Homework 3: Compression

Homework 3, a.k.a. Compression, is now available. The theory portion will be due at the start of recitation on 6 October 2010 and the programming portion will be due roughly a week later at 12:59pm on 12 October 2010. Remember, the programming assignments continue to increase in difficulty, so start early. Enjoy!

Picking up exams

We've decided that the most efficient means of handing back exams is via office hours and recitations. So, please wait until your TA's next office hour or recitation (whichever comes first) to pick up your exam. Sorry for the confusion.

Midterm 1 grades released

The grades for the midterm have been released. The mean and median scores were 44 and 45 points (out of 73 points total), respectively. You may pick up your exams at your TA's office hours or the next recitation (whichever comes first).

Theory Homework Policy Clarification

From today onward, students who do not turn in the theory assignment by the beginning of their assigned recitation will get a 50% penalty if they hand it in by 3:30pm the day it is due. Beyond 3:30, the theory assignment will be graded as a zero.

FD is Back!

FrontDesk is back. You can access it by clicking "Assignments" from the portal page.

Exam

Any student with special accommodations for the exam should send me and prof. Scherlis an email confirming the arrangements as soon as possible.

LaTeX Published

A source file from our quick LaTeX intro has been published on the lectures schedule page. The PDF that it creates is also there for reference. Some of our favorite online LaTeX references are listed below.

• The 251 LaTeX wiki page. Thanks, guys!
• The Wikibook on LaTeX
• A (Not So) Short Introduction To LaTeX2e
• The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (users group)
• The TeXLive Homepage

Here are some links to various LaTeX editing programs. One of the easiest ways to edit LaTeX, though, is to create and edit the .tex source file with emacs, vim, or your favorite text editor, and compile it with pdflatex on the command line.

• kile, the KDE LaTeX IDE
• TeXworks
• TeXclipse, an Eclipse plugin for LaTeX
• TeXnicCenter, an IDE for Windows

Happy typesetting!

FD Downtime

FrontDesk will be down until at least tomorrow evening while we do technical updates. You do not need it for the midterm review or snakes theory.

Midterm Review Posted

The midterm review material has been posted to the lectures portion of the site. We will go over the review on Sunday during the Midterm Review Session (2-4 PM, WEH 7500). Please note that solutions may not be released, so you should attend the review if you are interested in confirming your answers. Good luck studying!

Snakes Updated

Hi All,

There was a slight error in the snakes theory.pdf file. The list of hash codes in figure four was incomplete. It showed up as

<9, 10, 10>

which was text that was left over from drafting the assignment. The real list of hash codes you should use is

<17, 12, 128, 10, 7, 14, 129, 132, 127, 96, 42>

The theory.pdf and theory.zip files linked on the lecture page and from FrontDesk now reflect this.

Sorry for the confusion!

-- Ian

Snakes Released!

Homework 2, Snakes, has been released! It is available on FrontDesk immediately.

The theory portion of Snakes will be due at the start of next week's recitation, which is 22 September 2010. The theory portion has been scaled back slightly due to the late release of the assignment. The programming portion will be due roughly a week later at 23:59 on 28 September 2010.

To address the latency and responsiveness issues that we had with Expression Trees, FrontDesk will be down for a period of time this weekend as it migrates to new hardware. You may submit partial solutions to snake to FrontDesk before then if you wish, but you should not count on them still being there when FrontDesk returns next week. There will be more detailed announcements about this outage as it becomes relevant.

slides and videos posted

Slides and videos are now posted --Bill

Midterm Review Session Sunday 2-4

We will have a midterm review session on Sunday (9/19/10) from 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM in WEH 7500. The midterm review sheet will be posted shortly.

HW2 (snakes) Delayed

The release of HW2 will be delayed slightly. It should have come out last night as HW1 was being collected, but didn't. It will be out later this evening.

Ankur's Office Hours Shifted

Ankur's office hours will start at 4:30 and run till 6:00 today.

Aaron will not have office hours today

I became violently ill over the weekend and have not fully recovered. As a result, I am canceling my office hours today. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and I would encourage you to visit Andrew or Jon who also have office hours today.

no office hour today

I am traveling to a conference today so I must cancel my office hour.

LaTeX Tutorial (update)

The LaTeX tutorial will be held tonight from 5:30-6:30 in Doherty Hall room 1112.

Videos now online

The lecture videos are now available via the Lectures link on the portal page. Everyone currently registered and able to authenticate via andrew.ad.cmu.edu should be able to click through. The value of the videos: (1) Search, based on slide content, so you can rapidly find that explanation of the Master Theorem or other bit of content, and (2) Note-taking, both private and public (be civil), that also supports search. The videos are not intended (or particularly useful) as a substitute for appearing at the lecture. Please send us comments and suggestions.

Update to HW1 Theory

The theory assignment was just updated to fix some inconsistencies in question 3. The source and PDF have been updated in the "lectures" section of the portal.

LaTeX Tutorial

Due to popular demand, the TAs will be running a short tutorial on using LaTeX. It will be on Tuesday evening from 5:30pm to 6:30pm. We're still working on getting a room, so we'll make an announcement about that when we know.

Recitations

Please attend the recitation that you are signed up for in FrontDesk. Do *not* go to another recitation. Your TA's have been instructed to not grade quizzes and theory questions handed in at the wrong section. We are sorry to have to be so strict, but we are already over the official enrollment limit. It is not fair to students who are officially enrolled to have to sit on the floor, nor is it fair to your TAs.

exprtree released

HW1 (expression trees) has been released on Front Desk! Note that the theory is available through the lectures portion of the site. The theory is due next Wednesday (Sep. 8) at the beginning of recitation, and the programming component is due the following Tuesday (Sep. 14). Please post any questions on the discussion board and feel free to come to office hours to get help. Good luck!

Lecture Portion of Website Fixed

Sorry for the long delay on the lectures portion of the website. There was an internal technical error. It has now been resolved, and the slides from past lectures are now up. Enjoy!