Independent Study:
Practical Computer Experience
South Dakota State University
Fall Semester, 1995
Trent Bower
trent.bower@pobox.com
December 22, 1995
Although i didn't know exactly where this study would lead me when i began, it turned into a survey of computer-linked communications with emphases in intra-campus LAN operation and world-wide information exchange via the WWW. Under the instruction of Mr. Ron Greve, i coordinated and began moderating the first SDSU Student Senate listserv and by learning rudimentary HTML, i made pages available on the internet's WWW. The projects i have completed for this course are only the beginning of what i intend to do for the duration of my attendance at South Dakota State University.
The SDSU Student Senate listserv is still in its early phase of use by the governing student body. Most of the senators don't even have MUSIC accounts yet. The majority have never so much as sent an e-mail message, much less subscribed to a list. The senators who have already subscribed to the list seem interested with the possibilities it presents. Others want to know how it works, but are reluctant to engage in an activity they don't yet understand. Towards the end of the semester, i wrote a brief letter regarding a proposed amendment that will be put to vote in early January. I e-mailed the letter to student senators at 40 other colleges in the US and Canada for their input on our proposed amendment. Already i have received replies from half a dozen of them and i expect to get more as the next semester begins. When i present the replies to the SDSU Student Senate, i hope that the group will better appreciate the utility of the internet as a medium to exchange ideas. There could be a higher volume of traffic through Administration room #124 with students seeking MUSIC accounts.
The most valuable part of my study, though, was gained through the creation of pages on the WWW. When i began the project, the NHE lab was under construction. Thus, the convenience of Netscape and other Windows-based software wasn't at my disposal. It's just as well, because i wouldn't otherwise have learned as much (which still wasn't a lot) as i did.
My research began in the library. I learned HTML from a book and i learned about different types of URL's (http, ftp, telnet, gopher, etc.). I used the DOS computers in the Briggs computer lab and downstairs in the Administration Building to write my first homepage with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Using the FTP program on MUSIC, i downloaded the non-graphical browser, LYNX, from the University of Kansas and decompressed it with a PKUNZIP program i found at another site. Unfortunately, there was some sort of compatibility problem with Ethernet's TCPIP stack that i was unable to resolve. I didn't have much luck getting other browsers such as CERN's LineMode, either. If i had kept trying, though, i'm sure i would have found a good program that could have permitted me to surf the net even on the dumb terminals around campus.
Everything was suddenly a lot easier when the NHE lab was finally completed. Sometimes i bitterly criticize Netscape because it will undoubtedly become Corporate America's next Microsoft, but what can i say? It's a good product and i wish the company would gratuitously make me a stockholder. In any case, writing and transferring web pages was a lot simpler (and more colorful) with WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows and TCP3270. I made one page devoted entirely to education possibilities over the internet. The page has links to schools that conduct classes over the net and links that provide examples of ways to use the WWW for teaching and learning. My transcript is now available on the web; so is my curriculum vitae. Another page i created links users to search engines they may not know about.
Perhaps the hardest task was getting an image on the web. I couldn't find a scanner on campus available for general use to the student body. There was a scanner in the Graphics Arts Department. Trouble was, those machines were Macs. They weren't connected to MUSIC. I had an image saved in three Mac formats (.jpeg, .tiff, and Compuserve .gif) with no way of getting them to my MUSIC account. First, i tried to send the image files over the net from an off-campus Mac via a private internet access provider, itctel.com, but to no avail. The software package was absolutely uncooperative. Once, when i finally got the FTP program to work, i was denied access to my MUSIC account with a message that my password was incorrect. Then i tried to connect via modem to MUSIC's dial-in numbers. Connection was made and i was prompted to enter a terminal type. I tried them all, but none of them worked.
The solution to getting my image on the web was to use a converter. I subscribed to html-list@netcentral.net and asked for assistance. I got three replies, one of which directed me to a program named Clink which i downloaded by FTP from ici.net. Clink read my Mac files and converted them to IBM files. I transferred the image to MUSIC and it worked! I've since removed the image file, though, because it was too big and it used up too much of my allotted space of 500K. So much so that i couldn't send or receive e-mail on my account.
This course of independent study is now completed because the end of the semester has been reached, but my pursuits on the net have just begun. One campus organization, Sons and Daughters, has sought my help getting their homepage started. I've started a site for them, but they will have to decide as a group what they want to put on it. Also, while i was scanning images in the Graphics Arts Lab, one of the instructors, Tim [Lastname] asked if i would be able to assist his department in their endeavors to put artwork on the web. Then today, i met Jim [Lastname] who is designing web sites for the College of Engineering and we discussed the possibilities of combining our time and knowledge for the purpose of sharing our experience with interested departments and perhaps designing future projects. So, i've exchanged e-mail addresses with each of them and we will be meeting next semester to explore ideas and options.
As an addendum to the report, i would mention that when i checked my homepage from a remote location using Netscape, that my home page had changed. Apparently, no one changed my source file, however, someone changed the (albiet "stolen") gif that i was using as a background and replaced it with a different gif. By doing so, they used my homepage to advertise a political party. Perhaps it was done with slanderous or malicious intent. Perhaps it was not.
It would be interesting to do another independent study on potential misuse of the internet.