something better than helping other people understand it!

I've placed a document with practical information on forming and running study groups - it's in Course Docs. There's also a new forum in the Discussion Forum which you can use to recruit members.

Suggested reading for Wendesday's class

Here are our objectives for Wednesday's class - I'd suggest reading up on the topics that deal with them:

• Be able to identify on sight common ports (USB, Firewire, PS/2, printer, network, VGA, DVI), know what connects with them, and know what the connecting cables look like.
• Be able to identify on sight common expansion cards (network-wired, network-wireless, sound, video), know how to insert them, and understand what they're used for.
• Be able to describe the uses of hard drives and optical drives, and know how to install them.
• Be able to describe the purpose of memory, how it compares to hard drives, and how to install it.

Hardware vocabulary list up

It's a wee bit on the large side, and is waiting for you in the My Vocabulary section of our site.

About those first 2 demonstrations being ready...

I state in the course outline that I'd have the first 2 demos available by last Friday...I obviously missed the mark.

I'll try and have the first one ready by this Friday, and the next by next Friday.

Two truths and a lie introductions - c'mon people...get your butts in gear

I noticed that less than 1/2 the class made the deadline for submission of the GDocs self-introduction....if you look at your Karma Rating under My Marks, you'll notice that you've been dinged.

I think that getting yourselves in that introduction doc is so important, I'm willing to give you a bit of time to redeem yourself - if you get your intro up before 5PM Monday (10th), I'll give you 5 karma points.

Discussion boards - keep an eye on them

Hey -

I've put up some posts on the Discussion Board regarding the 1-minute paper results from Friday's lecture. Three things:

1) I'll be doing this on a regular basis - I think your input from these papers is important (not to mention incredibly useful to me as an instructor), and that any patterns of misunderstanding or dissatisfaction should be addressed...the forums are where I'll be doing the addressing, and

2) I encourage you to add to these forums if they bring any further questions to mind, and

3) I consider anything in these forums fair game for exams.

2203 Blended contract

Two things:

1. Remember that I'd like the contract in by this Wednesday (the 12th). If you don't have a copy, you can pick it up in class on Monday, or grab a copy from the Course Docs section of our BlackBoard site.
2. Failure to hand in the contract in on time will result in a loss of 10 karma points.

Karma info up

A pdf about the karma system is now available in Course Docs.

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How about receiving an email whenever I put an announcement up? And that email can go to whatever address you like? You'll never need to log in to Blackboard over and over again just to see if there are any announcements (at least for my course) again!


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