|
|
|
Getting to Know Your Computer
When you are all done, there is a
great quiz on basic computer knowledge at quia.com
http://www.quia.com/jg/65620.html
(Quia.com, for a very small subscription rate, allows you to make all sorts of
interactive games, lessons, and quizzes to spice up your curriculum)
Some Basic Info
Do's and Don'ts/ 8 Things You Should Know/Mac or Pc / Information Storage / Processor / Memory / Monitors / Gadgets
1. Your inexperience with a PC is not an indication of your intelligence.
2. You don't have to know a lot about a PC to use one.
3. There are no keys you can press that will destroy the machine or your files.
4. The mouse is tough: you don't need to treat it as if it were fragile.
5. It helps to know how to type, but it's not necessary.
6. Know how to take care of your PC , and do it.
7. Learn in your spare time, not just before a deadline.
8. Master the basics before trying the fancy stuff.
Do:
Don't:
It's either a Mac or a PC...PC, or
Personal Computer refers to any computer that is not a Macintosh Computer.
The term PC and the concept of a personal computer has been linked to IBM
since its introduction of the first in a series of Personal Computer Models
known as IBM PC in 1981.
The Mac was first introduced in 1984 by Apple Computer, INC.
Mac's use the Mac OS operating system and PC's most often (but not always) use the Windows operating system.
Information Storage
So what's inside
that I need to know, or care about?
First, the
"Hard Drive" or "C" drive. The hard disc is a silver
colored platter that has a magnetic coating. It is sealed inside a box called
the hard drive inside your computer. (However, you can buy an external hard
drive) This is the "filing cabinet" of your computer where lots of
information is stored. (Why do you think everything is in folders:))
How much
information can I store...how big is big enough?
Well, let's start with a bit, or
one single piece of data, either a 1 or a 0.Since the computer receives
information as electronic signals, 1 means "on" and 0 means
"off". Bit actually stands for Binary Digit. Eight
of these 1's or 0's make up a byte. For example, 01000001 is the Binary Code for
the letter "A".
How many bytes can
this disk hold?
Well most "Floppy
Disks" (called that because a little brown floppy cookie like disk is
inside that hard case) hold 1.4 MB or Megabytes.
A Megabyte is actually 1,000,000 bytes.
When someone mentions that their "Hard Drive" can store 10 "Gigabytes", they mean roughly 10 Billion bytes!
One of the new Dell workstations has a 584 GB hard drive!
How else can I store information so it is portable?
Other than the floppy mentioned above, there are several save and go possibilities.
The CD can hold approx 783 MB of information. You can get a CD-R, a CD Recordable (Because of the way data is saved, you can only write data to this type of CD once), or a CD- RW, a CD Rewritable (you can use this one over and over).
Next is the ZIP drive from Iomega. The most common sizes for the Zip disc is 100 MB and 250 MB...right now they can hold up to 750 MB.
Another way is to buy a portable hard drive. Essentially you take a hard drive, and put it in a self-contained case...one popular product is the Iomega Jaz drive.
My favorite are the pen drives. They can hold up to 1 GB of information. I wear it around my neck, and whenever I need to share or store information I just plug it into the USB (plug and play) port on my computer and drag the file on or off the desktop...it is priceless!
A USB port on a workstation is a rectangular port.
USB devices, like the pen drive, or 127 other peripherals, are hot-swappable, meaning you can plug them into the bus and unplug them any time.
So who's the Brains
of this outfit?
The CPU, also
known as the Central Processing Unit is a chip that is actually the brain of the
computer. It is also called the processor.
How fast is fast
enough these days?
We measure the CPU'S performance
of operations (like adding two numbers together), in cycles per second, or in
Megahertz (Millions of Cycles Per Second)
HOld on to your hat, there are now PC's that have clock speeds from 500 Megahertz all the way up to almost 4 Gigahertz!!! (a Gigahertz is one thousand million hertz...You do the Math) Intel's Pentium 4 has a 3.4 GH processor.
There are
basically two types of memory...Temporary and Permanent
Temporary memory includes the
CACHE and RAM. Permanent storage areas include ROM/BIOS, Removable drives, Hard
Drive and Network/Internet Storage.
Temporary storage is used the most often. Your computer would operate very slowly if every time it needed information it had to access the hard drive (C drive) to get it. If that information is kept in the memory, it can be accessed quickly.
When a computer saves information, the first place it goes is to RAM or Random Access Memory. As long as your computer is on, this data remains in this temporary area for the computer to use quickly.
Bits of information that your computer uses most often are stored in the CACHE. A CACHE is kind of a holding pen between the CPU and RAM for data that your computer uses often. One example: it might take a few minutes to load a web page the first time you are on the computer, but after that, when you come back to it again, it comes up almost instantly because its being held in the CACHE.
The ROM/BIOS is the Basic Input Output System. When you turn your computer on, it loads all of the basic instructions your computer needs ; information about storage devices, loading sequence, security, Plug and Play devices you might have attached (mouse, keyboard, printer), etc.
The OS or Operating System (i.e.:Windows, or Mac OS) is loaded from the hard drive into the system's RAM. This allows the Central Processing Unit (CPU) to have quick access to enhance your system's performance.
When you open an application, like WORD or EXCEL, it is loaded into RAM. As long as your system is on, that's why if you don't save it to the hard drive, or permanent storage area, and the computer loses power, you lose your work! SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!
So think of it this way, when you work, you spread out everything you need on your desk in front of you (temporary memory), this way you can work quickly. You don't want to get up and go to the file cabinet (hard drive or c drive), every time you need a file (permanent storage).
Does adding more RAM to your computer make it faster?
Well, it might make it feel like it is running faster. Large programs that might need more RAM than you have available will cause your Virtual Memory Manager to start swapping files according to demand in order to keep the programs running smoothly. The less it has to swap, the faster your program seems to run.
Fat or Thin?
Often referred to as a monitor when packaged in a separate case, the display is the most-used output device on a computer. The display provides instant feedback by showing you text and graphic images as you work or play.Most desktop displays use liquid crystal display (LCD) or cathode ray tube (CRT) technology, while nearly all portable computing devices such as laptops incorporate LCD technology. Because of their slimmer design and lower energy consumption, monitors using LCD technology (also called flat panel or flat screen displays) are replacing the venerable CRT on most desktops.
Standards and
Resolution
Resolution refers to the number of individual dots of color, known as
pixels, contained on a display. Resolution is expressed by identifying the
number of pixels on the horizontal axis (rows) and the number on the
vertical axis (columns), such as 800x600. Resolution is affected by a number
of factors, including the size of the screen.
As monitor sizes have increased over the years, display standards and resolutions have changed. In addition, some manufacturers offer widescreen displays designed for viewing DVD movies.
How do digital cameras work?
The digital camera is one of the most remarkable instances of this shift because it is so truly different from its predecessor. Conventional cameras depend entirely on chemical and mechanical processes -- you don't even need electricity to operate them. On the other hand, all digital cameras have a built-in computer, and all of them record images electronically.
The new approach has been enormously successful. Since film still provides better picture quality, digital cameras have not completely replaced conventional cameras. But, as digital imaging technology has improved, digital cameras have rapidly become more popular.
Understanding the Basics
Let's say you want to take a picture and e-mail it to a friend. To do this, you
need the image to be represented in the language that computers recognize --
bits and bytes. Essentially, a digital image is just a long string of 1s and 0s
that represent all the tiny colored dots -- or pixels -- that
collectively make up the image.
If you want to get a picture into this form, you have two options:
At its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera. Just like a conventional camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data. All the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process.