Julien Gosset

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Table Of Contents
What is a computer? ..................................................................................................................................... 2
What is hardware? ........................................................................................................................................ 2
What is software? ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Identify common use interface elements and describe their functions ....................................................... 3
What is a peripheral? .................................................................................................................................... 3
What is a network? ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Revolutions in Computing Timeline .............................................................................................................. 4
Evaluating Websites ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 10
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 11
Index............................................................................................................................................................ 14













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What is a computer?
A computer is an electric piece of technology that processes data. What
is processing data you may ask? Emailing your mother is an example of
processing data. So is writing an essay, and posting a status on
Facebook. Anything that you receive or deliver is processing data. Data
is information put into the computer network. (figure 1 page 2)
What is hardware?
Hardware is the physical part of the computer, the one you can actually
touch. The hardware is the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse, etc. You
can't see it, but inside the computer there is a printed circuit board, an
integrated circuit, and wires connecting everything within. Yeah, it's on
the inside because its not the nicest looking thing, but it's what makes to
computer work. In other words, the hardware is basically just the
physical computer itself. (figure 2 page 2)
What is software?
Software is information stored electronically in the computer network.
computer screen. Software has two categories, system software and
application software. System software is the basic software that comes with
the computer that controls all the functions and utilities. When you right
click on the mouse when using a computer and options show up in a box
next to where you clicked, that's because of the system software, which is on all computers.
Application software is the specialized software that performs tasks that
the user wants done. (figure 3 page 2)

Microsoft Windows, Adobe and iOS 7 are examples of system software. Microsoft Word,
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Angry Birds are examples of application
software.







Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
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Identify common use interface elements and describe their functions
The appearance and usability of certain interface, elements and functionality are important
for any websites success in todays market. Even a split-second delay in thinking on the
users part will weaken their perceptions and interest in a website and ultimately lower the
websites conversion rate. (It has been scientifically proven), when using design interface
fornon-tech-savvy audiences. We have to ensure that certain UI elements do not stray too
far from what users are accustomed to. Best practices and usability traits of six user
interface elements and the conventions for each, so that developers can create user
experience that are both beautiful and simple. Dark backgrounds and fancy graphics will
damage usability, therefore if you keep a white or light grey background is the best option.
Make sure the search box is large enough so other important elements on the page, can
maintain its position in the visual pyramid.
What is a peripheral?
A peripheral is a device used with the computer, but is external to the essential computer.
Peripherals come in two forms, input devices and output devices. Input devices is a
peripheral device that gives a computer input. An output device outputs information from a
computer.
Commonly used peripherals are: keyboards, mouse, cameras,
microphones, monitors, printers, and there are many more. A keyboard
is an input device that the typing is done on. A mouse is also an input
device that selects a source with a click of a button. A camera, well most
people know what a camera is, but it is an input device that develops
photos. A microphone is also an input device that converts sound to an
electrical signal. A monitor is an output device that displays whats going
on in the computer. A printer is an output device that used ink to create images on paper.
(figure 4 page 3)
What is a network?
A network is plural computers linked together and it comes in many
forms: computers that are close to each other are called local area
networks, computers that are connected by telephone lines or radio
waves because they are far apart are called wide area networks,
computers that are close together in limited space are called campus-
area networks, a network for a town or city is called a metropolitan-
area network, and a personal network inside one's home is called a
home-area network. (figure 5 page 3)

A Stand Alone Environment is an independent operating system, unlike a network that has
plural operating systems.
Figure 4
Figure 5
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Revolutions in Computing Timeline
Year What is it? Why is it important? Interesting fact
Abacus 500 bc
The abacus is what is
used to help people
count without their body
parts during the olden
days.
Looking back in
history people did
not have the
resources we have
today to help
society.
During the olden days
people used their hands,
fingers, feet and toes to
count.
Antikythra
mechanism
100-
150 bc
(around
the 16
th

century
)
It is an ancient
mechanical computer
finds proved to be a
few green, corroded
lumps

John Napier,
Calculation
Tables
April
4ht
1617
Difficulty of counting
probabilities.
Helps people with
their calculations.

Joseph-
Marie
Jacquard,
Punchcard
controlled
loom
1801 A weaving room
The mechanism is
controlled by
recorded patterns of
holes in a string of
cards it is now
known as the
weaving room of
intricate patterns.

Charles
Babbage,
Difference
Engine
1822
(19
th

century
)
Analytical engine a
computing device
It can solve
polynomial
equations by using a
numerical method by
the name of method
of differences".

Samuel
Morse,
Telegraph
1830s
Telegraph revolutionize,
long distance
communication
history of the
telegraph and the
science of
telegraphy

Sir Charles
Wheatstone,
paper tapes
1837
used punchedpaper
tapeto record messages
sent by telegraph. The
code was based on the
Morse code
At this period
Wheatstone made
numerous
experiments on
sound and its

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transmission
Stoles,
Glidden and
Soule,
typewriter
1867
The first typewriter that
resembles something
from the 20
th
century
The main online
reference for a lot of
this is
wisconsinhistory.org

Herman
Hollerith,
Tabulating
Machine
1890 IBM punch card
Herman Hollerithis
widely regarded as
the father of modern
automatic
computation.

Colossus 1944
The RhodesColossusis
an iconic editorial
cartoon of the Scramble
for Africa period,
depicting British
colonialist Cecil Rhodes
as a giant standing
The Colossus was
the sixth oldest
Wonder and was
built by Chares of
Lindus in 280 BCE
to celebrate the
Rhodian victory over
the Macedonians and
to thank the god
Helios for protecting
them (Ashmawy,
Silverberg 90).
Colossuscould not be
included in the history
of computing hardware
for a long time.
Bell Labs,
the
Transistor
1947
A device that can
amplify signals
thetransistor,
probably the
mostimportantinven
tion developed
byBell Laboratories,
was invented by
John Bardeen,

Texas
Instruments
and Fairchild
Semiconduct
or, Integrated
Circuit
1958
integrating electronic
circuits into a single
device was born, when
the German physicist
and engineerWerner
Jacobi(de) developed
and patented the first
known integrated
transistor amplifier in
1949 and the British
radio engineerGeoffrey
Dummerproposed to
integrate a variety of
standard electronic
components in a

he First IC Integrated
Circuit Texas
Instruments Jack Kilby
1958.
Robert Noyce had co-
founded theFairchild
SemiconductorCorporat
ion.
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monolithic
semiconductor crystal in
1952. A year
later,Harwick
Johnsonfiled a patent for
a prototypeintegrated
circuit(IC).
IBM 360 1969
The fastest, and most
powerful computer then
in use. It was
specifically designed to
handle high-speed data
processing for scientific
applications

By having IBM 360 u
can almost do anything
really fast without
feeling like the page
even loaded.
Word
Processor
invented
1872
Something like a
computer now a days

ARPANET 1960
Intel, 1K
RAM CHIP
(the 4004)
1971
world's first single chip
microprocessor

Jonathan
Titus, Mark
8
1973
introduced in the Radio
Electronics article

BBN,
Telenet
1974
Free public dialup
access to Telenet
first public packet
data service which
was the first
comercial
equivelent to
ARPANET.

Paul Allen
and Bill
Gates invent
BASIC
1975
The first personal
computer kit
Worlds largest
software

USENET 1979
Worldwide
distributedInternetdiscu
ssi-on system. It was
developed from the
general purposedial-
upnetwork architecture
Usenetnewsgroup is
a part of
theUsenetsystem
where, millions of
users residing in
many different
regions around the
World

TCP/IP 1973 Communication between allow computers to
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application communicate with
each other by
transmitting packets
or messages
Apple
Macintosh
1984
2 times as fast
processor
easily back-up and
restore Safari
bookmarks, Address
Book contacts and
more

Microsoft
Windows
1.0
1983
6-bit graphical operating
environment, developed
by Microsoft.
It is a computer program
that you can download to
wirte and do projects
Mircosoft is a
companie that
delivered OS for
IBM PC.

The Internet 1980s
The Internetis a global
system of interconnected
computer networks that
use the
standardInternetprotoco
l suite (TCP/IP) to serve
several billion users
Use to communicate
with friends, do
research, online
shopping and other
Provides connection
between computers.
It is a sharing
medium of
information and
news.
The internet has so
many cool facts you can
do almost anything
when you have the
internet its like the best
thing on earth now a
days
Apple iPod
October
23
2001
To play music
You can bring your
ipod with you
anywhere you can
listen to music and
keep yourself busy.
Small and convenient to
hold around and listen
music where ever you
are
Apple
iPhone
April
2003
It is used to make phone
calls, text, take
ppictures, play games,
post pictures online and
do online research
One of the first
things besides
reception quality
what is important
was the good calling
volume
The new 5s is finger
print to unlock your
screen and purchase new
items
Amazon
Kindle
Septem
-ber 28,
2011
Sleeker design. More
storage. Longer battery
life. Over one million
books, newspapers,
magazines, and blogs
Download it once
and read it on
yourKindledevice,
PC, phones or

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available in under 60
seconds.
tablets.
We are no longer
using paper and
wasting it.
Apple iPad
January
27
th

2010
Face Time HD camera
and faster Wi-Fi, making
it capable of more than
you ever imagined.
It is important
because if you cant
afford buying a
laptop you can buy
iPad
The iPad is one of the
best things I like you
can do anything on its
its like a mini laptop.
3D Printing 1984
Desktop fabrication or
additive manufacturing,
it is a prototyping
process whereby a real
object is created from a
3D design.
3D printing
technology made its
way to the
technological
world

The Cloud 1960
colloquial expression
used to describe a
variety of different types
ofcomputingconcepts
that involve a large
number of computers
connected through a
real-time
communicationnetwork
such as theInternet
Makes You More
Agile & More
Productive.










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Evaluating Websites


Figure 6
The URL of this website is http://www.computerhope.com. The title of this website is
computer hope. I couldnt tell who the author of this website was but from the URL I could
tell that computer hope is a company. The author of this website is qualified to inform the
reader about computers. This is a company web site, and its purpose is to attract more
customers using the internet and it provides factual information. This website provides a
Facebook and twitter link and customer service. This website was modified in 2013.
Currency is important for this website because it is factual information and the facts could
change with time. This site is well maintained and I never receive error messages. In my
opinion this web site appears overall well designed and organized, easy to read and
navigate, help screens are and a search feature/site map is available. (figure 6 page 9)







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Glossary

Term Definition
Mouse a mouse is a pointing device that has two
function (right click and left click and has a third
acting button known as the scroll wheel. Figure 1
has a mouse displayed beside the computer
Keyboard a panel of keys that operates a computer or
typewriter (figure 4)
Screen a screen used to display the output of the
computer to the user (figure 7)
Hard drive Hardware is the physical part of the computer,
the one you can actually touch (figure 2)
Camera hardware device used to take photographs
(figure 8)
Speakers a hardware that connects to the computer that
outputs sounds generated by the computer
Microphone a microphone is a hardware that allows computer
users to input audio into their computer.
(figure 10)
)Software Software is information stored electronically in
the computer network (figure 3)














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Bibliography
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<http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history.html>.
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/antikythera_mechanism.htm>.
"Tales of Statisticians | John Napier." Tales of Statisticians | John Napier. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.umass.edu/wsp/statistics/tales/napier.html>.
"Jacquard Loom History - Invention of the Jacquard Loom." Jacquard Loom History - Invention of the
Jacquard Loom. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct.
2013. <http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/jacquard.htm>.
"A Brief History - The Babbage Engine | Computer History Museum." A Brief History - The Babbage
Engine | Computer History Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct.
2013. <http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/history/>.
"Morse Code & the Telegraph." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.history.com/topics/telegraph>.
"Sir Charles Wheatstone Uses Paper Tape to Store Data." Sir Charles Wheatstone Uses Paper Tape to
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<http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/census-tabulator.html>.
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<http://www.acsa.net/a_computer_saved_the_world.htm>.
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"System 360." IBM100 -. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www-
03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/system360/>.
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<http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/36091.html>.
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<http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2002/cmsc434-0101/MUIseum/applications/wordhistory.html>.
( a screen is really important to be able to see whats displayed (figure 7 page 12)
"An Atlas of Cyberspaces- Historical Maps." An Atlas of Cyberspaces- Historical Maps. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Oct. 2013. <http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cybergeography/atlas/historical.html>.
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<http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/museum-story-of-intel-4004.html>.
"1.0: My Mark-8 Computer." The Mark-8 Minicomputer. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.compusaur.com/Mark8files/mark8.html>
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<http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/65343>.
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<http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/gg243376.html>.
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<http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Macintosh_computer.html>.
"Apple Mac Computers." CNET. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.cnet.com/apple-mac.html
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<http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/Windows.htm>.
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microsoft-windows-1-0-press-kit/>.
Figure 7
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Figure 9







Figure 8
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Index

Figure 10