News

Quiz 3 Solutions

Quiz 3 Solutions

Have a great summer!

Quiz Review and Office Hours

There will be no regularly scheduled office hours this week. In their place there will be "marathon" office hours from noon-4pm on Thursday afternoon in the 32-G9 lounge. If you cannot make it to the office hours on Thursday, but still wish to speak to a TA before the quiz, please email your TA to schedule an appointment during the usual office hours timeslot.

There will be a quiz review on Tuesday night, from 7-9pm, in 32-123. Please come prepared with any specific quiz questions, particularly those quizzes in prior years.

HKN Reviews

Course VI Reviews are open until midnight Friday May 16. Please be sure to register your feedback on 6.033.

DP2 Due Thursday

This is a reminder that DP2 is due on Thursday May 8, at the start of recitation. If you have team members in multiple recitations, you can choose which of these to return your design project.

Project presentations will be in recitation on Tuesday May 13. You may use the blackboard for your presentation, but please don't use Powerpoint slides.

Hands-on Update

There was an error in one of the hashes used for Question 3.3 in Hands-on #6. It has been updated to the correct version.

Final Tutorial Tomorrow

The final tutorial for 6.033 will be held tomorrow, May 2nd. This tutorial will take an office-hours format, please come prepared with any questions you may have on DP2 or the class in general.

Note also that the final hands-on for the class has been posted to the schedule page.

Quiz 2 Solutions

Quiz 2 Solutions

Quiz 2 Results

You should receive your Quiz 2 results via email from your TA today. We will be returning the graded quizzes in recitation, but are distributing the grades today in advance of drop date on Thursday. Quiz solutions will be posted soon.

Quiz 2 Office Hours Update

Since recitation on Thursday will take the form of a quiz review and instructor/TA office hours, we will no longer be holding the extended TA office hours on Thursday. Feel free to attend more than one recitation if you have additional questions before the quiz.

The Wednesday night review session will still continue as planned, at 7pm in 32-123. Attendance is optional.

Recitation change and Quiz Review

From an email sent to the class mailing list:

Hi all,

There has been a last-minute change to the recitation schedule - tomorrow we will cover the material previously planned for Thursday, ie. Version Control: http://web.mit.edu/6.033/www/assignments/versioncontrol.shtml

If would be great if you can read the Subversion paper in time, but the recitation will be be structured assuming that some students may not have had a chance to read the paper.

The TAs will be hosting a quiz review on Wednesday at 7pm, in 32-123. Please come prepared with any questions, particularly those from previous quizzes. There will also be extended TA office hours from 12-4pm on Thursday, in the 32-G9 lounge.

Thursday's recitation will instead take the form of a quiz review / instructor office hours. If you have any quiz questions that you are still unsure about after the Wednesday review, feel free to email these to your instructor ahead of time to cover in the recitation.

Good luck with the quiz and DP2!

James (6.033 head TA)

PS. The 2007 lecture slides for the networking section of the class covered very similar material to this year. While not required reading, feel free to use these as a resource when studying for the quiz.

DP2 Proposal Extension

Due to concerns regarding the proximity to Quiz 2, the due date for the DP2 proposals has been extended until Thursday April 24. Note that this leaves only two weeks between the proposal and the project deadline, so please ensure your project is well underway by the time you hand in your proposal.

You may discuss project ideas with your TA during office hours if you want feedback before this date.

Office Hours this week

Amal Dorai's office hours are cancelled this week. Feel free to attend any other session in its place.

Design Project 2 Released

Design Project 2 (DP2) has been released. Your design proposal is due on April 17th (under two weeks). The completed design is due on May 8th. We will post answers to common questions and other assignment clarifications on the DP2 FAQ.

Note that you need to form groups of size three (four if strictly necessary) and email your TA with a list of team members by midnight on Thursday April 10th. Time will be reserved in recitation tomorrow to begin forming project groups.

Hands-on #5 Posted

Hands-on #5 has been posted. It is due in recitation on April 10.

No tutorial this Friday

There will be no tutorial on Friday April 4. There will be a tutorial on April 25 in its place.

Lecture and Recitation 14

The reading for Recitation 14 has been posted to the schedule page. Note that this recitation (along with lecture 14) covers different material than was previously listed on the schedule.

Hands-on #4 Posted

Hands-on #4 has been posted for those who want to get an early start before Spring Break.

Anonymous Course Feedback

You may have noticed the Feedback link on the left navigation bar. Please feel free to use this to provide any anonymous feedback to the 6.033 staff about the course or website.

Typo in Hands-on #3

There was a typo in Hands-on #3. You should traceroute to networking.ringofsaturn.com, not networking.ringsofsaturn.com. This has been fixed on the above link.

Quiz 1 Results

Quiz 1 Solutions

Small DP1 Update

There has been a small addition to DP1, to include a brief Introduction/Overview section in the report structure. This will be consistent with the information to be given by the writing instructors on Friday. See the third bullet under "Your Written Work".

Quiz 1 Office Hours

The TAs will be holding additional office hours from 12-4pm on Thursday March 7, in the 32-G9 lounge.

Office Hours Change

Michael Craig's 11am office hours have been moved from 32-G531 to 32-G451 for today only.

Errata

Please see the Class Notes Errata page for important corrections to Ch. 5.E of the class notes.

Upcoming Quiz

Quiz 1 (covering material through recitation 8) will be at 2pm on Friday March 7, in Walker Gym (50-340). The Quiz 1 FAQ contains more detailed information and pointers to practice material. The TAs will be running a quiz review on Wednesday March 5 from 7-9pm, in 32-123.

Section Room Change

Due to a scheduling conflict, David Schultz's Friday sections and writing program lectures will now be held in 38-166.

Therac Memo Writing Feedback

Please see this PDF for an overall description of what we saw on the Therac memo assignment and how the grades were arrived at. The grade for this paper will not count as part of your CI grade; this grade is meant to highlight areas where you need to improve. In terms of improving your grades, take particular note of the forty points assigned to format and visual organization collectively. Losing even half the points in both of those categories could change your grade from a 90 (a very good grade) to a 70 (essentially a failing grade, given that the CI grade is basically pass/fail). Losing full points in both of those categories, could change your grade from a 100 to a 60.

We are emphasizing formatting because in technical and scientific writing visual and verbal explanations generally work together to crystallize an idea in the reader's mind. Readers "shop" for information, and the most effective documents facilitate skimming, reading out of order, and searching for particular pieces of information. In a competitive situation, such as call for proposals or a bid for a contract, documents that do not meet requested specifications are not read. (There are plenty of competitors who are willing to meet the specifications, so reviewers save themselves the drudgery of plowing through documents that are difficult to read.) Make use of formatting conventions to increase the impact of your written ideas.

Addendum:
Sample Therac memos that were deemed high-quality by both the TAs and writing instructors are available here and here.

Wednesday Office Hours

Amal Dorai's office hours will be postponed this week. Feel free to go to any other office hours session instead.

Virtual Monday and Office Hours

Monday 18th will be an institute holiday, with Tuesday 19th following the Monday class schedule. Office hours will remain on their regular schedule however, ignoring the holiday.

Important: Section changes for Friday Feb 15

Some of the Writing Program sections will be merging for this Friday only. Please be aware of the following room changes:

• Michael Craig F2-3 will be held in 26-204
• David Schultz F1-2 and F2-3 will be held in 24-121
• Waseem Daher F1-2 and F2-3 will be held in 24-121

Future sections will revert to their usual room assignment.

Design Project 1 Released

Design Project 1 (DP1) has been released. Your design proposal is due on February 26th (two weeks). The completed design is due on March 20th (right before spring break). We will post answers to common questions and other assignment clarifications on the DP1 FAQ.

Office Hours

TA office hours commence this week, and are listed on the staff page. It is strongly encouraged that you only attend the office hours for the TA assigned to your recitation, however you may attend any session if you have a conflict with your assigned time.

Important: Section Assignments Posted

Look up your Recitation Assignment. You must go to your asssigned recitation. If you cannot attend your assigned recitation due to a change in your schedule, email the head TA. If your name does not appear on the list, attend a section and fill out a signup form.

Your recitation section TA will be the one teaching your tutorial. For Friday tutorials and writing recitations, attend either the 1pm or 2pm section in the appropriate room assigned to your TA at that time. All TAs teach at both 1pm and 2pm.

Don't worry if you missed the recitation sign-up today. There will be a stack of recitation sign-up sheets at the back of the lecture tomorrow, Feb 6. If you haven't already done so, make sure you fill one out and return it at the end of class.

Course Packets
Course packets are available to be picked up from CopyTech (11-004). The cost is $34.50, payable with cash / check / credit card / tech-id account. Since the packets change from year to year, it is not ok to use last year's packet.

Important: First day of class

6.033 begins on Tuesday Feb 5 with a recitation. You may ignore the recitation room and time assigned to you by the registrar. Please consult this list of available recitations and go to one of them on Tuesday, February 5 (the first day of classes). During recitation, you will be given recitation preference sheets on which you can list your recitation and tutorial preferences. By 10pm on Wednesday February 6, we will assign a binding list of recitation assignments for the rest of the term.