LIS451AL1

This is a recording of the meeting we held Wednesday, May 7, 2008 from 5-6 PM (ok, so maybe it went a few minutes long) in advance of the start of Summer I.

• MP4 (iTunes) Version
• MP3 Version

The following three questions were addressed (along with a few tangents):

• What is the objective of the course?
• Will I miss learning about something because another project team is doing the work with that technology?
• What are the travel logistics for the course.

Enjoy, and I look forward to seeing you next Monday in class

-- Martin

As promised, I've created and put online a quicktime movie that reviews the steps I have been taking to try to resolve the video driver issues encountered when installing Ubuntu Linux on a Dell Latitude D630 laptop. Enjoy!

Slide 1 of the Trip Prep lecture notes PODCAST: firstdates.m4a

Slides 2 through 7 of the Trip Prep lecture notes PODCAST: firstvisitwithsitecoordinator.m4a

Slides 8 through 12 of the Trip Prep lecture notes PODCAST: finalprojectwork.m4a

Slides 13-20 of the Trip Prep lecture notes. PODCAST: physicalinfrastructure.m4a

My question for the week may be moving ahead or perhaps beyond the scope of the course, but I'm curious about the different Linux distributions out there. I'm aware that many people strongly advocate one over others, and that there are distributions designed for different purposes, but is there a good guide that gives an overview of the commonly-used distributions and the settings in which they're used? PODCAST: linuxdistros.m4a

This podcast covers the issues involved in securing an OS. It is material I would have covered in answering the Concept Paper question on the same topic during the OS install. PODCAST: securinganos.m4a

My second question is about remote access through a CLI. You discussed the ability to check one's email with a CLI and the benefits of being able to do this. But I was wondering how we would go about doing this? Can you show us? The first reading also described Unix as a CLI---but Edubuntu is a GUI! Is Linux more flexible than Unix in that regard, or do people just not want to use Unix that way? Would it be accurate to say that due to the recall orientation of command-driven user interfaces versus the recognition orientation of GUIs, CLIs take more time and thought to use in the beginning, but GUIs take more time because of all of the sifting you have to do (if you are doing manual installations)? PODCAST: cli.m4a

I don't understand the statement in the first reading about how many different users can be on a Unix system at the same time and not be aware of the other users. Is the text speaking of a networked server or of logon profiles or something else entirely? Because if my dad is on the computer at home and it goes idle, the logon screen will appear and I can logon under my profile knowing that he is also logged on. How do multiple logon profiles work, anyway? PODCAST: multipleloginsonunix.m4a

My biggest question is with the supporting application/library files and how it interacts with other parts, I would be grateful if you explained that one more time briefly. This is pretty a much a simple yes/ no question, but I’m still confused by the concept of libraries. My computer seems to have a lot of them, some of them attached to programs (like my iTunes library) and some of them attached to my own files (like “my Videos” library). Are these the same sort of subprogram, or not because “my Videos” doesn’t seem to be attached to one particular program? PODCAST: libraryfiles.m4a

Are their utilities to make Windows drives be as versatile as Unix/Linux (flexible name convention and not letter convention)? When would we want to use a compact installation option with an OS? I've forgotten. How do I back up my entire system -- all my files, applications, settings? (I use a Mac.) PODCAST: miscweek5.m4a

A question that I have, that is not directly related, is why did computer engineers begin using the binary number system? What are the advantaged and disadvantages of using it compared to the decimal system? I am still not sure I can answer the question on slide 5 about bus widths and character encoding. I understand the basic concept of binary, but it all went too fast. It might sound stupid but I still have trouble with binary numbering system and how it's applied on a daily routine basis. PODCAST: binary.m4a

I think the most surprising thing I learned last week was that the hard drive is or can be partitioned, which I'm still trying to let sink in. I'm struggling with why you would section off your hard drive in the first place--why would you want to have more letters to deal with? I read in Meyers that it helps with backing up files and such, especially if the C: drive crashes; I just wouldn't want to go through all the hassle of keeping track of what's on what drive. But it's good to know that I have the option! I understand how to partition but the high level formatting is still a bit unclear PODCAST: partitioningandformating.m4a

The Meyers chapter on RAM seemed like it contained information about a lot of types of RAM that is obsolete. Are there any new advances in RAM that happened post-publication? I have a question about SCSI. I still don't really understand when SCSI would be used to add components and when it wouldn't. When we added the second hard drive in lab, were we using SCSI to do it? We used piggyback ribbon cables, but I don't remember a SCSI host adaptor... I'm also wondering what this BIOS autodetection is and why we didn't do it when we installed our hard drives (p. 212-13). We did look to make sure that the computer recognized the hard drive, but I don't remember going through the process described in the book. Is it just an alternative method to what we did? Can you mix and match the old EIDE drives with the new SATA. How are motherboards now configured for the new standard and do they still support the old standard? PODCAST: miscweek3.m4a