Introductions

Assignment: Introductions

This is an ungraded psuedo-assignment in which you introduce yourself to the course staff and do a few things to get ready for the rest of CS240. Please complete all parts by the end of Tue Jan 24.

Contents

Parts

1. Familiarize yourself with the course

Read through the syllabus and tentative course schedule. Jot down any questions that arise to either (1) ask on your form in Task 2 or (2) ask in class.

2. Introduce yourself to the course staff

Introduce yourself to the instructors and tutors by filling out the forms at these links:

  • Create a CS240 CourseIntros introduction. Be sure to upload a brief video in which you pronounce your full name (including both first and last name). (CourseIntros was created by Wellesley faculty alum Susan Buck.)

  • Fill out the CS240 Get To Know You form

  • If you haven’t taken a course with me Lyn and/or Peter before: even if you don’t have any questions, please attend one of our help hour sessions during the first two weeks of the course, just so we have a chance to get to know you better!

3. Fill out the help hours poll

Please fill out this when2meet poll indicating all hours during a typical week when you would be available to attend instructor and tutor help hours. Please sign in with both your first and last name.

  • We’ll use this information to schedule some regular help hour times. These times might depend on the due day for the current assignment. (Due dates vary from week to week, but are typically Tuesdays, Wendesdays, or Fridays.)

Note Lyn is almost always available after lecture to answer questions in person.

If regularly scheduled help hour times are inconvenient for you, we would be happy to find another time to meet with you. Just email us to find a mutually agreeable meeting time.

4. Use a terminal to connect to the CS dept server (tempest)

For many CS240 assignments, you will need to connect to the CS Dept Server (cs.wellesley.edu = tempest.wellesley.edu). So it’s important to check now that you remember how to connect to your CS server account. You should have such an account from CS111 and/or CS230. If you do not yet have such an account, fill out this form right away.

You can use the ssh program to securely log into tempest from any computer. This program runs in a terminal window on your computer. Below are various ways that you can run it:

  • Regardless of what kind of laptop you have, if you have Visual Studio Code (VSCode) and have installed its Remote Development Extension Pack, you can use that to connect to cs.wellesley.edu remotely via ssh. See more information here

  • If you have a Mac, use its Terminal application for this purpose. In a terminal window, connect to tempest by executing the following command:

    ssh YourAccountName@cs.wellesley.edu

    where YourAccountName is your tempest account name. E.g., user gdome would connect using the command

    ssh gdome@cs.wellesley.edu

    In order to connect, you will be prompted for the password for your CS Dept account. If you have forgotten it, contact Lyn or Scott Anderson to reset it.

  • If you have Windows, use the Microsoft Windows Terminal application. If it is not installed on your computer, you can download and install it from Microsoft. Use ssh command similar to the ones described for the Mac terminal.

  • Another option is to use the PuTTY Terminal

If you encounter any problems with this part, contact Lyn or Peter right away.