HW1: HTTP and Firebug

The goal of this homework is to show that you understand how HTTP works and how to use firebug/chrome/etc. to see and understand everything that is happening as a web page loads.

First, install firebug in or browser, or use chrome. Then use it to answer the following questions:

1. What server is used by www.sc.edu?
2. How many GET calls are required to show that one page?
3. Are they using jquery? google analytics? list all the 3rd-party libraries they use.
4. How many cookies are being used? what are their keys?
5. What us the full path name of the facebook image (the little F) that appears at the bottom of the page?

You will turn in this homework by writing all your answers in a text file. When you are done upload it to i-am-done.appspot.com/242/HW1. This homework is due on Friday January 21 @ 11am. Please note that simply doing the homework is not enough to learn everything you need to know. You will also need to do the required reading (below) and play with firebug to make sure you understand what it is doing.

Required Reading

• 20 Things I Learned abot browsers and the web: a gentle introduction to all things internet.
• wikipedia:http: You need to know everything in that page. Also, skim over the list of HTTP headers and the list of status codes.

Recommended Reading

• You can view this rather long but interesting interview with Tim Berners-Lee about his life and the early days of the web.
• Read URL Design: a short post on how to design your URL space. You will need to know about URL design when we start building our web app in a couple of weeks.