350/570:465: First Assignments:
Texts, computer account, email, web page, personal statement, backup plan

1. Acquire textbooks:
Elizabeth Castro, HTML 4 for the World Wide Web (Peachpit, 2001), 4th ed.
Molly Holzschlager, Using HTML 4: Special Edition (Que, 2000), 6th ed.

2. E-mail:
If you do have an e-mail address on Pegasus or a similar Rutgers computer:

Please send me a short "hi" or "hello" at ehrlich@andromeda.rutgers.edu just to confirm that it works. Always mention "465" in your subject and to say what your real life name is if not obvious from your username. If you already have another e-mail address, please let me know which it is and which you prefer.

If you don't have a Rutgers account:

Open one before the next class meeting so you can manage e-mail and get web space. You can use the login procedure on the networked computers to establish an account. Ask at the help desk if you have a problem with your registration or determining your login (user) name and password. When successful, Then please send me a brief "hi" or "hello" as described above.

You will not be able to submit class work on servers outside the Rutgers system.

3. Web page
If you already have a web page:

Please let me know the address (URL) so we can share it with the class.

4. First, short written assignment
Which three of these aspects of the course interest you most? What would you most like to learn about them or do with them? The list is alphabetical: Design and Layout -- HTML Markup -- Programming -- Publication -- Research and Writing. Which elements would you add to the list? Which element might you know enough about to share with other students in the course? Write and a short personal statement of your interests in writing, the Web, the >

5. A plan for saving, backups, and transport for work.
Define a place for the master source of your work and for a backup version. The master version may be:

a) Portable diskettes you take to Rutgers (you can't store on Rutgers networked PCs). All Rutgers lab computers have standard 1.44MB floppy drives body, and many have Zip drives for 100 MB Iomega Zip disks. , .

b) Uploaded to your computer account on Pegasus -- accessible from anywhere.

c) A desktop or laptop computer at home, work, a friend or neighbor

Backups: Be sure also to save a backup of your work in a second or even a third backup location. This is vitally important since hard disks do fail and floppy disks can be misplaced -- not to mention human error which erases or overwrites vital files.

Transport all your files with you when you work at Rutgers -- either on floppy disks or on your Pegasus account. Avoid spaces in filenames because Unix will have trouble with them -- and don't use prohibited punctuation characters. Keep in mind that UNIX file names are case sensitive. If you use DOS editors or utilities, make sure that your filenames keep within the 8+3 letter limitation. Organize your work in directories (folders) and follow the same structure in your backups and copies. Run the backup procedure daily.

6. Viruses:
Be aware of the risk of viruses. Do not send email attachments with anything other than plain unformatted text. Beware of Microsoft Word, which transmits active formatting files, and Microsoft Outlook, which can access other parts of your computer.