General outline of the course; homepage and what's on it
Please, please, please: ask questions.
Computer basic notions
bits, bytes, ASCII text, files, directories, memory, applications, GUI,
operating systems: windows/mac/unix
(Aside: where do you find out what "ASCII" meansif you can't remmber?)
Either (1) "Ask Google", or (2) acronyms on the wiki - see course homepage.)
the command line - getting dirty down in the trenches
Networks (i.e. ethernet) and distributed file systems.
Physical copper wires, optical fibers, letters by horseback, ...
Types of data in files and file "extensions" (i.e. .txt, .doc, ...)
What is the "internet" and why is it called that?
Answer: a uniform "protocol" for passing data and requests for
data between diverse networks. Between networks = Inter-net.
A small internet for one organization is called an "Intranet."
Components of the technology
Bandwidth - the rate of flow of those bits. (Examples: 100Mbps ethernet, 56k modem,
image transfer time)
Client/Server model. (Example: Netscape/Apache)
TCP/IP - what's making it work behind
the scenes for most of the 'net. (What does this stand for, and
how do you find out?)
IP Addresses: 12.6.230.2 (Example: "host" command on akbar)
Routers and packets
URI/URL specification: "http://www.marlboro.edu/jims/stuff.txt" means
"HyperTextTransferProtocol to computer 12.6.230.2, directory jims/ ,
file stuff.txt"
a uniform way to specify file, computer, and interaction.
Put it all together: WWW = the World Wide Web
DNS (Domain Name System) give lookup from www.marlboro.edu (humans like those names) to 12.6.230.2 (computers like those names). Like the phone system.
Skills # 1 : computers at Marlboro
Your account on www.marlboro.edu = akbar.marlboro.edu
username, password
services: command prompt, file storage, email, web server