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The Alt key (along
with the Ctrl key and the Shift key) is a key that modifies
the meaning of other keys. If you hold down the Alt key and then briefly type
the F1 key, this is an "Alt F1" and it means something different from
an F1 key alone. The Alt key is also used to activate the menu at the top of
the screen, if you wish to use the
keyboard rather than the mouse to choose something from
the menu. The Alt key is used together with the Ctrl key and the Del key to reboot the computer.
A bit is enough
memory to hold either the number 0 or the number 1. A group of such numbers
(e.g. 10011011) can represent any letter or number that the computer needs to
store. Usually a group of eight such digits can represent any character;
therefore a group of eight bits, called a byte, makes up the commonly used unit of measurement for a computer's
memory. A number made of just 1's and 0's is called a binary number (because
there are just two symbols), and the term bit stands for "binary
digit".
Although it has
other meanings, the word bookmark is often used with the internet to mean a stored reference
to a web site that you want to return to
later. When you set the bookmark, your browser will store the URL for the web site that you
are using, and this stored URL can be accessed in later sessions on your
browser. Just click the bookmark and you will go back to the site.
To boot a computer
is to start it up. The name refers to the process of "pulling yourself up
by your own bootstraps". This describes what a computer does when it is
turned on, because the first piece of software loaded controls the loading of more software. Turning a computer on
when it is not being used is a "cold boot", but you may sometimes
need to perform a "warm boot" -- restarting a computer in use. If a program has stopped functioning and
has frozen the computer, you may need to hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys while very briefly typing the Del key
(called a Control Alt Delete). This should bring up a set of instructions about
what to do next. You should be careful about doing this, because some or all of
your work can be lost. If you type Control Alt Delete a second time, the
computer will reboot and may lose your work.
A program that allows access to the World Wide Web is called a browser. The
most popular browsers are currently Netscape Navigator and the Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
A computer's memory
capacity is measured using a unit of measurement called a byte just as time is
measured in seconds and distance in inches. When text is being stored, one byte
holds one character such as a letter or a dollar sign. A byte is generally made
up of eight bits.
A CD-R (Compact
Disk - Recordable) disk is a compact disk that the
user of a microcomputer can write information on, but only once. It uses
optical methods, similar to those used by a CD-ROM disk, to record information. It requires a disk drive designed for the
purpose of writing rather than an ordinary CD-ROM drive.
This means Compact
Disk - Read Only Memory. It is a disk that uses optical methods to store information rather than magnetic
methods. A CD-ROM disk is supplied to the user with information already written
on it, and it is used in a CD-ROM drive. The information on the disk is
permanent; therefore the user of a microcomputer cannot change anything on the
disk.
A CD-RW (Compact
Disk - ReWritable) disk is a compact disk that the
user of a microcomputer can write information on more than once. It uses
optical methods, similar to those used by a CD-ROM disk, to record information. It requires a disk drive designed for the
purpose of writing rather than an ordinary CD-ROM drive.
A closed file is not currently in use. It is safely stored
on a disk in a condition in which it
cannot be easily changed. You should close a file that you are working on
before taking a disk out of the computer. Exiting a word processor or other
program normally closes documents automatically. When you close a program, you stop using it and take
it off of the screen.
Rapidly pushing and
releasing a mouse button is called clicking.
If you do it just once, this is also called "single clicking". Some
options require double clicking.
The letters ctrl
stand for "control". The Ctrl key (along with the Alt key and the Shift key) is a key that modifies the meaning of other keys. If you hold
down the Ctrl key and then briefly type the F1 key, this is a "Ctrl
F1" and it means something different from an F1 key alone. The Ctrl key is
used together with the Alt key and the Del key to reboot the computer.
1.
A
directory is another term for a folder. When it is used in this way, it is also sometimes called a
tree-structured directory.
2.
This
term is also used to mean a list the contents of a folder. Such a list is
written on the disk itself and is used to
organize the disk
A storage device,
shaped like a disk, that is safer and more permanent than RAM. There are several types which include
floppy disks, hard disks, and CD-ROM disks. All types are placed
in a disk drive of some type for reading and writing information. Hard disks are usually mounted in the drives
permanently while floppy disks and CD-ROM disks can be easily removed.
Sometimes this term
is used for any operating system on a microcomputer, but it
often means the specific operating system called MS-DOS (for Microsoft). MS-DOS
was the most popular operating system for IBM compatible computers before the
introduction of Windows. Even early versions of Windows depended upon it, but
starting with Windows-95, the Windows program stood on its own. "DOS-based
software refers to old programs that did not depend upon
having Windows available.
This is a name that
identifies a computer or a group of computers on the internet so that it (they) can be
addressed by other internet users. The name allows users to find documents
stored under the domain name. The name bridges.eiccd.cc.ia.us is an example.
This name will form a part of the URL of a web page in this domain and a part
of an e-mail address of a user in this domain.
To double click is
to click twice rapidly. If you do it
too slowly, and if you are pointing at a filename, the computer will react as if you want to change the name of the file. It will highlight the name and put a cursor
in it. To free it from this condition, click on another name and then try to
double click on the desired name again.
To drag is to point
the mouse pointer at something such
as a filename that you want to move, push
and hold down a mouse button, move the mouse pointer to the place where you
want the filename (or other object) to go, and then let the button go. In most
cases the left-hand mouse button is used.
This is a message
system that allows messages to be sent rapidly and electronically from one
computer to another. The term stands for Electronic Mail. Frequently e-mail
refers to messages sent over the Internet, but other networks can also support e-mail.
There is an address for each email user.
This is the address
used to direct email. On the internet it consists of a user id followed by the @ symbol
followed by the appropriate domain name for the user involved.
A file is a body of
information stored under a particular name. It could be a word processing
document, a worksheet made with a spreadsheet program, a data base, a program, or many other things. The
name is called the "Filename".
This is the name
under which the file is stored. You can use any
name -- even long ones with blank spaces. Sometimes filenames contain a period
followed by a three-character extension. For example, Word files contain the
extension .doc while .xls is attached to Excel filenames. If a name contains
the extension .exe or .com, then the file is probably a program.
A disk made of a flexible, magnetic material that
can be easily removed and taken away by the user of the computer. The magnetic
material is kept permanently inside a protective, plastic cover and should not
be touched. It is slower and has less capacity than a typical hard disk. If a computer has one
floppy disk drive, it is called Drive A:. If there are two floppy disk drives,
they are called A: and B:.
A folder is also
called a directory, or a tree-structured
directory. It is a portion of a disk that has a name and that can contain files and other folders. Disks are divided into folders for the purpose of
organizing the disks. It is not, for example, a good idea to put your word
processing documents in the same folder that contains the word processor
itself.
1.
To
format a disk means to prepare it for use
in the computer by putting an addressing system on it. There is a program for
this contained within the operating
system.
However it is not usually necessary for the user of the computer to do this
because most disks are sold already formatted. Usually a disk is formatted only
once, and the process of formatting it erases any information on it.
2.
To
format data such as a word processing document means to determine what the data
will look like on the screen and on the printer.
Formatting data could include selecting the font, the size of the letters, the
color of the text, and anything else that affects how it looks.
The prefix
"giga" means "one billion" (a gigawatt is a billion watts),
so a gigabyte is approximately a billion bytes. As such, it is a unit of memory. Because of the way computers are
built, a gigabyte is actually 230, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. It is
written Gb and often called a "Gig" in spoken language.
A hard disk is a
disk that is permanently mounted in a hard disk drive that is inside the
computer cabinet. The user of the computer cannot remove the hard disk. Such a
disk is faster and has a much greater capacity than a typical floppy disk. Most of the time, the hard
disk is called drive C: although other letters may be used for hard disks that
are accessed over a network.
Hardware is the computer
equipment itself. For example, keyboards, screens, printers, and electric circuits are all hardware. If you can touch
it, it is hardware (even though you are not supposed to touch some of the
hardware such as the surface of a disk). The disk itself is hardware, but the information on the disk is software. If you buy software,
someone might hand you a disk. However, you are paying the big money for what
is stored on the disk; not the disk itself.
An entry page to a web site is called a home page. Such a page contains a main menu full of links to other parts of the web
site. The term "home page" is also often used to mean the first
document that a web browser displays when the browser
is first entered.
This stands for
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It refers to a method by which information is
formatted and transmitted over the World Wide Web. The URL of a web document often
begins with http:// to specify that the information in the document will be
sent in this way.
The underlying
system used to create a collection of documents with links to other documents is
called hypertext. Such a collection of documents is used on the World Wide Web, but other databases are
often organized in this way as well.
There are many word
processors, spreadsheets, databases, and other specific types of program available. When two or more
of these are combined into a single software package, the result is called integrated software. Such a package is
designed to easily share data among the different components. For example,
tables of numbers and graphs from the spreadsheet can be transferred into a
word processing document.
Any information
given to the computer is called input. It is fed into the computer through some
kind of input device such as the keyboard, a disk drive, a mouse, a scanner, or some other
device.
A network of computers covering the
entire world which allows information searching, e-mail, chatting, sales, use of electronic bulletin boards, and other
activities. Computers in homes, offices, and other locations can join the
Internet provided that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is available.
The prefix
"kilo" means "one thousand" (a kilogram is a thousand
grams), so a kilobyte is approximately a thousand bytes. As such, it is a unit of
memory. Because of the way computers are built, a kilobyte is actually 210,
or 1024 bytes. It is written Kb and often called a "K" in spoken
language.
A link is a spot
upon which you can click to be transferred to another document or to another
location in the same document. Documents on the World Wide Web are generally filled with such links. You can tell
if your mouse pointer is on a link,
because this pointer will then change to a pointing hand. Also, the link is
usually of a color different from the rest of the document, and the color
changes again when the link is followed. To follow the link means to choose it
by clicking on it.
To maximize a
window on the computer screen means to make the window
cover the entire screen. This is accomplished by clicking the middle of the
three buttons on the toolbar at the top right of the
window. The button will change its appearance when the window is maximized, and
it will become a restore button.
The prefix
"mega" means "one million" (a megasecond is a million
seconds), so a megabyte is approximately a million bytes. As such, it is a unit of
memory. Because of the way computers are built, a megabyte is actually 220,
or 1,048,576 bytes. It is written Mb and often called a "Meg" in
spoken language.
A microprocessor is
the device within a microcomputer that processes the instructions of a program and controls the logic. It
is often described as the "brain within the computer". A Pentium is
an example of a microprocessor; older ones had names like "486" and
"386". It is characterized by the number of bits it can process at a time (16-bit processor; 32-bit
processor) and by the clock speed, given in Megahertz, which gives information
about the speed with which the processor can execute instructions.
To minimize a
window on the computer screen means to take it off of the
screen and let it be represented by a button on the task bar, which generally
appears at the bottom of the screen. This does not close the program or document that is in the
window. Such program or document is still open, and you can go back to it by clicking the button that represents it.
The acronym stands
for modulator-demodulator, and it stands for a device that can connect a
computer to a telephone line.
The monitor is the
screen upon which the computer displays information. It is also called the CRT
(Cathode Ray Tube).
A mouse is an input device that you can roll around
to control a pointer on the screen. When the pointer is
positioned over an option on the screen that you wish to activate, you quickly
push and release a button to select the option. This is called "clicking". If you push and
release the button twice rapidly, this is a "double click". Some options on the
screen require such a double click. It can also be used to drag objects from
one place to another. It will probably also have a wheel that can be used to
scroll or for other purposes.
Multitasking is the
process of running more than one program at the same time. For example, you could be working with a word
processor and running your e-mail program at the same time.
If some e-mail arrives, you can put your word processing document aside and
read the mail. If appropriate, you could even paste some of the contents of the
e-mail into the word processing document.
A group of
computers linked together is called a network. Such computers can share data
and programs. One type of network is
called a LAN (Local Area Network); this type is confined within a single
building or at least in a small area. Another type is called a WAN (Wide Area
Network); computers in a WAN can be located far enough apart to require
something like a telephone line or an optical cable for communication.
A newsgroup
functions as a bulletin board where people can post messages over the interrnet. There are thousands of
them, each of which is devoted to a particular subject. They have names such as
bionet.biology.deepsea and sci.geo.oceanography, and these names suggest the
subjects they cover. The entire collection of newsgroups is called the usenet.
A file that is currently in use is said to be
"open", and the process of making it available to be used is called
"opening the file". The term is often means bringing a document or
other user file into the RAM so that a program such as a word processor
can modify it. "Opening" a program file means making the computer
execute the program (carry out the instructions in the program).
As the name
implies, it is the program (or system of programs)
that operates the computer. Other programs such as word processors depend on
the operating system to perform fundamental tasks like operating the disk drives or sending output to the screen. The operating system is
the fundamental software that the computer needs if
it is to do anything at all. In microcomputers, this software is sometimes
called a "Disk Operating System".
Any information
given by the computer to the outside world is output. It can come through many
types of output device such as a printer, the screen, or some other device.
The term
"path" describes the route you must take through the folders of a disk to reach a file that you want. Suppose that you enter drive C:, which has a folder
called "red". Suppose also that there is a folder in "red"
called "green", and that you are looking for a file called "frogs.doc", which is located in
"green". Then the path to the "frogs.doc" file is from C:
through "red", then through "green", finally to
"frogs.doc". This path is sometimes written in the following way:
C:\red\green\frogs.doc. However, a URL used on the internet, might also contain a path
to a file, and it is written in a different form in this case.
The computer hardware is expensive but also
useless and inert unless there is a very detailed list of instructions driving
it. This list of instructions is called a program, and such a list of
instructions must be carefully designed to take the computer step-by-step
through the desired procedure. Practical programs are usually very long and
require great skill and much time to develop. A related term is software.
The letters stand
for Random Access Memory. It is the fast, easily accessed, easily erased
electronic memory inside the computer. It is sometimes called "main
memory". RAM is not the same thing as a disk. The work you are doing on a computer at any given moment is probably
located in the RAM, but the RAM will be erased when you exit a program or if the electric power is
interrupted. To protect your work in the RAM, you must save it on a disk.
Most keys on the
keyboard will repeat their functions if they are held down. For example, if you
hold down the y key in word processing, you will get yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy on the
screen. This can sometimes be useful, such as with the cursor movement keys,
but normally you should let the keys go as soon as you press them.
1.
To
restore a window is to reverse the process of maximizing it. The window changes from covering the entire screen to its previous size before
it was maximized. This is accomplished by clicking the middle button of the three on the toolbar at the upper right of the window. This button will change its
appearance when the window is restored, and it will become a maximize button.
2.
The
word restore can also be used in some other contexts such as restoring a file to a disk after the file has been deleted. After you minimize a window, you can get it
back by clicking the button on the taskbar that represents the window. This
might be thought of as restoring the window.
The letters stand
for "Read Only Memory", and that describes just what it is. It is a
type of memory that ordinary computers can obtain information from, but not
write information to. CD-ROM is one type of ROM but not
the only type. Computers usually contain a small amount of ROM to hold start-up
programming.
A search engine is
a program that is devoted to finding web sites based on the content of the
sites. Examples of search engines are Alta Vista and Google, and users can
access these programs through web sites that have been created for that
purpose. A search engine creates an index of documents on the internet. Then, when a user searches
for a particular topic, the search engine uses its index to find web sites that
contain information about the topic.
A server is a
computer that manages a network or parts of a network. The
network involved does not have to be the internet, but it could be. If so, then the server is a web server.
The Shift key
(along with the Ctrl key and the Alt key) is a key that modifies the meaning of
other keys. If you hold down the Shift key and then briefly type the F1 key,
this is a "Shift F1" and it means something different from an F1 key
alone. The Shift key is usually used with letters to make upper case letters,
but it can alter the meaning of other keys as well.
Sometimes software
means programs, or lists of instructions
for a computer. On the other hand, it is sometimes used to mean anything that
is stored in the memory of a computer because the information in the memory is
"soft", or easily changed. It is a play on the word "hardware" but is not the same
as hardware. A disk is hardware; the
information on the disk is software.
A toolbar is a row
of buttons on the computer screen that are activated by a click of the mouse.
The URL is the internet address of a web page. It stands for Uniform
Resource Locator, and it consists of a domain name and a filename for the document involved.
There may also be a path to the filename through the
folders on the computer that hosts
the file. It looks something like
this: http://eiccd.cc.ia.us/folder/folder/filename (NOT an actual URL). It can
also contain other symbols. In this example, http stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and it refers to a method used
on the internet to transfer documents.
There is a system
of electronic bulletin boards available on the internet called the usenet. The system is divided into subject groups called newsgroups. It is accessed through a
system of news servers, and it is possible, with
the proper software on your computer, to read
and send messages to newsgroups covering subjects that interest you. It is one
of the principle methods used by internet users to communicate with one
another.
This is a specific
identifying name given to anyone receiving E-mail. It often consists of contraction of the users name, but it can also
consist of many other names and phrases. It forms part of the e-mail address of this user.
A web page is a
document that can be accessed on the World Wide Web.
This is a computer
that provides access to the internet and to web pages. There is, of course, no
single server for the entire internet.
Instead, there are web servers everywhere, since the internet is so
decentralized. A web server will probably have a domain name.
A web site is a
collection of documents that can be accessed on the World Wide Web, although it might consist
of just one page. Usually there is a home page from which a user can transfer to other parts of the web site.
This is the system,
used on the Internet, of connecting documents,
either within a computer or among widely separated computers, by a system of links. If you click on a link, then you will be
transferred to the other document without further action on your part. This is
not synonymous with the term "Internet", because there have been
other ways to find documents on the Internet. But the system of links is
becoming popular enough that the difference is not obvious to most users.