computers : basic unix

"Uhn-iks," you say? No, that's UNIX (pronounced YOO-nix). It's the operating system used by most machines that manage the network here at Tech. Do you need to learn Unix? Not forwards and backwards, but a few tips will be quite beneficial in the not-too-distant future. Trust me. For starters, let's try logging on to acme. Acme refers to network machines that you can logon to. Open up your Telnet client (Win95/98: Start - Run - Telnet), go to the connect menu, and choose Remote System. Now, type in acme.gatech.edu for the host name, and make sure the port is set to telnet. Ok, now click connect. BAM! You're connected. A login prompt should appear; enter your GT number and press enter. A password prompt should appear under the login. Enter the password given to you by the friendly people at OIT. You should now be in the magical world of acme! Example: login: gta001z Password: ****** Most likely, a "change password" set of prompts will come up. If not, type in "passwd" at the prompt and follow the directions. These prompts will let you choose your own, personal password to acme. IMPORTANT! REMEMBER THIS PASSWORD! Don't be a schmuck and create a new password only to forget it after 5 minutes on the phone with your chums. Ok, so you've logged on and customized your password. Now what? Let's try a few commands. Type in "usage" and press enter. A screenful of data should appear relating to how many bananas you have. Bananas? Don't get too hungry just yet; remember, this is computing, not Martha Stewart. Check to see your "percent usage" on the upper right of the screen. This is how much usage time you have consumed out of 100% allocated. You see, OIT only gives you a certain amount of playtime on acme; they don't want you using up all of their resources 24/7. So, being the demigods that they are, they invented a currency and named it bananas. Whenever you execute an action in acme, you use up bananas. When you run out of bananas, you can't really do much, now, can you? The good news is that you normally don't consume much and you will rarely run the risk of running out of bananas. And, they OITers are kind enough to replenish your account every semester. Let's try another command: type in "quota". Two numbers should appear; the first is your current disk usage, and the second is the amount of disk space that you are allowed to use. If the first number is greater than the second number, you will most likely get a nasty email about it, which cordially asks you to stop hogging space and delete a few unneeded files. Like bananas, unless you are planning on composing War and Peace II, you won't have too many problems with quota. I know, these commands are boring; you're aching to do something fun, huh? Ok then, finger me. No, I'm serious, finger me! Type in "finger gte014f" and press enter. You should receive a few lines which state who I am in real life, if I have any mail (Yipee!) and if I have a plan (who, me?). The finger command is a good way to see who's lurking behind a GT number. Now, type in "lu George Perantatos". You should get a screen of my info. Lu stands for "look up"; every student at Tech has a record on file, and you can access it by typing lu-ing their name. As a side note, "lu George" will not yield me, but "lu Perantatos" will. Let's finish this Unix command section by typing in "ls" and pressing enter. Ls stands for list, and it displays the files in your directory. Depending on how much you've used your account, this may be empty. Now, on to bigger and better stuff! Type in elm and press enter. Navigate through the setup screens, choosing the defaults for any and all choices. What you end up with is a menu-driven email reader! What fun! "But, what's my email address?" you cry. Simple: take your GT number, add an @, and then add "prism.gatech.edu". Example email address: gte001z@mail.gatech.edu Elm is a nice little program that allows you to compose mail, check mail, delete mail, and deep fry mail. Ok, maybe not the frying part, but you get the point. The easiest way to get accustomed to the program is to follow the menu prompts at the bottom and compose a message to yourself. Try sending this message, receiving it, reading it, and deleting it. Remember to follow the menus! As a note, a menu choice indicated with a carat symbol "^" means to use the control key. For example, "^X" means hold down the control key while pressing "X". Ok, press "q" to quit out of elm and return to the main prompt. Now, type in Tin and press enter. Tin is a more cryptic newsgroup reader program. Newsgroups are basically collections of emails about a specific topic where each "subscriber" to the newsgroup can read any and all messages to the newsgroup. In other words, a newsgroup is like a public corkboard of email messages. Unfortunately, I'm not going to detail proper use of Tin as a newsgroup reader, as I get very angry and frustrated with its ineptness. What I CAN tell you is to either follow the menu prompts to subscribe to groups and read the messages, or wait until we setup your browsers to read newsgroups. That's it for UNIX! Now, on to the Internet. Microsoft Dynamics GP Software For Small and Medium Sized Business.