Technical Biography

For your very first assignment, I want to know your "technical biography." Please consider this a formal assignment, meaning you should answer the following questions in complete-sentence, essay format, but also please consider this a casual assignment--be yourself. If you don't know the answer to some of these questions, this is your chance to find out. The better you can discuss your technological experience, the better we can talk about such issues in class.

If it's helpful to you, print this page out. Then e-mail your answers to me by Thursday, August 28, 2003, at 7 pm.

I would like to know the following about you:

1. Do you own your own computer? If yes, please tell me the brand name, the operating system, and what version of the operating system you have. How long have you had it, and how comfortable are you at using it?
2. If you DON'T own your own computer, please tell me what machine you plan to use for assignments during the semester (friend's computer, lab computer [where?], etc.). This question is meant to help you plan ahead.
3. Please tell me what word processing program you use, and what version you use. Most often, people use either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works. Please take care to inform me correctly. (If you use Microsoft Word, you can skip question #4.
4. If you use Microsoft Works or some other PC-based word-processor other than Word, do you know how to change file formats (for example, changing an MS Works document to Rich Text Format) in your word processor?
5. Are you comfortable sending e-mail attachments?
6. Have you ever written an HTML page for the Web? If yes, please give details as to whether you did your coding by hand, or whether you have used an editor. (If your answer to this question is "no," skip question #7.)
7. This is a follow-up question: if you have designed web pages before, would you offer me your URL so I can look at your page(s)? If you will allow this, please preface your URL(s) with a brief description of each site.
8. Are there any topics you feel are essential to cover in a class of this nature? Take a minute to think about this, and/or look at the Schedule page. Your contribution here could help shape the class.

So far, these questions have asked about stuff that is pertinent to class. From here on out, I'd like to hear more about you and your own technological interests.

9. Tell me a couple of things about yourself. You can talk about your major, or what you do for work, but just as importantly, what do you do for fun?
10. Are there any issues (medical problems, learning disabilities, etc.) that you feel could impact your writing that you would like me to know about?
11. Please take twenty minutes to write a page on the following: what are the two or three most important concerns you have about technology in today's society? What bugs you? What scares you? What frustrations do you have? Feel free to treat the term "technology" here as generally or specifically as you like.