The World Wide Web has many resources available to you, and today you will begin to explore what is available. The program we will be using is called Netscape Navigator. The Web (ant Internet, in general) can be intimidating just because there are so many computers attached to it. One nice feature of Navigator is that you don't ever worry about which computer you are accessing. You may be reading information stored locally here at Rockhurst one minute, then reading from a computer in Minnesota, and later from a computer in Auckland, New Zealand, and you will not usually notice any difference. You do need to be aware of the fact that at times you may be trying to access information on a different computer that is too busy, or broken, or unavailable for network use when you want to access it. This means, DON'T PANIC, just try again later.
All CO285 handouts will be published on the Web. If you can not come to class or you lose your handout, you can obtain a copy of the handout via web browser. However, you must still come to class as much as you can.
From the Program manager, double click Internet Apps. Start Netscape by double clicking Netscape Navigator Gold 2.02. You will see a welcome screen from Rockhurst College. To get a feel for Netscape, click General Information, and then click Facilities to find out the telephone number for the Admission and Financial Aid.
Yeah, big deal, you could have just called the operator, but we have to start small. From here, you can scroll up and down to get other information or get back to the previous page by clicking on the [Back] button.
To obtain a copy of the CO285 handouts, follow these steps:
- Click the button Open and enter http://teach.millard.org/ in the Open Location box.
- Click the assignment desired.
- Click the [Print] button if you would like to have a printout; use the File|Print... menu item if you wish to have more control over your printout.
If you are not in Netscape, start Netscape right now. We will look at some of the things available around the world. Two of the more useful buttons are What's New and What's Cool. Click on these buttons and write down on a loose paper the links (URLs) of at least 3 sites that you visit. The URL is in the Location field such as
Save the paper to be turned in later. There are also many interesting sites such as the Whitehouse homepage [http://www.whitehouse.gov], Palouse Parachute Club homepage [http://www.fsr.com/people/bmoore/ppc.html] and Hogtown Brewer's homepage [http://www.afn.org/~brewers]. To access these sites, click the button Open and enter the URL provided in the Open Location box or type the URL directly into the Location box.
- Obtain a printout of a CO285 handout. Write your name on the top right corner of the handout. Write your 3 links (URLs) that you found in class on this sheet too.
- In the next lab, you will learn how to use electronic mail on the Rockhurst campus using Rockhurst Academic VAX computer, also known as VAX1 (even though it's not). If you don't have a VAX1 account, go to the Computer Service at the basement of Conway (room C5) to request one. You need to have a student ID to obtain an account.