Presentation method preferences

The lecture and videos work best for me.

The lecture provides an outline of each unit we will be focusing on and supplies essential instructions for topics covered by the unit. I find them extremely helpful because lectures generally provide the big picture, the overall summary of each unit so if I don't have enough time to complete all the required readings, I still have an idea of what they are about by reading the lecture.

Videos make the best presentations because they help me understand the context of specific topics and guides me step by step through the instructions. In addition, a video demo is a good way to help us perform troubleshooting when technical problems occur.

Although links can direct us to related information or a term's definition therefore helping the reader better understand the readings, it really distracts me and sways me off the topic which I am working on. However, sometime it is fun to play with links when I have spare time and want to explore a topic in more depth.

Podcasts make the worst presentations for the class because of the lack of interaction between the lecturer and the audience. It is also difficult for me to concentrate on podcasts because of my language barrier.

Various installations

There was only one problem with working through these various installations. In assignment 5, I couldn't find the OK button to save the information in the form I filled out for adding new users. I posted this problem on the activity area, and got a lot of responses that were either similar questions from other people or the solution for my problem. It turned out this forum is very helpful. Thank you for your help guys.

I have a question for the server ubuntu and desktop ubuntu that are all installed in the Vmware workstation. What is the relationship between these two softwares? I can use terminal to run CLI in the desktop and GUI can be performed with the webmin in the server. It seems to me that server and desktop perform the similar application, so why do we need to have both of them in the Vmware workstation?

Text editor

Although I had a lots problems to installing vim tutor on my VMware, I was still able to do hand-on assignments with text editor. It was fun creating a file with nano and editing it. Working with nano is just like to work with word processor but your hands don't need to move off the keyboard, and the help menu on the bottom of the page is really handy. I also tried out commands like cp, rm, and less, etc. In addition, I typed vim after $ and a menu showed up,
However, I couldn't figure out how to exit the menu page.

I learned how sensitive the CLI is to the case and space. In unit 3, I couldn't see the root list because I didn't know there was a space between cd and /. When I figured out the trick to CLI, I felt I was so stupid but so happy at the same time.

This course not only taught me some technology, but also helped me practice my writing skills. When I read the discussions and blogs my classmates had posted, I need courage to post my writing. Anyway, when I saw my classmates and Bruce's quick response to my questions, I didn't feel alone anymore. I appreciate your help.

CLI exercise

I have no problem to boot Ubuntu using the live CD. It just took me a few minutes to figure out how to catch the F12 to switch the window to the boot menu.

It was fun to practice the command line but make me a little bit timid and confused. From the demonstration of the tutorial, it seems there are a lot of files of the directories and subdirectories laid under the system, so these files make the commands most sense. However, in my system, these files of directories and subdirectories have not been created. When I used ls command to look up a directory from the list of the existing files for the detail information, it always says: “ no such a file or directory.”

My question is: if there is not such a file or directory, why does it show up in the list? How can I put the contents in this file? I watched the tutorial 3 times, I understood the fundamental structure and contents of the structure, but I couldn't launched the files and data contained in the files or directories demonstrated in the tutorial in my system.