As you explore the Internet and the World Wide Web, you will quite likely encounter documents called FAQs. This is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and, as that name implies, these documents are used to collect answers to commonly asked questions.
Some commonly asked questions related to course appear below. If you have an idea for something that you would like to see on this page, please let me know by e-mail at Mike.Gildersleeve@unh.edu.
A complete tutorial exists for this topic.
There are several possible reasons, but the most common explanation has to do with the fact that complex URLs tend to contain XML reserved characters, such as ampersands (&). Since these characters have special meaning within XML documents, their appearance in a URL could potentially confuse a program trying to work with that document. As such, it’s necessary to treat these characters differently within URLs.
Note, however, that encoding the reserved characters within URLs using character entity references (such as &) will not work. Instead, reserved characters within a URL need to be encoded as a percent sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits. For instance, within a URL an ampersand (&) should be encoded as %26, rather than as &
The ampersand is by far the most common source of validator issues in URLs. However, if you suspect that other characters are causing you problems, you can find more information and a list of character encodings in the HTML URL Encoding Reference.
An alternative solution is to use one of the available “short URL” services to convert the long, complicated URL that is causing you difficulty into a short, simplified URL that will lead users to the same place. Depending upon the nature of the original URL this may not always be successful, but it’s worth a try. For more info and links to several free services see http://signals.unh.edu/2009/09/25/small-urls/.
In RSS 2.0, the purpose of the <guid> element is to specify a globally unique identifier for each item in the feed. By “globally unique” we mean that no other item in your feed or any other feed in the world should have the same <guid> value. There are a variety of ways to handle this, but the recommendation I have given in class is to start this value with the URL of the published feed (see the assignment description for this), since the whole point of a file’s URL is to uniquely identify that file among the billions of resources on the Web.
Using the URL of the feed gives you a way to uniquely identify your articles as distinct from those in all the other feeds out there. But it doesn’t distinguish the articles in your feed from each other. Therefore, we need to add something to the end of the URL to accomplish that. When we add something to the end of a URL, it’s generally best to start with a question mark. After adding the question mark, add a number. Use 1 for your first item, 2 for the next and so on. No matter how prolific your feed contributions are, you’ll never run out of numbers!
Using numbers on their own would work just fine if we never needed to change an item. But, technically, if we ever need to change an existing article in our feed, it will need a new <guid> value. Therefore, I suggest adding a letter after the number. Start with a. If you ever change that article, change the letter at the end of the guid to b. If by some chance you need to change the article again, go to c, and so on.
In RSS 2.0, the purpose of the <docs> element is to specify the URL where an interested reader could find the documentation for the version of RSS that you have used to write your feed.
Since we only use RSS 2.0 in this course, there is only one URL that you will ever need to use in your <docs> element, and it is http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss.
In RSS 2.0, the purpose of the <author> element is to provide the reader with the e-mail address and name of the author of a particular item within the feed. Please note that it is primarily meant to convey the author of the feed item, not necessarily the Web page to which that feed item links. Often, these will be the same individual, but since we start writing feeds before we write Web pages, you will initially be authoring feed items that link to Web pages authored by others. In this case, list your own e-mail address, followed by your name in parentheses, as the value of your <author> elements.
Although I reply to student e-mail using whatever address they used when sending their inquiry, when I need to initiate a conversation with a student I use that student’s cisunix address.
If you regularly check and prefer another e-mail account (perhaps at Hotmail or AOL), then you may want to consider having all of your cisunix mail automatically forwarded to your preferred address. Before you do so, however, it is important to understand that this will automatically forward every single message sent to your cisunix address to your other account. You will no longer be able to see any of that mail on cisunix. If that is acceptable, then the process to make the change is relatively simple.
Start by using a terminal emulator to log into your cisunix account and exit to the command shell. At the command shell, enter the following command line:
pico ~/.forward
When the pico editor screen appears, simply type the complete e-mail address that you wish to use as your forwarding address. Be extremely careful that you type it completely and correctly. The pico buffer should contain one and only one line, and that line should contain your forwarding e-mail address. When you are done, exit from pico by holding the Ctrl key and typing an X, and be sure to save your modified buffer when prompted. When it asks you for a name to save the file under, accept the suggested name by pressing Enter.
You should immediately test your forwarding by sending yourself a message at your cisunix address. After a few minutes, this message should be delivered to your preferred address. If it is not, then something is likely wrong and you should disable your forwarding until you figure out what has gone wrong.
To disable your forwarding, use the following command line:
mv ~/.forward ~/hold.forward
Then, to enable the forwarding again later, use the following command line:
mv ~/hold.forward ~/.forward
One might ask a similar question about using a spell checker before submitting a paper or publishing a book. Why bother correcting the spelling as long as the reader can understand what you’re trying to say? And the answer is pretty much the same.
Let’s imagine that you choose to publish a book without first checking it for spelling, grammar and other typos. For the most part, people who read it are likely to get the gist of it. However, where there are errors, readers are forced to make assumptions about what you are really trying to say. Each time they make an assumption, there’s a chance an individual reader will assume something different than others have. More errors result in more assumptions, and more assumptions lead to a greater likelihood that readers will have differing understandings of your message. So when we write books, papers, letters, memos and whatnot, we do our best to check them for errors before sharing them with others, because doing so enhances their ability to communicate our message clearly.
When you write XHTML or CSS, you’re writing a message to communicate with a browser. When you run a validator on that code, you’re working to clarify that message and reduce (or hopefully even eliminate) the assumptions that the browser is forced to make. Just as some professors grade papers without taking off for spelling and grammar mistakes, some professors who teach this course may choose not to teach the use of validators. However, I prefer to teach my students how to write the clearest, most correct ‘messages’ possible, so that the browsers can better understand their intent. If you settle for what works, you only know that your ‘message’ has been understood by the browser you used for testing. But if you invest the extra effort to validate, you can be confident that your ‘message’ will be understood by all properly functioning browsers (including those that haven’t even been created yet!).
No, I do not hold specifically allocated review sessions before exams.
There are really two basic types of review sessions. In one, the instructor prepares what amounts to a “Best Of” lecture and just repeats things that have already been covered in lecture. In the other, the instructor sets aside an hour or two of lecture time and allows students to ask whatever questions they might have with regards to the exam material; if there aren’t enough questions to fill the allotted time, everyone goes home early. (And since everyone is fully aware that fewer questions means less time they have to stay in class, there is often a negative peer pressure on those who do ask questions during such a session.)
I don’t really see either approach as a productive use of lecture time. With the former approach, most students inevitably find that the majority of the review material is stuff they already know and regret having wasted their time on the review session. And the latter approach can be much more efficiently handled by simply starting each and every lecture with the query “Does anyone have any questions before I begin?” (Sound familiar?)
So as I see it, every lecture can be a review session if you want it to be. However, I’d rather leave it up to the students to state what they specifically wish me to review when they specifically wish me to review it. It just seems to make more sense that way!
I do not prohibit students from using XHTML tools and editors in CS403, but I do strongly recommend against it.
There are three reasons for that recommendation.
First, there’s the simple fact that you won’t have an XHTML editor available when you sit down to take an exam. And, if you’ve been writing your XHTML from scratch all semester, you’re likely to have an easier time writing it from scratch for the exams.
Second, editors tend to over-complicate the XHTML they produce and (at least some of them) cut corners. I grade all work on an equal footing and according to the rules presented in class, regardless of how it was produced. Hence, if the editor introduces anomolies or errors into your code, you’re still liable for them. And the more complicated things get, the greater the probability that errors will occur. (In other words, I don’t ignore errors because “the editor did it.”)
Third, for the assignments and the project you will need to meet certain minimum technical requirements. Since you often have little or no control over how an editor actually carries out your commands, the only way to guarantee that you meet all of the requirements is to review (and possibly revise) the generated XHTML manually. And if you’re going to do that, you might as well write the XHTML yourself.
As long as you understand these potential downsides and are willing to accept them, the ultimate decision is up to you.
If you have a computer at home or work, you may be able to do a significant part of your course work from there. Just how much of it you can do from there, however, depends upon a couple of different factors.
First, do you have the proper software available? Some of the software we use in class, such as Notepad and Internet Explorer, is part of the Windows and it should be available on all Windows computers; all you need to do it find it on the hard disk. Other software we use, such as SSH Secure Shell Client and Mozilla, is available for download via the World Wide Web (or may already be on your computer). So you can easily obtain your own copies and install them if you don’t already have this software. If you are hesitant about installing this software on your own computer (or your employer will not allow it), you may find it easier in the long run to simply work in the public clusters. Likewise, if you encounter problems using the software on your own computer, you might try the same thing in one of the public clusters to see if it’s something you are doing or a problem with your installation of the software.
Second, do you have some way to connect your computer to the Internet?
Once you are setup with access to the Internet, you will be able to run
a terminal emulator and/or FTP client such as SSH Secure Shell Client
on your computer and use it to access the host named cisunix.unh.edu.
This will allow you to do any UNIX related work, such as working on
your Web pages or accessing pine, from home.
Over several years of teaching, I have noticed that attendance in lectures overwhelmingly correlates to grades; those students who attend lecture regularly tend to get the higher grades, and those who miss lectures frequently tend to get the lower grades, whether I explicitly consider attendance when grading or not.
Therefore, I strongly recommend that you make every effort possible to make it to lecture. However, life is complicated, and I realize that it is not always possible to make it to lecture.
If you must miss a lecture, it certainly doesn’t hurt to drop me a quick note by e-mail letting me know. However, please realize that you are responsible for making up the missed material on your own. It is simply not practical for me to repeat an entire lecture for one individual, regardless of their reason for having missed it.
When you must miss a lecture, your primary concern should be to fill in the gap in your understanding of the course material. Certainly, the fact that the PowerPoint slides are available gives you a headstart. However, since many students will find it helpful to annotate those slides as I lecture, you may find it helpful to get annotations from someone else in the class. Since every student's perspective of a lecture is different, you may even find it helpful to get annotations from several of your classmates and combine them.
I also strongly recommend that you pay particular attention to any reading associated with the missed lecture in the schedule. Doing, or redoing, this reading especially carefully will likely be helpful.
If, after you have made a good faith effort to help yourself by reviewing the slides, classmates’ annotations, and any reading assignments, you have questions about the material you have missed, I will be happy to meet with you to provide the answers you are lacking.
There are two things you need to know to answer this question, and both are incorporated into other parts of this presentation. First, you need to know the weightings applied to the various tasks you will be assigned throughout the semester. And second, you should read the note describing how I determine final letter grades.
If you still have questions on the grading process after reviewing these two resources, please let me know.