Fri, 7 Oct 2011, 21:42

I decided to send this to all of you for a couple of reasons, 
which I will make clear in a bit.

A student writes: 

> Dear Dr. Patt,
> 
> Upon trying to download the software to submit assignments in the LC3 I
> opened the page and clicked “downloads” directly in the middle of the page.
> I thought I was downloading tortoisesvn so I hit accept to everything to
> keep the defaults, like I believed the instructions were asking me to do.

The instructions clearly said:

 	Download the version of TortoiseSVN appropriate for your system 
	by clicking on either "TortoiseSVN 32-Bit" or "TortoiseSVN 64-Bit"

When we looked at what he had done, it turns out he did not click on either
of these two, but instead clicked on some advertisement.  ...with disastrous
results.

> Instead the download link installed over 10 programs onto my computer. Many
> of these programs are considered high risk by Microsoft. Including but not
> limited to, “Program:Win32/PCOptimizerPro a program that is promoted as a
> system optimization tool. Some versions of this program may display
> deceptive or fraudulent claims about files, registry entries and/or other
> items on the system. These versions are detected by Microsoft security
> products. *Alert Level** High”-Microsoft**!! *I have tried uninstalling the
> programs and they will not uninstall through the control panel. I am at a
> complete loss on how to stop these viruses. I wanted to email you to see if
> there is anything you know of to do to help me deleting these viruses
> without having to completely wipe my laptop and lose everything. I also
> wanted to email you so could warn the rest of the class before some of the
> other 300+ kids make the same mistake and infect their computers.
> 
> Sincerely,
> <<name withheld to protect the student who did not follow directions>>

So, what's my point?  Answer: please pay attention and follow our directions.
If you are casual about reading our directions and do something else, the 
results may not be what you want.

In that context, you will note in our submission instructions that we may be 
coming across as a little harsh.  Don't email me or the TAs your program.  
We will delete it and you will get no credit.  Make sure you submit the right 
files with the right names for those files.  If you don't, you will get no 
credit.

We are not trying to be unnecessarily mean.  The fact is that it should not
take that much effort to pay close attention to simple directions.  And, for
each student (there are 337 of you) who doesn't, it take a lot of effort for
us to unscramble that student's submission.

So, please do a trial run (or two or three, if necessary) long before the 
last minute to be sure you have the submission process down solid.  If you
still have problems, ask one of the TAs to help you master the submission
process.

Good luck getting the first programming assignment successfully completed,
and successfully submitted before the deadline.

Yale Patt