CSC 170
Introduction to Computers and their Applications

Spring, 2004

Syllabus

Calendar

Homework Assignments

Getting Help

My office hours (in Alumnae Hall 113A; if I'm not there, look around the corner in 112) are Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-6:00, and Wednesdays 9:00-12:00. You can also get help from the tutors at the Learning Center (in Earle Hall). For example, Andrew Frisch holds regular office hours: MW 10:00-12:00 in Earle, T 3:00-5:00 in Alumnae 114, F 11:00-12:00 and 1:00-2:00 in Alumnae 114.

Textbook

This class will use three textbooks:

• Computer Concepts, by Parsons & Oja
• Microsoft Office XP: Introductory Concepts and Techniques, by Shelly, Cashman, and Vermaat
• Learning Web Design, by Jennifer Niederst

Who should take this course?

This course is for people who want to learn how to use computers for word processing, number processing (spreadsheets), databases, e-mail, Web browsing, etc. If you are (or are considering being) a math or computer science major, you'll need to take one or more programming courses like CSC 160 or CSC 171 (ask me for advice on which). If you are a Computer and Management Information Systems major, you need both this course and some programming courses. For General Education requirements, this course counts as a Second Competency but not as a Math/Science Distribution course.

Some Suggested Reading

On privacy, intellectual property, ethics, and politics, as affected by computers and telecommunications

• My web page on privacy, computers, and telecommunications (includes summaries of a lot of different issues, with links to other organizations)
• The ImpactCS project's links on the social and ethical impact of computing
• An article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on college students being overwhelmed with information from Web searches.
• Brad Templeton's Copyright Myths
• the National Science Foundation report on Logging and Monitoring Privacy at Universities
• Steven Levy's book Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government (Saving Privacy in the Digital Age), which discusses the history of computer cryptography and its implications for privacy and policy. Makes the claim that strong cryptography is here to stay, and nothing governments or corporations can do will stop it, so we'd better get used to a world in which anything can be secret. (If you like Levy's writing style, you might enjoy his earlier book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.)
• David Brin's book The Transparent Society, which also discusses privacy and and policy issues. Makes the claim that surveillance and spying technology are here to stay, and nothing cryptographers can do will stop it, so we'd better get used to a world in which nothing can be secret, and the best we can hope for is to give ordinary citizens the same ability to spy on corporations and governments that corporations and governments already have to spy on ordinary citizens.

On the history of the computer industry

• "Triumph of the Nerds", a 3-hour public-TV documentary (on videotape in Swirbul Library) about the development of the microcomputer industry from 1975-1995.
• The Charles Babbage Institute, dedicated not only to Charles Babbage himself but to the history of information technology in general.

Technical stuff

• The Personal Computer Show, Wednesday evenings on WBAI 99.5 FM, discusses a lot of "how-to" issues, including backup, firewalls, virus and spyware protection, etc (mostly for Windows users). In particular, their page of links and downloads points to a lot of useful stuff.
• A Guide to Home Computer Security written by CERT/CC, a part of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute
• A list of anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-popup, anti-spyware, etc. software, most of which you can download for free. (I haven't actually tried most of these myself.)
• Safer Networking, which offers a software package for removing spyware from Windows machines. It's a free download, although they won't mind if you choose to donate a few bucks.
• an article on cleaning up and avoiding malicious self-installing software
• Mozilla, the home of free Web browsers and mail programs that are smaller and faster than Internet Explorer, and allow you to easily control pop-up ads, cookies, spam, and other privacy annoyances. (Mozilla itself is closely related to Netscape, and can share preferences and bookmarks with it.)
• My collection of links on Web design

Some Web sites to critique

• A well-done Web site on the dangers of a chemical called di-hydrogen monoxide. It just goes to show you, almost anything looks credible if backed up with a good Web site.
• Another example: a web site on Martin Luther King. Note: the site is actually owned by Stormfront, the U.S. Nazi party, so it has a "different" slant on Martin Luther King.
• And another: the Democratic Candidates for President -- at least, eight of the best-known. Each has his own Web site; read these with a critical eye, just as you should read anything you find on the Web.
• In a similar vein, the official White House web site at whitehouse.gov...
• ... and a parody thereof that might easily be mistaken for the official White House web site, whitehouse.org.