reflection on April 22/2010

today in class we worked on our final project for Unit three that me and Laila are working on together. we have researched all of the information and answered the questions and today we started putting it together in a powerpoint presentation. we have just started and hopefully finish tomorrow by the end of class or else we will have to work on it over the weekend. i am excited to get started on the next unit because it sound really exciting. i feel these presentations will be interesting and i am a bit excited and nervous to do my presentation for Monday. i just hope out presentation will be complete by the end of class tomorrow.

reflection on April 19 / 2010

today in class, i started on the final project that me and laila are doing together. i am researching on Debian Linux. right now i did get some information but im finding it a bit hard to find information right now ont the internet. i wil continue tomorrow and hopefully finish my research.

reflection on April / 2010

Today, in class we watched a video on how addicting internet and gaming can be. i never thought that internet could be so addicting that people have died because they never ate or drank anything, since they were too caught up on playing games. i know that little children can catch onto the internet and how things work on the computer really quickly because my eight year old brother started using the computer when i was about six or seven and new almost everything about it without me telling him anything. i also find it interesting that in Korea they are telling kids how to use computers to a certain extend because i remember that when we used computers when i was that age, out teachers never taught us that at all. Multitasking is great i think, cuz i do it too but it scares me that i might probably be really horrible at it if someone tests me out on it. i liked the video's we watched because they told us things that are un-imaginable, especially a couple hooking up through an online game. i find that scary, odd, and interesting.

reflection on april 14/2010

today in class, i started to do the questions for operating systems. i find it a little interesting and i am half way through the questions. tomorrow i will complete my questions off .

"What is an Operating System?"

Questions:

1. What is an operating system and what is its purpose?

• is a program made to run other programs on a computer. it is the most important program because it manages both hardware and software resourvers.

2.What operating system do most computers come preloaded with?

• ­Most desktop or laptop PCs come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with Mac OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems

3. Besides personal computers, what other devices have operating systems?

• telephones, cell phones and more

4. Do all computers have operating systems? Explain

• Yes, the operating system is basically the backbone of a computer, without the operating system the computer is useless

5. What are the three most common operating systems? Are there other operating systems? Explain.

• Microsoft Windows,Macintosh, and UNIX. Yes, there are many others like RTOS, Single-user, single task and more

6. What is one reason why operating systems are coded rather than physical circuits?

• so that they can be changed or modified without having to scrap the whole device.

7. What are the two main functions of an operating system?

• It manages the hardware and software resources of the system. In a desktop computer, these resources include things like the processor, memory, disk space and more (On a cell phone, they include the keypad, the screen, the address book, the phone dialer, the battery and the network connection).
• It provides a stable, consistent way for applications to deal with the hardware without having to know all the details of the hardware.

8. What are the four types of operating systems?

• Real-time operating system (RTOS), Single-user, single task, Single-user, multi-tasking, Multi-user
  

9. What are the first actions the computer takes when you power it on?

• the first program that runs is a set of instructions kept in the computer's read-only memory (ROM).
  

10. What is the bootstrap loader? What is its function?

• the bootstrap loader is a small program that has a single function: It loads the operating system into memory and allows it to begin operation. In the most basic form, the bootstrap loader sets up the small driver programs that interface with and control the various hardware subsystems of the computer. It sets up the divisions of memory that hold the operating system, user information and applications. It establishes the data structures that will hold the myriad signals, flags and semaphores that are used to communicate within and between the subsystems and applications of the computer. Then it turns control of the computer over to the operating system.

11. How does the OS manage the processor?

• Ensuring that each process and application receives enough of the processor's time to function properly
• Using as many processor cycles as possible for real work
  

12. What does an operating system do when two processes are multi-tasking?

• the operating system must arrange the execution of applications so that you believe that there are several things happening at once. This is hard because the CPU can only do one thing at a time. Today's multi-core processors and multi-processor machines can handle more work, but each processor core is still capable of managing one task at a time.

13. What is thrashing?

• Thrashing occurs when a hard drive has to move its heads over the swap area many times because of the high number of page faults. This happens when memory accesses are causing page faults as the memory is not located in main memory.

14. What is virtual memory management?

• Virtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory but acuallt it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage.

15. What is a driver?

• is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware or devices.
  

16. How can input/output capabilities of a system be enhanced?

• by installing new drivers.
  

17. How do application program interfaces make it easier for programmers?

• It is similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. you can acually see what's happening on the screen infront of you.

18. What is a UI and GUI?

• User Interface is the system by which people interact with a machine. The user interface includes hardware (physical) and software (logical) components.
• Graphical User Interface is where the user clicks on a visual screen that has icons, windows and menus, by using a pointing device, such as a mouse.
  

19. Why is Linux being open source significant?

• The primary difference between Linux and many other popular contemporary operating systems is that the Linux kernel and other components are free and open source software.
  

20. What are some other devices that run on Linux?

• AppleTV,Browser,GameCube,Dreamcast, ipod, etc
  

21. What are 3 things you found interesting about operating systems that you did not know before?

• i learned that operating systems are found in so many different devices such as my ipod. operating systems are also didnt know that every computer had an operating system. i also learned that microwaves have a computer that doesnt have an operating system.
  

22. What is a question that you still have about operating systems?

• how long does it take for a driver to translate the electrical signals to the operating systems language?

Setting up a Network

2.
Router:
a device that joins many different multiple wired or wireless networks together.
Bridge:
a device that seperates two or more network segments within one logical network
Switch:
a switch is used in a wired network to connect Ethernet cables from a number of devices together.


3.

Peer-Peer:
a peer-to-peer network is a network that does not have a central computer, all the computers are independent. you would find this type of network in home networks or small networks comprised of a dozen or less computers.

Advantage:
all clients provide resources, which may include bandwidth, storage space, and computing power.

Disadvantage:
unsecure and unsigned codes could allow access to files on a victim's computer or even the entire network

Client/Server:
is a network in which one or more computers are servers and provide services to the other computers that are called clients

Advantage:
updates to that data are far easier to administer in compared to a P2P

Disadvantage:
As the number of client requests to a server increases, the server can become overloaded.

LAN and WAN

LAN:
Full name: Local Area Network

What is it? This network is restricted to a smaller network

Example: this network is like for your home or building generally not more than a mile apart.

WAN:
Full name: Wide Area Network

What is it? A computer network that spans a wider area than the LAN does.

Example: WAN connects larger area networks like government, and school districts



Assignment 2:
Cables:

a) Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable
Maximum Length of 100 metres

http://123refills.net/cicini/images/productlg/6FootNetworkCable.jpg

b)Coaxial Cable

Maximum Length of 1000 ft for standard broadcast and 300 for HD

http://upload.ecvv.com/upload/Product/200801/20073505831491848_Coaxial_Cable_QR_540_JCA_Trunk_Cable.jpg

c) Fiber Optic Cable

Maximum Length of approx 2000 metres

http://www.electrical-res.com/EX/10-19-00/HDMI-FIBER-OPTIC-CABLE-EXTENDER-49ft-I14928.jpg

reflection on April 8/2010

today i worked on my last computer builting project, the product tester and i am very close to finishing it. i am just missing a couple of components that need to be added and my last paragraph for this computer. i will finish tomorrow for sure and post it on my blog as soon as im done. i felt i needed a lot of help for this project because i was really unsure about the things that i felt i needed for my computer and if they would fit in with the motherboard or no. however my the end of this project i feel i will be able to keep this knowledge with me forever incase i need to use it for computers.

reflection on April 6/2010

today in class we worked more on the computer build project. i finished the market designer and receptionist now and im just writing my paragraphs on the market designer. i found that doing a second one was a lot mroe simpler after doing the first one because i understood the project a lot more quicker. im just a little confused on the last one "the product tester" because i have no clue what that is. im happy that i find this prokect a lot more easier now.

Reflection on April 1 /2010

today, in class i finished builting a computer for a Receptionist. It acually took a lot longer than i thought but that was because i did not know how to indicate if the motherboard will support the component i chose to buy or not, and how to find out. but after the first one i think that the next two will be a lot quicker and i will go through them with no problem. After the long break i will come back on Tuesday and start on the Marketing Designer and the Computer Tester. i hope to finish this project by Wednesday, completing one a day. I find this project really comfusing and hard because i have very little knowledge on the inside body of a computer. i am more excited to start on the next Unit because i think it will be similar to Unit 2