Here you can find the course news reproduced from the individual
outlines.
Friday, May 5, 2000:
- Jeff has posted a rough
outline of Monday's class.
- Read Dewdney 8 for Monday.
- Suppose a student sent me a link to an annoying JavaScript
example that popped up 150 dialog boxes. What should my
response be?
Wednesday, May 3, 2000:
- Reminder: I really do want questions and outlines in advance.
- Sarah won't be here today. Will someone take notes?
:
Monday, May 1, 2000:
- It really does help if you get me
- questions a day in advance
- answers by 9am
- outlines by 9am
- The remaining schedule can be found on today's web page
Friday, April 28, 2000:
Wednesday, April 26, 2000:
- Read Dewdney 33 (Analog Computation) for Friday.
Tuesday, April 25, 2000:
- Liz asked about Van Eck radiation monitoring. Here are some
resources that I've found. I've noted that many of the linked
pages contain even more grammatical errors than my rough outlines,
even those presented as professional reports.
- Those of you looking into study abroad might be interested in
an article on online resources at
http://chronicle.com/free/2000/04/2000042501t.htm.
- For tomorrow, read Chapter 9 of Forester and Morrison. Sam should
have a question ready real soon now.
Monday, April 24, 2000:
- For tomorrow, read Chapter 6 of Forester and Morrison. Cathy will
lead tomorrow's class
- I forgot to bring F&M with me this weekend, so I'll sheepishly
admit to not having read it recently.
Friday, April 21, 2000:
- Today's class will be short; we'll plan the next three weeks and then
go off and enjoy the day.
- I was glad to see so many of you at the Africana Studies talks.
- I was sorry to see so few of you at the bias in testing talk.
- Read Forester and Morrison, Chapter 3, for Monday.
Wednesday, April 19, 2000:
- Upcoming events:
- Thursday night's Africana studies conference
- Cool talk on bias in standardized testing Thursday at 4:30.
- On Monday, April 24th at 7 p.m. in South Lounge, Katie Koestner,
a nationally recognized, outspoken survivor of college date rape and
sexual assault prevention specialist, will present a program for
students and community members.
- A few of you have suggested a different structure for the last few
weeks of the semester: each of you pick a topic (preferably including
a chapter in Dewdney or Forester and Morrison) to present. Everyone
reads the appropriate chapter. The presenter also reads supplementary
materials that she/he finds on the Web and consults with Sarah and me as
necessary.
Tuesday, April 18, 2000:
- For tomorrow, read
Dewdney 26 (Nondeterminism) and 54 (NP-Complete Problems)
- Upcoming events:
- Thursday night's Africana studies conference
- Cool talk on bias in standardized testing Thursday at 4:30.
Monday, April 17, 2000:
- The MathLAN was down while I was prepping class, so I may not have things
as organized as I'd like.
- Upcoming events:
- Monica Neagoy's talk tonight at 7:30 in Harris.
- Thursday night's Africana studies conference
- Spend a few minutes going over
your answers to today's
questions before class.
- I've put the summaries of our discussions online
- For tomorrow, read
Dewdney 26 (Nondeterminism) and 54 (NP-Complete Problems)
Tuesday, May 2, 2000:
- Next week, we'll move on to some topics in the theory of computation.
Essentially, our goal is to talk about what can and cannot be computed,
but we need some background first.
- The following week, we'll try to move on to topics in e-commerce.
- For Monday, read Dewdney 2 (Finite Automata), 7 (The Chomsky Hierarchy),
and 66 (Church's Thesis)
Wednesday, April 12, 2000:
Tuesday, April 11, 2000:
- Today's questions is a little bit different; let me know if you find it
confusing.
- I'll do my best to find an appropriate genetic algorithm or neural
network simulator for tomorrow so that we can see how well both
``learn''.
Monday, April 10, 2000:
Friday, April 7, 2000:
- Here's the schedule for the next few days
- Today: Consider your automatic
reasoning examples
- Monday: Neural networks
- Tuesday: Genetic Algorithms
- Wednesday: Experiments
- Friday: AI Wrapup
- Missing class does not exempt you from sending in responses to the
questions on time.
- Attendance is still required.
- Three risks responses are due today: 20.84, 20.85, and 20.86
- Please let me know which digest you're replying to.
Wednesday, April 5, 2000:
- Read Dewdney 27 (Perceptrons) and 36 (Neural Networks that Learn)
- Since so many of you had problems with today's question, I'm
giving it to you again.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000:
- For tomorrow, read Dewdney 58 (Predicate Calculus) and 64 (Logic
Programming)
- We'll return to the question of how we determine whether a program
is intelligent on Friday (or perhaps the following Monday).
- We're meeting in an alternate room today. Sorry for the late
notice.
Monday, April 3, 2000:
- Notes on the Risks I sent you over break are due on Friday.
- Among the many things that I planned to do over break and lacked the
time to do: write sample stories. Hence, you are no longer required
to write those stories. You may do so for some extra credit, though.
- I also didn't have time to do more grading of your work to date.
- Expect an interesting assignment having to do with these various
issues.
- Read Dewdney, chapter 6 (game trees) for tomrorow.
- Sarah will look for a copy of Eliza for tomorrow.
Friday, March 17, 2000:
Wednesday, March 15, 2000:
- The college's Usenet news service has stopped providing news. Mr. Stone
has now identified an alternative Usenet supplier, Supernews
(
http://www.supernews.com/), which has agreed to a free trial
of its Usenet service, starting now and continuing through the coming
weekend. To connect, point your news reader at corp.supernet.com
(207.126.101.100). Please let Mr. Stone know what you think.
- Some of you have asked how you can move beyond a B in the class.
My general rule of thumb is that A indicates exceptional, and doing
all the work correctly is not (or should not be) exceptional. You
need to show something special to move towards the A range.
- It would also be nice if you would more carefully check your
grammar and spelling. Check out
SamR's writing bugaboos
for some writing habits that I find particularly painful.
- Did anyone hear the news about the ``software bug'' in the
Mars lander?
Tuesday, March 14, 2000:
- On Friday, we'll work on BillMan. You may want to start thinking
about what features you'd like to see in BillMan.
Monday, March 13, 2000:
- A risks digest (20.83) is
now available. Comments due Friday.
- I managed to snag copies of Database Nation, the
extended Cathedral and the Bazaar, and an anthology on
Open Sources from O'Reilly and Associates (thanks, ORA!).
If you'd like to borrow one of them for break, let me know.
- For tomorrow, read chapter 10 of Dewdney (on Program Correctness)
- Just a reminder: I'll have sample stories ready after break.
If I don't, I'll drop the requirement.
Wednesday, March 8, 2000:
- Reminder: No class on Friday. Catch up on your other classes.
- For next Monday, read Forester & Morrison, Chapter 5
Tuesday, March 7, 2000:
- Don't forget, there is no class on Friday. I'll be at the SIGCSE
Symposium on Computer Science Education.
- A few of you have asked about the stories (since I haven't given you
samples). I'd still like you to write stories, but we'll
wait until after break (when I'll have samples ready).
- If I don't have samples ready after break, we'll drop the assignment.
- Tomorrow, we'll look at JavaScript from a different perspective:
the interaction of non-programmers (the students in this class)
with programmers (Sarah and SamR). In particular, we'll try to
design (and maybe even build) a game.
- Your question for tomorrow involves thinking about how the
techniques we've learned so far might be used in a game.
- For next Monday, read Forester & Morrison, Chapter 5
Monday, March 6, 2000:
- Not to stifle your creativity, but I get a lot of email, and
when I'm looking for email from my students, I look under their names.
If possible, please set your name appropriately when you send email
to me. Thanks.
Friday, March 3, 2000:
- I spent all my preparation time for today's class working on the
sample JavaScripts, so things are even more vague than normal.
Wednesday, March 1, 2000:
- Many responses are getting somewhat unreadable. At the minimum, please
spell-check your responses.
- Jae raised some interesting issues in his comments for today's class.
We'll return to those issues next week.
- There will be no class on Friday, March 10.
Tuesday, February 29, 2000:
- As I noted at the beginning of the semester, I'll be out of town next
Friday (March 10), attending a conference on computer science education.
Since many of you have midterms, and can use the extra time, I'm
cancelling class.
- Apologies for the sketchiness of today's outline. I'm still working
hard to catch up from having been away for a week.
Monday, February 28, 2000:
- Thanks for your patience with me away. The news is basically good:
my mother does not have cancer. However, she's still having trouble
breathing and is still in the Respiratory ICU.
- I received over 200 email messages while I was away, so it will take
some time to get to any email you sent.
- There was no ``question of the day'' for today.
- What did you learn while I was away?
Sam was gone for week five, so there is no news.
Wednesday, February 16, 2000:
- I don't have your work-to-date graded (but I do have a good story about
why). It's on my priority list for tonight and tomorrow.
- Don't forget that I need your
responses to
Risks 20.78 some time
today.
- Risks 20.79 is now available.
Comments are due Monday.
- I've found some interesting books from the National Academy Press.
If anyone would like to discuss part or all of these books, we might
modify the schedule to include them.
- I was planning to discuss JavaScript next week (JavaScript is a language
used for programming Web pages) but, given your reactions to writing
algorithms, was not sure how you felt about that.
- I think we'll understand many topics better if we try to write
algorithms in a programming language.
- I also understand that many of you find that idea frustrating.
Tuesday, February 15, 2000:
- On Wednesday and Friday, we'll consider algorithms that can provide
some security and implications of security systems. We'll also continue
our discussion of this chapter.
- There is no reading for Wednesday. (Other than Chapter 2 if you haven't
read it yet. :-)
- This Thursday's convocation is Mathematics 4,000 Years Ago
and will be given by Noyce Visiting Professor Richard Guy. I expect
that it will be a lot of fun.
Monday, February 14, 2000:
- I wasn't able to get summary grades done over the weekend. I hope
to have them to you by Wednesday.
- Assignments:
- For tomorrow, read Chapter 2 of Forester and Morrison (Computer
Crime)
Friday, February 11, 2000:
- Today we meet in 2424.
- I should get initial comments on your work to you on Monday.
- For Monday, read Chapter 1 of Forester and Morrison
Wednesday, February 9, 2000:
- A few of you have expressed frustration at writing algorithms.
We may spend a few minutes delving into those issues. Do you
also find it frustrating to give directions or write down recipes?
If not, what's the difference? Is it that we're trying to use a
formal language? Is it that we can't rely on common sense?
- Don't forget that we meet in Science 2424 (down the hall) on Friday.
- Readings for Friday's class:
Dewdney 35 (Sequential Sorting), 40 (Heaps and Merges)
Tuesday, February 8, 2000:
- On Friday, class will be in 2424 rather than 2417 (another class
needs to use this lab)
- As some of you have noted, I don't always respond to email promptly.
For example, since almost all of your daily email messages have a title of
"question"; I let such email slip to the bottom of my priority list.
If you have email that needs a response, please give it a title like
HELP!
Monday, February 7, 2000:
- No readings for tomorrow! Wo hoo!
- Some of you may be wondering about how you're doing. I hope to give
you preliminary evaluations at the end of the week.
Friday, February 4, 2000:
- The Dewdney reading was significantly less clear than I remembered it
being. Sorry. It should make more sense (at least partially) after
today's class.
- Read Dewdney 15 (Time and Space Complexity) for Monday.
- It would help me if you put blank lines between the paragraphs of your
email messages.
Wednesday, February 2, 2000:
- Don't forget to send me notes on Risks
by Friday afternoon.
- Yes, I know the readings in Dewdney are hard. I don't expect you to
understand them completely (and we may not go over every part).
- For Friday, read chapter 21 of Dewdney (The Newton-Raphson method)
Tuesday, February 1, 2000:
- A few of you sent me some notes about discussion. Believe it or not,
I am purposefully trying to ask questions that don't have easy answers
from the readings. We may shift chairs to make discussion easier.
- The Bush and Maso pieces were to inform your consideration of hypertext,
its purposes, and even its presentation. We'll try to bring them into
the discussion today.
- Jae notes that Christy Sheffield, a visual poet, makes some interesting
use of hypertext. You can find her site at
http://gnv.fdt.net/~christys/
- I've forwarded Risks digest 20.77.
I'd like a short note on one thing you found interesting in the digest.
- An interesting note taken from today's Internet World News.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the link to work before class. You
can also try
http://www.internetworldnews.com/idx_article.asp?inc=011500/1.15decon&issue=1.15
Who Should Control Type Size?
Internet World's Deconstructing columnist Jakob Nielsen
takes sportswear site Boo.com to task in the Jan. 15 issue
for robbing Web surfers of their ability to control the
font and type size on their screen. He also faults Boo.com
for having a difficult navigation scheme and for launching
a series of windows that clutter a user's desktop. Read
Nielsen's review and one by Jennifer Fleming by going to
http://www.internetworldnews.com/POV and then let us know
whether you think it is smart for developers to take
control of users' experiences on a Web site.
- Read Dewdney 1 (Algorithms), 17 (The Random Access Machine), and
48 (The SCRAM) for tomorrow. No, you are not expected to understand
everything.
Monday, January 31, 2000:
- Don't forget about the CS brown-bag lunch today at noon.
- I won't be there because I'm stuck preparing my afternoon class.
- Today's class will mix laboratory and discussion.
- For tomorrow, spend a few minutes (say fifteen) scanning the
documentation on cascading style sheets, available on
the Web at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.
- We'll probably split tomorrow's class between discussion and
a lab on cascading style sheets.
- Note that the syllabus has changed for this week. On Wednesday, we'll
start talking about algorithms.
- I injured my foot over the weekend, and may not be walking very
well for the next few days.
Friday, January 28, 2000:
- We may be welcoming a new student to 105 today, Jeb Curtin. Jeb will
make it five "J" students in 105: Jae, Jeana, Jeb, Jeff, and Joel.
- If we add Ivy, Kevin, and Liz, we seem fairly concentrated at the
middle of the alphabet.
- Monday at noon in Science 2413, the Computer Science Bag Lunch
Film festival will resume with ``The Future of Computing: Seizing
the Future We Want''. You may find it interesting to attend.
This film in particular, and many of the films in the series, are
appropriate for students in this class.
- Appropos our discussion of logical vs. physical markup, the World
Wide Web Consortium just released a new standard, XHTML, which
emphasizes logical markup. I'm going to try to find a way to
incorporate it early next week.
- I consider it appropriate to spend this extra time on hypertext,
since many people currently equate ``computers'' and ``the
World Wide Web''
- Be prepared for the syllabus to change in the next few days; since
we've dropped the exams, I'm rethinking particular issues.
- Read the Maso and Bush pieces for Monday (instead of the Dewdney
reading I had previously assigned)
- Sarah works in the MathLAN on Mondays from 5-6 and on Wednesdays
from 8-10.
Wednesday, January 26, 2000:
- There seems to be some confusion about the questions.
- The ``today's question'' is the question we discuss (directly or indirectly)
in today's class.
- The ``next question'' is the question we discuss in the next class.
- The number of a question corresponds to the number of the class.
- There seem to be some questions about the Risks digest
- No, we don't have a reliable news feed
- You subscribe by sending a letter to
risks-request@csl.sri.com
with one line: SUBSCRIBE.
- As an alternative, you can just check the ``latest risks'' Web page with
some regularity
http://www.csl.sri.com/~risko/risks.txt
- As another alternative, I can simply forward the digest when it arrives
- Assignments:
- Scan the HTML lab for Friday's class.
- Don't forget to send a response to question 4:
Do you prefer logical or physical markup? Why?
Tuesday, January 25, 2000:
- Not all of you were able to get comments on the questions in on
time. Please try to be prompt for tomorrow. You can find the question
for tomorrow at the top of the outline.
- Not all of you filled out the introductory survey. If you have not
yet done so, try to do so in class today or soon after class.
- I'm not sure if I mentioned it in class yesterday, but I plan to post
most of your work to the Web. If you have difficulties with this
policy, please let me know as soon as possible.
- A few of you expressed a desire to know what's going on ``behind the
scenes''. I'll try to fit that into the schedule.
- Assignments:
- Tomorrow's thought question (due at 9 a.m.):
Describe the appearance and purpose of five parts of the course front door.
- Scan SamR's quick HTML
reference. Do not expect to understand everything; I just
want to start you thinking about the material in advance.
Monday, January 24, 2000:
- Assignments: (due tomorrow)
- Read the introductory handout
- Fill in the introductory survey
- Scan through
Getting started in the MathLAN.
(It will make much more sense once you're in front of a computer.)
- Send me an answer to ``What computing knowledge do you hope to get from this course?''