I had a much easier time doing this week's tasks than last week's and I don't think it was because the assignment was any easier, but rather, because I think I am getting used to the system. It also helped that I was able to attend the lab and was instr ucted on the tasks that I couldn't figure out for myself. Lab was incredibly helpful because the people who were there to help understood the nature of the class and the nature of the assignments and therefore I did not need to explain what I was doing i n such detail as I would if I had been working in another computer lab such as the one in Keller Hall.
When I first started attempting to do the assignment, I was a little apprehensive because I had not learned how to ftp the week before, so I didn't know how to accomplish any of the tasks. The first task was to copy a student file from Generation 1 Psy 409 into my CSS directory, and I had no idea what to do. I began brainstorming, trying to see if there was some way to accomplish this task that I had come across previously. When we wanted to get something into our UNIX account, we merely mailed the fi le into the account. I thought that maybe this was how to get the student file into my CSS account, but I soon realized that mailing will only go to a UNIX address, so that plan was destroyed immediately. I generated no further ideas of my own, so I dec ided to utilize our TA resources and consulted Jo about how to accomplish this task. Unfortunately, she did not know either, so we waited until Dr. James came back to ask him how to accomplish the task.
Dr. James instructed me to copy the URL address of the file I wanted to copy from "leonpsy" to the end. Then he told me to type in the following: cp ../../leonpsy etc. This, unfortunately, did not work. We tried it again and again, the command faile d. Well, Jo pointed out that I needed to be in my CSS account to copy the file, and I had been in my UNIX account. At the time, this did not seem obvious, but looking back, I realize that of course, I needed to be in my CSS directory to copy a file into the directory. I feel somewhat foolish that I would have made such a stupid error, but I also realize that I need to give myself a break because I am new to the system, and perhaps things that are obvious to the experienced pro are not so obvious to the inexperienced amateur. Now that I have completed the assignment and am more understanding as to the nature of the CSS and UNIX accounts, I do not expect that I will make this kind of error in the future. However, throughout the assignment, I found myse lf in a repeated lapse of confusing the two accounts. Thus, once I completed the first subtask, I realized that it was very easy, but at the time, the task seemed very difficult.The next subtask was to log into my UNIX account and ftp over to my CSS account. At first, I did not even know what ftp was or how to ftp. Kevin quickly explained to me that ftp was a method of transferring files from one account to the next and then h e told me how to ftp from UNIX to CSS:
unix%ftpThe next task, was to download the file to my diskette, which I did using Fetch. Because I have been using Fetch since the second week of class to transfer my homework assignments from my diskette to my CSS account, I didn't have much trouble figuring o ut how to move my file in the opposite direction -- namely, from UNIX to my diskette. Instead of using "Put folders and files", I used "Get file" after hilighting the desired file, and this allowed me to transfer the file to my diskette. Thus, although I had not actually performed this particular task previously, because I had already had a reasonable amount of experience using Fetch, I was able to use the knowledge that I had previously acquired and apply that knowledge to accomplishing a new task.
The task which gave me the most difficulty was the final task. I actually thought it would be easy because I had thought that I had conquered ftp. Little did I realize how wrong an assumption I had made. I got into my CSS account and got into ftp in t he same manner that I did when I ftp-ed from UNIX. Then I used the "get" command to transfer my file from UNIX to my CSS account. Unfortunately, the file would not transfer. I didn't understand what I had done wrong, so I tried again. Again, the compu ter screen showed that my file had not been transferred. 'What is going on?' I wondered. I thought that maybe I had named the file wrong or saved the file one my diskette under the wrong format. So I tried various new names and formats to save my modif ied file. Then would Fetch the file into my UNIX account and try to retrieve it from my CSS account. Nothing worked, and I began to get very frustrated because I had been working at this final task for awhile. This one task was the main source of my di fficulty as well as the main source of my negative emotions.
Finally, a breakthrough occurred. I noticed that as I was opening ftp from my CSS account, my login was somehow incorrect. Then, while I was opening ftp from UNIX I realized that I was logging in using p08 as my name, so when I was in CSS, I needed to login as ckealoha, my UNIX name. Prior to this, I had been trying to open ftp from my CSS account using p08. This was a major breakthrough, and I was excited to try out my theory to see if maybe my ftp from CSS would finally work. Unfortunately, my log in didn't work and the following happened: Name(www.soc.hawaii.edu:p08):ckealohaOverall, I did not feel that this week's tasks were difficult, I guess because they were easy once I figured out how to do them, and because I attended lab, I did not spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to do most of the tasks. The only one tha t gave me real problems was the final subtask, but I was able to overcome this obstacle on my own, so I rated this week's tasks as being fairly easy. Of all the weeks, this week I felt the least amount of negative emotions, although this was just as diff icult as most of the other weeks. I attribute this lack of negative emotions, first of all, to the fact that I spent a minimal amount of time feeling lacunae because I was able to accomplish most of the tasks with ease. Even the task which I had difficu lty with, while I did get frustrated, because I was able to solve the problem by myself, the enormous high I felt erased away any negative emotions that I might have felt and thus, I felt that this week's tasks cost me few negative emotions, but rather, a fforded me many positive emotions.
I never thought that accomplishing such a small task could give me such a great sense of satisfaction, but I guess after feeling so incredibly lacunae last week, it felt really good, this week, to know that I have acquired enough computer and internet kn owledge to be able to find solutions by myself. Now that I have a foundation to work with, my immediate reaction to a problem is not to ask somebody for help, but to brainstorm my own solutions: Have I seen this before? Is there some way to relate what I am having problems with now with something I have achieved in the past? In Week 2 I talked about using the computer people as resources for accomplishing the tasks. I was proud that I had tapped into such a resource. Last we ek I found myself growing dissatisfied with this attitude because I began to realize that I could not always be asking other people for help. This week, I experienced the great satisfaction of not utilizing other people as resources, and I realize now, t hat the purpose of learning is to become self sufficient, not dependent upon others to supply me with knowledge. The goal here is to build enough knowledge so that I won't have to ask somebody for help when a problem arises, but rather, will be able to s olve the problem on my own.
This week's tasks, I sure, will be invaluable for future reference. I have no doubt that I will be getting very good at these tasks and in fact, I feel that I have already become fairly proficient at them. Hopefully in the future I will learn how to do even more with ftp. For example, I'm not even sure if this will involve ftp, but I would like to learn how to take pictures or quotes from another homepage and transfer them to my own. I feel very satisfied with the computer and internet systems because as the weeks progress, I realize more and more how very easy the computer language is to learn. Looking back at previous papers, I see that I have said this in just about every one, bu t each week I learn more and each week, the information superhighway becomes more and more demystified for me. I must admit that after last Thursday, when I got stuck on the last subtask, I was feeling very down about this class and what we were learning . I almost dreaded coming back to the computer lab to do my reports. Yesterday, when I figured out what I was doing wrong, I felt a renewed vigor and enthusiasm for the internet and for this class and I felt excited by the capacity of Netscape, so much so, that I decided to do some experimentation with my homepage, and I explored other homepages. I found one in particular that is the best homepage I have ever seen by a girl from Hong Kong named Teresa and I found her on the Hong Kong Starting Point homepage. To find it, you have to scroll kind of far down the page to PK Favorite Links and the link to Teresa's homepage is here. Finding this homepage really inspired me because it showed what is possible on the internet and it made me want to learn more so that someday perhaps I can be so creative.