If you have never used latex before, here are a few hints to 
get you started. 

Latex is a compiled language, unlike WYSIWYG word processors
like Microsoft Word. It's very similar to html-- 
mostly you just type text, and occasionally
you put in formatting tags. HTML is interpreted by browsers, 
Latex is compiled into formatted form to preview by xdvi or to 
print. There's a template file to get you
started on the course webpage-- the complicated stuff at the beginning
just makes the header and margins, you begin typing text in the body
of the file. 

Just edit the file in any text editor (I usually use emacs-- WARNING:
Microsoft Word unless you save as plain text inserts lots of invisible
formatting tags into the file which will confuse latex). 
To start a new paragraph skip a line. 
Most formatting commands start with the special character \ ; mathmode
is indicated inline between $ tags, i.e. $\sum_{i=1}^{n} i^2 + 3i$.
For all the special tags, you can consult either Lamport's latex 2E
manual, or do a google search to find lots of handy latex references
online.  

To compile your notes on the cs machines, if you file is named
filename.tex you just type 
%latex filename.tex
This produces a file called filename.dvi; to view it type 
%xdvi filename.dvi
unfortunately, the cs printers are not configured to print dvi files
directly, to create a postscript file you can print type
%dvips -f filename.dvi > filename.ps
And if you ultimately prefer a pdf file, you can then type
%ps2pdf filename.ps filename.pdf

Note that when you send the notes to me for my comments, please
send the filename.tex file rather than the compiled file. It's
easier for me to insert my comments directly into the text source
with the latex %%% comment character. 

Any questions, just ask. The one thing this document does not cover
is how to use graphics packages such as epsf to insert postscript
figures into latex documents. That's a more advanced topic.