CS 350 - Index to Information
about the Course

Spring 2001 Semester, Section 0003

Announcements and Record of Updates:

15 May 2001: Grades are now posted in a spreadsheet file, together with an explanation of the process of determining course grades. Y’all have a good summer.
07 May 2001: GRADES: I did not have the final course grades ready by the registrar’s submission deadline this afternoon, and therefore I have temporarily assigned to everyone a grade of I (Incomplete). Real grades should be ready within the next few days, at which time I will both post them to this web page and send in a corrected copy to the registrar.
30 Par 2001: Student Term Projects posted.
23 Apr 2001: Please note that this week’s student presentations are part of the course, and therefore that material from the presentations can appear on the final examination. Please ALSO note that I intend to post all of the term projects (text and slides) on the course web page at the end of the semester. If your group is shy and does not want its project to be posted, please let me know before I post them.
21 Mar 2001: Summary of Shift Instructions posted. Also posted general guidance for Term Projects applicable to all of my courses, specific guidance for the CS-350 Term Project, Topics for Term Papers, Programming Option 1 and Programming Option 2 for Term Projects.

14 Mar 2001: Mid-Terms have been graded, and the graded examinations are stashed in the box outside my office door. Please pick up your exam at your convenience. I have taken a look at the grade distribution, and have assigned, for rough guidance purposes only, tentative letter grades so that you can get some idea of where your numeric grade positions you, taking into consideration only your performance on the mid-term. The file showing the mid-term grade distribution together with the letter-grade guidance is available for your inspection: Mid-Term-Grades
12 Mar 2001: Posted a tutorial which should be very helpful with regard to the programming assignment (“Tutorial on Status Flags, …”)
27 Feb 2001: Answers to Quiz #3, as well as the graded quizzes #s 3 and 4, have been placed in the box outside my office. Please pick up your graded quizzes and a copy of the answer sheet for Quiz #3, at your convenience. Note that there is one student who failed to write his/her identification number at the top of Quiz #3, another student who did the same for Quiz #4, and another two students whose identification numbers do not correspond to anything in my records. If you do NOT find your graded quiz in the box outside my door, then you need to speak to me so that I can determine which of the unidentified quizzes is yours.
15 Feb 2001: Corrected the page numbers and other details of the “PC Organization Assignments” to reflect the realities of the Enhanced Third Edition.
14 Feb 2001: Several students have contacted me regarding the CD-ROM that comes with the Beboputer text. Apparently, some used textbooks sold by one or another bookstore are missing the CD-ROM. I am afraid that you WILL need to have the CD-ROM. For the next several weeks, the assignments are group assignments, so you might be able to get by without your very own CD-ROM, but later on there is at least one assignment that requires everyone to work separately. The GOOD news is that if you are missing a CD-ROM, you can order one directly from the publisher, Doone Publications in Alabama. You can get in touch with them by calling 800-311-3753. When I called, I spoke to a very lovely and helpful lady named Anne Smith, who also has a delightful British accent. They will be pleased to supply a CD-ROM at a cost to you of $9.95 (includes shipping). I suggest that all the folks who need the CD-ROM get together, and that one person collect the money from everyone and place the order. I will speak about this in class tomorrow (please remind me if I do not address this issue at the beginning of class).
08 Feb 2001, 1430 hrs: Posted a document detailing some calculations of size of File Allocation Table (FAT), of Root Directory, and of the total space usable for recording file contents of a Flexible (“Floppy”) Disk. Also, updated the document showing the group compositions to include “PC Organization Assignment #4”.
01 Feb 2001, 2119 hrs: Did minor revision to "PC Organization Assignments" to correct errors in assigned page numbers. 2242 hrs: Posted a document showing the composition of the groups for the PC-Organization assignments.
25 Jan 2001, 1435 hrs: Posted a tutorial covering the representation of numbers in a digital computer, and digital integer arithmetic. You can find the link below.
23 Jan 2001: Today's quiz has been graded and placed in the box outside my office door. Please pick up your quiz. Please note that as of this afternoon my box still contains quite a few Quiz 1's. Starting with Quiz #3, I shall follow the practice of discarding all old quizzes whenever I put out a newly-graded quiz, so if you don't pick up your quiz soon after it is graded, you'll be out of luck.
17 Jan 2001: (1) Students can pick up their graded Quiz # 1 from the box outside my office door. If you don't find your quiz in the box, please see me. I have three quizzes whose ID numbers do not correspond to the JMU ID of any students registered for the course. A sheet showing the correct answers will be distributed in class.
(2) Someone asked on day 1 of class whether CS-350 is a 3-credit or a 4-credit course. The course is three credits, not four. There was an error in the registrar's listing, and I have requested that this be corrected.
11 Jan 2001, 1245 hrs: Made several changes to the document containing the set of "PC Organization" assignments. Assignments 2, 3, and 4 affected.
10 Jan 2001: Corrected course syllabus posted, as promised yesterday in class. Course Map also posted, along with detailed assignments covering the first eleven weeks of the semester.