CS 429: Network Applications and Environments

(prereq CSci 161 or CSci 228)

TR 2:00-3:15
QBB, Rm. #102

Office hours: see My Schedule, or by appt.
CS429 Grader: Abram Haich (abram.haich "at" ndsu.edu)

Dr. Brian M. Slator

Professor
Computer Science Department
North Dakota State University
Office: IACC #258-A24
Phone: 701-231-8562
Fax: 701-231-8255


Course Overview

CS 429: Network Applications and Environments (formerly known, for many years, as CS345: Topics in Personal Computers: Network Applications), will be a course devoted to the study of network services and the development of internet resources. This semester we will again take a project oriented approach. In particular, we will develop an internet-based multi-user virtual environment that is an educational game

The principal project activity will revolve around the evaluation, redesign, and implementation of the Blackwood educational game. Class members will be assigned to groups working on different parts of the project: graphics, client-side implementation, server-side implementation, and web-site modules. We will begin with a structured analysis of a similar system, DollarBay, and then design our solutions as a group aiming to meet that model. Everyone will be expected to participate in this process, which will entail interactions during class time, and both among and between the working groups.

Announcements, etc


Grades

Semester Schedule


General Comments

  • You are expected to be here. Come to class -- attendance will be taken semi-regularly. If you miss class, come and speak to me. This WILL affect your grade.
  • Participate, cooperate, and help others.
  • You can expect a substantial amount of outside class effort for this course.
  • This document will change over the course of the semester.
    You should check here at least once a week.
  • Periodically you might be asked to take a survey or some other in-class activity. These will not be graded, but they will be a form of taking attendance.

Required Reading:

There is no textbook required for this course, although many of you will end up buying a book for your own use, depending on your group. In addition, you will read almost every word of this document (and you will be tested on it):
  • Online LambdaMOO Programmer's Manual (LambdaMOO Version 1.8.0p6, March 1997)
    There are a number of copies online, both text and html versions, in a number of pretty similar versions: 1.8.0p6 is the most recent.

Relevant Links


Client Software

Some homework assignments will be completed in the Blackwood MOO, which is an instance of a LambdaMOO server. In order to do the assignments, you will need access to an Editing Client. The following are available.


Grading

Grades will be assigned according to the customary system:
  • A 100%-90%;
  • B 89%-80%;
  • C 79%-70%;
  • D 69%-60%;
  • F 59% or less
Assignments and exams will be scored as follows:

#NamePts
1Assignment#1100
2Exam#1100
3Assignment#2100
4Project Proposal50
5MidTerm#1100
6Presentation50
6Final Assignment200
Total700


Policy on Late Assignments

There is no happy way to assign lateness demerits. For the purposes of this class, it is never too late to turn in work (until grades are turned in at the end of the semester)

However, the later an assignment is produced, the less it is worth.

Therefore, the policy will be this: late assignments will lose a letter grade immediately, and then another letter grade after two weeks.


Special Needs
NDSU Academic Affairs New Course Syllabi Requirement

Any student with disabilities or other special needs, who needs special accomodations in this course, is invited to share these concerns or requests with the instructor as soon as possible.


Academic Dishonesty or Misconduct
NDSU Academic Affairs New Course Syllabi Requirement

Work in this course must adhere to the Code of Academic Responsibility and Conduct as cited in "Rights & Responsibilities of Community: A Code of Student Conduct" (1993) pp. 29-30. "The academic community is operated on that basis of honesty, integrity, and fair play. Occasionally, this trust is violated when cheating occurs, either inadvertently or deliberately .....Faculty members may fail the student for the particular assignment, test, or course involved, or they may recommend that the student drop the course in question, or these penalties may be varied with the gravity of the offense and the circumstances of the particular case."

Academic dishonesty can be divided into four categories and defined as follows:

  • Cheating: Intentionally using or attemping to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in any academic exercise.
  • Fabrication: Intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
  • Facilitating academic dishonesty: Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.
  • Plagiarism: Intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise.



Would you like to know the Current Time?
Send comments to: slator@cs.ndsu.edu