August 31, 2004
GMail Accounts
Dan Olsen (in our class) has four GMail accounts he's willing to hand out. If you're interested, please contact him directly. He's dan at danandemily.net
Posted by windley at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)
ECLab Seminar for Fall 2004
The ECLab will be holding a weekly seminar during Fall semester 2004. We will meet in the ECLab (2204 TMCB) on Thursday's at 3:00pm. Participation in this seminar is not required for CS462 in any way, but if you're interested, you are invited to participate.
During the course of the semester, we will be reading and discussing the books on this list in order. The first meeting will be held on September 9th. If you wish to participate, please buy the first book, Hackers and Painters, ahead of time.
Watch this page for further information about the seminar over the course of the semester.
Posted by windley at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
Enterprise Computing Laboratory Positions
I'm hiring research assistants to work in the ECLab. Right now, the project I have funds for is the data center virtualization project. This work is most likely to be interesting to people who like working with systems. I'm giving preference to graduate students, but undergraduates are also encouraged to talk to me.
If virtualization doesn't float your boat, I have other thesis topics that I think are interesting. These don't yet have funding associated with them, but that shouldn't stop you if they interest you.
Posted by windley at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
Thursday's Lecture
On Thursday we'll begin talking about 2-tier architectures. You should have begun your reading for module 1.
Posted by windley at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
TA Still Needed
I'm still looking for a TA for this class. I'd prefer someone who'd taken the class before. If you know someone who fits the bill and is looking for some work, please have them contact me, or send me their contact information. I have 20 hours/week available.
Posted by windley at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2004
Groups and Project Part 0
You will complete the project in groups of two. You should find a partner. Once you do, please add your names to the table on the LabInfo page.
I've posted information for part 0 of the project. Part 0 is about setting up your development environment. The instructions are high-level. You may need additional help from me, the TA (when we find one), or your fellow students to complete some parts of it. Make sure you read the information about the Lab before you begin.
Before you can get started, your group will need a machine assigned to you. Once you've added your name to table, we'll get a machine assigned and email you the pertinent information. You're welcome to use your own machine for the labs, but be aware that you'll have to have a machine on the net (reachable from the outside) that you can completely dedicate to the project for the duration of the semester.
Your group will also need a group blog for keeping notes about the project and your work. I recommend just using a free blogger account. One of the reasons for keeping a work journal as a blog is to be able to recreate your project if you lose your machine (due either to man or machine error). For that reason, its a good idea to keep it someplace other than your server).
Posted by windley at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
Important Information
The following links give information about CS462. These links are also to the right.
Pay special attention to the texts. The syllabus gives topics that we will cover in the course and the approximate order in which we will cover them. It does not give dates. Those are on the calendar. The calendar will be updated throughout the semester as things change. Pay close attention to them.
Posted by windley at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
RSS
I will post frequently to this website and you will be responsible for the content of those posts. For example, I may cancel class one day and I will post the notification on this site. Or I may answer a question here and then consider that information fair game for the exam. You are also responsible for the content of the course calendar.
You may wonder how you can keep up with that other than simply checking with this site frequently and seeing if you can spot changes in the calendar. There's a great solution and its related to the content of this course, which makes it even better. RSS is an XML-based mark-up language for structuring time-based information and announcements. It surprisingly flexible and useful.
In fact, its so useful that people have written software for using it. These applications are called news aggregators. This RSS Topic Guide from my blog will give you some information on aggregators and RSS.
Once you have a news aggregator, its a simple matter to subscribe to the RSS feed for this site and the RSS feed for the calendar. Then you'll be able to keep up just with both of them (and lots of other stuff) simply by looking at your aggregator.
Posted by windley at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
Fair Warning
This class is a lot of work. Really. You will likely feel that the workload in this class exceeds the norm for a three credit class. I'm giving you warning now that that's the case and expecting that you'll honor that commitment. Don't take this class and then complain later to me or on course evaluations that its too much work for a three credit class.
I wish that were not so. I wish we could just leisurely stroll through the material and you'd somehow learn how to build large systems, but you won't. The only way I know for you to learn the intricacies of large system design is to practice it. That's what the projects are for.
On the other hand, many students report that this class is among the most useful of all the courses they took as an undergraduate and that employers highly value the skills they learned and the knowledge they came away with. That is a direct result of the effort that you put into the course. This course will differentiate you from other students who don't know what you know in an area that is considered by many to be the most exciting and important programming model around.
Some people complain about working in groups, to which I say "get over it." Life is about working in groups and you'll always have people who contribute more and people who contribute less. Often the difference isn't noticed and its not fair. Fair is where you go to see the pigs. Life isn't fair. The more practice you have working in groups, the better off you'll be.
Posted by windley at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome to CS462
Welcome to the course blog for CS462.
Posted by windley at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
