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Course Overview
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The vast majority of administrative information regarding this course
(reading assignments, homework assignments, project assignments,
helpful hints, etc.) will be communicated via the
class email list.
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I reserve the right to change this, but grades will be assigned roughly as follows:
- Projects: 35%
- Homework: 10%
- Midterm: 20%
- Final: 30%
- Participation: 5%
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There will be one midterm exam and a final exam for this course:
- Midterm: Monday, May 2, in class
- Final: Wednesday June 8, 2:30-4:20
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There will be two kinds of homework assignments given throughout the class:
- Reading: You will be given reading assignments,
from either Silberschatz or from The Linux Kernel (hereafter called
TLK), associated with each lecture. You should finish the reading before
coming to class - I will assume you've done this reading, and my
lectures will enhance the material, rather than regurgitating it.
- Textbook-style questions: Occasionally,
I will assign written homework based on either questions from Silberschatz,
or made-up questions. These assignments should be handed in at the start of class
on the due date.(Make sure you read the late policy below.)
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As you've probably guessed from the allocation of grades, programming
projects will be a major portion of this class. We will do a tiny bit
of Linux kernel development, to see first hand that an OS is just a
(mostly) normal program. We'll primarily be building user-level
applications, but of a nature that is similar to an OS, and requiring
programming techinques and concepts borrowed from OS development.
Correspondingly, you need to be quite comfortable programming in
C. (If you know C++, then you basically already know C.) If you're not
already familiar with C programming, you should make catching up a top
priority.
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(Many of these policies are taken verbatim from previous instances of this course.)
- Late Policy: Unless otherwise indicated,
assignments and projectsare due at the start of class or section on their due
date. If you hand in an assignment late, we will take off 10% for each
day (or portion thereof) it is late, except that that you have two
free late days to use at your disgression -- no need to notify us when you're using
them, we'll just assume you are if an assignment comes in late.
- "Reasonable Person Principle": Let's
all be "reasonable people" working on the same team to make
this a great learning experience. The "Reasonable
Person Principle" simply
states that a reasonable request made in a reasonable fashion shall
be reasonably handled by reasonable persons.
- Cheating vs. Collaboration:
Please read CSE's
Academic Misconduct Policy, taken from our
Undergraduate Handbook.
Collaboration is a very good thing.On the other hand, cheating is considered
a very serious offense. Don't do it! Concern about cheating creates
an unpleasant environment for everyone. If you cheat, you risk losing
your position as a student in the department and the college. The department's
policy on cheating is to report any cases to the college cheating committee.
What follows afterwards is not fun.
So how do you draw the line between
collaboration and cheating? A great one-sentence guideline
is highlighted in our Academic Misconduct Policy:
"In general, any activity you engage in for the purpose of earning
credit while avoiding learning, or to help others do so, is likely to
be an act of Academic Misconduct."
Note that this encompasses not just excessive reliance on students who are in
the course this quarter, but excessive reliance on work done in previous quarters,
at other universities, by the textbook authors (e.g., homework solutions that may
be available on the web), etc.
Here are some additional groundrules that may be helpful:
The Gilligan's Island
Rule: This rule says that you are free to meet with fellow student(s)
and discuss assignments with them. Writing on a board or shared piece
of paper is acceptable during the meeting; however, you should not
take any written (electronic or otherwise) record away from the meeting.
This applies when the assignment is supposed to be an individual effort
or whenever two teams discuss common problems they are each encountering
(inter-group collaboration). After the meeting, engage in a half hour
of mind-numbing activity (like watching an episode of Gilligan's Island),
before starting to work on the assignment. This will assure that you
are able to reconstruct what you learned from the meeting, by yourself,
using your own brain.
The Freedom of Information Rule:
To assure that all collaboration is on the level, you must always
write the name(s) of your collaborators or other sources on your assignment.
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