CS332 Past Announcements for Spring 2020 (A. V. Gerbessiotis)

Past Announcements

05/12 Course Web-page retirement The web-page will be retired some time this week. Aspects of it will be retrievable through the past semester link.
05/11 Downloading If you download .pdf docs from section C, refresh your browser or clear the cache and then refresh. This is relevant if you try to download an n-file or x-file. Subjects are n-files and homework solutions are x-files. For example Subject 9 exists in three forms (March 27, April 8 and April 9) because of minor typos affecting one or two pages. Even if they have now three different names n9332s20o.pdf, n9332s20oo.pdf, n9332s20.pdf respectively, watch out that you have the current version. All three are downloadable and available though.
05/11 Prelims By now you have registered with ProctorU at least 14 days before the exam (eg by April 28). By now you have participated in the practice TEST that was opened on April 28 at 5pm and thus you are familiar with the exam set-up in moodle. For the day of the exam the exam link in moodle in the area covering May 12 which is in Week 15 will be made visible around 4-4:30pm. The link won't be retrievable before about 6pm. View the video link in Appendix A1 (or 1) in the .txt file to get familiarized with the ProctorU interaction! Thus the preconditions to start an EXAM as described in the ProctorU .txt file are: Technology check is OK and you may have also watched the video referenced above to familiarize yourselves with the ProctorU interaction AND EXAM is visible in moodle in week around May 12 AND It is 6pm or later on May 12 AND You are using the Browser (Chrome, may be Firefox) with the blue owl (ProctoruU plugin) AND You logged in with the plugin in ProctorU AND You logged in with moodle Do not worry if the NJIT ID is flagged by ProctorU's AI most likely after the exam. I was told by NJIT that it is OK for students to show an NJIT ID and not (a driver's license or PASSPORT). I will ignore such ID flags. In the area the exam is going to appear, preceding it, ProctorU inserted a link with ProctorU info. This has been unhidden sometime around 11am on 5/11. AFTER that link the exam is going to pop up late afternoon on 5/12.
05/04 Office Hours this week and next Note that for Office Hours the official link is the link above (Current Semester Office Hours) WebEx info is an accessory to realize this. According to NJIT, tomorrow Tue 05/05 is a Friday, i.e. NJIT follows a Friday schedule. There are no office hours on Fridays for me. The following two days and in particular Thu 05/07 is a Reading Day. No office hours in Reading Days according to NJIT. According to NJIT no Office hours in Exam Week as well, but as an exception i will hold them as stated in the official link above. Same meeting number and password will be used for Tue 12 May as it was used before.
04/24 FinalExam Preliminaries The final exam is to be done in moodle with proctoring using ProctorU Review+. The URL above has moved to a new location in this text. It was updated on Friday April 24 with more links in Appendix 1 and some more detailed info in Appendix 3. ProctorUFinalExam (Updated:4/24@17:10) In addition i have another preliminary link for other Final Exam items. FinalExam Addendum (Updated:4/24@17:10)
04/24 FinalExam Preliminaries The final exam is to be done in moodle with proctoring using ProctorU Review+. The URL above has moved to a new location in this text. It was updated on Friday April 24 with more links in Appendix 1 and some more detailed info in Appendix 3. ProctorUFinalExam (Updated:4/24@17:10) In addition i have another preliminary link for other Final Exam items. FinalExam Addendum (Updated:4/24@17:10)
04/29 HW5.5 Some clarifications in the link HW55.txt
04/21 Weather related There is an extreme weather alert around Northern NJ. Hopefully, it is nothing. In case however it causes a power or telecom disruption, it might affect Webex connectivity. This is to alert you in advance of that possibility. In such a scenario, you may use the already available voiceover for Subject 10, and parts of Subject 11 up to about slide 34.
04/20 FinalExam Info The fourth link under Announcements above contains preliminary information about the final exam. It is volatile and information changes and will change. Read however the info.
04/20 HW5.5 posted The last HW was posted in moodle.
04/16 Moodle in general Note that moodle has periodic maintenance usually in the early hours from say 1am to or through 5am. During that time frame you might experience disruption. It usually does not last long.
04/14 Subject 10 supplement voiceover Through moodle you may find two supplement voiceovers covering Subject 10. The examples are run on an osl machine (HW1). They cover material from Subject 10 related to filesystem (linux/unix in particular) and permission, filesystem structure, inodes and file types in Unix including named pipes, symbolic (aka soft links) links and also discuss (hard) links. They supplement the discussion of Subject 10.
04/08, 04/13 HW5 It has been posted in moodle one day ahead of time. Note it is a 40pt regular homework.
04/08, 04/07 Subject 9 I edited Subject 9 once again to eliminate confusion at the bottom of slide 27 (in green). The previous version of subject 9 are still available. Two typos were corrected: one at the top of slide 23 and one at the bottom of slide 27 (in green).
04/06 HW4.5 HW 4.5 has been posted on moodle. (The file name shows up as w6332s20.pdf.) It is more comprehensive than HW 5 that will be posted next week. It covers materials from Subject 7. Note that you may type in your answers directly in moodle rather than uploading a document in pdf. (You may still the second option.) I, the instructor, will grade HW 4.5.
04/02 Webex Recordings of Lectures I modified the link of the recording for W09. It points to Webex's cloud server. The Webex recording of week W10 has also been made available. All through moodle.
04/01 HW4 comment on Problem 3 typos In problem 3, the quantum of time is 2unit. Yet in 3.3 a q=1 is indicated. Treat q=1 as a typo of the correct q=2. Moreover in part (b) a wait queue is referred to. Wait queue is a misnomer for ready queue.

03/30 ALL Subjects posted

03/27 HW3 note As it appears in the calendar (Handout 1: Syllabus) and also in the Week plan above it is due before noon of Apr 2. You still have the option of submitting it in the form of a PDF. However i also allow you to submit text in place of a pdf file. Thus in the textbox you can have problem number or subnumber (eg 1(a) or 2) followed by the answer eg (1.1 , 1.3.1, etc). Every potential answer has a numeric prefix preceding it.
03/26 Videos and Moodle and mediaspace.njit.edu. From around 4pm today through around 4:50pm it was not possible to view videos through the moodle links of the course area. This had nothing to do with moodle or my links. The server had to deal with too many uploads of files and too many requests for views. As a result it was rejecting requests for views primarily.
03/26 Exam 3 to be replaced with two homeworks. Based on the vote count there were 39 YES. This is more than half of the active roster of the class (not Withdrawn), which stands at 53. I am in the process of incorporating the resulting changes into the link above (Per Week Plan etc).
03/25 WebEx connectivity audio issues Today, Wed, around 2:30pm Webex had connectivity issues: an audio, let alone a video, connection could not be achieved when webex participation was started either through the browser or the webex app on a platform (PC, tablet or otherwise). In case this happens again the following was suggested as a solution by CISCO: the host terminates and then restarts the meeting. Thus the participants will need to join it again. So bear this in mind if we have problems in the future (next week or office hours tomorrow). An alternative might be the use of Zoom (the CS dept meeting took place on zoom, after a 15 minute struggle with Webex).
03/24 HW4 T.A. is Turn Around time, just in case.
03/24 Tr2On-9: Class 3/24. In preparation of the class start reading Subject 6 and the corresponding material from Chapter 10 of the textbook (pages 433-460 but not 10.3-10.5) Then Subject 7 and the corresponding material from Chapter 7 of the textbook (pages 312-330). On Tue night, Webex permitting, i will go through Subject 6 a bit quickly and then move to Subject 7. Note that there are voiceovers for both Subjects: links are available in moodle. HW4 has been posted: it draws primarily from Subject 4 and 5.
03/21 Tr2On-8: Subject 6/7 voiceover moodle. A voiceover for all of Subject 6 has been made available through moodle. Find a link under this week's contents. Moreover you may also find two additional voiceovers for Subject 7, a supplement and the Subject 7 voiceover. The supplement rediscusses some things raised in Subject 0 such as paging and how to derive a page number and offset from a logical address. It also provides definitions for things such as compile/ation, assembe/ing, linking, load/ing. It would be better if you go through the supplement first and definitely before the first (webex online) class this coming Tue. Moreover Subjects 6, 7 and 8 have been uploaded to Section C.
03/21 Midterm(EX2) and Midterm Guidance Statistics for the midterm are available in section C. Midterm class performance is available in section C in rough terms (A, B+/B range, C+/C, D/F). It is based on HW1-3, Ex1-2. Sample solutions for Ex2 have also been posted, and so is the exam.
03/19 Tr2On-7: Course Delivery. A document is available both in moodle and Section C that outlines how the course will be run in the remaining 7 weeks. Please read it and be prepared for next week. An email was also sent out about this from moodle.
03/15 Tr2On-6: NJIT Remote presence. As of 18:13 tonight, non-essential faculty, staff have been advised to stay home and work remotely.
03/15 Tr2On-5: Past Spring Break. I will let you know during the break of the format of the class. I can tell you in advance that WebEx will be used during an online class (Tue 6-9pm) and during office hours.
03/15 Tr2On-4: Last class (3/10). For the information of students who were not present in class, we completed Subject 4 overview of Posix Threads (eg the code in the tar file available in Section C), and most if not all Subject 5 on Uniprocessor scheduling. An issue related to some numeric typos popped up during the discussion: an update of Subject 5 has been posted and is available all with the old version.
03/15 Tr2On-3: NJIT guideline. NJIT guideline, as emailed by the Provost, has been posted in moodle. Read also the segments applicable to you. This explains eg Tr2On-1 as well. Note that the documents talks about canvas. This class uses moodle and will continue to use moodle. So replace canvas with moodle while you are reading the document.
03/16,03/15 Tr2On-2: Moodle Exam-2-Construct. In preparation for the dissemination of grades re Exam 2, i have created an Exam-2-Construct assignment in moodle. Do it online (i.e. no file submission, as explained, in moodle) and the grade assigned would be your Exam 2 grade. If you want to inspect exam2, we will need to think of something after grading is formally over, and after the Break. The grade reported in moodle for Exam 2 is provisional. It will be finalized after the exams are in the possession of the instructor, This is going to happen when the University resumes normal operations. Thus the two week period to dispute a grade re Exam 2 starts then. If normal operations do not resume by mid April, we will think of something then, or the period extends further.
03/15 Tr2On-1: Office Hours after 3/22. The office hours will be moved completely to WebEx. More will follow. This means even if I will be at the office I will not be receiving students.
03/15 Tr2On-0: Terminology. Next class will mean next online class. As of now, an online class takes place at the same day, same time as a previously hald live class but not in the regular classroom but delivery is going to be through WebEx. More info will be posted in moodle. Voiceover links are only available in and through moodle.

03/11 Subject 5 update.

03/10@16:05 Grading in progress. Midterm exam grading is in progress and not yet complete. This is in line with the announcement on the first day of classes that whereas for HW and Ex1 and Ex2 will try to follow a 7-day cycle for grading (Thu to Thu or Tue to Tue), the midterm could take 2 weeks and it will require so.
03/10@15:28 NJIT President's email re NJIT's Covid-19 response Tuesday's class will be held as scheduled, based on current information. As of now, office hours will be held as scheduled (syllabus). If there are more than one students at the office at the same time, I will ask only one student to enter the office and meet me and the other students should be at a safe distance of at least 10 feet. I will give each present student a 10-min block for round-robin discussion, renewable for the still present students. Hopefully it will not be needed, given that the midterm has already been held. More will follow. I plan, after the BREAK, to generate voiceover of the remainings Subject notes using an NJIT program named Kaltura. For office hours after the BREAK, I may also utilize WebEx. If you plan to wear a mask or gloves you do not need to ask for permission and neither be embarassed nor be apologetic about it.
02/26 Midterm Exam on Mar 3 The midterm exam (aka Exam 2) is scheduled for Tue Mar 3. All the material from chapter 1-3 covered in class through 2/25 would be in the exam. This is also equivalent to and includes Subjects 0,1,2,3, including material from Handout 3. The exam is cumulative; see Handout 1 for details. Only a hard-copy of the designated textbook is allowed; see Handout 1.
02/25 Connectivity I was informed that the web-page connectivity was resolved around 5am today. Do not expect that course material would be instantly available all the time: download it to your local machine regularly.
02/25 Connectivity I was informed that the web-page connectivity was resolved around 5am today. Do not expect that course material would be instantly available all the time: download it to your local machine regularly.
09/18 Subject 3 related, Exam 1 Solutions Subject 3 and the associated code (tar file) plus Exam 1 solutions are available in Section C.
09/18 Subject 3 related, Exam 1 Solutions Subject 3 and the associated code (tar file) plus Exam 1 solutions are available in Section C.
02/18 HW3 It has been posted in moodle.
02/17 Exam 1 Exam 1 has been graded. It will be returned in class tomorrow, after 7:30pm, when grades will be officially released. Do not look around for grades in moodle or otherwise. If you planned to, read the following item below. Statistics for the Exam have already been posted in the course web-page, section C (definitions for the terms used are available in the bottom of that page). Sample summary solutions for Exam 1 will be posted later this week in section C.2.
02/10 Contact Reminder A reminder: if you plan to contact the instructor through non-traditional methods (and traditional methods are phone, office visit), the only other available method is by email. The protocol is described in Handout 0 with the email address of contact available in Handout 0, Handout 1 or this web-page. Initiating a contact through the canvas system is not a good idea: we do not use canvas in this class, and given that i know nothing about canvas i cannot comment furthermore. Neither should you use moodle: I use moodle to post hw, require you to submit hw, and the grader to grade and report grades to you. Early in the semester I also used it to send mass class emails or post some preliminary information that pointed to the course web-page. Do not use moodle in lieu of email. Moodle knows nothing about +cs332. Nor do we publicize any other grades in moodle. For exams, your grade only appears on your exampaper and records we maintain NOT in moodle and NOT in canvas and NOT online.
02/11 Subject 2 A minor update to fix a typo in Subject 2 has taken place. Both the original (old) and the current version are accessible.
02/10 Contact Reminder A reminder: if you plan to contact the instructor through non-traditional methods (and traditional methods are phone, office visit), the only other available method is by email. The protocol is described in Handout 0 with the email address of contact available in Handout 0, Handout 1 or this web-page. Initiating a contact through the canvas system is not a good idea: we do not use canvas in this class, and given that i know nothing about canvas i cannot comment furthermore. Neither should you use moodle: I use moodle to post hw, require you to submit hw, and the grader to grade and report grades to you. Early in the semester I also used it to send mass class emails or post some preliminary information that pointed to the course web-page. Do not use moodle in lieu of email. Moodle knows nothing about +cs332.
02/06 HW1, Exam1 related The seating arrangements for all in-class Exams are now available in Section C.1.b. Sample solutions for HW1 have also been posted. Note the logistics for Exam 1 (eg. closed everything) are available in Handout 1 (Syllabus).
02/04 Subject 2 A new subject has been posted in the Protected area of the course web-page. Note that HW2 is due before noon this coming Thursday. Seating arrangements for the first exam will be posted sometime tomorrow in Section C1.b.
01/30 HW1 Note that password related issues should have been addressed earlier, eg before or during last class. Based on what i know, and it is limited, NJIT has moved since early 2019 to a new UCID system called MyUCID (myucid.njit.edu) that allows for global password management and by default all passwords are the same as the UCID password (and login), and this includes the AFS password. This step however requires you to 'claim your UCID'. (This primarily applied to students who were matriculated in Spring 2019 or before.) Emails towards this were sent out in Spring 2019 and also Fall 2019. If you did not 'claim your UCID', it is possible that your AFS password and UCID passwords deviated and are not the same anymore, if the last time you updated the UCID password you did not click on the button/option that said 'make all passwords the same with my UCID password'. If you had done the 'claim your UCID', then you should not have any problems; after that passwords need to be changed once a year. The claim or the reset can be done through the ist site. If something worked last week and does not work this week it might be because your UCID password has expired and you did not reset. Previously passwords expired every 3 or 4 months. If you claimed your UCID and i did so mine in Spring 2019 the password expiration cycle is longer (at least a year).
01/30 and 01/24 HW1 Some of you got confused with the zero value of n in the definitions of page 16 of Handout 3. I added some text in all definitions to make them repeat what is stated in definition 7.12. The prior version is also reachable. Moreover with reference to Problem 2 of HW1, consider element Y[2]. You will never read it onethousand one hundred eleven as it is in binary. It can be read fifteen (in denary). Moreover hex(Y[2],1)= 0f but HEX(Y[2],2)=0F. Note the absence of a prefix 0x or 0X in the result.
01/23 Late registrations Check the item below re Verification of presence. There is a Homework 1 active and due before noon of Thu 30 Jan. If a student registers late, the deadline for HW1 won't change and remains intact. Homework 1 might require a review of some definitions available in Handout 3 (Section B).
01/22 Verification of Presence Entry of information into Banner has been completed. Note that three names that appear in Banner did not sign the signup list last night. You need to follow the protocol for verification of Presence outlined in First332.txt as it is available in moodle. There is also one more name who signed the signup list but the name does not appear in Banner, as of this morning. Settle your registration with the Registrar.
01/14 Room Change Our section has moved to KUPF 117 from its previous room of FMH 213. The online syllabi have been updated to reflect this change.
12/27 Under Preparation Web-page material changes frequently. This course will be using moodle, not canvas.
No announcements Click in January!

Last updated on May 16 2020 at 15:40
Disclaimer The material of this web-page is purely optional. It is not required to study it. It is provided as is. Classroom attendance is strongly recommended, and so is studying the designated textbook.