Secondary Storage

Compression is an act of condensing matter in attempt to reduce space. Hence, file compression simply means condensing files in the form of data in order to save space. This also helps to reduce the time taken for file transmission. File compression can be ranging from removing all extra space characters to replacing smaller bit strings with more frequently used characters.

A head crash in terms of the computing world refers to the collision that happens between the read-write head and the magnetic recording surface of any hard disk. This phenomenon is also sometimes referred to as disk crash. Such incident occurs when there is a physical destruction made to the hard disk. The collision between the two surfaces can also happen when there is misalignment or contamination with dust particles. Unfortunately, stored data in the hard disk will usually be destroyed and both the disk platter and the read-write head have to be replaced when there is a head crash.

An Internet hard drive is basically a virtual online data storage. Its allows end users to access computer files such as pictures, documents, audio and videos from any computer as long as there is access to the Internet. The good thing about Internet hard drive is that there are some such storage that offer unlimited disk space compared to the local hard drives which have limited space.

An optical disk drive functions somewhat like an optical disc processor. It reads or writes data to and from optical discs by using laser light or electromagnetic waves. Optical discs are composed of millions of small bumps and dips. To be enable to read these bumps and dips, optical drives contain lasers than can turn them into ones and zeros in order to be read by the computers.

A solid-state storage is a nonvolatile and removable form of storage that uses integrated circuits (ICs) instead of the usual magnetic or optical media. It is almost similar to the large-capacity and nonvolatile memory. An example of such storage is the flash memory Universal Serial Bus (USB) device which is very commonly used today. The absence of mechanical parts makes it possible for transmission of data to and from solid-state storage at a much higher speed.

Input and Output

An ergonomic keyboard resembles a keyboard that has been split into half. This type of keyboard has its keys separated because it is specially designed to relieve sometimes painful conditions to the users that may have been resulted from overuse of keyboard. It has a 'split hands' design which is the main element that provides a more natural hand positioning while typing. 

An ink-jet printer is the most commonly used type of consumer printers. This type of printer works by spraying ionized ink onto a sheet of paper. One thing good about this printer is that it is capable of producing high quality print almost compatible to those produced by laser printers. A typical ink-jet printer can provide a 300 dots per inch resolution.

A laser printer is different from an ink-jet printer in a way that the former applies a focused beam or light to transmit text and images onto a piece of paper. Due to the fact that laser printers are free from ink, they encounter less image smearing problems and hence able to print pages faster. Also, laser printers are sometimes known as page printers. Besides, they are also capable of producing high quality print as well as printing an almost unlimited variety of fonts.

MICR, short for magnetic-ink character reader, as a character recognition system that utilizes special ink and characters that can be magnetized and read automatically. It is more commonly used on bank checks and deposit slips. The function of MICR is to detect certain characters and then convert them into digital form. However, the problem with this recognition system is that it has its limitation in terms of the its accuracy.

Optical character recognition (OCR) is another recognition system whereby a software is used to convert non-editable letters and numbers into an editable form. It technically involves the reading process of texts from papers and then translating them into a form that the computers can understand. OCR is typically used in processing checks, archiving library materials and also sorting letters by postal offices.

OMR, the abbreviation for Optical-Mark Recognition is a form of technology that electronically extracts data from marked areas onto printed forms. It functions by scanning a printed form and reading areas that have been marked. It is especially useful when there is a large number of hand-filled forms that need to be processed in a short time frame with high accuracy.

System Unit

A flash memory is a form of 'electrically erasable programmable read-only memory', also known as EEPROM. Its design as a section of memory cells allows files to be erased in a single action or in a 'flash', hence flash memory. It is extremely durable and widely used for storage medium such as the USB drive and digital camera memory cards.

A graphic card is basically an expansion card that reads instructions sent by the CPU, processes them with a graphics processor and later writes the resulting frame data to a frame buffer. It actually performs the dual roles of sending pixels to the display unit and then providing a certain type of processing using the GPU (graphical processing unit).

A sound card is also known as an audio card. It is a computer expansion card that enables the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the commands of certain computer programs. It allows output sounds from the computers to the speakers, input of sound recording from a microphone to the computer and to manipulate sound stored in a disk.

A network interface card (NIC) is a computer circuit board or card installed in the computer's system in order for it to be able to connect to a network. NIC is very useful in the sense that it provides a full-time connection to the surrounding networks. This hardware is becoming very common as it is usually embedded within computers especially laptops that mostly depend on wireless technology for network access. 

Plug and play, usually shortened to PnP, refers to devices that function with a computer system once they are connected to computers. These devices will be automatically recognized and hence begin to work with the computers. For example, if a Plug-and-Play mouse is connected to the USB port on the computer, it will start to work almost immediately.

Bus line in terms of computing refers to a collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one point to another in a computer system. It is a connecting line between the microprocessor to the motherboard in expansion slots such as hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives.

HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. It is a specified system whereby it combines video and audio files into one single digital interface. This in turn allows usage with digital versatile disc (DVD) players, digital television (DTV) players and other audiovisual devices.

Cache memory is a tiny block of high-speed memory that is wedged between the CPU and the main memory. Its specially designed usage is to store frequently requested data and instructions in order to improve the computer's system performance by reducing the need to access the system's main memory for any transactions. 

Specialized Application Software

An audio editing software is a specialized sound editor program. It allows users to edit voice clips or any audio files by cutting, copying, pasting and if needed, inserting multiple effects into it.

Bitmap images are also known as raster images. These images are basically made up of pixels in a small fixed grid. Pixels are numerous tiny dots of individual colour that forms what users see on computer screen. In other words, it is actually a form of file format for images that are stored in a computerized form.

A HTML editor, sometimes referred to as the website builder, is a software application that is used to create web pages. There are also some specialized HTML editors that provide more convenience and additional functionalities. Many HTML editors nowadays do not only work with HTML codes but also with other technology such as CSS, XML and also JavaScript. 

Multimedia, as the term implies, is the combination of multiple forms of media into one. It is actually a form of computer usage that present texts, graphics, videos, animations and sound clips in a unified way. For example, if a presentation has texts as well as audio clips, then it is already a 'multimedia presentation'.

Vector images, contrary to bitmap images, are a collection of individual objects rather than picture elements. Each of these individual object in a vector image is structured by a mathematical equation, causing it to be independent of its resolution. The advantage of vector images compared to bitmap images is that vector images can easily be resized without undergoing any loss of image quality. 

Web authoring is a part of a software that allows users to create a Web site in a desktop publishing format. Generally,  web authoring also generates the required HTML codes for the layout of a certain web page based on the designs made by the users.

Basic Application Software

GUI, the abbreviation for Graphical User Interface, is an interface program that utilizes the computer's graphics capabilities to ease the usage of the program. GUI functions accordingly to the basic components, that are windows, icons, menus and pointers.

Word processor is one of the most common computer applications used today. A word processor is very useful in the sense that it enables users to create a document file, store it electronically on a hard disk, display it on the computer's screen, making alterations when required as well as printing the document with a printer.

A spreadsheet is a table of values that are arranged accordingly in rows and columns. Spreadsheet applications are computer programs that allow users to create and also modify spreadsheets electronically. Usually, if there is more than one single table, the values would have predefined relationships to other values. Meaning, the values are inter-related. Hence, of one value is changed, the other values might follow suit too.

DBMS, is short for Database Management System, which is a collection of programs that enables users to store, edit, and extract data from a database. There are many types of database systems which range from small systems that are available on personal computers to huge and more sophisticated systems that run on mainframe computers. 

A utility suite is an all-in-one handy toolkit for the purpose of maintenance and system cleanup. It is basically a kind of system software that is specially designed to help analyze and configure in order to maintain the computer's overall system. 

 

The Internet, The Web and Electronic Commerce

So for the second tutorial, our topic would be on The Internet and The Web. People access and utilize the Internet and the Web every single day all around the globe. However, do people truly understand generally the usage and function of each of the elements found in the web?

Firstly, there is the FTP, that is file transfer protocol. FTP is a protocol that allows files such as graphics, texts, images or audio files to be exchanged over the Internet. It is very commonly used for downloading files from the Internet or to upload files to the Internet.

Plug-in can either be a hardware or software module that is used for additional special features or services to a much larger system. It is commonly used in web browsers for different kinds of functions including ti play certain videos, scanning for viruses as well as display new file types.

Normally, a filter is device that removes certain matters from anything that passes through it. In technological terms, a filter refers to a program that accepts a kind of data as an input and then transforms it into a different manner, before displaying the transformed data as an output.

Computers nowadays are usually protected by security suits such as McAfee Internet Security Suite, Norton Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security and many more. Internet security suites secures computers againts possible online threats like hackers, viruses and spyware.

A wiki is a website that makes use of the easy creation and editing of any of the interlinked web pages via a web browser. The good thing about wiki is that it allows users to make changes to the contents of any posts in the page. Therefore, it gives users the opportunity to share knowledge and information. 

Javascript is a scripting language that is added to standard HTML to create interactive documents. It currently runs in only three environments, that is as a server-side scripting language, as an embedded language in the server-parsed HTML, and also as an embedded language run in web browsers where it is the most important part of DHTML.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is a set of symbols or codes that have been inserted into a file for the purpose of display on a World Wide Web browser page. The markup actually tells a certain Web browser how to display a Web page's words and images for the user. Besides, it also sets up hypertext that links different electronic documents together.

 

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL contains the protocol of the resource, the domain name of the resource and also the name for the specific file. To understand better, here is an example of the different parts of an URL:

• http:// provides the protocol
• www.blogspot.com is the domain
• main domain is blogspot.com
• www is a pointer to a computer or a resource 
• /define/u/url.shtml is the pointer to the specific file on that server

Careers in IT

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Dawned by the world of advanced information technology and digitalization, more careers in such field have blossomed.

Webmaster is said to be a technician who designs and maintains a website. Other terms that have been used to address such technician include a web architect, web developer, site author, website administrator, and webmeister.  

A computer support specialist is one who specializes in helping people with their computer problems. Computer support positions normally require strong analytical thinking and problem- solving abilities in order to be able to tackle multiple problems regarding computers.

A technical writer, also sometimes referred to as a technical communicator, is a professional writer who designs, writes, creates, maintains, and updates technical documentation such as online help, user guides and system manuals. 

Software engineer designs and programs system-level software, such as operating systems, database management systems (DBMSs) and embedded systems. "Systems programmer" and "systems engineer" are also synonymous to the term of software engineer.

Network administrator, as the title imples, manages a local area communications network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) for an organization. This person will be responsible for the network security, installing new hardware and applications and monitoring software upgrades.

Other than the network administrator, there is also the data administrator. A data administrator is someone who coordinates activities within the data administration department. Such individual is also known as a database analyst since he or she works to design and manage one or more databases and to evaluate, select and implement database management systems.

For a system analyst, his or her job typically begins with determining the intended purpose of the computers. As a system analyst is the person who selects and configures computer systems for an organization or business, he or she must understand the general objectives of the business, as well as what each individual user's job requires. 

A programmer can be a person who writes computer programs or programs a device especially a computer. A programmer also writes or debugs computer programs either for a living or for fun.

All in all, the common ground for the careers above is that they are all involved in computer science; the branch of engineering science that studies computable processes and structures with the aid of computers.