CMSC 104 -- Problem Solving & Computer Programming | Section 0101, Instructor: John Y. Park
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Previous Course Announcements

Mon, Dec 08, 2008 -- Survey time again!

We would like you to fill out a companion survey to the one that you completed at the beginning of the course. This is really important to helping improve the curriculum at the university, so PLEASE fill it out. We're even making it ultra-convenient for you! You can fill out a paper copy that will be handed out in class today, or you can go online to this link to fill it out. Thanks!

Mon, Dec 08, 2008 -- Exam 3 sample questions have been posted.

On Monday, Dec. 15, we will have our third and last exam. It will be in our usual lecture room, and it will be, as always, closed book/closed notes. The sample questions for the exam are available at this link, and questions for the actual exam will be drawn from this set, with minor changes possible to quantities, variable and function names, and the like. This exam will concentrate on concepts that have been covered in the third segment of this course: switches, functions, and arrays, but will also include some questions covering topics covered on the first two exams, especially where it bears on general programming skills. Good luck!!!

Tue, Nov 11, 2008 -- Exam 2 sample questions have been posted.

On Monday, Nov. 17, we will have our second exam. As before, it will be in class, closed book/closed notes. Also as before, the questions on the exam will be drawn from this sample set, with some minor changes possible to quantities, variable and function names, and the like.

Mon, Nov 10, 2008 -- Extension for Project 2 (with penalty)

I've decided to give the option of an extension for Project 2, until Nov. 12 (Wed) at 11:59pm, but there will be a 20-point penalty for those who need to take advantage of it. So, if you would have gotten an 80 on an on-time project, you would now get 60 points. Anyone who had properly turned in their assignment before the original (Nov. 7 at 11:59pm) deadline can either let that submission stand, or can choose to submit a better version *with* the penalty; obviously, you should only do this if you think you can pull up your grade by more than 20 points on the new-and-improved version. You just have to use the "submit" program a second time to override your original version. Remember: once you do this, you can't go back, because the second "submit" will overwrite what you turned in the first time.

Tue, Oct 07, 2008 -- Exam 1 sample questions have been posted.

Monday will be our first exam. It will be given in class, closed book/closed notes. The questions for the actual exam will be drawn from this sample set, with some possible minor edits to keep it from getting boring :-)

Mon, Sep 29, 2008 -- The Help Center is now officially open

The room is ITE 201E and the hours are:
Monday: 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Tuesday: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Wednesday: 10:00pm - 4:00pm
Thursday: 2:00pm - 8:00pm
Friday: 12:00pm - 6:00pm

Thu, Sep 11, 2008 -- How to log in from a Mac

Good news/bad news for Mac users; first, the Bad: there isn't a version of TeraTerm for MacOS. Now, the Good: you don't need one. Here's how to access the UMBC Linux cluster from a Mac:

From the Finder, go to the "Applications" folder, then into the "Utilities" subfolder, where you will find an app called "Terminal". Launch that, and it will pop up a terminal window, much like what you saw during our lab when you ran TeraTerm. However, this is not yet a connection to the GL machines!!! Instead, it is a command-line interface to your own Mac (which is actually secretly running a variant of UNIX).

You now need to type: 

    ssh gl.umbc.edu -l yourusername
(then return) into that window. To clarify: the above command has *four* parts, separated by spaces:
  1. "ssh" -- tells your Mac to run its Secure SHell program
  2. "gl.umbc.edu" -- tells ssh to try to connect to (one of) the GL machines
  3. "-l" -- stands for "using logname..."
  4. "yourusername" -- replace w/your UMBC logname
Ssh will then prompt you for your UMBC password, and if all goes well, you will be connected to one of the university Linux machines, get a bunch of system notices, and finally, the "linux#[1]" prompt. You're then good to go!

Mon, Sep 08, 2008 -- Please complete the survey!

The survey that we have been handing out in class is also now available to be filled out online. Please, PLEASE complete one if you haven't already done so. Follow this link.

Mon, Sep 08, 2008 -- Lab classroom:

This Wednesday and next Monday (9/10 & 9/15), we will be holding class in one of the computer labs in the Engineering Building, right next door to ITE. We will meet in ENG 122/122A at the regular class time. This will be our classroom for all labs this semester.

Wed, Sep 03, 2008 -- Schedule change

I've had to tweak the schedule a bit: the lab and exam, scheduled for 10/8 and 10/13 respectively, have been been flipped. So, the "C Compiler" lab is now on Oct. 8th, and the exam has been pushed back to Oct. 13. HW#3 will still be handed out at the lab, but the due date has not been changed, so you will have longer than the usual week to finish it, to make up for having an intervening exam (but you should really be able to complete it during the lab!).

Tue, Sep 02, 2008 -- Schedule for semester now online

The tentative class schedule, including lecture topics, homework, project, and exam dates, etc. is now available through the course web pages: hit the "Schedule" tab on the home page for our section. Note the heading: I am still tweaking the schedule to try to cut you guys some slack and arrange for Wed. before Thanskgiving to be an "optional" day, but we will have to see how progress during the intervening classes works out. We got hit with the double whammy of missing two Mondays due to the partial first week and Labor Day. See you all in class tomorrow!

Sat, Aug 30, 2008 -- Course web pages now online

Hello, all, Most of the key web pages for CMSC 104, Section 0101 are finally available online. As I mentioned in class, just go to "cs.umbc.edu/104/", then click on "Fall 2008", then "Section 0101", to get to our sections's homepage. The main page and syllabus are final versions, and I should have the semester's schedule up by tonight/tomorrow. Sorry for the slow startup pains.


Last modified: Wednesday, 03-Sep-2008 13:17:00 EDT