Exercise 3: UNIX Data Triage

In this exercise, you will identify the advantages and disadvantages of using the command line and how to learn how to use it for data triage.

Step 1 (15 min): War stories

In this exercise, you will discuss among your group the advantages and disadvantages of using the command line and you experiences with the command line or GUI programs in relation to the problems laid out in the live coding session.

Discuss the following issues:

Experience with unknown file formats, and how they were overcome
Experience with character encodings, and how they were overcome
Experience with broken files and file formats, and how they were overcome
Experience with similiar problems and how they were overcome

Step 2 (10 min): Next steps

Were there things in the live session, that did not make sense or was trivial?

Discuss how to proceed in becoming familiar with the command line. Where could you go to find information, tutorials, help?

If on a Mac
If on a Windows PC

Step 3 (5 min): Do you think, you will ever use the command line?

If not, why? ;-)

Expected Outcome

you should now have a beginning of an idea of what the command line might be capable of and a beginning understanding of files.

You should also have an idea of where and how to take the next steps.

Also, remember, no matter how fancy or expensive a GUI is, it's all just files with bytes on a "harddisk" (your own computer or maybe a computer owned by someone else (a.k.a. The Cloud). The command line brings decades old tools to your tool chest. Tools, that have been tried and tested through literally more than half a century.

Exercise 3: UNIX Data Triage — Identify Files, Detect Errors, Explore Data

Objective

Instructions

Expected Outcome