PPS - Check-list for Week 2
Assignments Index
We've had a good deal of feedback during the first week, which has been very
helpful. People have been starting to get to grips with the various technical
procedures and modes of communication involved in the course.
Introductory e-mail
to Week 2
Try out Iddo Friedberg's
Self-assessment exercise on the
Internet and the BioMOO
Dont panic...
We appreciate that some of you are relatively new to the different aspects of
the Internet. Don't worry if you have been experiencing some problems with
e-mail (to discussion lists, tutors, consultants, co-ordinators, other group
members); with so many people involved, its inevitable that a number
of these difficulties will occur. One of the purposes of this initial
settling-in fortnight is to allow the sorting-out of just this type of
problem.
If you are having extreme difficulty in e-mailing anyone, particularly
us, now might be a good idea to fax
or phone us.
Further information on Technical
Difficulties
Make Sure You Can Do the Following:
Hypertree
Ensure you are familiar with the course "hypertree",
which consists of the WWW documents relevant to the course, including the one
you are reading now (which is in the Assignments section); in particular the
Noticeboard, Discussion Lists and Technology sections. You may want to
add certain pages to your list of "Bookmarks" (Netscape) or the "Hotlist"
(Mosaic). The top of the Hypertree should definitely
be added to your Bookmarks if its not there already.
E-mail
As this is the most usual method of communication in the course, its essential
that you are familiar with its basic operation.
Make sure you can
- Send the same email message to 2 people at once, and a copy to a third
person.
- Forward an email you have received to a third person or persons.
- Create an address list (address book entry) containing a number
of email addresses and use it to send one email to these people.
- Print an email message.
- Save (extract/export) an email message you have received.
- Edit the saved file to remove the email header material and email
the file to another person.
- Also make sure you understand how the course discussion lists operate:
i.e. how to send mail, unsubscribe and resubscribe following a change in your
e-mail address, etc. More information here.
Appreciate the difference between replying to the sender of a message, and
replying to the whole list. In most cases it will be appropriate to reply to
the list, but in some instances a personal reply to the sender might be in
order.
Obtaining files from ftp, gopher and WWW sites
There is a large amount of useful software and data files of all kinds that can
be downloaded from sites around the Internet. If you are not sure how to
download such files, you can try
practising with some examples.
The WWW
- Make sure you know how to add the URLs of useful pages to your
list of "Bookmarks" (Netscape) or "Hotlist" (Mosaic).
- Its possible to save local copies of the files you view. Make
sure you know how to do this, and that you understand the difference
between accessing a local file and a URL ("Uniform Resource Locator").
- You may also like to configure your WWW Browser so that you are
able to use it to mail addresses included in links like this one:
pps2@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk
- It is also very useful to know how to prevent in-line images from
being loaded into your browser if you wish- of benefit when your
connection is currently slow.
BioMOO
If you have not already done so, you may wish to try visiting BioMOO as
a guest, or registering with your own ID if you don't already have one.
RasMol and Mage
The next section of the course introduces RasMol, but if you want to try
installing it now, refer to the relevant course page.
If you already have Rasmol up and running, you could look into installing
Mage.
Assignments Index
Last updated 23rd Jan '96