Leave a Message for Nitsa Mc
Carthy?PSY. 409
SEP. - 26 - 1995
W/ DR. LEON JAMES
Week 5 Report
Assignment:
Select a Home
Page you like from a Generation 1 Psy 409 student and copy it into your
CSS directory, then view it in emacs or pico and modify it to suit our
content and style; make links to your weekly reports (each weekly report
is a separate file).
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 = 7
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 = 5
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 = 10
How to copy student's Home
Page
This week I went to the lab class on Thursday and asked Dr. James to
show me (theoretically) how to copy Generation 1 (Psy. 409) student's Home Page
to my CSS directory. Dr. James and I figured out the address or link to one of
Generation 1 student's Home Page and then he told me how to copy it. He
explained that after I log onto my CSS account I need to give the cp command
(for copy), space, type the file address, space, give the file a new name and
that's it. Dr. James instruction were so straight forward and simple that I
decided to postpone this week's task to Sunday since I had to rush to a
meeting.
Sending a reaction to fellow
classmates
On Friday and Saturday I worked on this week's task at home (what a great
advantage to have the opportunity to connect to the Internet from my terminal
at home). Since Dr. James gave us extra homework tasks in class, I decided to
finish them first before embarking on our usual week's task. My first goal was
to read my classmates' weekly reports and then send them, via e-mail, a
reaction. I really didn't know which reports to read (there are bunch of them)
so I decided to read their latest reports (i.e. week 4) since that week's task
was still fresh in my mind. I reviewed all the reports and realized that my
classmates and I shared, more or less, the same fossilized errors, lapses,
aches and pains. In order to be somehow objective and unbiased as to whom I
send a reaction, I chose to react to one report written by a male and the other
by a female. From each report I picked one paragraph that I wanted to comment
on, copy, and paste on to my message to them. Then I wrote my reaction to it
and sent it to them and a carbon copy to Dr. James. (I bet it appeared on your
e-mail as well since Dr. James decided to share my, and also your, reaction
with the rest of the class...how embarrassing!).
Reading other students' reports and sending them a reaction was very simple and rather entertaining. I was curious to see what my classmates wrote in their weekly reports. Each one of us has a different style of conveying his/her emotions, thinking processes, and other general experiences with the Internet. On the other hand, I noticed that we share some common fossilized errors and lapses. Ironically, it was very encouraging for me since now I realized that it's "not just me" when things don't work out!
On Sunday I went to the CLIC lab at 12:15 (since it is hard to connect to the Internet from home during the day). I was certain that I could finish this week's task in no more then two hours. I was wrong!
Sending my weekly reports to students from
Traffic Psychology class
When I first got to the CLIC lab I decided to send my week 4 reports to two
students from Traffic Psychology class. I did it successfully and felt very
confident and positive. I picked two names and addresses (one of a male and
the other of a female) from one on the messages that Dr. James had left me on
my e-mail. Then from my Home Page in Netscape, I opened the Option file and
dragged to preferences and then to Mail News where I entered the Mail Server as
uhunix.its.hawaii.edu, my name, and my e-mail address. From the File menu I
dragged to Mail Document and entered the name and address of the student from
Psy. 459 that I chose to send my report to. Then I clicked on the Quote button
and it quoted my report. I made some changes and wrote some opening
statements, indicating the reason for sending my report to them with a
descriptive summary of our class objectives. Next, I clicked on Attach and
again on Attach and then on Send. My mission was complete. I felt great since I
didn't encounter any fossilized errors.
Copying Allison Asahina's Home
Page
Now that I have accomplished the extra homework that Dr. James assigned to us,
I was ready to start this week's task. That is, to put up a Home Page. I
reviewed my notes and the instruction that Dr. James gave me on Thursday and
opened the Generation 1, Psy 409, Home Page in order to choose one file to copy
to my CSS directory. I skimmed through the Home Pages of Generation 1 students
one by one (from bottom to top). All had very interesting and creative Home
Pages. I decided to copy Allison Asahina's Home Page since in her Indexical
Home Page she offers links to Dr. James Home Page, her weekly lab reports, her
classmates Home Pages, class photograph, Psy. 459, Generation 1, Home Page,
hers and other students glossaries, other interesting Internet sites and (my
favorite) to her artistic Home Page. This is indeed an encompassing Home Page
which offers a variety of links to chose from.
Guidelines for copying other students Home
Page
Then I logged onto my CSS directory and at the prompt (www$) I typed the
command cp (space) ../../leonpsy/psy409a/asahina/asahina.html
(space) Asahina's Home Page (Return). In other words, the cp
command stands for copy and then the Asahina's Home Page address or URL is
entered and then the new name that I chose to give to her Home Page is entered.
Looks simple, huh? Not really!
Encountering major fossilized
errors
I encountered major fossilized errors. I
thought that this command should do it. That is, it would copy Asahina's Home
page to my directory; but after I hit Return the sign > kept on
appearing. At first I thought I did copy Asahina's file to my directory so at
this > sign I typed ls to check whether the file existed in my
directory. Yet, at the > ls nothing happened. I decided to
type open; nothing happened and the prompt sign didn't appear. I
started to sweat and got nervous. The task seemed easy but unfortunately it was
not. Frustrated, I continued to type many other commands such as open
www.soc.hawaii.edu but realized that it was futile since I was already at
the CSS directory. Then I typed ftp www.soc.hawaii.edu and wondered
whether I had to transfer the file after copying it. It didn't work. I typed
exit; nothing happen, quit, logout; it didn't do anything
except for the damned > sign that kept appearing. Indeed, I felt
lacunae.
Finding altrnative way to copy a
file...
I didn't want to call for help and decided to copy Asahina's Home Page in a
different way. I felt good that I could use an alternative way to copy a file
to my CSS directory. Using Fetch I uploaded her file to the Temporary Files on
the hard drive and then via Fetch I downloaded her file to my CSS directory. I
opened a new window in UNIX and logged onto my CSS account. So now I had two
open windows in UNIX; one with my first attempt to copy a file, i.e. with its
fossilized errors, and the other with my second attempt, i.e. by downloading it
from the hard drive.
Felt...lacunae, lacunae,
lacunae!
After downloading Asahina's file to my CSS directory, it
dawned on me that maybe something was wrong with the new name I gave to her
file in my first attempt to copy it. I remembered that UNIX dosen't like a
space in between words since it reads it as a different directory or a
different command. I didn't go back to that window, and at the prompt of the
second UNIX window that I opened, I entered all the commands over again, but
changed the name to asahina instead of Asahina's Home Page. It
worked. Not only that, I also viewed it in Pico and modified it. At that time
instead of feeling happy I felt angry. In my mind I thought all the one
hundred and thousand wicked things that I would like to do to the computer or
to the whole cyber system's obsessive compulsive personality. I had spent four
long, frustrating hours on a task that should have taken me about a minute.
How would you feel about that???
Was I satisfied with the computer
system?
Believe me, at that moment I was not satisfied with computer system at all.
The system, which was developed by humans, needs to be more friendly and
helpful for a computer novice like me. It needs to spell out the repeated
mistakes that I made when I give the wrong commands. For example, it should
have told me that it favors simple, short names to files with no spaces in
between. This would have saved me from the long anguishing hours and feelings
of inadequacy. Yet, to view my experience in a more positive light it seems
that I learned something from my repeated lapses - to never repeat them again!
After discovering the root of my fossilized errors I hope that I'll get better
at copying someone's Home Page in the future.
Later use?
This week's task will be valuable for later use since I'm planning some
interesting links to my Home Page in the future. Therefore, if I wish to
modify those links I will need to know how to copy them to my CSS directory and
edit them in Pico.
Summation on task
Procession
In sum, since this is the Jewish new year and also Yom Kippur (time to repent
one's sins), I forgive myself for all the fossilized errors that I made and all
the feelings of inadequacy that I felt, and start a new beginning with renewed
hope and optimism for a better future and with a promise to never give up
again.
Greetings for ROSH
HASHANA
*** For all of you Jewish and non-Jewish people of the world:
Le' Shana Tova Techatevu ve Techatemu
(a Hebrew blessing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).