APS105 - Newsgroup Information


Finding more information

If you don't find what you're looking for, please look in the course newsgroup. Quite often somebody else has already asked your question, and the answer is there. If you don't find it, then go ahead and post your question. It will be answered, either by a TA, an instructor, or a fellow student, within a very short time.

Newsgroups are really a wonderful thing: they allow all of us to contribute and and help each other out. This is great, because the point of going to school is to learn from others. However, please remember we must evaluate each student individually, and the work you contribute must be your own. Furthermore, the only way to learn programming is by doing the assignments on your own. Please don't post your solutions, and be careful of what information you do post.

The course newsgroup can be found at ut.ecf.aps105

Setting up ssh Port Forwarding

You can read the newsgroup at home if you are using Linux and ssh (run as root):
    computer.home% su 
    Passwd:
    computer.home# ssh -L 119:news.ecf.utoronto.ca:119 myuserid@skule.ecf.utoronto.ca
< < then in another window, as a regular user > >
    computer.home% netscape &

Then click your web browser here: news://localhost/ut.ecf.aps105

Unfortunately, you will have to re-read all the messages you've already read at school (and vice versa) -- but at least it's there. Solving this issue is a real pain, as you must remember to copy your .newsrc file back and forth (do this only from home):

    computer.home% su 
    Passwd:
    computer.home# ssh -L 119:news.ecf.utoronto.ca:119 myuserid@skule.ecf.utoronto.ca
< < then in another window, as a regular user > >
    computer.home% scp myuserid@skule.ecf.utoronto.ca:.newsrc-news.ecf.utoronto.ca ~/.newsrc-localhost
    computer.home% netscape
< < now read your news.  when done, quit netscape > >
    computer.home% scp ~/.newsrc-localhost myuserid@skule.ecf.utoronto.ca:.newsrc-news.ecf.utoronto.ca