All University Computing Service courses

This course is part of the Scientific Computing series.

It is common for a student or researcher to find a piece of software or to have one thrust upon them by a supervisor which they must then build, install and use. It is a myth that any of this requires system privilege. This course demonstrates the building, installation and use of typical software ranging from trivially easy examples (the "configure, make, install" scheme) through to the evils of badly written Makefiles. Common errors and what they mean will be covered and by the end of the course the student should be able to manage their own software without needing to pester their system administrator.

The course is designed to take someone from having no knowledge of the Unix command line to being able to navigate around directories, and doing simple file manipulation. Then some of the more basic commands, will be introduced, including information on how to get more help from the system itself. Finally accessing remote computers by ssh and the most basic of shell scripts will be introduced.

This course is part of the Scientific Computing series.

No previous experience of shell scripting is required for this course; however some knowledge of the interactive use of the bash shell is a prerequisite (see Simple Shell Scripting for Scientists: Prerequisites for details).

This course introduces shell scripting in bash for scientific computing tasks. Day one introduces very basic shell scripts in bash which process the command line in a simple fashion. Day two covers how to write more advanced shell scripts in bash. Day three covers how to make one's shell scripts more robust.

At the end of each day one or more exercises are set. It is VERY IMPORTANT that attendees attempt these exercises before the next day of the course. Attendees should make sure that they have allowed themselves sufficient study time for these exercises between each day of the course.

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This self-paced hands-on course gives a quick introduction to the Vi text editor, a widely available text editor for Unix (and other) systems. Participants work at their own pace using provided notes and exercises, with a demonstrator on hand to help.

This course is designed for users new to the software who need to create various types of chart including organisational charts, Gantt charts and flowcharts. The skills and knowledge acquired in this course are sufficient to be able to use and operate the software at an efficient level and covers from beginners to intermediate skills. It is fast paced.

A set of 5 CD-ROMs by BVG on programming in Visual Basic version 6.

An introduction to computer programming using the Visual Basic language.

This follows on from the Introduction to HTML and is a practical-based course.

This hands-on course will introduce cascading style sheets (CSS) and tables and show how they can (and should) be used effectively when creating web pages.

This two-part course will build on the simple style sheets produced in the introductory courses. The aim is to give you a full appreciation of how stylesheets work and how to work with them, and using them as an integral part of producing web pages and sites.

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a powerful web creation tool that allows non-technical people to produce professional websites. This course provides a practical introduction for those that wish to use Dreamweaver to create web-pages and manage websites. It focuses on building a small website.

This is a practical-based course for people new to writing Web pages. Only the basics of HTML (hypertext markup language) will be covered, but there are other courses for those wishing to extend their knowledge. By the end of the course participants will have created three personal linked web pages.

This course will introduce so-called web2.0 technologies, which are loosely centred around the push towards social networking. It will show how you are probably already participating and what else you might be interested in trying out.

The rendering time for web pages is dominated by the graphics on the page. This course teaches methods of preparing graphics so minimise information loss and maximise transfer and rendering efficiency. There is an opportuinity to try the methods using PhotoShop.

When you write for the web you need to think differently. People dedicate very little time to reading a web page and so it is essential they see what they need and understand it with the minimum of difficulty. This short course aims to give you the skills to produce web pages that do just this.

This course will introduce XML (the Extensible Markup Language). The course will cover the use of XHTML 1.0 which is a reformulation of HTML 4.01 in XML. The course will also introduce and use XSL (the eXtensible Markup Language).

A set of 2-hour tutorials on CD-ROMs on web page authoring for Windows (not available on modern Macs). Note that hands-on exercises are not provided with this courseware, so that it is not necessary to have any special software installed.

An introduction to the browser-based bibliography program EndNote Web and its interaction with Microsoft Word to produce documents containing formatted reference citations. EndNote Web is a “lite” version of the stand-alone EndNote program. It is free to use to members of the University as part of the UL's subscription to the Web of Knowledge database of references.

The Computing Service also runs several termly introductory courses on EndNote Desktop and on more advanced use of EndNote Desktop.

EndNote Web enables you to search for relevant books and articles and store their citation details online. You can modify your copies of these references and add some notes. The program can later work as a “helper” application with Microsoft Word so that you can add consistently laid-out citations to a document that you are creating and create a sorted bibliography at its end.

EndNote Web does not provide advanced features such as customisation of output formats (styles) , these are only available with EndNote for Bibliographies

This two-part course will describe good-practice aspects of designing, building and running a web site, and providing information on a web server. The requirements for providing accessible web pages, utilising the site-wide search engine on your web pages and liaising with a web design company are also covered.

In addition, Helen Sargan runs an "access/site design clinic" with information providers on a one-to-one basis: please contact her directly to make an appointment.

ISI Web of Knowledge contains over 13,000 journals with over 40 million cited references added annually. It enables the researcher to identify the prolific authors for a topic, identify the institutions that have published most in a specific field and gain insight into key publication trends.

Google is unarguably the world's most used search engine - but how good is it for academic research? This session aims to demonstrate how to make best use of Google and Google scholar for research purposes, whilst outlining some of the pitfalls of over-relying on them!

Windows laptop owners are STRONGLY advised to attend this practical workshop which offers an opportunity for them to put into operation practical security measures to keep their PC safe & secure, with demonstrators present to assist if needed.

"Widespread ignorance about basic computer security is putting millions of people at risk from net-savvy criminals, a study suggests. It found 83% of 1,000 people were not doing enough to protect themselves". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4378186.stm

All Windows users in charge of a PC are STRONGLY advised to attend this course. It explains the essentials of keeping your computer safe, secure and well maintained. This is vital for PCs which are connected to the Internet (via broadband, Ethernet or even dialup). Every virus outbreak results in many PCs being successfully attacked because they are inadequately protected: avoid it happening to you!

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