I believe I have a slightly different intension to choose
this course compared to my classmates: I am an idiot in front of the computer. I
don’t know how to customize my laptop or change any function settings in a
computer, and ask me to program is like making me to drive a plane. I figured
the best way to improve my horrible computer skills is to know WHAT’S GOING ON!
Thus I take CSC104 to learn how to drive a computer.
Soon after several lectures, I encountered my first
challenging: to set up the CDF account. What I’m going to tell you may sound stupid,
but trust me, it happened.
Once I sat in front of a lab computer, it asked me to log
in. I typed in my UTORid and password just like I log into any other computers
on campus. But when I press return, the login failed. I tried several times but
still couldn’t log in. Eventually, the girl sat next to me said, “I think your
CDF user id is wrong.” I looked at her, then realized that I need to log in
with my CDF account! (I though CDF account is something I need to set up after
logging into the computer)
I pretended nothing had happened, inputting my CDF userid and
my student number (passport) calmly. It worked! A window then popped up,
instructing me to go through all the rules and conditions of CDF. Eventually, I
reached the password-changing step; but when I tried to input my old password,
nothing shows on the screen---I tried again---still no response. I had to catch
a TA for help; the TA told me that it was actually inputted, it was just didn’t
show on the screen. I could remember what I had typed, but for sure not the
correct old password. I had to start over again…
The whole process took me over an hour, and I was totally
frustrated. While I knew it was just a start.
