Last updated: 3/4/01
Link back to course Welcome...
Agenda 8
for class on
Monday March 5
- Handouts
- Agenda
- The Internet: Structure, Function and Applications
- Passbacks
- Assignments and Labs (as ready).
- Reminders:
- Before you leave tonight, fill in the online Attendance (Signin) form on the course web
site.
- If you miss a class, before the next class you should go to the course web site (the URL
is in the upper left-hand corner of every handout) and review the Agenda for that class,
then contact me if you have questions. Assignments and quiz topics are listed on the
Agenda.
- If you need to make up a Quiz, or ask questions, or whatever, my office hours are time
set aside for this. These times are Mondays and Wednesdays, 4 - 6 PM, in 113 Rackham (the
classroom).
If these times do not work for you, contact me to make other arrangements.
I will not let you start a Quiz if the full half hour is not available before the start of
the Monday night (I teach that one, of course) or Wednesday night (someone else teaches
that one) class - both start a 6 PM, so 5:30 PM is as late as you can start a Quiz.
- Announcements:
- Spring Recess is next week, so there will be no class on 3/12, and I will not keep my
Monday/Wednesday office hours next week. I will still be available for appointments. The
normal schedule will resume the week of 3/19.
- The Midterm will be the week after Spring Recess, on Monday, March 19. Tonight there
will be a one-hour Question and answer session for the topics covered on the midterm. One
hour may seem like a lot of time, but it is not time to review all of the topics. You will
have to choose which ones to ask about. Study the list of topics on this agenda.
- On the Midterm, you will not be able to complete the Word and Excel work in time if all
you have done is the in-class exercises. The Labs are part of the course, and the Quizzes
and Exams will assume that you have done the Labs. There is in-class time provided to do
the Labs; if you leave early and are not spending that time on the Labs, you need to
correct that.
- There have been some questions about ISP follow-up courses for Computers and Society.
The list is given below. Most of these courses are not scheduled on a regular basis.
- Computers, the Internet, and Society: more or less direct extension of Computers and
Society. GIS 3715 / David Bowen
- Web Page Design using Frontpage 2000, usually taught as AGS 3360 / Tareq Ghazal
- eCommerce: Using the Web to Find and Service Customers. GST 3720 / David Bowen
- Setting up your account for the course Chat and Computer Conference (may be put off
until the Lab period)
- An account gives you a User name and Password
- If you have used the CLL Computer Conferencing System before in another course (Bowen,
Richmond, Klein, Maruca), you can use that User Name and Password. You are done with this
part of the Lab
- If you have not used this system before, then:
- Decide on your User Name and Password for this system
User Name: _____________________
Password: _____________________
- Start a web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer)
- Go to the course web site at http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/casw01
- Scroll down to the section on "Online Tools"
- Find and follow (click on) the link "Course computer conference"
- A gray box will pop up. Type in your User Name and Password and click "OK"
- If you see "Log in as a new user?", then click on "Yes, I am entering as
a new user."
[If you do NOT see "Log in as a new user?", then
- Close (Exit) the web browser
- Pick another User Name and/or Password
- Repeat, starting at B above]
- A web form will display. Fill in your information, making sure to include all of the
red-bulleted items (these are required). The other items are not required.
- Scroll down and find the "Create" button. A confirmation parge will display.
You will not need the User Number information on this page. You are done with the computer
conferencing system for tonight; you can close your web browser.
- Information
- The table below summarizes the forms of computer information; we have not covered them
all in class yet.
| Types of computer information |
Subtypes |
Examples |
| Programs |
Operating system |
Windows95, Windows 98, Windows NT |
| Mac OS 8 |
| Linux |
| Unix |
| Application |
Word program |
| Excel program |
| Access program |
| Netscape program |
| Data |
System information |
User Name and Password |
| Internet address |
| Network connection |
| Printer description |
| Icons, screen colors |
| Sound files - "The Windows Sound" |
| User information |
Word processing document - mostly text |
| Spreadsheet document - text and numbers |
| Database document - text and numbers |
| Graphic file - can be animated |
| Sound file |
| Video - Graphics and sound together |
| Macro script - a small program written by a user, stored as a document,
executed by the corresponding application |
- Some types of computer instructions:
- Addition / Subtraction
- Multiplication / Division
- Stop
- No operation (do nothing)
- Jump, or go to a specified memory location (not the next one), which
means to put the address of the next instruction into the IP
- Compare the operand with the accumulator, and set indicators if the
operand is greater than, equal to, or less than the accumulator
- Jump if, or go to a specified address that depends on the result of the
last Compare
- Input and Output instructions
- Dr. Claude E. Shannon died this past Saturday, February 24. Shannon was one of the first
people to realize the potential for making digital computers.
- He saw that calculations could be done with relays (electrically controlled switches,
such as we have been analyzing in this class), and that switch curcuits could be analyzed
with logical truth tables.
- Dr. Shannon also realized that computers would be able to do more than compute numerical
results, but they would also be able to manipulate images, sounds, and perhaps even ideas.
- He also laid the groundwork for storing various forms of information in digital
computers as a series of bits, and was the first to realize that all of these forms could
be stored and communicated using the same hardware ("bits are bits" in the
language of Nicholas Negroponte), whether they contain text, numbers, sound, graphics or
computer programs.
- By adding "meta-information" - information about the information - to stored
information, Shannon showed how to accomplish error-free copying and communication of
information. This particular form of meta-information is called "error-checking
information." An example is "parity". A bit is commonly added on to each
byte. If the number of bits set to ones in the byte is even, the extra bit is set to one;
if the number of bits is odd, the extra bit is set to zero. The error-checking information
(here, parity) is transmitted along with the meta-information. At the receiving end, the
byte is checked against the error-checking information and, if there is disagreement, the
receiving end orders the information to be retransmitted.
- Obviously, this scheme only works if double errors can be avoided. Here, digital
communications are much less sensitive to noise and interference than analog information.
With analog information, any noise distorts the signal, while with digital information,
there is no effect unless the noise can switch the value of a bit.
- Copies of analog information, such as tape recordings and photographs, inevitably lose
information (add noise, or "snow") every time they are copies. Consequently the
best analog equipment is very expensive, which limited the wide distribution of analog
information, and created media companies, such as record companies, photographic studios
and art publishers. In contrast, digital copies are perfect using even inexpensive
equipment, and the enormous media empires are still having trouble adjusting to this. If
nobody needs an expensive studio to create perfect CDs, how will the music publishers make
money?
- Shannon was born in Petoskey, Michigan in 1916 and received his Bachelor's degree in
mathematics and electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1936 (his
advanced degrees were from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology). It was his
Master's Thesis, titled "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,"
that laid the foundations for the development of computers by John Von Neuman and others,
and also single-handedly created the field of Information Theory with the principle that
the amount of information is equal to the number of bits.
- Shannon was also know for riding his unicycle around the halls of the famed Bell Labs in
New Jersey, and for being able to juggle while riding the unicycle, and for a mathematical
analysis of juggling, and for a chess-playing computer.
- The Internet - go to handout
- More Windows basics - Windows Explorer and the hierarchical file system. Windows
Explorer is the Windows tool of choice for managing files
- Last week we used Drag 'N Drop to copy files. Today we will use Cut and Paste.
- Open Windows (NT) Explorer (Start / Programs) and change its options to show all
information
- Choose menu item View / Options and then the "View" tab at the top of the
Options dialog
- Above the list box, make sure that "Show all files" is clicked
- Below the list box, make sure that "Display the full MS-DOS path in the title
bar" is checked. This refers to the title bar on the right pane of Windows Explorer.
If this is unchecked, Explorer shows only the final (lowest) folder name
- Make sure that "Hide MS_DOS file extensions for file types that are
registered" is unchecked. Otherwise, Explorer does not show the file extension for
most file names.
- Make sure that "Include description bar for right and left panes" is checked.
Otherwise, Explorer does not show you what drives and folders you are looking at.
- Click OK. This puts your choices into effect.
- Open the test floppy diskette in Windows (NT) Explorer. (Do this by clicking on the
drive icon. Click on a file, then right click on it and choose "Copy." Go to
another folder on the C: drive and right click on it, choosing "Paste" (was not
available until you had something copied to the clipboard.
- This will also work with a selection of files.
- "Cut" will remove files from the original location, after they are pasted into
the new location
- "Cut" can also work with Drag 'N Drop by holding down the <Alt> key.
- There are keyboard alternatives for Copy/Cut and Paste. <Ctrl>c and
<Shift><Insert>do copy, <Ctrl>x and <Ctrl><Delete> do Cut,
and <Ctrl>v and <Ctrl><Insert> do paste.
- Topics for Midterm exam: (not final until the end of this class)
- Computer hardware - what makes computers valuable?
- Types of computers (five)
- Diagram of a computer - input and output devices
- Types of storage - units - primary, secondary, differences, types of secondary storage
- Instruction cycle - Fetch, Interpret, Execute, Increment
- [Accumulator - the place where the "computing" is done - omit]
- Some types of computer instructions
- Adding and multiplying with switches
- Originated by Claude Shannon - added 3/5
- Also originated error checking and "error-free transmission" - added 3/5
- Computer software
- Operating System - purpose
- User Interface - what is it?
- Command line
- GUI
- Windows
- Mouse actions
- Active parts of all windows - what you can do with them and how to do it
- Active elements - how to activate them
- Dialogs
- Wizards
- Multiple ways to accomplish the same thing
- Starting a program
- with a file open - two ways - differences
- Difference between Save and Save As...
- Drag 'N Drop Vs Cut/Copy and Paste
- Selection - methods and result
- Keyboard methods
- Mouse methods
- Applications - purpose, examples
- File system
- What is a file?
- Hierarchical file system, what can be in a folder
- Using Windows Explorer
- Path and URL - naming them, identifying and naming their parts
- Forms of computer information
- ASCII codes - translating back and forth
- Number of values that can be stored in n bits
- File sizes for graphics, sound, number and program files
- Address space Vs actual memory size
- Binary - counting, adding, multiplying, powers of 2 in binary and decimal, converting
binary to decimal and decimal to binary
- Applications
- Word processing
- Primary function and sub-functions of word processing - e.g. creating, editing,
formatting, printing, saving, opening
- Using Word
- Spreadsheets
- Primary function and sub-functions of spreadsheet - e.g. storing numbers, storing text,
formatting, formulae, charting, printing, saving, opening
- What can be in a cell
- Using Excel
- World Wide Web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer)
- Going to a web site using
- Bookmark
- Typing in URL
- Using link
- Using history list
- [Web chat - omitted]
- [Web computer conference - omitted]
- The Internet - added 3/5
- Describe how computers are identified on the Internet (IP address and what it looks
like)
- Describe the form that information travels in (packet, head, body)
- Describe how information is transported between computers (LANs and ISPs, Gateways,
Routers)
- Describe the role of Local Area Networks
- Describe how the Domain Name System works
- Given a URL, identify its different parts and what they signify (repeat of an item
above)
- Describe the sequence of events if you point your browser at a web site by typing in the
URL in the domain name form
- Describe or define the terms (computer) protocol, URL, IP address, gateway, router,
HTTP, HTML
- Describe the IP and TCP protocols
- Describe the "client/server architecture"
- What a client does
- What a server does
- Describe the "peer architecture"
- Using computers - Windows, Windows 95 Explorer, Word, Excel, and web browser
Lab 8.
In New Perspectives On Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, do Excel Tutorial 3
on pages EXCEL 3.1 through EXCEL 3.42. The lab assignment is to download the file
Pronto.xls and edit, format, save and print out this file with the name "Pronto Slasa
Company.xls" according the the directions throughout the Tutorial - in other words,
start at the beginning of the tutorial and work your way through it. No other
part of this tutorial is assigned.
- Download the file from the course web site using the "Pronto.xls" link under
the Agenda 8 link.
- Do NOT save the file to the location given in the book. Save it to your floppy diskette
instead.
REMINDER: being able to control where you save your files to is part of this course! Make
sure you can do this without looking at a book or notes! So is starting Excel.
- When you are done, make a title sheet, with (a) your name, and (b) what assignment this
is (Lab 8), print out a copy of your edited file, staple the pages together, and turn in
this copy, by the start of the next class. This, together with your chat / computer
conference account, is your lab report. You can print the spreadsheet using either:
- The printer icon on the toolbar
- The menu item File / Print, then click OK on the "Print" dialog.
Assignment 8. Please write or type
"Assignment 8" on the work you turn in for this assignment (due 3/19).
- In Computers, Technology, and Society, answer the following Review questions on
Pp 7-34: 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10.
Computers
and Society