Computer Basics
Analyzing Technology Issues
Computer Crimes
• A criminal act committed through the use of
a computer.
– It can also involve the theft of a computer and
any equipment associated with the computer.
Types of Computer Crimes
• Computer fraud
– Conduct that involves the manipulation of a computer or
computer data in order to obtain money, property, or
value dishonestly or to cause loss.
• Computer hacking
– Involves invading someone else’s computer, usually for
personal gain or just the satisfaction of invasion.
Other Computer Crimes
• Theft of computer time
– An employee uses a company’s computer for
personal use such as running a small business,
keeping records of an outside organization, or
keeping personal records.
• Data diddling
– Changing data before it is entered into the
computer or after is has been entered into the
computer.
Computer Viruses
A virus is a program that has been written to
cause corruption of data on a computer.
Types of Computer Viruses
•Worm
•Makes many copies of itself, resulting in the consumption of system
resources that slows down or actually halts tasks.
•Time bomb
•Virus that does not cause its damage until a certain date or until the
system has been booted a certain number of times.
•Logic bomb
•Virus triggered by the appearance or disappearance of specified data.
•Trojan horse
•Virus that does something different from what it is expected to do.
Privacy and Security Issues
• When you submit information on the
Internet, it is possible for the information to
be gathered by many persons
– used for various situations including being sold
• Information can be gathered from online
sources such as schools, banks, hospitals,
insurance companies, and many other
sources.
Security Measures
Maintain and Enforce Security Measures such as:
• Passwords
• Electronic identification cards
• Firewalls
• Antivirus software
• Selective hiring process
Advantages and Uses of
Telecommunications
• Telecommunication involves electronically
transferring data.
– Distance learning
•Allows the user to take classes without being
physically present.
– Teleconferencing
•Provides conferencing capabilities from several
locations without leaving the office, reduces costs for
time and travel.
What is a browser?
• The software program that you use to
retrieve documents from the World
Wide Web (WWW) and to display
them in a readable format.
• Examples:
– Internet Explorer
– Netscape Communicator
Title bar
• The bar on
top of the
window that
contains the
name of the
document.
Menu Bar
• A horizontal
menu that
appears on
top of a
window.
Provides a
selection of
options
related to
the Web
page.
Tool bar
• Icons for
single-click
access to
most
commonly
used menu
commands.
Address bar
• Contains the
URL, or address,
of the active
Web page; also
where you type
the location for
the Web page
you want to visit.
Go button
• Connects
you to
address
displayed in
the Address
bar.
Document
Window
displays the
active Web
Page
Status bar
• Located at
the bottom
of the
browser;
shows the
progress of
Web page
transactions.
Access Indicator
• A small picture
in the upper
right corner of
the browser;
when
animated, it
means your
browser is
accessing data
from a remote
computer.
Scroll bars
• Vertical and
horizontal
scroll bars; lets
you scroll
vertically and
horizontally if
the Web page
is too long or
too wide to fit
within one
screen.
Name That Part . . .
Title Bar
Name That Part . . .
Menu Bar
Name That Part . . .
Tool Bar
Name That Part . . .
Address Bar
Name That Part . . .
Go Button
Name That Part . . .
Status Bar
Name That Part . . .
Access Indicator
Name That Part . . .
Scroll Bar
What is Email?
• Email, or electronic mail, is similar to regular
mail. You have a message, an address, and a
carrier that figures out how to get it from one
location to another.
• Email is used to stay in touch with family and
friends, conduct business, and send
attachments such as text and image files.
Advantages and Uses of Email
• Faster way to communicate and respond
• Quick and easy way to send messages
• Forward messages to other individuals
• Send messages to multiple individuals
• Include attachments such as pictures, audio files,
and documents
Electronic Mail Addresses
The address consists of three parts:
•The user name of the individual
•The @ symbol
•The user’s domain name
Example: rsmith@yahoo.com
User Name
Domain
Name
What is a search engine?
• A tool that lets you find Web pages that
match a particular word or phrase.
• Examples of search engines:
–
–
–
–
–
Yahoo!
Google
HotBot
InfoSeek
Excite
Background of the Internet
• Early origin in 1960s
• Closely tied to a networking project started by
a governmental division called the Advanced
Research Projects Agency.
• Original name: ARPANET
• Created so that scientists were able to share
information on military and scientific
research.
Features of the Internet
• The World Wide Web
– Began in March 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee
wrote a small computer program for his personal
use.
Web Protocols
• HTML
– Hypertext Markup Language
•A series of tags that are integrated into text documents
and describes how the text should be formatted when
a Web browser displays it on the screen.
• HTTP
– Hypertext Transfer Protocol
•Standard that defines how messages are formatted
and transmitted.
Chat Rooms
• Using the computer to create real-time
communication between yourself and
another user or a group of users.
– Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
•A text-based chat developed by Jarkko Oikarinen in
1988.
•One of the most widely used chat forums on the
Internet today.
Chat Options
• Web chat
– Incorporates graphics, audio and video
– Hosted by search engines such as Yahoo, Snap, and
Excite.
• Proprietary chat
– Requires that you download and install software from a
company.
– Examples are Microsoft Chat, AOL, and Prodigy.
• Buddy lists
– You specify your list of friends and even tell when they
are online.
– Examples are ICQ and AOL Messenger
Mailing Lists
• A group of people with a shared interest.
• Their email addresses are collected into a
group, and this group is identified by a single
name.
• When a message is sent to the group,
everyone on the list receives that message.
Types of Search Engines
• Keyword Search
– Uses keywords to perform search
• Multimedia Search Engines
– Used to find graphics, video clips, animation, and MP3
music files.
• Meta Search Engines
– Search several major search engines at one time.
• Subject Directories
– Organized by subject categories and displayed in a series
of menus.
Phrase Searching
• A phrase is entered using double quotation
marks and only matches those that appear
adjacent to each other and in the order in
which you specify.
– Example: “baseball cards”
Search Engine Math
• Symbols used in formulas to filter out
unwanted listings.
– Use the plus symbol (+) before words that must
appear.
•Also known as an inclusion operator.
– Use the minus symbol (-) before words that you
do not want to appear.
•Also known as an exclusion operator.
Boolean Operators
• Boolean logic consists of three logical
operators:
– AND
– NOT
– OR
Wildcard Searching
• The * symbol, called an asterisk, is
considered a wildcard character.
• Used if you don’t know the spelling of a word
– Example: T*Woods to search for Tiger Woods
• Used to search plurals or variations of words.
Title Searching
• Searching the
title of a web
page.
• When a web
page author
creates a Web
page, the Web
page generally
contains a
HTML title.