Information on the Internet Lab
Spring 2008 Version

Dr. Kris Stewart
San Diego State Univeristy

With the unprecedented growth of the Internet, I believe the most common "problems" are understanding a users' responsibility to the community of users and understanding how to deal with the overwhelming amount of information avaiilable.

Phishing How to keep yourself (and your friends, your mom?) safe, online Rohan Squirrel mail warning 05Feb08 Campus CIO Security Alert

technews.acm.org [Stewart's fav technology news ]

This page discusses User Responsibilities;

USER RESPONSIBILITIES

  1. GMCS 425 Lab Responsibilities

  2. Student Responsibilities for Academic Computer Use

    INFO-OVERLOAD

    • How can a person find out about the availability of information on a particular topic?
    • How do you access that information?
    • Do you read the information right now, or store it to be read later?
    • If you store the data, how will you categorize it so that it can be retrieved later?
    • What are the various "kinds" of information? (different for each person)

    Just because you "read it in the newspaper", does this make it true? (maybe, depends on the author [editor] and on the newspaper [IP name])

    Most material available on the Internet is not "peer-reviewed" which implies there is no guarantee that the information is correct or valuable or worthwhile.

    Since SDSU is a member of the Internet2 high-speed Internet network community, we have wide bandwidth connections to the global Internet. This is a valuable resource that each of us should utilize and respect. You can no longer find SDSU on the current Topological Map of Abilene, the Internet2 network. But in 2000, SDSU was 2000 Abilene Map

    San Diego State University has adopted a Computer Security Policy that each student should read. SDSU Computing Security Policy adopted 7 Nov 2000 by University Senate

    This recalls the lessons from Journalism, to answer the questions

    Who (Who first told you about the resource?)
    What (What access mechanism: anonymous ftp, WWW, gopher, ...)
    Where (Location is an IP address)
    When (The dynamic nature of the Internet adds a "temporal" quality to information)
    Why (Why did you think this link was worth saving? Why is this sourceinteresting?)

    From your own point of view, how would you order the above topics in terms of importance?

    Authorities for Computer Science students at San Diego State University:

    1. SDSU General Catalog Note the disclaimer on the top of the page.
      The San Diego State University 2005-2006 General Catalog on the World-Wide Web cannot be considered the official publication for the University. Please refer to the printed General Catalog
    2. Computer Science Department home page
    3. ACM, Association for Computing Machinery, the Professional Society of Computer Science
    4. Technology News / Current Issue from ACM [useful, authoritative updates]
    5. SDSU Student Chapter of the ACM
    6. IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Professional Society of Engineers, including computational scientists.
    7. SIAM, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Professional Society for Applied Math, now looking to focus on computational sciences.
    8. The Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis ( CAIDA) and the National Laboratory for Aplied Network Research ( NLANR) are highly recommended sources for information, tools and research projects/results on the Internet.
    9. SDSU Computing Security Policy approved by the SDSU Senate Nov. 7, 2000. The computers and the network at SDSU are a community resource which must be respected by all users. Every user of this resource has a responsibilty to be considerate of other users.

    History of the Internet, Computing and Supercomputing

    Kris Stewart Personal Timeline of Technology
    www.nlr.net (National Lambda Rail) 2001 future of optical networking. The architecture is fascinating!
    Internet Society's History of the Internet
    www.ornl.gov/timeline/index.html History of Supercomputing (Oak Ridge National Labs)
    www.computerhistory.org
    Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 "The Computer Museum History Center is the world's authority on the history of computing technology. Our collection spans hardware, software, audio clips, films, documentation, etc." Alan AlanSHarrell@AlanSHarrell.net
    Table to calculate transfer time based on file size and connection speed
    Robert H'obbes' Zakons Internet Timeline
    I found this in Net-Happenings 11/5/95 and accessed the text only version with the command
    lynx http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html
    Internetology from the Network Startup Resource Center, U. Oregon
    UC Berkeley Library "Finding Information on the Internet Tutorial"
    www.lib.rochester.edu/ref/webeval.htm Research on the Web, pertinent thoughts

    Sources Available from San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC):

    Some Interesting Maps

    Tips on keeping your bookmarks organized

    Online Histories of Technology - 2001

    Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century (What are your entries? What order?)
    1. Electrification 2. Automobile 3. Airplane 4. Water Supply and Distribution 5. Electronics 6. Radio and Television 7. Agricultural Mechanization 8. Computers 9. Telephone 10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration 11. Highways 12. Spacecraft 13. Internet 14. Imaging 15. Household Appliances 16. Health Technologies 17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies 18. Laser and Fiber Optics 19. Nuclear Technologies 20. High-performance Materials

    Netiquette

    The Usenet Newsgroup are archived at rtfm.mit.edu.

    Do you know what RTFM stands for?

    ftp access - to all newsgroups
    ftp access - to all newsgroups - index by name (HUGE file)
    Current Directory of FAQs
    Email - all the answers from rtfm.mit.edu archive

    Excellent Information Sources from the Scout Report

    Weekly Scout Reports [on the web]
    This is a nicely filtered overview of the activities each week that are accessible via the Internet. The focus is on educationally oriented topics, which is a very broad focus. It is also kept "timely".
    Scout Report Bimonthly Collection (organized by subject area)

    Education Sources

    infodome.sdsu.edu/computing/computing.shtml SDSU Library List of Campus Computing Resources
    Cause and Educom merged to become Educause
    Transforming Education through Information Technology
    Andy Carvin's EdWeb
    Brought to you by CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and CNIDR, the Center for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval.

    Sources for Software (public-domain, free-ware, share-ware)

    What is the difference?