Introduction to Computers, Internet and etc [ Week 1 - Week 10 ]

[Week 1,2] Many people believe that know how to use a computer, is one of the basic skills to succeed in the world of work. In order to use a computer, you must understand how a computer works.

Hardware


Computer hardware is made up of the equipment used to make up you computer unit. These parts include your monitor, central processing unit (CPU), keyboard, mouse, printer, and modem.

The computer is an electronic machine that performs the following four general operations:

    * Input
    * Storage
    * Processing
    * Output.

Input

The input hardware allows you to enter data into the computer. The primary devices used are the keyboard and mouse.

Keyboard - The keyboard looks like the typewriter. A numeric keypad is located to the right of the keyboard. Numeric keys have the same placement as a 10-key calculator, which allow the operator to enter data rapidly.

Mouse - The mouse is a device that allows you to control the movement of the insertion point on the screen. The operator places the palm of the hand over the mouse and moves it across a mouse pad, which provides traction for the rolling ball inside the device. Movement of the ball determines the location of the I beam on the computer screen. When the operator clicks the mouse the I beam becomes an insertion point which indicates the area you are working on the screen. You can also click the mouse and activate icons or drag to move objects and select text. There are other input devices, such as touch screen, joystick, modem, scanner, and voice recognition systems.

Processing

The central processing unit or (CPU) is the "brain" of your computer. It contains the electronic circuits that cause the computer to follow instructions from ROM (read only memory) or from a program in RAM (random access memory). By following these instructions information is processed. The CPU contains three parts.

      1. Arithmetic Logic Unit - ALU is where the "intelligence" of the computer is located. It can add and compare numbers. To multiply 2 x 4 the computer would add 2 + 2 + 2 + 2. The ALU makes decisions by determining if a number is greater, less, or equal to the other number. Processing is completed in nanoseconds, which is a billionth of a second.

      2. Memory - Two types of memory contained on a chip are RAM (Random Access Memory) or ROM (Read Only Memory). ROM memory has been installed on your computer by the manufacturer and can not be altered. ROM is the memory that determines all the basic functions of the operation of your machine, such as startup, shut down, and placing a character on the screen. RAM is temporary memory, which displays the information you are working on. RAM remembers what you see on your screen while you are working. Today's applications required large amounts of temporary memory, which may require you to upgrade and add more RAM memory.

Output

Output devices such as a monitor or printer make information you input available for you to view or use.

A monitor's front is called a screen with a cathode ray tube (CRT) attached to the screen. Portable computers use a (LCD) liquid crystal display. Today's super video graphics array (SVGA) monitors display 256 sharp and clear colors.

[Week 3] Computers only understand numbers..

The first thing to understand about computers is that they are nothing more than a powerful, glorified calculator. The only thing they know, the only thing they understand, is numbers. You may see words on the screen when you're chatting with your friend via AOL, or breathtaking graphics while playing your favorite game, but all the computer sees are numbers. Millions and millions of numbers. That is the magic of computers - they can calculate numbers, lots of numbers - really fast.
But why is this? Why do computers only understand numbers? To understand that we need to go deep into the heart of a computer, break it down to its most basic functionality. When you strip away all the layers of fancy software and hardware, what you will find is nothing but a collection of switches. You know the kind, you have them all over your house - light switches. They only have two positions: On or Off. It's the same for computers, only they have millions and millions of the little buggers. Everything a computer does comes down to keeping track of and flipping these millions of switches back and forth between on and off. Everything you type, download, save, listen to or read eventually gets converted to a series of switches in a particular on/off pattern that represents your data.

What does this have to do with Binary and Hexadecimal numbers ?

Let's back up for a minute and look at how human beings deal with numbers first. Most people today use the Arabic numbering system, which is known as the decimal, or Base-10, numbering system (dec means ten). What this means is that we have ten digits in our numbering system:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

We use these ten digits in various combinations to represent any number that we might need. How we combine these numbers follows a very specific set of rules. If you think back to grade school, you can probably remember learning about the ones, tens, hundreds and thousands places:

When counting, you increase each digit in the right-most place column until you reach 9, then you return to zero and increment the next column to the left:

I know this all probably seems very remedial and unimportant, but going back to these basic, simplistic rules is very important when learning to deal with other number formats. Would it surprise you to learn that there other numbering systems that have a different base? Somebody, somewhere, a long time ago decided that having ten digits would work best for us. But there really is no reason why our numbering scheme couldn't have had seven, or eight, or even twelve digits. The number of digits really makes no difference (except for our familiarity with them). The same basic rules apply.
As it turns out, computers have a numbering system with only two digits. Remember all those switches, each of which can only be on or off? Such an arrangement lends itself very nicely to a Base-2 numbering system. Each switch can represent a place-column with two possible digits:

0 1

0 = off, 1 = on. We call such numbers binary numbers (bin means two), and they follow the same basic rules that decimal numbers do: Start with 0, increment to 1, then go back to 0 and increment the next column to the left


Understanding the Software Layers of a Computer

You're typing in a word processor and you decide it would be nice to have a hard copy. You select File | Print in the menu and the printer comes to life, feeding out a copy of your document on paper. It seems like a simple process, but in reality your request passed through many layers of software before reaching your printer.

Although you requested the print through a menu of your  word processing application, that application did not contact the printer directly. Instead, the aplication made a request to the computer's operating system. Remember, today's computers are multi-tasking. That means they can perform more than one task at a time. The operating system mediates the priority of multiple tasks requesting to use a hardware device.

[Application]--[Operating System]--[Device Driver]--
[BIOS]--[Hardware]

The above explanation describes the common software layers  of a computer. Each of the software layers described above may itself consist of many layers. An application may communicate with the operating system through a piece of software called a DLL (Dynamic Link Library).

The important thing to understand is that your computer has  layers of software. You should understand where each layer resides in the path from user to hardware. You should now understand that when you dial out with your web browser, the request is passed to the operating system, which passes it to the modem driver, which communicates with a BIOS on the modem. That BIOS is the program that actually works the electronics of your modem.

[Week 4] Net Communication Mediums [What is WiFi ?]

Wireless network, Wi-Fi, the technology is not new, but it is only recently that it has become common. What are the advantages of wireless networks and if you consider using it?

The advent of portable computing devices is one of the main drivers for the adoption of wireless networking. Today, around 50% of new laptops come wireless enabled out of the box. All of Apple’s latest line of laptops come with both wireless & bluetooth built in. Many Microsoft Windows laptops are similarly wireless enabled. 

Architecture

Wireless cards can operate in two modes, Infrastructure and Ad-hoc.
Most business systems use wireless in Infrastructure mode. This means that devices communicate with an access point. Typically the access point also has a connection to the company wired network, allowing users access to servers and files as if they were physically attached to the LAN.
Ad-hoc connections are direct connections between wireless cards. This type of connection is more common amongst home users, but if used by business users could have serious management and security implications.
WiFi is seductively easy to use, don’t let your guard down just for want of a few minutes configuring your access points.

LAN - Local Area Network

A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. An office building of the network, school or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will be conducted on a group buildings nearby. In TCP / IP network, a LAN is often but not always applied as a single IP subnet.

WAN - Wide Area Network

As the word implies, a WAN covers a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth.

A WAN is a geographically dispersed Lans. A network device called a router connects to a wireless WAN. In IP networks, the router supports a LAN address and a WAN address. 

[Week 5] Anatomy of MS Win OS

 Each of the objects, most of you when you interact with your computer is called a window. The window is a space object whose presence has always been known for the operating system, unless the window is not visible or not. As a visible object, a window is defined by its location on the screen, and the size of the screen size.

Windows 7 Interface: New Taskmaster 

Windows Experience takes place mainly in the taskbar - especially in the Start menu and Taskbar. Vista Start Menu has given an overhaul of welcome in Windows 7 taskbar and receive a complete makeover.

The taskbar replaces the old small icons and text labels for running applications on larger, unlabeled icons. If you can keep the icons directly, the new design reduces clutter on the taskbar so painless. If you do not like, you can shrink the icons and / or report to the labels.

Old Tray, New Tricks: Windows 7's Taskbar and window management tweaks are nice. But its changes to the System Tray - aka the Notification Area - have a huge positive effect. All of this helps make Windows 7 the least distracting, least intrusive Microsoft OS in a very long time. It's a giant step forward from the days when Windows thought nothing of interrupting your work to inform you that it had de­­tected unused icons on your desktop.

[Week 6] Word Processing,skills: MS word basic 

Microsoft Word is usually the first Microsoft Office application you will learn during your Office Skills Training. However, if you have no computer experience at all, you should begin your training with a basic computer skills and windows course which will give you an understanding of the computer operating system. In this course you will learn how to create, save and file your documents using Folders. 

[Week 7] Basic Skills in Microsoft Excel & ICT 

In this week I have been learn the basic skills in MS Excel. This will allow me to address a large number of the stage four and five Information & Communications Technology (ICT) outcomes from the Patterns & Algebra, Number and Data strands with my friends.

By the end of the session I will be able to:

1.      Create & save a new worksheet.

2.      Format the width of the rows and columns.

3.      Format Borders, Headings and alignment of cells.

4.      Format the cells into numbers, percentages & currency.

5.      Write formulae to add, divide, subtract & multiple numbers.

6.      Converting and Displaying data as graphs & charts

7.      Format the worksheet so that you can print it onto paper. 

[Week 8] PowerPoint Presentation Skills

In this week my lecturer provides us tuto an overview of how to use many of the basic features of Microsoft Powerpoint. Step-by-step instructions are provided for: creating presentations; adding new slides; using spell check; saving a presentation; previewing a presentation; inserting clip art; moving and resizing objects; using graphic images from the Internet; moving, copying, and deleting slides; adding transitions; adding animations; applying a template; and printing a presentation.

PowerPoint is a presentation graphics component of Microsoft Office, you can create and save presentations. A presentation is a collection of slides on a topic that can be displayed simultaneously with a verbal report was given. Of skiing, you can create a color or black and white aerial, on-screen presentations and 35 mm slides. To support your presentation, you can prepare your documents for public notes for use during your presentation, and exposes them to provide an overview of your presentation.

[Week 9] The Internet: Issues,Internet Safety,Phishing,Virus Protection,Firewall and Spoofing

How could we live without the Internet? This is how most of us keep in touch with friends, get help with homework, research a cool place to visit or see the latest news.
 

But in addition to millions of places to see and do, the Internet offers many ways to waste time - and in trouble. And just as the non-cyber world, some people you meet online could groped to take advantage of you - financially or physically.

You've probably heard stories of people who are involved in chat rooms. Because users can remain anonymous, chat rooms often attract people who are interested in something more than talk. Sometimes I ask visitors with information about themselves, their families, wherever they live - information that should not be given.

Of course, the Internet is home to millions of places you can and should visit. Like an infinite library, the Web can take you to the ends of the earth with the information it contains but stay remain to improve your security..


[Week 10] The Internet as a Communication and Information Medium

Internet is one of the largest telecommunications networks in the world, its importance is that through it we can get information quickly and effectively on various topics, without leaving home or on the side of your computer that among the myriad of applications, we can use.

The speed with which the Internet has grown and become popular in recent years there has been a very important revolution in global communications, cause changes in many sectors of society. What is known today as the Internet is truly independent of the complex networks that are connected to each other allows the exchange of information and then form a network in the world is an ideal tool for the exchange of information and exchange any type of personal interaction with other people .


Services like Skype and Google Talk have allowed video chat for quite a while now.  That’s about as close to face-to-face as you can get via the Internet with out current level of technology.  However, I look forward to the day when we have Star-Trek-style holograms that make it just as realistic to meet with someone on the other side of the planet as it is to drive to the other side of town to have coffee with them.  I have no doubt that when humanity creates that technology, it will communicate via the Internet (or some extension of it).

The Internet is the result of communicating various computer networks. Using a computer either at school home or work you can access hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. With the program contains adequate Internet can transfer files connect remotely to a computer that is thousands of miles away and use the mail to send and receive messages.
I’m also excited to see what other communication mediums will be created in the years to come.

This blog entry has been complete by Syafiq Ishak on 26/11/11 for my new lecturers.. © 2011 :3