COMS 1001: Introduction to Computers (Spring 2006)

General Information:

Prerequisites: Introductory course requires basic familiarity with a computer. Must know how to type, surf the web, and read email. If you're not exactly sure how to do these with respect to Columbia's computer systems, please see me. I can be reached via email or at 1 (212) 939 7177. No knowledge of any programming language is required. The course consists solely of a 3 point lecture, although the homework assignments include light programming tasks. You do NOT need to purchase a CLIC, Columbia CS, or MRL account for this course. The only programming tools you need access to are a web browser (e.g., Firefox) and the Unix command line provided by the CUNIX environment.

The SSH client PuTTY is useful to access the cunix.cc.columbia.edu machines to do your work remotely from a MS Windows computer.

Personnel:

Name	Role	UNI	Office Hours
Michael Locasto	Instructor	mel2008	15:30 - 17:30 :: Wednesday, CSB 522, or by appointment
Lauren Wilcox	TA	lgw23	13:30 - 14:30 :: Tuesday & Thursday, TA Room
Sambuddho Chakravarty	TA	sc2516	18:00 - 19:00 :: Monday & Wednesday, TA Room

Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday 17:40 -- 18:55, 833 S. W. Mudd Hall. Improve your heart rate -- take the stairs.

Course Texts:

Required:

1. Learning the Bash Shell, 3^rd Edition by Cameron Newham and Bill Rosenblatt (ISBN 0-596-00965-8)
2. JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Web Programmers by Danny Goodman (ISBN 0-596-00467-2)

1. Invitation to Computer Science 2^nd Edition by G. Michael Schneider and Judith L. Gersting
   Java Version, Thomson Course Technoloogy, 2005. (ISBN 0534419941)

For the text books, remember that B&N usually offers same day delivery in Manhattan. You can also obtain them directly from the publisher (OReilly), Amazon.com, or the school bookstore.

Lecture Notes and Course Schedule:

Columbia Academic Calendar

Date	Topic	Assignment(s) Due	Notes
January 17	Course Overview
January 19	Computer Organization [review 1]
January 24	Digital Logic, Boolean Algebra, Binary	Read "In the Beginning..."	alu.jpg
January 26	Essay Discussion, Digital Logic, ALU operation	Assignment 1
January 31	Assembly Language, FDX-cycle [review 2]
February 2	Intro to Bash and CUNIX	Read Chp1, Bash Basics, in LTBS	CUNIX notes
February 7	Bash Commands, Intro to HTML [html review]	Assignment 2	fun with Bash
February 9	Intro to Javascript [review]		[hello.html, dec2bin.html]
February 14	Variables and Strings	HW1	cscu.jpg, hw1page.pdf
February 16	Arrays	Read Chp1 (pp 1--25) in JS&DC	[strings.html, print-array.html]
February 21	Control Flow and Math	Read Chp3 (pp 50--63) in JS&DC	math.html
February 23	Functions [review]	Read Chp4 (pp 80--101) in JS&DC	simplefunc.html
February 28	Recursion		recursion.html, towers.html
March 2	Review for Midterm
March 7	Midterm Exam
March 9	Video about Open Source and Linux	HW2
March 14	Spring Recess
March 16	Spring Recess
March 21	Midterm answers		hangman hint
March 23	Languages and Levels/Assembly		sh.c, add.c, add.s
March 28	Operating Systems
March 30	No meeting	(optional) attend
April 4	OS (cont.)	Extra Credit
April 6	Scheduling Algorithms [review]
April 11	Networking & Internet
April 13	Security
April 18	Presentations 1	HW4 due
April 20	Presentations 2
April 25	Final Exam Review
April 27	Final Exam	Mudd 833	17:40-19:00

Course Policies:

The point of this course is your intellectual enlightenment and enjoyment. I want the course to run as smoothly as possible, so I encourage feedback on both positive and negative aspects. Feel free to drop by my office, send email, or leave a note.

Your grade is based on 1000 points and is split according to the following schedule:

• 30% homeworks (submission instructions)
• 30% final exam
• 30% midterm exam
• 10% class participation

Class participation counts heavily towards your final grade. I expect and encourage thoughtful and lively participation and discussion. I strongly encourage you to use the class web discussion board to communicate with the TA. This BBoard is not the one in Courseworks. Refer to the link at the top of the page.

Refrain from posting solutions or questions that encode a solution. DO ask questions that would likely be of help to your classmates. If you have a question, it may have been answered on the board already, so please check before you post a "me too" question.

I typically DO NOT scale or curve grades unless there is a classwide epidemic of failure. Plan your work and effort based on the assumption that there will be no curve, but don't panic. The point of the course is to reward you for learning, not penalize you for not learning.

You can contact me via email, but please start your email's subject with the string [COMS 1001]; otherwise, I will likely not see it -- I get a lot of email. Please refrain from emailing us technical questions directly; instead, use the BBoard, as we monitor it frequently. You should save direct emails for personal discussions (your grade, etc.). You can encrypt your email to me if you wish, using my GPG (GNU Privacy Guard) public key. Keep your email short and to the point. I'll probably ignore it if it is longer than one or two paragraphs.

Please turn off all cell phones and other noise-making devices.

There may be unannounced quizzes. They will count toward your class participation and cannot be made up.

While collaboration on homework and projects is greatly encouraged, your answers must be original. No collaboration is allowed on the final or midterm. Students collaborating on assignments must clearly list with whom they worked. If your answers look the same or I feel that one person did the work and the other copied, I will treat the incident as plagiarism, give both students a zero, and forward the matter to the Dean. The bottom line is that general discussion is welcome, but specific solutions cross the line.

Cheating and Plagiarism are absolutely forbidden. I will assume that you have read both the Computer Science Department's Policies and Procedures Regarding Academic Honesty and Columbia's Engineering School general Policy on Conduct. Retribution and penance are swift and severe. Again, I urge you to read the policies for your own good. It is almost absurdly easy to discover cheating, and often difficult enough to do a good job camouflaging the cheating that you would have saved time just doing the assignment.

No late work will be accepted.

Grievence procedures: If you feel that grading was unfair, you must follow this procedure in order to document your case and bring it to a swift and fair conclusion. The policy is meant to give you a fair shake without wasting the TA or professor's time. This is a classic tradeoff; computer science is all about tradeoffs.

1. When your work is returned to you, check it.
2. Do NOT make an immediate verbal complaint to the professor or TA. Such complaints will be ignored or forgotten. Instead, see point 3.
3. Document in writing what you think is the grading mistake. Writing does not include email. "Writing" means hard copy printouts of typed material.
4. Submit your written complaint to the TA. Keep a copy for yourself.
5. The TA will respond in writing. The TA will keep a copy for herself.
6. If the matter is not resolved by the TA, you may submit the written record of the dispute to the professor.
7. The professor will examine the written record only and decide the merit of the matter. The professor's word is final.

1. Be terse. Good writing does not waste words. Eloquence is not indicated by complex and flowery phrases.
2. The right to regrade the entire assignment is reserved.
3. If you have a complaint, you should initiate this procedure no later than one week from the time the work was returned (or made available) to you, regardless of whether you were in class or not.
4. Don't try to justify a clearly wrong answer. Argue only for what are clear mistakes in grading or where you believe the official answer is flawed or wrong. If your argument has merit, it will succeed.
5. Avoid ad hominem attacks. Stick to the facts.