Table of Contents
Lisa Caswell's Fall 2015 UNIX Opus
My Thirst For Knowledge
Introduction
My first experience with a computer was when my mother surprised my siblings and I by purchasing a Commodore 64. I was about 6 years old and knew nothing about computers. I did know that this was quite a stretch for my mother to afford and my siblings and I cherished it. My mother also knew very little about computers and when she purchased the Commodore 64 she didn't know that it didn't come with everything that was needed, nor could she afford to invest anymore money. We just had the system/keyboard. We didn't have any cartridges that contained games or disks to save anything that we did. But my siblings and I would spend countless hours using BASIC from the manual to write small programs that would allow us to print whatever crazy statements we could come up with to writing programs to play, such things as a number guessing game and hangman, just to have it turned off and have to start all over again the next time.
When I was in Junior High, I would go to school early and use any other free time in the computer lab. Once again, I didn't know all the possibilities that were before me and limited myself to playing games such as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and other learning games. I knew that there had to be more that could be done with these magnificent machines but didn't have the resources available and no one to teach me.
Once in High School, my exposure to computers was limited and I had lost that drive to know more and my fascination with them dissipated. My school replaced the typewriters for typing class with computers, but they were only used for typing. All of my papers were handwritten and I didn't seek to learn anymore. We didn't have a computer curriculum either.
At the age of 17, I met the man I eventually married and had my children with. I decided to attend college and by then papers were required to be completed on some form of word processing program. He had a computer and I used it for writing my papers and to play some simple games. However, he instilled the fear of God in me when I used it. If anything were to go wrong with his computer, he would become very angry. Even if it was something that I had no control over, such as the internet connection (which I didn't even know what the internet was then), he would blame me for breaking it. I now know that I didn't break it, that he knew enough to simply fix it, and he used this as a form of control over me. This is when I became afraid of technology and lost interest in learning.
While earning my degrees in Social Work, I had to use computers for research, writing papers and eventually while employed. During this time, I would watch my then husband take his computers apart, replace parts, put them back together and have his whole world revolve around them. I stood from a distance wanting to know more but still finding myself afraid of breaking what seemed to be such fragile and temperamental devices.
After we separated, I was on my own with my computer. I had nobody to help when I had a technological problem and found myself frustrated when I couldn't fix something on my own. That is when I took on the initiative to learn about computers on my own. I didn't want to have to rely on anyone again. However, my knowledge was limited and once again, so were my resources. It came to the point in my life where I need to change my career and found that I had no other interests, but in helping people. I knew that I needed to go back to college, but had no idea what for. After looking at CCC's catalog and programs I impulsively chose computers as an area of interest. After my first couple of classes, I found that the long lost fascination and desire to know more about computers and had been rekindled.
These sometimes embarrassing yet enlightening points of my life have brought me to this class. I have taken almost all my required classes for my degree in CIS and I still have that thirst for more knowledge. I know very little about Unix and think that this class will quench that thirst and help provide me with even more confidence with my future in the computing field.
September 5, 2015
During the last two weeks of classes, I have spent my time becoming more familiar with Lab46 by logging in the pod systems, opening up a terminal and logging on to Lab46. I was able to start exploring before the semester started because I already had my user name and password. I have never taken the time to get comfortable working within a UNIX system even though I have had previous classes which required me to use it. I have always found myself fumbling around on Lab46 and learning only what I needed to accomplish the required assignments. I didn't have the time to explore Lab46 and UNIX to even have the opportunity to truly appreciate it.
I have learned that UNIX is a type of operating system, which is primarily used by the command line. In the Lair the local host is the pod of which I am on and Lab46 is the remote host. SRC directory is our repository,
The following are some commands that I have learned and some of them I have practiced using:
- whoami returns the users name that is currently logged on
- who list all the current users on the system
- ls list prints the contents of the directory
- touch creates a blank file
- nano is a text-editor
- cat concatenates or sends the output of one or more files to the screen
- less allows me to read a file with many pages easily
- more allows me to read a file with many pages easily
- cp copy, which creates a copy of a file or a directory
- mv moves a file or directory to a new location
- rm removes a file
- file prints the type of file
- df shows the partitions and file systems of the computer
- chmod changes the shield on the file system
- ln links two files together
- q to quit
- du tells how much space
We also discussed file permissions, which consists of 10 symbols. These symbols are in sections to identify the type of file, the user, the group, and other.
There are 3 types of files: regular, directory, and special.
Each of the 10 spaces is occupied with a “r”- read access, “w” write access, “x” access to the directory, or “-” when denied permissions. Each are weighted differently. R=4, w=2, x=1, and -=0. When a user has all permissions the values will add up to 7.
What action or concept of significance, as related to the course, did you experience on this date? During these first two weeks of classes I was actually able to start feeling a sense of comfort with navigating the system. I didn't feel lost and confused. In the past I would just type in commands in a certain order to achieve a goal without truly understand why I was doing it.
Why was this significant? This was an important revelation for me. In the past I felt inferior to others in the class because of my lack of knowledge, but with UNIX I already have a bit of an understanding of what we are doing, rather than feeling lost. This has allowed me to continue to pay attention in class and spend time outside of class learning new material rather than fumbling around as I have in the past.
What concepts are you dealing with that may not make perfect sense? I understand the concept of file permissions, but I am not clear on when to use them, how to change them, and when it is necessary to change them. I understand it is based on what you want others to have access to and to be able to change, but I don't know when each of those are necessary.
What challenges are you facing with respect to the course? I am definitely struggling to keep up with the reading. I know that is just a matter of time management and prioritization. I would also like to learn more about using IRC and the benefits of it. I hope we spend more time on this topic.