COS 109 Survey Results for 2002

Thanks to everyone who filled in the survey. Here's the synopsis for the 36 people (8 frosh, 10 soph, 10 junior, 8 senior) who have responded (with some double-counting and some where I failed to transcribe or you didn't say).

Your major or likely or possible major. There's a wonderful spread of interests:

• politics (including international relations, public policy, WWS, etc.) 12
• English, literature of various flavors 9
• psychology 4
• history 3
• econ, art, Spanish: 2 each
• EEB, mobio, East Asian, Near Eastern, music, philosophy, German: 1 each
• and a smattering of the ever popular Undecided

Your computer experience:      none 3      some 25      a lot 0

What kinds?      surfing 32      word processing 35      spreadsheet 21      programming 2

Do you/will you have your own computer at Princeton? If yes, what kind?

27 PC laptops, 3 PC desktops, 7 Mac laptops, 0 Mac desktops, and a handful not specifically identified

Are there any topics you would especially like to have covered in class? This covers most of the suggestions:

• building web pages -- there are several early labs for you.
• programming -- this is not a programming course, but there's a taste of it, and ways to pursue it further if you're interested.
• how the Internet works -- lots of discussion coming up.
• how viruses work -- we'll look inside one in detail.
• law and public policy -- this will come up often, though the emphasis is on the technology that raises or complicates some issue.
• past and future of computing -- the former will be more accurately covered than the latter.
• how do computers really work, how to use computers and the net more effectively, why do computers freeze up, why do computers hate me, how do I fix things when they break, ... -- we'll do bits and pieces on all of these, and you should always feel free to ask off the wall questions.

Wednesday evening seems to be the most popular lab section, with Monday and Tuesday afternoons close behind. No section is over-subscribed, however, so for now you should go to the one you prefer, and you can shift around as necessary.