CS 1023 Cultural Implications of the Information Society

The directions below just show how to get started in a minimal way. Eventually you will want to become familiar with more sophisticated methods of modifying and adding to your personal web page.

To access the runner computer, you should go to any of the PCs in any of the UTSA computer labs. Each of you now has a computer account on the runner computer. Unfortunately, you need to be physically at UTSA to access the runner machine. (With a lonestar account, it is possible to dial into UTSA and access runner from the outside. All students can get a lonestar account by asking for one.)

I now assume that you are sitting at a PC in one of the UTSA computer labs. From the "start" menu, go up to "Accessories" and over to "Telnet", which you click on.

Now in the "Telnet" window that appears, under the "Connect" menu, choose runner.utsa.edu (or else enter this name).

You are now connected to runner, and can go through the following sessions. runner runs the infamous Unix rather than Windows, so that this operating system can be difficult for beginners to cope with. If you have trouble I (your instructor) will be happy to help you get over your difficulties.

In the material below, note that boldface is what you enter. Regular type is what the computer responds with, and dark green italics are special explanations from me. Where "youracct" appears below, you should enter your actual account name, as shown on the page of acounts for students in the class. Each of the runner account names is what appears before the "@" in your e-mail address. For example, the account name for "Peter J. Anast" is "panast" (though not all account names are just first initial and last name).

Now start typing the boldface commands below. (These commands need to be typed in the order given, and completely and accurately.)

     SunOS 5.8

     ==================================================================
     The University of Texas at San Antonio  seeks  to  provide a safe
     academic atmosphere for its patrons. Any unauthorized activity on
     this system is illegal under the Texas  Computer  Crimes  Statute
     SECTION 1,Title 7,Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal code. Please see:
     http://runner.utsa.edu under "policy" for more information.
     ==================================================================

     login: youracct
     Password: 520404375
         Above, enter your own full SSN without hyphens (not this one).
     Choose a new password.
         Above, the system insists that you change to a safer password.
     Enter login password: 520404375
         Above, enter your own full SSN as before, without hyphens.
     New password:  Emily
         Above, choose a new password and enter it.
     telnet(SYSTEM): The first 6 characters of the password
     must contain at least two alphabetic characters and at least
     one numeric or special character.
         Oops, the system won't let you have too simple a password.
         Your friends (or enemies) might guess it.  Try again.
     New password: Emily#42
         Above, choose an acceptable password.  Be sure to remember it!!
     Re-enter new password: Emily#42
         Above, enter the same password again
     telnet (SYSTEM): passwd successfully changed for youracct

         The following are "magic" Unix commands to set up a sample page.
         Be sure to type the boldface commands exactly as they appear below.
     runner% cd ..
         Above, move to the directory above your home directory.
         ("Directories" are the Unix name for "folders".)
     runner% chmod 755 youracct
         Above, make sure everyone can access your home directory.
     runner% cd ~
         Above, move back down to your home directory.
     runner% mkdir public_html
         Above, inside your home directory, create a special
         directory that will be accessible from the web.
     runner% cd public_html
         Above, move back down to this new directory.
     runner% cp ~wagner/sample.html index.html
         Above, copy a sample webpage file from my directory.
     runner% chmod 644 index.html
         Above, make sure everyone can read this new file.
     runner% logout
         Above, when you are done, don't forget to log out

Your new web page should look the same as the following one:
  Sample webpage, as it would appear from the browser, and

  Sample webpage, in source form (This is the actual file that produced the webpage that you see.)

You should be aware that vi is confusing and difficult for beginners to understand. Below I describe a more versatile method to make changes to your web page. But for this first time, go ahead and try to use vi.

First use telnet to get to runner as before.

Now continue with the following session:

     login: youracct
         Above, your runner account name again,
         from the list of runner accounts.
     Password:  Emily#42
         If you forget your password, as best it will take days
         to get it reset back to your SSN without hyphens.
     Your password will expire in 112 days.
     Last login: Thu Oct 26 09:46:15 from runner.jpl.utsa.
     runner% cd public_html
         Above, move down into the special directory for webpages.
     runner% vi index.html
         Above, use the "vi"text editor to change the file "index.html".
         (This editor is confusing for beginners (and others).)

         At this point, you see the first 24 lines of the file on the screen.
         We would normally use the arrow keys to move around on the screen,
         but these arrow keys can cause troubles over the network.
         For this reason, you should use keys "h", "j", "k", and "l" (all in a row on the keyboard),
         to move the cursor around on the screen.  Here is the simple translation:
            "h": move left one character, that is, left arrow.
            "j": move down one line, that is, down arrow.
            "k": move up one line, that is, up arrow.
            "l": move right one charater, that is, right arrow.
                  (The above character is an "ell" letter, not a "1" digit.)

         Now use "j" to move down 5 lines to the second occurrence
         of "Some Q. Student".  Then use "l" to move over until the
         cursor is on top of the "S" in "Some".

     Now type x repeatedly, until all characters
     of "Some Q. Student" are gone.
         (Above, the command "x" is to delete a character.)

     Now type i, followed by your actual name, say
     Peter J. Anast.
         (Above, the command "i" is to insert characters.
         While inserting characters, you can type anything except the "Esc" key
         and it will be inserted.  Only "Esc" will get you out of input mode.)

     Now hit the Esc key.
         (The "Esc" key means you don't want to enter any more characters.
         At this point you could move around in the page again, use "x" to
         delete more characters, or even use "i" again to insert more characters.
         Remember that after inserting, you must type the "Esc" key.)
     Finally, type ZZ  (Capital Z twice).
         (The command "ZZ" is to save changes and quit the editor.)

     If you have trouble with "vi", or seem to get hung up, you should type the
     "Esc" key followed by "ZZ" and start over.  You can also type the "Esc" key
     followed by ":q!".

     runner% logout
         Above, be sure to logout

There are better ways to transfer files in and out of the runner system from PCs. The best of these use an "ftp" utility (file transfer program). The PCs in UTSAs lab have a program named "WS_FTP95LE" that you can find from the "start" button and the from "WS_ftp". This program would take time to learn how to use, but it also allows you to easily change your web page.

If you don't know the HTML format used for weg pages, you can incorporate ideas from other web pages by viewing the source these pages.

To add your picture, you can go to the MS Student Computer Lab and find their scanners. Ask someone in the lab to help you scan in your favorite picture and convert it to GIF format. You will need to bring a 3" floppy to save the file. You may need more help to upload it to your runner account, using the ftp program described above. In the sample page, the GIF file would need to be named "mygreatphoto.gif", and it would need to be in the "public_html" directory.

Any new files, whether HTML or GIF, must be world readable to be accessible from netscape. For this, you need to execute:

          runner% chmod 744 *