- This is CS 2010, Computing Fundamentals
- I am Nat Tuck
Rant: Academic Address
- This is a first-year class, so I might as well go over academic address in case nobody else does.
- My name is Nat Tuck
- My academic titles are Doctor (because I have a PhD) and Professor (because I’m teaching a college class that you are in, and also because my job title here is Assistant Professor).
- So you could call me “Dr Tuck” or “Prof Tuck”.
- Dr. Tuck is correct for me, but might be wrong for other instructors who don’t have PhDs. So your best formal choice is “Professor Tuck”, which is valid for all college instructors.
- “Mr Tuck” is incorrect, because we’re in an academic setting and I have at least one applicable academic title.
- Professor is great too because not only is it always correct academic address, the next step is frequently trying to guess between Miss, Mrs, or Ms - so the odds are you’ll end getting it doubly wrong.
That all being said, feel free to call me Nat.
What’s Computing Fundamentals
Three key questions:
- What can computers do?
- A: Computers transform data.
- Q: What is data?
- Q: What does it mean to transform data? Why is that useful?
- How do they do it?
- How can you get them to do what you want?
Attendance
- Today I’ll be taking attendance manually.
- Starting next lecture, we’ll be using a tool called Inkfish to take attendance. Bring a device and punch in the code in the first 5 minutes of class or you lose attendance points.
- Get at least one device (phone works) signed into Inkfish and signed up for the class before Friday.
Course Site and Syllabus
- My web site is https://homework.quest/
- Go there, and then click CS 2010.
- Let’s look at the syllabus.
Data on Computers
- Computers store bits - 0 or 1, on or off, etc.
- Computers bundle those bits into groups like bytes or words.
- A byte or a word straightforwardly represents a number.
Lab This Afternoon
- We’ll play with data on computers.
Homework 1
- You’ll play with data on computers.
