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Skolan för
elektroteknik
och datavetenskap
Lab 1: Computer introduction

Lab 1: Computer introduction

Overview

During your two years you will often work with the computers at KTH, and being able to do so efficiently is important and will save you a lot of time. Since Mac computers are common in the media industry it is also valuable to you in your future career. In this lab you will start familiarizing yourself with the mac environment, and at the end you will publish a simple web page. kursen.

Deadline

The final date for handling in the assignment is är 2007-11-08

Groups

You can work individually or in groups of two, but if everyone attends the scheduled lab time at least some of you will have to work in pairs. You choose your lab partners yourself.However, if you work in gropus of two, each one has to:

  • Make the changes to your own computer environment, as outlined below.
  • Make and publish your own web page.

Tasks

Task 1: A short introduction to the mac environment at KTH/CSC


If you have no previous mac experience it is a good idea to learn som basics about Mac OS X. The first thing you should do is therefore to go through the short introduction in the help system

Start with logging in on the mac. The username and password are for your CSC account which is probably different from your KTH-account you use to access PingPong. If you have ever logged in to a computer at KTH/CSC, then that is the username and password you should use. If you don't have your account information, you can get them from Delfi (see http://www.sgr.nada.kth.se/index.html.en to the right for opening hours) .

Your are welcomed by a blue background. Go to the menu at the top and choose "Help->Mac Help", and then "Discovering Your Mac"->"Work smart, play hard."->"Easy, Smart, Convenient", and go through all the information found there (or skip sections you already know or find of little use)

FAQ

Some frequently asked question :

Q: How do I find the character XXX on the keyboard?
A: Locate the flag in the upper right corner. Select "Open International" and add "Character Palette" from "Input Menu". They you can access a virtual character palette from the menu with a flag, where you can see which characters are "behind" each key when you press shift, alt, control or any combination of those keys.

Q: I have opened the program XXX but nothing happens. What should I do?
A: A Mac differs from the Windows platform, by not quitting a program when the last open window of the program is closed. You can see which programs are active by the small triangle under the program in the "dock" at the bottom of the screen. If you click on a program in the dock which has no active window, the program is activated which you can see in the menues at the top of the screen. From most programs you can then choose "File->New Window" or something like that (or if your mac is set to Swedish, "Arkiv->Nytt fönster".

Q: Where are my files?
A: Your home folder is not placed on the local computer, but on one of the unix file servers at CSC. You get to your home folder by clicking on the little "house icon" you see in all Finder windows. You get a Finder window by clicking on the blue background and then choosing "File->New Finder Window". This means you have access to all your files from all mac and unix computers at CSC.

Q: How do I create and publish my own web pages?
A: In your home folder you have a folder called "public_html". Files you put there become accessible from the web from the addreess http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~your-user-name/your-file-name. If you open the address http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~your-user-name/ , the file index.html in your public_html folder is open. You will soon learn how to make web pages.

Update: If you don't have a public_html folder you will have to create it. On a mac, create a new folder in your home folder, and name it public_html. Next, right-click on the folder and go to AFS->Permissions, and change so that system:anyuser has both l(ist) and r(ead) persmission. Then save.

If you connect to my.nada.kth.se remotely using ssh or telnet with kerberos, you can create a folder in the following way. Open a terminal connection and write:

    mkdir public_html
    fs sa public_html system:anyuser rl
  

Task 2: Making some local adjustments to your account

In this part you will make access to commonly used programs easier.

Adding commonly used programs to the dock

The "dock" is located at the bottom of the screen. Programs you often will use can be placed in the dock for faster access. To place a program in the dock, you simply drag the icon for the program to the dock.

Start with going to the Applications folder which you find by opening a finder window, clicking on "Applications" or choosing the menu option Go->Applications. Icons with a small triangle to the left are folders, the actual applications are located inside the folder.

Now drag-and-drop the following programs to the dock:.

  • Acrobat Reader
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • BBEdit
  • SubEthaEdit
  • iCal
  • Macromedia DreamWeaver
  • Firefox
  • NetNewsWire Lite
  • Microsoft Office X programs you think you will use
  • Opera
  • Preview

From the folder "Utilities" you should also add

  • Terminal

Task 4: Make your own simple web page

In this task, you will make a simple web page. Later on you will learn more and be able to make more advanced web pages, as well as get more understanding on how it actually works, but for now on it is sufficient if your web page contains simple text. The text should be a presentation of you and your interest.

Start with checking if you have a folder named "public_html" in your home directory. If you don't create such a folder (using File->New folder). Then you should change the persmissions, so the web server can access the files. Right-click on the folder and choose "AFS Persmissions...". Choose username "system:anyuser" and click on the read-box. Click "Apply". Now you can continue with the lab

 

Start with opening DreamWeaver .

Close the document "Untitled" which will likely appear, and instead choose "File->New ..." and choosing the alternatives shown below.

DreamWeaver Dialogue

 

Then start with choosing "View->Code and Design". Now you can write your homepage in the lower half of the window, almost like an ordinary word processor. In the upper half of the window you see the underlying html code generated as you write.

Explore the various options for making lists, inserting images, creating headings and so forth, mainly found in the menues insert, modify and text.

Save your document often. The first time you save your document you should navigate to your public_html directory in your home directory, and save the document as index.html (or if you already have a homepage in your account, save it with another name).

Now open the address http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~your-user-name/ (where "your-user-name" should be the login name you use to log in to the mac computers) in a web browserm, and voila! You have published your first web page!

The default web browser is Safari, but I personally prefer Firefox (both found among the applications close to where you found DreamWeaver). Firefox supports Google Docs fully, which Safari 2.0 does not.

Now continue to edit your page until you are reasonably satisified.

Examination

Finally you should hand in the address to your home page using PingPong. Under "Content" you should find "Lab 1". Just write the address to your web page, and your name in the comment field, and click "Send".

Copyright © Sidansvarig: Christer Lie <lie@nada.kth.se>
Uppdaterad 2007-11-08