HTW Berlin Medieninformatik HTW Berlin
Fachbereich 4
Internationaler Studiengang
Internationale Medieninformatik (Bachelor)
Info 1: Informatik I
Summer Term 2014
Laboratory Startup: Introductions

Welcome!

Welcome to the laboratory - that's what we call these rooms filled with computer equipment. Each computer is a so-called dual-boot computer that can boot to Windows or Ubuntu Linux. As computer science students we expect you to be able to deal with Windows, Unix, and Mac OS operating systems.

We have lots of rules for the labs, as they are used by many different people during the week. Please read the Laborordnung.

Two really important rules are:

  1. No food. We don't like crumbs in the keyboards. Drinks are okay if they are in a container with a screw-on lid and the lid is screwed on. No coffee cups! They get knocked over and we have to get new machines.
  2. Don't change the configuration. We don't care if you have spent half your life "optimizing" computers. We have them set up this way because that is the way we do it. Most especially, don't take out the Ethernet cable! If we catch you doing either you will be sentenced to cleaning the screens in all of the labs. Or worse.

If something goes wrong, don't panic. Speak with the lab leader or the lab engineer.

It is usually a good idea to save your work at regular intervals. We sometimes have issues with the power here. Then you only have what you last saved.

Assignment

0. Getting to know you

We know, starting university is really scary. You were probably one of the crack people at school, and now there is a whole class of them. But hey, they chose the same subject you did, and they are very nice people. So we are going to play some games to get to know one another better.

  1. Everybody stand up. Where were you born? The wall the projector is projecting on is the North Pole, the the wall near the door is the South Pole. Take a position in the room that corresponds with your birthplace, and check with your neighbors to make sure you are standing right. When you have settled, the teacher will have you call out "I'm X and I come from Y" from north to south, to make sure you are standing right. If not—adjust! Don't forget to say your name, we want to learn them!
  2. Now we are going to rearrange the globe by where you last had a vacation. Move around, and when you are settled, the teacher will have you say from the north on down "I'm X and I was last on vacation in Y and I liked Z there best".
  3. If you had a million Euros, where would you go on your first vacation? Rearrange the globe and then from north to south say "I'm X and if I had a million Euros, I'd go visit Y because of Z".

You can go sit down now!

1. Logbook

You need to get used to keeping a logbook in the lab. It can be analog (i.e. on paper) or digital. Make sure that you label and date your logbook. Keep track of everything you do in the logbook—even if you are really excited and want to keep playing. You will save time later if you can easily retrace your steps. How can you set up an online logbook? Make a logbook for today and take notes on what we do. This will be turned in as a lab report this week. Don't forget to put your name on the logbook!

2. Logging in

Now that you have your F4 username, you also have a home directory. This is where all your files can be placed. You can access it both from Windows and from Ubuntu. Since BlueJ is installed unter Windows, we will be using it here, although there are also versions for Ubuntu and Mac.

After you have logged in, look around—where do you find a browser? How many browsers are there? Is there any way to print from the lab? How do you make a screen shot? How can you make a pdf file? Where is BlueJ? Put the answers to all of these questions in your logbook.

3. Logging Out

When it comes time to log out, be very careful. Computers can be very fussy about this. Think of it as a friend who will be insulted if you do not properly say goodbye. The proper way is to click on the icon that looks like a power button and select "Benutzer abmelden" or to click on the Start button (yes, Microsoft is a bit strange). You might be asked if you want to remember what you were doing, you can choose to do this, or not. Try out both sometime. This is also a choice "herunterfahren". Selecting this is the one and only way to safely prepare the machine for powering down. Never power down the machine without doing this first. Once you have logged out, please turn the machine and screen off if they didn't shut off automatically, put your chair back under the table, and clean up any garbage that may have accumulated. Your mother doesn't work here.

Writeup

You will be doing your writeup at home. If you do not have a computer at home, you can use the lab computers during times when there is no class. Hmm, you saved some information on your login area on the school server, can you access this from home? Yes! Your home directory is on the server uranus.f4.htw-berlin.de (or it was last week). There is a service called sFTP that you can use to access these files. You will need to login to the sFTP service with your F4 login to see your files. On Windows machines you open up a command window and use sFTP. On Mac or Unix machines you open up a terminal and use sftp there.

Submit your writeup, explaining what you did and what you learned, as your post-lab to the Moodle area, as a practice—it will not be graded.

Some rights reserved. CC-BY-NC-SA Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff - CC-BY-NC-SA
Questions or comments: <weberwu@htw-berlin.de>

The exercises are adapted from Objects First with Java, A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ. David Barnes & Michael Kölling, 2011