Leave a Message for Nitsa Mc
Carthy?PSY. 409
SEP. - 19 - 1995
W/ DR. LEON JAMES
Week 4 Report
Assignment:
Copy a
student file from Generation 1 Psych 409 into your CSS directory, then log into your UNIX account and ftp over to
your CSS account, copying the file you selected; now download it to
your diskette and midify it as you wish; now upload the file to your
UNIX account, then log into your CSS account and ftp the file over:
You should now have two files, one original from Generation 1 and to
other modifiesd by you. View the files in pico or emacs and in
Netscape.
Self-assessment ratings
How difficult was this week's task (lumping all the sub-tasks
together)?
Circle one.
Very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very hard
This week's rating = 4
How much Negative emotions did it cost you, in all?
Very little 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very much
This week's rating = 3
How Valuable for later use is this knowledge or skill going to be for
you?
Not useful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very useful
This week's rating = 10
How likely is it that you'll be getting good at this week's tasks?
Not likely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quite likely
This week's rating = 10
How satisfied are you with the computer and Internet systems?
Not satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very satisfied
This week's rating = 9
How hard did you try to get through this week's tasks?
Gave up easily 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Refused to give
up
This week's rating = 7
While setting sail into our fourth week's task, I realized that the sub-tasks of copying a file from Generation 1 into my CSS directory, transferring it over to my CSS account, downloading the file to my diskette and modifying it, uploading the modified file to my UNIX account, transferring the modified file back to my CSS account, and then viewing it in Pico and Netscape, were based on the knowledge that I had acquired from the preceding weeks. That is, instead of using the trial and error method, I needed only to think (yes, use my brain) of how to put these sub-tasks to work in order to accomplish this week's task. For the first time I could really visualize and understand the steps that were involved in this week's task. It was a very encouraging experience since I could start doing the sub-tasks on my own without feeling lacunae or handicapped (i.e. handicapped in a sense that I have to call someone for help every now and then). For these reasons this week's task was not so difficult to accomplish.
In general this week's task didn't involve many negative emotions since now I feel much more confident in doing the weekly tasks. I think that now that I'm getting to know and understand the Internet much better, I have more and more positive thoughts and feelings. Yet, I haven't forgotten the long frustrating hours when things did not work out. Yes! When I encountered those fossilized errors. For example, towards the end of completing my weekly task I wanted to view in Pico and Netscape the modified file that I downloaded from my diskette to my UNIX account and ftp it to my CSS account, but, I spent hours on fossilized errors and I couldn't figure out where they came from.
The Internet contains useful sources of information from all over the globe. In this week's task I learned that the rich body of knowledge that the Internet offers can be transferred from one place to another and can be stored and even modified and viewed in multiple programs or locations. I think for these reasons this weekly task is valuable for later use.
Right now I feel that I need to have some more experience in using telnet and ftp. I do believe and do hope that I will eventually know how to use these systems well. I will be more satisfied with telnet if I am able to resolve my fossilized errors.
In spending long, frustrating hours trying to figure out how to view the modified file that I ftp to my CSS account, I felt exhausted and decided to quit this week's task. For this reason I rated my efforts as 7.
Is it Sending or Copying a
File?
My session for this week's report began at 1:00PM on Sunday, Sep 17, at the
CLIC lab. The first sub-task was "Copy a student file from Generation 1 Psych
409 into your CSS directory...ftp over to your CSS account." I realized that I
didn't copy a file from Netscape before, and thought that Dr. James
probably meant to say "send" instead of "copy." Consequently, I used Netscape
in order to get into my Home Page. In my Home Page I had created a link to the
Cyberspace Learning Communities: generation 1 files (Psy. 409a) on Thursday.
So I could view their files from my Home Page (pretty amazing). I skimmed
through several files and chose one file from Joleen Lai's Home Page. In order
to send the file to UNIX from the Options menu I dragged to preference, dragged
to Mail News and typed my UNIX name and password in the status box. Then from
the File menu I dragged into Mail Document, I typed my UNIX address and then
clicked on Quote (which presented the file that I wanted to send), Attach, and
finally Send.
Yet, after sending Joleen's file to my e-mail I realized that the sub-task didn't mention anything about sending a file to a UNIX account. It only said to log onto my UNIX account in order to ftp the file to my CSS account. I felt hopeless since after all what I did, I was back to the beginning of the sub-task, to ground zero. Lesson: read the sub-tasks carefully. I was wondering and pondering, looking at the weekly task print and trying to figure out what to do. Baffled, I thought that maybe "copy" meant really just that. I went back to Joleen's file and highlighted it and from the Edit menu I dragged to Copy. Since I already opened my UNIX account, I typed telnet to open my CSS account and from there I typed Pico in order to Paste Joleen's file in Pico (the editor). It worked. I named Joleen's file as generation1file and saved it (^X). I put the command ls at the prompt and her file was in my CSS directory.
Felt lacunae...did I miss
something?
Now that Joleen's file was in my directory, I couldn't understand why I had to
ftp it to my CSS account. I saw a redundancy in doing this task. It didn't
make sense to me since the file was already in my directory. I felt lacunae,
wondering whether I was missing something. I shared my dilemma with Ms. Cortez
and she told me that the account and the directory are different things. Well,
I didn't understand what she meant and simply thought that ftp was another way
of moving a file instead of copying it.
Instruction for ftp(ing) a file to your CSS
account
I decided, anyway, to ftp Joleen's
file over to my CSS account; Ms. Cortez told me how to do so. The following
steps explain how to transfer (ftp) a file over to my CSS account: 1) at the
uhunix prompt (%) type ftp www.soc.hawaii.edu (notice the space
between ftp and www), and hit Return; 2) a message will indicate that you are
connected to your CSS directory; 3) where it says Name: type your CSS name
i.e. P__ and then your CSS password; 4) at the ftp> type get
filename (where it says filename type the name of the file from generation
1 that you want to transfer); 5) a message will indicate that your transfer
is complete.
Instruction for downloading a file, via
Fetch, to your diskette
Then, using Fetch, I downloaded Joleen's file into my diskette. How to
download a file via Fetch? This is what you should do: 1) click on the fetch
icon; 2) in the status box click on Open Connection (if the dialogue box
indicates Close Connection, click on that and you should see Open Connection
instead); 3) enter your CSS directory as the Host (i.e. www.soc.hawaii.edu),
enter your CSS name and password, leave the Directory blank, and click OK; 4)
at the new status box you should see on the bottom left side all the files that
exist in your CSS directory; highlight the file that you want to download and
choose Desk Top from the window above; open your diskette then click on Get
File button (this will transfer your file to your Mac diskette).
Encountering those fossilized errors while
using Fetch
One of the fossilized errors that I encountered in Fetch was switching back
and forth between the Get and Put buttons. In my mind I knew that I needed to
download by using Get but in actuality I clicked on Put instead. This same
thing happened later when I wanted to upload a file to my CSS account but I
actually clicked on Get. Don't ask me why I think one thing and do the other
because I haven't the slightest idea.
Trying to modify a Generation One
file
After successfully downloading Joleen's file into my diskette, I wanted to
modify it. I double clicked on the file but a status box indicated that the
application could not be opened since the program that created it could not be
found. Fortunately, it asked me if I wanted to open the file by using "Teach
Text." Well, of course! I viewed the file and wanted to modify it, hence,
from the File menu I chose Save As. Yet, it didn't offer any tools that I
could use to alter the file. I saved it anyway and thought of how to put the
file in Microsoft format (since that is the format that I use at home). I
asked the person at the Help Desk and he told me that I needed to use the
Microsoft Word's Application program. I went back to my terminal, opened the
Desk Top, and opened my diskette and Joleen's unmodified file. From Microsoft
Word's File Types, I chose All Files and it put Joleen's file in Microsoft
format. Now I could modify and save the file in any format that wanted (i.e.
rtf interchange format).
After another fossilized error while using Fetch (i.e. switching between Get and Put), I successfully uploaded Joleen's modified file into my UNIX account. Subsequently, login onto my CSS account, I transferred the modified file over to there. I wanted to check whether Joleen's original file and the modified file were in my CSS directory so at the prompt I typed ls and both files were there. I decided to view the modified file in Pico; I gave the file a new name because I wanted to view it later in Netscape (but not before translating it to html format). I encountered some fossilized errors while translating the file from rtf to html format. After typing the file name that I wanted to translate, a message indicated that the file can't be opened. I couldn't understand this. I decided to copy the file name from my CSS directory and paste it at the rtf/rtftohtml_src prompt, but again the same message appeared. I decided to change the name of the file with a new name by giving the command mv (the mv command is supposed to replace the old name with a new one). However, I got a message that my modified file do not exist; I don't know what I did wrong. What does that mean? The file did appear in my directory and I was careful in checking its spelling. So where did it go? For about an hour I stumbled over this fossilized error without reaching any resolution. I felt lacunae in a sense that I didn't know what was the error or what I overlooked. At that time I couldn't think clearly. I felt exhausted and frustrated and left the CLIC lab at 7:00PM with my mission not accomplished.
Any notable difference among
sub-tasks?
While doing this week's sub-tasks, I didn't detect any notable difference among them since the general theme that connected them all was to transfer a file between directories or, in other words, to move a file from one place to another. The only differences that exist between the sub-tasks are the differences in text and commands that are used in each location.
What remained unresolved this
week?
In this week's task there are some sub-tasks that remain unresolved. For
example, I want to know why I can't open the modified file in my CSS directory
in order to translate it to html. I want to create links to my weekly reports
sub-tasks instructions of how to upload, download using Fetch, or how to ftp,
etc. Finally, I want to learn how to put/copy an image to my Home Page from
other Netscape documents (excluding Dr. James' Home Page since I triumphantly
accomplished that...check it out!).
Summation on accumulation of
knowledge
In summary, this week I learned how to transfer a file from one place to
another and modify it. Hopefully, when I resolve the problem that I
encountered, I will be able to view it in Pico and Netscape or any other place.