Pre-Semester Checklist

You should complete these tasks before you arrive on campus or shortly after you arrive.

Before You Arrive on Campus

  1. Laptop. You probably have a laptop you can bring to class. You can do the in-class exercises on paper, but it will be easier to use a laptop.
  2. Problem Set 00. You should try to complete Problem Set 00 before the semester starts. (We expect Problem Set 00 will be too hard for many of you. If it is, then it should be very easy for you to complete. To learn why that is so, read the problem set.)
  3. ssh and sftp. You may need to install ssh and sftp on your laptop or personal computer before you can complete Problem Set 00.
  4. Racket. Install the latest version of Racket on your laptop or personal computer.
  5. Microsoft Office/PowerPoint. Most of the online materials are in Microsoft PowerPoint. Registered students should download Microsoft Office 365 for free after logging into my.neu.edu. We will try to make most of the slides available in PDF for easy printing, but there are a few animated slides that will not display as intended unless viewed using Microsoft PowerPoint. We do NOT recommend viewing these slides in other presentation viewers, such as Keynote or LibreOffice, since they have been known to misalign slide components in ways that may cause confusion.
  6. Reading. It would be a good idea to start reading the Prologue and Part I of the online textbook.

When You Arrive on Campus

  1. CCIS Account. Sign up for a CCIS account. You will not be able to submit Problem Set 00 until you have a CCIS account, and you will need that account for WiFi and GitHub access as well.
  2. I Am Here. A previous version of this list said CS 5010 has its very own I Am Here form. That is no longer true. The I Am Here form has been replaced by an in-class quiz and Problem Set 00.
  3. Git and GitHub. Make sure git is installed on your computer. (If you are using Linux, it's probably installed already. If you are using a Macintosh, you probably installed git when you installed the XCode Command Line Tools. If you are using a Windows machine, you may need to download a Git client for your machine.)
  4. Piazza. Use your CCIS ID to sign up for the CS 5010 Fall 2017 Piazza discussion board.
  5. Course Web Site. Read the other informational web pages shown in the menu at the main web site for CS 5010.
  6. Attend Class. If you miss the first meeting of CS 5010, you will already have fallen behind. There are only 12 meetings of the class. If you miss just one of them, you are missing 8% of the course. (For those of you who care about grades, that means missing just one class could easily lower your semester grade by half a letter grade.)
  7. Study Module 00. Module 00 is designed to get you off to a good start.

Last modified: Mon Sep 18 17:07:53 Eastern Daylight Time 2017