I will be in Macon, GA at First Quality this week and the next on business. Unfortunately, the plant does not have cell phone coverage or Internet access, so I won’t be available to respond to messages until I return in the evening.

The course outline for Architecture of Parallel Computers is as follows:

The need for parallel and massively parallel computers. Taxonomy of parallel computer architecture, and programming models for parallel architectures. Example parallel algorithms. Shared-memory vs. distributed-memory architectures. Correctness and performance issues. Cache coherence and memory consistency. Bus-based and scalable directory-based multiprocessors. Interconnection-network topologies and switch design. Brief overview of advanced topics such as multiprocessor prefetching and speculative parallel execution.

The course is being taught by Dr. Douglas Pase, who I’ve also had for CSC 501.

The course outline for Electronic Commerce Technology is as follows:

Exploration of technological topics and challenges underlying electronic commerce. XML technologies; business transactions; negotiation techniques, including auctions; performance; search and evaluation

The course is being taught by Dr. Munindar Singh.

On some Windows XP systems, the “Security Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2″ can keep appearing in Windows Update, even though it is already installed. To correct this issue, first manually download KB954430 and select remove during the installation process.

Then, reboot the system, and run Windows Update again. MSXML should install correctly.

A memory allocation error can occur when trying to print to a HP DesignJet plotter from AutoCAD 2000 in Windows XP. To correct this issue, run Windows Update to grab the latest HP DesignJet driver. Then download the AutoCAD 2000 Plotting Update Patch.

It’s my final semester at NC State. To conclude the degree program I’ll be taking two courses from the available courses for Spring 2009:

• CSC 513: Electronic Commerce Technologies
• ECE 506: Architecture of Parallel Computers

Since the plan of work has changed, a new Plan of Graduate Work should be completed within the first three weeks of the semester, as well as a Request for Option B form.