ICS 691 News 1(3)

[Philip Johnson <johnson@hawaii.edu>]

ICS 691 News, Week One, Issue 3

In this issue:
 * Sign/attendance checking
 * Update to VCommerce docs
 * Resume index
 * CR/NC option
 * whois command
 * group assignments
 * homework turn-in


----
Sign/attendance checking

Some of you may have been wondering just how I was going to take
attendance.  The answer is that you are required to construct a name
card.  Not just any name card, mind you, I want a *cool* name card,
and one that can be read easily even via the HITS cameras.  My
recommended approach is as follows.  Use Microsoft Word to print out
your name as large as possible in landscape mode. See
http://csdl.ics.hawaii.edu/~johnson/691s00/resources/sign.doc for a
template.  Print this out twice.  Then get a manila folder, and tape
your name to both sides.  Trim the little piece that sticks out, and
you have a beautiful, visible name card!  From tomorrow night on,
those of you who have a name card displayed will be officially "in
class". Those of you who don't, won't, so please bring your name card
every week!

Also: no handwritten signs allowed.  You must have a computer printed
name sign for legibility. I used 180 pt font size; please make yours
at least over 100 pt. Please put your name on both sides of the
manila folder so people in back of you and on either side of you can
see your name as well as those in front of you.  I've required this
in prior semesters in HITS and it really works well for helping
people to learn each other's names. 

----
Updates to VCommerce docs

I updated the VCommerce documents earlier this week on 1/19/00.  If
you have an earlier date listed on your hardcopy, then you may want
to upgrade to the newest release.

----
Resume Index

I've placed a link on the ICS 691 home page to an index page
containing links to all of you who have submitted your resumes so
far.  Please check it out!  In general, I am delighted with the
diversity of student interests and skills in this class. A few of you
did not include a resume, or it is unreadable, or poorly formatted.
You probably want to fix this at your earliest convenience.  Feel
free to steal cool format hacks from the other resumes in this area
:-)

---
CR/NC Option

A few of you have enrolled in this course as CR/NC.  Please change to
A-F option as soon as possible.  This course is not organized to
support the CR/NC option, and it's not fair to assign you to a group
if you're just trying to get credit while others are trying to get an
A.  

----
whois command

As you come up with your company name, you need to check to see if
the corresponding domain name has already been taken.  You use the
"whois" command to do this, which is usually available on unix
systems.  Due to recent changes in the way domain names are
administered, the most simple way to check if the domain "foo.com" is
taken is by the command:

  % whois -h whois.geektools.com foo.com

If foo.com is registered, a bunch of info is spat out. (And, BTW, it
is.)

----
Group assignments

Some of you think you know what group you're in. Well, you're wrong.
While I encourage you to express preferences, it is up to me to make
the final assignments.  I will try to respect preferences, but I make
no guarantees.  I will be doing so for those who have submitted a
resume to me tomorrow night at class.  Those who haven't submitted a
resume won't get assigned until they do, so you better hurry up!

----
Homework turn-in

A remote student asked me about turning in homework.  Those of you
not attending class in Kuykendall should email me the homework (as an
attachment or whatever) prior to class.  You should also bring a copy
to class so we can discuss it. 


That's it for now. See you tomorrow!

Philip