Winter 1998 Computers and Society
GST 2710, Section 90571
AGS 3360, Section 95198

Last updated: 2/22/98
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Midterm Topics

The first Agenda that a topic appears on is listed in parentheses.

  1. Number bases
    1. Counting in binary (1), octal and hexadecimal
    2. Binary addition, multiplication, powers of two and conversion to and from decimal (1)
  2. Fonts -- serif & sans serif, proportional and monospace (7)
  3. Structure and characteristics of computers
    1. Examples of computers
    2. Bits, bytes, kB, MB, GB (1)
    3. RAM, disk drives (types), characteristics of each (1)
    4. Files -- definition, types (1)
      1. Five types of computer information, classify examples (4)
      2. Heirarchical file system - drive, directory/folder, name, extension - purpose of each
        1. Wildcards (* and ?) (1)
      3. Operating systems
        1. Three major types of user interfaces, and their characteristics (6)
      4. Applications
        1. Major types and their purposes (1)
          1. Word processing
          2. Spreadhseet
          3. Database
          4. Graphics
            1. Bitmap ("Paint") Vs Vector ("Draw") (7)
          5. Communications
          6. Programming
      5. Applets (6)
        1. How are they different from applications
        2. How do you start them and exit from them
      6. Data (5)
        1. Sizes for text and graphic files
          1. ASCII codes (2)
  4. Internet (6)
    1. Passive communications medium - does not know what type of information is being transported
      1. Encryption -- public key / private key
    2. IP Addresses
      1. Domain Name Servers
    3. Client / Server - definition, examples
      1. Email
      2. Telnet
    4. World Wide Web
      1. Client / server
      2. Examples of Web clients
      3. URL - definition and parts (7)
  5. Windows
    1. Mouse actions (1)
    2. Standard parts of a window, uses of each, including actions that you can take with them (1) (e.g. title bar, close box, border)
    3. Other active elements of windows, uses of each (2) (e.g. button, radio button, drop-down list, checkbox, text box)
    4. Windows Explorer Vs File / Open (3)
    5. Save / Save As... (4)
  6. Microsoft Works (1)
    1. Functions that Works performs (e.g. word processing, spreadsheet) (1)
    2. Draw and WordArt applets (6)
    3. Creating and / or opening a word processing file in Works (1)
    4. Editing, formatting in Works (6)
    5. Works Wizard - New and Recent Files, Open an Existing File (4)
  7. What do you need to be able to do
    1. to work with files (3)
    2. to work with windows (2)
    3. in a word processor (6)
  8. Computing with switches (7)
    1. Logic Gates (8)