INFO300 - Hardware/Software - Fall 2009

(8/20) Syllabus with course objectives, textbook info, rules for submitting papers, &c.

Quiz #1 Topics & Dates

• (8/20&25) Software: The Software Wars might appear humorous, with Bill in Borg headgear at the center of the empire, but they're full of truth about the changes in the years since FOSS came on the scene.  Please become familiar with the organizations involved, updating a section of this to 2009 is the matter of Technical Brief #1.
• (8/20 daytime, not yet for evening) OS: Sketches on the board and discussion of 'Platforms' new and old, Kernel, OS, & App 'layers', API, Virtualization, &c, and the difference between Administrators & Users in a business environment.
• (8/27 Daytime, 9/1 Evening) Discussion of 'range of computing platforms', Dumb Terminals & embedded on the low end through Mainframes & Super Computers drawn on the board, focusing roughly on what's different among them.
  
  Updating the 'market situation' for _one_ of the 'range of computers' to give a bit of history and reflect the reality of its marketplace in 2009 & thru 2010 will be the topic of one of your 'technical briefs' this semester. Plan to pick one where you will enjoy answering at least: How big is the market ($ & Units) for this range of computers? Who are the major manufacturers in each 'niche'? What market share do they have? What's going on to change this?
• (9/1) Ch 1 + web: Intro & Overview of what's in the IT legacy
• (9/1) More Hardware & Network Basics, another look at the Range of Computers is in here...
• (9/8-10)Linking the Components, sketched and discussed practical applications of the basic 'network topologies' and management of traffic on them.
• Quiz #1 will be about ten questions about content in class and the text, mostly from this list of study questions.

Quiz 2 Topics...

• (9/22 Day, 10/13 Evening) 'Number Systems' & Conversion among binary, decimal, and hexadecimal; Data & File Types. On the board and Appendix A in the text.
• (9/22 Day, 10/6,13,&20 Evening) Start on Hardware, Ch. 2 in the Text. Will likely be thru it by the 8th.
• Links used to support lecture about disk geometry and file systems: Cylinders &c, FAT
• (10/1 Day, 10/6 Evening) Show & Tell with network, components of premeses wiring, Divers busses w/ Terminator Resistors, SCSI adaptors & devices, Tape, &c. Thru 'types of printers' on the Hardware web page.
• Study Questions for Quiz #2
• (10/27 Day, 11/3 Evening) Get a Fedora Core Server/Firewall/Router Secured & on The Internet: Start with 'outfacing' ethernet connection set to DHCP to prove basic connectivity; Testing techniques: ping to see what flashes & what replies, diagnostic use of ifconfig, route, tcpdump; Shutting down un-needed services with setup; Router/Firewall scripting with bash & iptables; Limiting access with xinetd & tcp wrappers' hosts.deny & hosts.allow; Reconfigure it to use the fixed IP address assigned to gsx2.isy.vcu.edu, look at /etc/sysconfig/network & network-scripts; Add firewalling script to startup process; Check out initialization & configuration such as /etc/rc.d/init.d/network & httpd and /etc/httpd/conf/; Get the server 'outfacing to the internet' providing ssh & http; use ps -ef to see process status, finding & killing processes; installing software with yum; packet sniffing with tshark; port scanning with nmap; fork bombing and other vulnerabilities; &c; &c...
• Linux Directory Tree & Commands Linux User Commands & Admin Commands, pipes, grep, &c. Find the LAME! Find on-line tutes you like!
• More with the Linux server: checking the 'profile' with nmap, limiting services with setup, securing it with iptables & xinted, set up the LAN behind it to run DHCP, &c...
• Server-side: Login Ids & Passwords to use at info300.net will be handed out in class, and more needs to be posted here with specific requirements for this Fall's exercises at the command line on a web server... Meanwhile, get your eyes on these links: Get logged into info300.net using putty or other ssh client.
  
  A portion of the project will be 'scored' automatically and reported on a page like this: Progress Page The other portion, how it looks on the web, will be scored from your link at info300.net.   Check the progress page to make sure you've got directories & files named appropriately, topics showing, and the permissions set right.

It's a pleasure when students have interest in installing Linux for a server or dual-booting a machine. Either way is a good way to get your eyes and hands on *ix and there is a lot of value in that. 64bit Vista users, beware, investigate carefully, backup your stuff, use the right distros... Here's some recent advice... Virtualization is all the rage, and I'm always encouraging students to pay for VMWare, get VirtualBox for free, investigate Red Hat Enterprise's virtualization scheme. Don't stop at Dual Booting! That's a pain in the neck. Do Virtualization, figure out the Virtual LANs!

Term Paper: Technical Marketplace Briefs, Hands-on Linux, and WebWork

Timely delivery is one of the essential requirements for both these exercises. Progress not demo'd on the class' Progress Pages by the time due will get zero points. Late papers will be docked five points for delivery after the class meeting where they are due and another point deducted for each midnight that passes before delivery.

Printed briefs shown at least five days before the last class may be critiqued and scored on the spot and if re-work would net more points another copy submitted on or before Friday the 11th of Dec will be considered as a candidate for full points. Please do not send me anything to review in email, or ask for critique and scoring during the four day period before the last class.

• Technical Briefs The rubric for scoring these gives points for gathering facts about the technical market place, organizing & outlining them into a technical brief that thoroughly updates the reader on the state of the technology at hand, the major players in the marketplace, and a projection of the market in the next few years.
• Work at the Command Line The 'Progress Page' shows students using the right tools to get right stuff in the right places with the right permissions set. and getting it published as well marked-up XHTML & CSS.
• Follow these XHTML & CSS Coding Standards to get max points for your web work.
• If you don't know XHTML & CSS: Now is the time to learn! EBUS/INFO202, or a similar course, is a pre-requisite for INFO300 and covers XHTML & & CSS. If you don't know HTML, XHTML, & CSS yet, learn about them at at w3schools.com. Run thru the tutorial links at the upper left side of w3school's home page. Get your questions answered while there's max time to get max points...

LAN Project: Diagram and Bill of Details for an office LAN

Specs for this project are delivered in the memo below and verbally in class. The network rack for the small business involved is put together similar to the one demo'd in class. Students are asked to get together purchase orders, a summary of purchase and on-going costs, and a detailed diagram of the network rack & premises wiring.

• (10/6 & 13) Memo From The Boss Start on LAN Project, quick intro to networking security, firewalls & LANs.
  
  Visio is recommended for the diagrams -- it's free thru the MSDNAA. Excel makes it easy to do the Bill of Details (POs, and summaries of up-front and operating expenses). Most students put the final document together in Word and copy/paste the diagrams and bill of details into it. Open Office users can add 'Dia', an open-source, Visio-like, 2D CAD software that plays well with Open Office.
  
  This is an exercise with technical drawing tools. Hand-drawn diagrams are not acceptable.
  
  Here are general requirements for the project.
  
  Tips for Pro work: Think about the printed output required -- if you don't have a color printer don't depend on color to get your details across. Make sure everything fits on the printed page! Don't wait until the week or day before the project is due -- sloppy or otherwise unprofessional results will earn no points. Take time to learn the software: investigate the Templates and decide which you'll use, then use them consistently. Learn to 'scale the drawing' so that graphics are the appropriate size. Learn to use Layers: start from 'the background up' and lock each layer that's not needed -- Background, walls, furniture, network. Make sure your diagram is a faithful representation of the floorplan sketched by The Boss: insert The Boss's sketch, put it on the background layer, lock it, and either use it as is or trace the walls to make a more polished graphic; zoom way in, 200-800%, to place details accurately; use connection points and connectors to define drops and connections on the network rack; use labels/callouts to clearly id ethernet ports & IP addresses. These diagrams cannot be _too_ detailed -- tech interviewers _love_ to see highly detailed & accurate work and want to hire those who can do it well. Do the work yourself, develop the skills, that tech interviewer is likely to ask for a demo of what's in your portfolio or resume.
  
  Where & how to get MSDNAA software.
  
  This will be due toward the end of the semester to allow plenty of time to develop pro-level skills with the tools...
• Another look at the LAN project; critique prior submits; Demo of Pro features in Visio: Layers, templates, connections, connectors, zooming in. (Similar exist in the FOSS equivalent, Dia). Check out Visio Cafe!

Quiz #3 Topics

• (11/3 thru 10th) Demos in class, setup and secure a linux firewall/router using FC10: Run thru install dialog for Fedora Core, discuss issues at setup, get the thing browsing the web...
• Loose Ends: Another runthru converting small values among binary, decimal, and hex; Quick discussion of CISC, RISC, Wait State, and avoiding it; Quickly sketched Linked Lists as applied to directory and file systems; Visited the lab.
• Critiqued more LAN project submits in class.
• (11/12 Day, 11/17 Evening) Sketch and discuss the several ways executable, binary code gets to the OS Executive from the programmer: 1GL Machine Language coded directly in binary or hex; 2GL Assembled Assembler Code; Compiled 3 or 4GL Scripts; Middleware like Java, .NET, or IBM's SLIC; Interpreted by ASP/IIS or Apache or by an interpreter at the command line...
• (11/17 Day & Evening)Software: Types of Software: OS, Utilities, Programming Languages, DBMS, application software, ERP, & c; Demo 'System Administration' software, a backup script, encrypt and transmit to remote site...
• (11/19 Day, 11/24 Evening)Little Man Computer exercise: Machine cycles, instruction set and otherwise expand on the text. First mention of Data Structures.
• Critiqued LAN projects in class. Q&A, Demo with Visio
• (11/24) An historical view of Data Structures & Algorithms for processing them Sequentially and Directly. Underlying data structures, mostly indexes, allow DBMS to fetch desired records from huge databases instantly...
• Quiz #3 Study Questions

The Exam: Those who would like to take the exam will be given another sampling of questions from earlier quizzes for twice as many points as before.

F I N A L Grades as at 4:00 Tuesday afternoon. Letter grades are shown in the Comments column...