Projects

uxi0 (due 20180117)

wcp1 (due 20180117)

adm0 (due 20180124)

wcp2 (due 20180124)

pbx0 (due 20180131)

wcp3 (due 20180131)

pbx1 (due 20180207)

wcp4 (due 20180207)

pbx2 (due 20180214)

wcp5 (due 20180214)

usr0 (due 20180228)

wcp6 (due 20180228)

pbx3 (bonus due 20180228)

upf0 (due 20180307)

wcp7 (due 20180307)

upf1 (due 20180314)

wcp8 (due 20180314)

spf0 (due 20180321)

pwn0 (due 20180321)

wcp9 (due 20180321)

gfo0 (due 20180411)

wcpA (due 20180328)

wpa0 (bonus due 20180411)

wcpB (due 20180411)

gtf0 (due 20180418)

wcpC (due 20180418)

icp0 (due 20180425)

Class Stats

status

Week 14

With more pronounced work underway on the EoCE, I've encountered some patterns in things being asked for help on. As a result, here are some hints

Week 12

I hope everyone had a most productive break! We're on the final stretch.
I've enhanced the class status page with some new graphs. Be sure to check that out.
Our next group project is upon us: icp0
And our next weekly project also here: gtf0

Week 11

We've been on a good tear… hauling through a lot of good activities. Now with break upon us, I feel you've more than earned it: I've extended the due date on gfo0 until April 11th. So if you found yourself needing more time to polish things up, now you have it.

Week 10

in the midst of scripting; gfo0 is the current project
hopefully some good realizations were had from our spf0 and pwn0 experiences last week.

Week 9

Work on spf0 (in-class group project) continues
as does progress on pwn0

Week 8

Continued exploring of scripting, mixing information processing, decision-making, repetition, pattern matching in increasingly productive manners.

Week 7

More scripting:
- arrays
- functions
FYI: Warning grades are issued this weekend. By and large, we're looking pretty good in this class, so most of you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Week 6

Delving more into automation / scripting endeavors, which may include encountering some regular expressions.

Break 1

Lab46 reboot went off without a hitch, don't forget to recreate your screen+irssi sessions.
Don't forget: break week bonus opportunities.

Week 5

Because you've all been so awesome, I've decided to give you the next week (Feb 18th - 24th) off from your classes (unless one of your classes makes a specific exception to this). You're welcome.
We look to continue our introduction to text editing concepts, utilizing the vim moded text editor, and perhaps get into some further shell scripting.

Week 4

We continue on our journey, looking to explore the following:
- wildcards
- cut(1), grep(1), sed(1)
- moded editing with vi/vim
- AND/OR conditional chaining
- return values/capturing return values
Will we have our first snow day this week? Keep a lookout for Wednesday, when our first significant snowfall may occur overnight.
- The key to the making of a good snow day is 2-fold:
  1. amount of snowfall; certainly we need more than a couple of inches to make travel a challenge. This forecast has been calling for 6 inches! That's definitely going to impede travel.
  2. time of snowfall. This is the oft-overlooked one. While excessive snowfall can definitely create favorable snow day scenarios (enough to overwhelm clearing capacity), the other way is to hit after crews have gone home for the day (and are sleeping). 10pm? They're likely still on duty. 3AM-5AM? They've got to wake up and drive in. If that is a challenge, clearing capacity is severely impacted. This is a clear cut path to a snow day.
    - Furthermore, if campus clearing crews have gone home, they need to get to campus before clearing can start. If the roads leading to campus are bad, they'll have trouble getting here, delaying the cleaning process, and increasing our chances of a snow day.
- So, we look to have these 2 favorable items in the forecast for Wednesday morning (significant snow, check; early morning snow, check).
- Being an afternoon class, we don't have to worry about if/when they call a snow day, but we DO need to be on the lookout for the sneaky “delayed class start”.
- Certainly, use your own judgment. Stay safe!

Week 3

Some great explorations have already been had; we continue down the rabbit hole, exploring more of the basics. Planned for this week:
- exploring the filesystem (layout, where things are, how it is organized)
  - tools, config files, special files, reference data
- variables
  - local
  - environment
  - setting
  - retrieving
- quotes
  - grouping
  - literal data capturing
  - expansions
    - variable
    - command
Some great insights were hopefully realized on adm0, which has been evaluated and results published to the usual places. I posted more than a few helpful hints and content to the class mailing list; I hope you took the time to read, absorb, and reflect on it.
I've also started getting questions about the next project! So more people are starting well enough in advance so as to make their lives easier (and hopefully enjoy the process a lot more).
I hope you are doing additional background reading, by reading pertinent manual pages, consulting the book(s), and experimenting with things on the command-line.
I would also suggest, if you'd like to see how much you are retaining, to attempt adm0 again, only this time, don't ask anyone for help, and don't reference any of your own notes. Try to do it all from scratch, using only your immediate skills and experiences (and consulting manual pages on lab46). If you can do it, and considerably quicker than it took you to do adm0 the first time, that demonstrates that learning has taken place (you might want to consider doing this for all of the projects).

Week 2

First day / week chaos has passed! Things should settle down as we start to learn much of what we just had to power through to get things started.
An important skill to have in this class is observation: to see things; details, commands, patterns. Whether or not you may currently understand them. Merely that something is taking place- an error, a lack of output.
The next project is now on our radar: adm0. As you've been reading through the Mages book and playing on the system, I'd recommend checking out the manual pages: man command (where command is the command you want more information on; 'q' to quit out).
The class mailing list was populated and came on-line over the weekend; a few individuals have already gotten involved, asking questions and generating some great content. You will want to incorporate checking of your inbox (via alpine) into your standard course workflow.
- some pertinent content has been posted on the mailing list; be sure to read all messages, responding or posting new threads where and as appropriate.
Similarly, checking in on the class chat (on irc, in an encapsulated screen session) will also serve to keep you in touch with any goings on
- there are still a few people who may be confused on the instructions/operation of your screen session. How do I know? They have 2 or 3 separate screen sessions. Did you know:
  - your (single) irssi session can be joined to MANY channels
  - you can create subshells in your screen session
  - you do NOT need to create a screen session to run screen -r; this will only complicate things.
There have been some interesting conflicts encountered due to people's expectations. In an attempt to clarify:
- If one believes that a “lab” is to be done “in class”, and “homework is to be done outside of class”, and I've consistently called the assignments “projects”, intending for them to be accomplished outside of class… especially with the mailing list active and indications of others having been working on the project, I honestly wonder what people are thinking.
- This is a class about “thinking”, not a class about “following specific instructions”. You want to focus on understanding so you can connect the dots. Connecting them is YOUR task, and is a core activity of the class.
- Paying attention to the content covered during class, reading (and comprehending) posts on the class mailing list, participating in the class chat, referencing the books: there is a lot of valuable, informative content available. The intention is for you to encounter it and be aware of it.

Week 1

Welcome! I've wrapped all the initial activities into one project, uxi0, that I'd like you to perform by the given deadline (by 11:59:59pm / 23:59:59).
On Lab46, we'll be getting familiar with logging into the pod systems, and once there:
- opening up a terminal
- logging that terminal onto Lab46 for class work and in-class participation
Get familiar with how to log onto Lab46, and once on:
- change your password to something more preferable
- start working on the labs and other class activities
- start exploring
Read the Mages book!
Be sure to do the reading (located in the individual labs below)! There may be many pages, but there are many concepts to encounter.
The following labs are now available for you to work through:
NOTE: The labs are for your benefit, they are not submittable assignments.
Note that there are THREE (3) things due before the end of Wednesday this first week:
- uxi0
- wcp1
- week1 journal entry (which I plan to count as bonus; at the very least earn yourself a few points by removing the filler text).

Lab46 Wiki

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