/Exercise-1

Exercise 1 for the Automating GIS processes and Introduction to Quantitative Geology courses

MIT LicenseMIT

Exercise 1: Creating a GitHub account and using the cloud

The exercise for this week should be pretty simple and comprises two parts. First, you need to go to GitHub.com and create an account. Second, you need to go through the process of using one of the cloud computers from start to finish. Both tasks are described below, as well as what you need to submit for each task.

Create a GitHub.com account

The process for creating a GitHub.com account is straightforward.

  1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://www.github.com.
  2. On the GitHub.com home page, click on the green Sign up button on the top right.

GitHub home

  1. Enter a username, email address, and password. Click Create an account.
  2. When prompted to select a plan, choose the free option. We will provide private repositories through the course GitHub organization account.

Use the cloud

Following the instructions you've already used for connecting to a cloud computer, repeat the process. Specifically, you should

  1. Login on the Computing Dashboard and create a new computer instance

  2. Connect to the new computer instance

  3. Open an IPython interpreter window and run the command that follows by typing it in exactly as shown and pressing Enter

    %sx hostname; date

  4. Copy and save the output of that command. You will need to send the output to your course instructor via email for this exercise.

  5. Destroy the computer instance

Going through this process will help you become familiar with using the cloud computer system that we will regularly use in this course.

What to submit

Your assignment is to send an email to your course instructor containing

  1. Your GitHub.com username
  2. The output from the command you're asked to run in IPython

This message should be sent no later than Friday 9.9 at midnight.

Note: In case you're curious, we will add you to the course GitHub organization using your GitHub username. Future exercises and course materials will be distributed using your GitHub.com accounts, and your solutions to the exercises will be stored privately in your own GitHub file repositories.