CSCI 1100L: Topics in Computing Lab Lab 1: Introduction to the Lab! Part I Welcome to your CSCI-1100 Lab! In the fine tradition of the CSCI-1100 course, we ll start off the lab with the classic bad joke to set the stage: First, here s a bad joke. Nothing brightens up a day more than a bad joke. Three Microsoft engineers and three Apple employees are traveling by train to a computer conference. At the station, the three Microsoft engineers each buy tickets and watch as the three Apple employees buy only a single ticket. "How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a Microsoft engineer. "Watch and you ll see," answers the Apple employee. They all board the train. The Microsoft engineers take their respective seats, but all three Apple employees cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes the ticket and moves on. The Microsoft engineers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the Microsoft engineers decide to do the same on the return trip and save some money. When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Apple employees don t buy any ticket, at all. "How are you going to travel without a ticket?" asks one perplexed Microsoft engineer. "Watch and you ll see," answers an Apple employee. When they board the train the three Microsoft engineers cram into a restroom and the three Apple employees cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the Apple employees leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the Microsoft engineers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please..." Part 1.1: Introductory Exercise You should be excited! This is, after all, the first day of lab! As you get settled into the room, notice a few things. One, you have another username (aka login name) and password to remember. The computers in the lab are also running Microsoft Windows 10. We re also running Microsoft Office 2016, and it differs a bit from previously versions of Microsoft Office. In particular, there s a giant bar (which Microsoft calls the ribbon ) instead of the menu system that you may be more used to. Don t worry, we ll go into Microsoft Word in more detail in a future lab. Page 1 of 7
The purpose of these labs is to give ya ll a chance to do some hands-on exercises and learn-by-doing. Labs may not always directly connect to the lectures that occur that week, so don t worry about that. It s meant to be that way. Since software changes can occur anytime during the semester, please excuse some lab instructions that are a bit out of date. Don t worry about these out of date instructions; instead, make it a learning experience to see the differences between versions of software. Also, feel free to use internet searches, help menus, or ask your classmates or TAs if lab instructions do not make sense or are out of date. In each lab, we ll list objectives for what that lab is supposed to cover. Today s objectives include: - Introducing you to the computer lab you re in (either Boyd 201 or 307A) - Lab policies - Explaining how you can access your network storage drive - Learn some Windows 10 features - Get comfortable using Windows 10 Network Drive Space The first thing we want to show you is that you have space on our big departmental hard drive. We call this personal network storage and it s commonly referred to as the I-drive (no, not the big knob found in BMWs to navigate through the stereo). No matter if you re in Boyd 201, 307A, or 307, you will have access to the space allocated to you on the I-drive as long as you logged in successfully with your own user id and password (i.e. you didn t use the default lab password). You should save all your work on the I-Drive, and if you have one, bring a USB flash drive to class to back things up. Backing up is a good habit to pick up! We ll talk more about that in lecture mid-semester Part 1.2 Keyboard Shortcut #1: + E (Windows Key + E) Windows 10 is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. On one hand, you may see Windows Modern User Interface, which is full of Tiles. To explore the files on your I-drive, we need to open up This PC in Windows 10. You can do this by clicking the Windows button to get into the traditional Windows mode. Choose File Explorer, and then you will be able to choose This PC from the left. Page 2 of 7
You can also access the This PC by using the following short-cut: - Press-and-hold the Windows logo button on the keyboard and then tap the E key. (Think of E as meaning, I want to Explore the files on my computer. Choose This PC from the left. o Now, you should see a window like the one above that shows: The hard drive on this computer (the C: drive ) Removable devices such as the DVD-ROM drive (the D: drive ) or any USB drives that may be connected to the computer List of network locations o In the list of network locations, you should see a drive labeled with your myid, along with its location on the computer network and its associated drive letter (the I: drive ). o Double-click on the I-drive to open it and explore its contents. Right now you may not see much in the I drive, but at the end of the exercises today, there should be more files in there as you save your work to this drive. o Note: The I drive will not appear if you use the default lab password, it will only appear if you log in with your myid and password. o Part 1.3: The 1100L Lab Format The lab exercises will be found by following a link in your elc lab course page. Or, if you d like, you can set a bookmark in your favorite Web browser to point to http://cobweb.cs.uga.edu/~cs1100/lab/ Throughout the labs we ask that you download files and exercise from the labs page, and this page may move, however, your lab instructor will always post a link to the lab web page in your elc lab course page. If you have any trouble finding materials for the lab, then ask one of your lab instructors. We won t have any substantial lectures in the 1100 labs. The format will be a quick introduction to the lab by the lab instructor, then you ll spend time walking through different things and performing exercises similar to this one. Part 1.4: Saving in lab files to your I: drive Page 3 of 7
All lab exercises should be saved to your I drive (or use another folder like Documents if you can t access your I drive), and then opened up in their own window. To get started on the next exercise first we will need to save the Lab1-Part2 to your I: drive by doing the following: 1. Open up Mozilla Firefox from the Desktop, which is an alternative browser to the Windows default browser of Internet Explorer. We prefer to use Firefox over Internet Explorer since it has several options not available in Internet Explorer. 2. Go to the lab webpage, either through the link on elc or by going to http://cobweb.cs.uga.edu/~cs1100/lab 3. Right click on the Lab1-Part2 link, then click Save Link As 4. A Save window should pop up with 5. Scroll down the left pane to find This PC, and click on it 6. If you logged in with your myid and password (not the default lab password), then you should see your I: drive that contains your name as shown below for the 7. Click the Save button. 8. After the file saves to your I drive, click the Open button. Part 1.5: Setting up Mozilla Firefox to automatically save lab files to the I: drive One nice feature that Mozilla Firefox has that Internet Explorer doesn t is the ability to choose the default downloads folder. Since everything needs to be saved to your I: drive in the lab, setting up this feature in Firefox, and using it comes in handy. Below is how to set up all downloads from Firefox to go to your I: drive. 1. Open up Mozilla Firefox. 2. Click on Tools, and then click on Options. An Options window will appear. Page 4 of 7
3. Click the General option if it isn t already highlighted. 4. Make sure the Save files to radio button is selected, and then click Browse. A Browse window should pop up. 5. Click the This PC link on the left hand side of the window. 6. Click on your I drive (your I drive will have your myid or name in it). 7. You may close the tab or browser and setting will be saved. Now everything you download with Firefox will be saved automatically to your I: drive, and when you click Save Link As, the I: drive should be default that pops up. Page 5 of 7
Try it out by saving a file on our labs with Firefox. Open up your I: drive and verify that the lab file was saved to your I: drive. We highly recommend using Firefox in the labs because of this and other nifty features you ll be exposed to in later labs. Part 1.6: Creating Web space and uploading.html In the past, UGA used to provide space for you to put up Web pages. However, with our new systems on campus, this is no longer the case. For this class, we are going to have you create a Github account and we will use that to host your Web projects later in the semester. Point your Web browser to http://www.github.com. Github is a version control system that s often used by computer programmers. Wait, what? To explain what version control is, let s think of something you ve likely done. Say you re working on a term paper and you name the file, AwesomeTermPaper.docx. Then, say you add some stuff and save the files as AwesomeTermPaper2.docx so you have an older version as well as the newer version with updates. That s version control! When computer programmers are writing software like Microsoft Office, it s typically thousands or millions of lines of code. Systems like Github allow multiple people to work on code, and to manage to save stopping points along the way. Don t worry, we aren t going to be writing millions of lines of code in this class. Github also allows us a nifty way to put Web pages on the Internet for free! What you need to do at this stage: 1. Go to http://www.github.com 2. Choose Sign up for Github 3. Choose a username and password. For this class, you are strongly encouraged to use your myid. You should use a different password than your myid, however! 4. On the Choose Your Plan page, choose the free plan. 5. Raise your hand and let your TA know what your username is for Github. He or she will keep a spreadsheet to keep track of everyone. Also, you and you re TA may need this information later on in the semester; so please keep it handy. Part 1.7: Logging off of a computer Whenever you use a public computer like the ones in the lab, it is critical to save your work, and to always log off properly so your account and your work will be protected. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO LOG OFF OF A COMPUTER BEFORE YOU LEAVE ANY OF OUR LABS! To log off of a Windows 10 computer, click on the Windows button the top left corner of the menu and select Sign Out., then click on your ID in Page 6 of 7
If you don t log off a public computer, other people can access your work and anything else in your account, which can lead to all sorts of trouble. Thus, you should always log off any pubic computers like the ones found in our computer labs. Also, if you see an empty computer that has someone already logged in, please ask a lab instructor to take care of logging out the previous user. Now take this time to practice logging in and out. Read the rest of this paragraph, and then log off the computer you are at, and move to another computer in the lab (you may need to switch computers with another student or find an empty seat in the lab) and log into it. You should be able to see the files you ve saved in your I drive from another computer in the lab. Once you get the hang of logging in and out, then move on to the next lab exercise on the labs web page. Page 7 of 7