June 21, 2005

To start the workshop, Simon explained how the servers at Shodor work. He explained that they run Unix, which is a text-only operating system. He then announced that today, the class would be moving the servers from their temporary location in a closet to their permanent location, just outside the classroom. They began by disconnecting and organizing all the cables attached to the servers. Then, the students pushed the metal rack with the computers on it to the permanent location and reconnected all the cables. Ronnie then showed them a website that listed the current state of all the servers.

After snack, Ronnie announced that the kids were now going to learn how email works. The class learned how SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and POP (Post Office protocol) worked by using both to send and receive emails. Though they enjoyed the activity, they walked away with a greater appreciation for the conveniences of modern email systems.