NATS 1700 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Internet, Canada, Artificial Intelligence
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
NATS 1700
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
September 15, 2014
Introduction
What’s a Computer?
- An electronic device capable of assisting in the performance of almost any non-physical work
imaginable
- An electronic machine capable of performing calculations and other manipulations of various
types of data, under the control of a stored set of instructions
- A programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data
- An electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data, and can be programmed with
instructions that it remembers.
- A device that can accept information from the outside world, process that information, make
decisions based on the results of its processing, and then return the information to the outside
world in its new form
- A device used to process information according to a well-defined procedure
Computers Everywhere
- Computers come in various shapes and forms
• Mainframes, desktops, laptops, notebooks, tablets, smart phones, video games, etc.
• Microprocessors
▪ one-purpose tools
▪ in cars, ATM machines, cell phones, cameras, TVs, microwaves ovens, medical
instruments, etc.
What’s good about Computers?
- Business
• Payroll, inventory, word processors, spreadsheets, databases
• Reduce costs and improve service and enable new form of business like???
- Communications
• WWW, E-mail, blogs, instant messaging, social networks, twitter, telephony, and
discussion groups, etc.
• easier to search, access, collect, storage, and distribute information
- Education and training
• Web sites, Moodle, e-mail, collaborative software
• basic and advanced skills, foreign languages, distane learning
- Electronic financial transactions
• Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), Point-of-Sales Terminals (POSs), electronic banking
and investment
• Towards a ashless soiety? Apple Pay
- Crime fighting
• Networks, databases
• narrowing down the list of suspects; detecting insurance fraud; matching pictures and
fingerprints
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Health and Medicine
• Medical imaging using scientific visualization
▪ CT (computer-aided tomography) scanners
▪ MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
• better diagnoses, more accurate surgery
• Monitoring devices
• Pacemakers, mini-defibrillators
▪ prevent fatal heart-attacks
Issues Raises by Computers
- Benefits have a price and side effects
- Computers usage raises a series of important and often controversial socio-cultural issues
• Work and unemployment
• Privacy
• Freedom of expression
• Centralization and control
• Human dignity and self-image
• Meritocracy
• Crime
The Two Sides of ATMs
- Unemployment
• Less bank tellers needed
• But more people are needed in the computer industry
- Alienation and consumer service
• No human contact and limited interaction
• But people are still available
- Crime
• People are robbed after withdrawing cash
• Card are stolen and counterfeited
• But the banking industry is fighting crime vigorously
- Loss of privacy
• A person whereabouts and her financial t
• ransaction can be tracked
• But new measures are put in place to protect data privacy
- Errors
• Accounts wrongly credited or debited
• But in some cases computers can reduce mistakes and increase safety
Solutions to Computer Problems
- Technical
• Better software to prevent mistakes
- Managerial
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
An electronic device capable of assisting in the performance of almost any non-physical work imaginable. An electronic machine capable of performing calculations and other manipulations of various types of data, under the control of a stored set of instructions. A programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data. An electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data, and can be programmed with instructions that it remembers. A device that can accept information from the outside world, process that information, make decisions based on the results of its processing, and then return the information to the outside world in its new form. A device used to process information according to a well-defined procedure. Computers come in various shapes and forms: mainframes, desktops, laptops, notebooks, tablets, smart phones, video games, etc, microprocessors, one-purpose tools in cars, atm machines, cell phones, cameras, tvs, microwaves ovens, medical instruments, etc.
