Writing Assignments for CS 335, Spring 2011

Short Writing Assignment

Due by 1:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 19

Write a short essay (roughly 300 words) about some topic related to computing technology or the Internet that interest you and has social or ethical implications. Describe the background; then identify the issues, problems, or questions that you think are important.

Major Assignments: Book Report & Term Paper

• BookReport
• TermPaper

Small Assignment:Sending encrypted email with S/MIME

Please follow these steps.

1. Get yourself a certificate. mozillaZine has a list of providers of free S/MIME certificates. I suggest you use one of the sources that offers more than a 30–60 day trial, and please do not use the source that called out as not being a built-in trusted source for Mozilla or Thunderbird.
2. Install the certificate in the mail client of your choice (e.g., Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple Mail.app).
   • Alternate method: You can try using the plugin for GMail webmail under Firefox. I've read conflicting things about whether it is working for the current version of Firefox (FF 4).
3. Send a singed but not encrypted email to Prof. Sloan's UIC email address.
4. Prof. Sloan will email right back to you with something signed and encrypted.
5. Then send a encrypted (and signed) email to Prof. Sloan's UIC email address.

(The reason for the back and forth is that that way our email software will automagically acquire each other's keys.)
-- Main.sloan - 2011-01-04