TREE Lab Information

The Computer Science Department maintains a set of computers known as the “TREE Lab” because all the computers are named for trees: apple, birch, cherry, chestnut, elm, fir, ginkgo, hemlock, hickory, juniper, maple, mimosa, peach, pine, plum, sequoia, spruce, sycamore, walnut, and willow). The TREE lab is used for courses that require special software not generally available on campus. At the present time, the lab is used for three courses taught by Dr. Vickery: Web Design (CS-081) and Script Programming (CS-090.3), which use the Apache web server and Dreamweaver web programming environment, as well as for Computer Architecture (CS-343), which uses the Quartus II logic design software from Altera Corporation.

The computers are Apple iMacs running Windows 7 under “bootcamp.” Using them is much like using your ADS account at the college. However, accounts for students taking courses that use the TREE domain are totally separate from Queens College ADS accounts. Your TREE domain user name will definitely be different from your ADS account name, and your TREE password will be the same as your ADS password only if you choose to give the same passwords to both accounts. There is no direct way to share information between your two accounts.

The computers are all in SB room A-205, which is run as an open lab. The lab is open any time the Computer Science Department office is open, and you are free to use any computer any time the lab is open. You can also access the computers from outside the lab so that you can still work when the department is closed. If there is a problem with any of the computers in the lab, let Dr. Vickery or someone in the department office know about it.

To use a computer, you need to log in using your User name and Password. The login dialog box shows a third field that says, “Log on to:”. Be sure that third field says “TREE” rather than the name of the computer. This is critical because the laboratory is set up so that you have one account that works on all the computers, and the work you do on any one of them will be available to you when you log into any other one. But this works only if you log into the “TREE domain” instead of logging into an individual computer.

Your account name is the first two letters of your last name followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed by the last four digits of your CUNY student ID number. So, if your name is “Perfect Student” and your ID number is 12345678, your account will be stpe5678. Your initial password is your 8-digit CUNY student ID number (12345678 for the example.) You can change your password any time you like, but be sure to keep it secure: lots of people “out there” would love to hijack your account.

Remember: you are responsible for your account. If someone gains access to it and does something wrong, you are the one who will suffer the consequences.

Since all of the computers are accessible from the Internet, you can use Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) to log in to your account on any of the computers from pretty much any other internet-connected computer. (You will need at least a DSL connection.) Here is how to find RDC on various computers:

Windows

From the Start button, go to Programs, to Accessories, to Communications, and you will find it.

Macintosh OS X

If you are using a Macintosh, OS X comes with a Remote Desktop program you can use in the same way as the Windows version. Under preferences, be sure to set a screen size and resolution to match your computer’s screen. The default value is very low resolution, making it difficult to use. There are two different RDC clients avaiable from Microsoft, “Version 2” client at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/default.mspx is presumably more secure than the Version 1 client, but both versions will work.

Linux

There an open source version of Remote Desktop at www.rdesktop.org that might be useful if you are running Linux. But I have had no experience with it.

When RDC asks you what computer you want to connect to, pick one of the names from the above list and add the domain name “.cs.qc.cuny.edu” to the computer name. For example, you would log into ginkgo by entering ginkgo.cs.qc.cuny.edu.

Only one person can use a computer at a time, so if the computer you try is in use, just try another one until you find one that is available.

You are free to use the computers in the lab for anything you like (within the limits imposed by the college, university, and the law!), but do not share your account with anyone else.

If all the computers are in use when you are using one for anything other than your assignments in CS-081, CS-090.3, or CS-343, you must immediately give it up to anyone who needs it for their work in those courses.

In addition to the computers listed above, there is a server computer for the lab named Oak. You cannot log into that one directly, but it plays a crucial role in managing your account. Each account has its own “profile,” which consists of all the files and directories under C:\Users\[youraccountname]\. The very first time you log into a TREE computer, this profile is set up on Oak (this may take a few minutes), and is then copied to the particular computer you logged in to. When you log out of that computer, your profile is copied back to Oak. You can then log into any TREE computer, and your profile will be copied from Oak to that computer, eliminating any need for you to restrict your usage to any particular computer; they are all equivalent.

Be sure to log out of your account each time you finish any work so that your profile gets updated on Oak. And never log into two computers at the same time: the work you save when you log out of the first one will get overwritten when you log out of the second one.

In the past, the roaming profile feature was not as robust as it should be. If you save your work on one computer and cannot find it when you log into another one, let Dr. Vickery know right away so we can see deal with the problem. We think the problems have been fixed, but here is information in case the problems we used to have show up again: A safety net, in addition to the normal precaution of backing all of your projects up onto a flash drive, is to copy your work to your H: drive; this is your “home” directory on Oak, which is separate from your roaming profile. It can only be accessed over the network, never locally the way your profile, once copied to the local C: drive is, so it can be slower to access. But it is always there, no matter what computer you log into. You can just drag your project from the local machine to your H: drive when you come to a stopping point, and then drag it back to the C: drive of another machine if your roaming profile doesn’t work. You can get to it by double-clicking on “My Computer”.

Although your H: drive can be useful for backing up your profile, it has significant limitations you need to be aware of:

1. Your H: “drive” is actually a directory on the same disk that holds your profile on Oak, so if that disk crashes, both your profile and your H: drive will be lost. Always back your work up onto a USB drive or your own computer. (See Working From Off Campus for information about that topic.)
2. Both your H: drive and your profile are available only when you are actually logged into one of the computers in the lab. This is why you cannot host a permanent website on a lab computer: as soon as you log off, the web site disappears. For students in CS-081 and CS-90.3 where this is an issue, there is a semi-permanent web site on each computer you can use. This is covered in the Using Dreamweaver web page.

With my “Adminstrator’s” account, I can access your profile on Oak. That means that you never actually send your projects to me to submit them. Instead, just send me a message telling me your project or assignment is ready, and I will get a copy from the server and check it out. In order for this system to work, you must use exactly the directory name specified in the assignment or project web page when you do the project. I will be using a script to get your work, and the script will fail if you did not use the correct directory name. For web projects it is critical that directory and file names have no spaces in them and that you do not change the upper/lower case forms of their names.

The best way to use the lab computers is to sit at the computers in A-205. RDC can make more efficient use of your time, except for the fact that your interactions with the system will be slower—sometimes painfully slow— compared to sitting at the actual computer.

There is a separate Working From Off Campus web page with suggestions for how you might do your assignments off campus and then transfer them to the lab for final testing and submission.