Month: September 2003

Citation.

The importance of accurate citation cannot be overstated: a paper without proper citations is open to charges of plagiary. It’s not simply a matter of having the minimum of five footnotes in your research paper to keep the teacher happy, and it’s not simply a matter of avoiding honor-code trouble. Careful citation shows your reader that you’ve done your homework, and allows him or her to check up on you. It amounts to laying your intellectual cards on the table.

Cite your source for every direct quotation and every borrowed idea. Two standards are common in English papers: that of the MLA Style Guide and that of The Chicago Manual of Style. Either will do. The MLA style calls for a list of “Works Cited” at the end of a paper in standard bibliographical form, alphabetical by author:

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Edited by Herbert Davis. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965.

Citations in the text of the paper would then include the author’s name (with a year or abbreviated title if more than one work is cited) and page number; for instance:

“… the most pernicious race of odious little vermin” (Swift 120).

The Chicago style gives a full citation in a footnote (or endnote) on the first quotation in this form:

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, ed. Herbert Davis (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965), p. 120.

Subsequent citations in the text include the page number in parentheses, with an author’s name only when necessary:

“Girl threading an invisible Needle with invisible Silk” (p. 92).

Either style is acceptable, but be consistent. For full details see the MLA Style Guide or the Chicago Manual of Style. (Other disciplines, mind you, have their own style guides; psychologists use APA style, and scientists have their own as well. You’ll do well to learn the most common standard for your major.)

All citations should appear under the name of the main author, but should include the names of editors, translators, and so on (writers of introductions aren’t necessary). Include the city, publisher, and year of publication. For works of prose, give a page number or a range of pages; for works of poetry, give a line number or range of lines.

Jack Lynch (2001, August 3), <i>Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style &#8212; C</i>. Retrieved Tuesday, September 16, 2003, from <a href="http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/c.html#citation" title="Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style — C">www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/ ~jlynch/ Writing/ c.html#citation</a>.

Block Quotations.

Short quotations — say, no more than three or four lines — usually appear in the text surrounded by quotation marks, “like this.” Longer direct quotations, though — and sometimes shorter quotations of poetry — should be set off as block quotations or extracts, thus:

Notice that the quotation is indented on both sides: most word processors make that easy. Notice, too, that you don’t use quotation marks around a block quotation: the indention (not “indentation”) is enough to indicate it’s a quotation. Some house styles prefer block quotations to be single-spaced, others like them double-spaced; that’s not something to fret about unless you’re writing for publication.

Always be sure to include proper citations in block quotations; the usual route is to put the citation in parentheses after the closing punctuation in the quotation itself.

Jack Lynch (2001, August 3), <i>Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style &#8212; B</i>. Retrieved Tuesday, September 16, 2003, from <a href="http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/b.html#block" title="Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style — B">www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/ ~jlynch/ Writing/ b.html#block</a>.

If you have read my <a href="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/bio.html" title="Biographical Information">bio</a>, you already know that one of my favorite shows is <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea" title="Food Network: Good Eats">Good Eats</a>. If you like it too, you might also be interested in knowing that Alton Brown, who hosts the show, has his own <a href="http://www.altonbrown.com/index.html" title="Alton Brown.com">Web site</a>. If you visit, you will learn 

• What he likes to read, including his own book
• His favorite from recipes submitted by fans
• His favorite Web sites
• His tour schedule
• Where to get some of his essential kitchen tools or even buy a few
• What is coming up on upcoming episodes of his show
• What he rants about — this looks like a blog
• Who gets the credit for his show

Did you know that Woodsy Owl and Smokey Bear were actually created by an <a href="http://www.symbols.gov/woodsy/pages/policy/woodsy-smokey-act.htm" title="Woodsy Owl - Smokey Bear Act">act of Congress</a>? 



Neither did I. 

Question: What’s the best way to put a resume together? Should I include an objective, that always seemed kind of lame. Is it smart to put references right on there, or say they’re available upon request? Please help Non-Expert, you’re my only hope. —Nina

Answer: In this epoch of economic downturn, it’s vital that your résumé stands out. It is, after all, the first thing a potential employer will ever know about you — and, insofar as they will never contact you, also the last. So it’s essential to write one that shines.

The secret is to strike a balance between accurate portrayals of your relevant experience and flat-out lies. As most employers place great weight on honesty, it may take four or five fabrications to balance out a single, truthful fact.

Matthew Baldwin (2003, August 22), <i>The Non-Expert: Defenestrate Your R&eacute;sum&eacute;!</i>. Retrieved Monday, September 15, 2003, from <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/editorial/the_nonexpert_defenestrate_your_rsum.php" title="">www.themorningnews.org/ archives/ editorial/ the_nonexpert_defenestrate_your_rsum.php</a>.

The history of silly putty is quite amusing. In 1943 James Wright, an engineer, was attempting to create a synthetic rubber. He was unable to achieve the properties he was looking for and put his creation (later to be called silly putty) on the shelf as a failure. A few years later, a salesman for the Dow Corning Corporation was using the putty to entertain some customers. One of his customers became intrigued with the putty and saw that it had potential as a new toy. In 1957, after being endorsed on the “Howdy Doody Show”, silly putty became a toy fad. Recently new uses such as a grip strengthener and as an art medium have been developed. Silly putt even went into space on the Apollo 8 mission.

University of Minnesota Chemistry Outreach Program (TBD), <i>Silly putty</i>. Retrieved Monday, September 15, 2003, from <a href="http://www.chem.umn.edu/outreach/Sillyputty.html" title="Silly putty">www.chem.umn.edu/outreach/Sillyputty.html</a>.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private internets:

• 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
• 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
• 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

We will refer to the first block as ‘24-bit block’, the second as ‘20-bit block’, and to the third as ‘16-bit’ block. Note that (in pre-CIDR notation) the first block is nothing but a single class A network number, while the second block is a set of 16 contiguous class B network numbers, and third block is a set of 256 contiguous class C network numbers.

Y. Rekhter, B. Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. J. de Groot, and E. Lear (1996, February), Address Allocation for Private Internets. Retrieved Monday, September 15, 2003, from www.apps.ietf.org/ rfc/ rfc1918.html.

To participate in wide-area IP networking, a host needs to be configured, either manually by the user or automatically from a source on the network such as a DHCP server. Unfortunately, such external configuration information may not always be available. It is therefore beneficial for a host to be able to depend on a useful subset of IP network to always be functional, even when no configuration information is available. This document describes how a host may automatically configure an interface with an IPv4 address within the 169.254/16 prefix that is valid for communication with other devices connected to the same physical (or logical) link. Communication using Link-Local IPv4 addresses is not suitable for communication with devices not directly connected to the same physical (or logical) link.

Stuart Cheshire, Bernard Aboba, and Erik Guttman (2003, June 3), Dynamic Configuration of Link-Local IPv4 Addresses. Retrieved Septembet 8, 2003, from files.zeroconf.org/ draft-ietf-zeroconf-ipv4-linklocal.txt.

The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/technology/columns/webwatch" title="TechNews.com: Web Watch">Web Watch</a> column over at the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/" title="washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines">Washington Post</a> has an <a title="Google Searches the Web And Does Math Homework (TechNews.com)" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1833-2003Aug16.html">interesting article</a> about a new feature in the <a href="http://www.google.com/" title="Google">Google</a> search engine. Here is a &#8220;link annotated&#8221; quote from the article.

The Internet’s top search engine announced it had crammed a mathematical calculator into its search service, letting users type math problems directly into the search box and get instant answers. Google’s calculator is trained to recognize words as well as numbers, so you can type in “eight plus seven minus four” or “8 plus 7 minus 4.” Both will yield 11.

You can type numeric expressions either into the search box at Google’s Web site (www.google.com) or directly into your Internet browser if you’ve installed Google’s tool-bar software or you use a browser with built-in Google searching, such as Mozilla or Apple’s Safari. Below the numeric answers Google returns, it will present a link to a regular Web search for your phrase in case you weren’t trying to use the calculator.

But this calculator doesn’t just do simple multiplication. It also handles conversions. Cooks may like being able to type in “quarter cup in teaspoons” and see Google reply “1 quarter US cup = 12 US teaspoons.” Does a mechanic want to know the size of a replacement part for a clock in inches, but you only know it in millimeters? Enter “.715 mm in inches” and Google will inform you it equals 0.0281496063 inches.

Google’s calculator goes beyond basic arithmetic to do complex math and crunch physical constants, too. It will process such queries as “G * mass of earth.” or “speed of light * two.” Type “What is the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight” and you’ll get this reply: “the speed of light = 1.8026175 x 10¹² furlongs per fortnight.”

Leslie Walker (2003, August 17), <i>Google Searches the Web And Does Math Homework</i>. Retrieved Sunday, September 14, 2003, from <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1833-2003Aug16.html" title="Google Searches the Web And Does Math Homework">www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ articles/ A1833-2003Aug16.html</a>.

One of the keys to any type of security is knowledge. To keep a network secure, you must know about security in general, but you must also be aware of the environment in which your computers operate.

For example, any computer that’s connected directly to the Internet is likely to see several unauthorized access attempts per day from outside the local network. Indeed, there may even be suspicious activity from within your local network, either from disgruntled insiders or from a successful outside intrusion or infection. If you’re to effectively guard against intrusions, it’s helpful to be aware of them. Even if you don’t respond to every probe (a monumental and unrewarding task), changes in the patterns of attack may be important: Changes may tip you off to new vulnerabilities and attack tools.

Network monitoring tools help you keep an eye on network attacks… Snort is a very powerful system for monitoring network traffic.

Roderick W. Smith (2003, May), <i>Network Monitoring with Snort</i>. Retrieved Sunday, September 14, 2003, from <a href="http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-05/guru_01.html" title="Linux Magazine | May 2003 | GURU GUIDANCE | Network Monitoring with Snort">www.linux-mag.com/ 2003-05/ guru_01.html</a>.